It's hard to believe how much has occurred in the week since I've last posted. So many things have happened and it's mind-boggling to think back about where I was seven day ago.
I closed my last weekend in Berlin with my good friend from the program, as it was his last full day there. We met up and went to Mauerpark one last time, where I bought a final pair of earrings, made of fuses. We saw a strange site, which was a mime dressed in orange construction overalls who kept stopping traffic to perform various acts such as falling on stopped cars and somersaulting on the street. Following that, we went to our favorite cafe and had a few drinks while also playing ping-pong one last time. He kicked my ass, of course, but I did improve slightly. Then we went to the city center and visited the Berliner Dom, him for the first time, me for the second. We climbed to the top of the dome and soaked in our last views of the city all around us.
Afterwards, we headed out to Wannsee (which included my friend basically shoving me into the S-Bahn in order to get on the train in time), in the southwest of Berlin for his farewell dinner with his hostfamily. It was quite lovely, as his host parents and their son are very kind and fascinating to talk to, as I've mentioned before. They gave both of us farewell presents, him a book, and a tote bag, and myself a cookie cutter in the shape of the Berlin bear. I was also given a legitimate piece of the Berlin Wall which they, themselves, had chipped off. All in all, it was a wonderful night. I heard stories about my friend's host mother's uncles who fought in World War I (not a typo, you read that right), and all sorts of other tales. I bid them farewell and commuted home with their son, who was fascinating in his own right, and quite funny.
The next day, I awoke early and went to the airport to see my friend off on his flight. Neither of us are sure when we'll see each other again, since I'm from Ohio and him from Texas. However, his brother does live near me, so there's a chance that it'll happen. But either way, I was still quite sad to see him go, as we'd been through quite a bit together and gotten into some excellent shenanigans across Berlin.
Afterwards, I went to Nordbahnhof, an S-Bahn station, where there was an exhibit on ghost stations during the time of the Wall, a topic that has fascinated me for long time. It had been closed since I'd arrived in Berlin due to construction on the tracks, but finally opened in time for me to see it. It was short but pretty interesting. I finished the exhibit, dodged wet paint, grabbed some final souvenirs (read: chocolate and Haribo) and headed home to finish packing before I was set to meet my local friend to say goodbye. I met her at her house, as she wasn't feeling well, and we had cake and hot chocolate, and then went out into the courtyard and lay in the hammocks, talking for a while. Eventually, it was time to say goodbye and we exchanged hugs and well-wishes.
Following that, I had decided that I wished to visit the Soviet War Memorial at Treptower Park, which was only a few bus stops from my friend's house. However, I managed to board the bus in the wrong direction, and stayed on it until the very end, resulting in me being stuck for about a half hour in the very south-east of Berlin until the next bus ran. So, basically, a thirty minute adventure turned into two hours, but I did get to see parts of Berlin I hadn't before, so that was a positive. Once the long two bus rides concluded, I once again misnavigated, and went in the wrong direction before finally discovering the war memorial.
This memorial is one of the most impressive, and is quite massive. It's extremely communist in nature, as one would expect, but fascinating to look at. I meandered the area for about thirty minutes before calling it a day and heading home via my last S-Bahn ride. Once home, I had a wonderful final dinner with my host family, who gave me several bags of Haribo candy and a container of jasmine tea, which I regularly enjoyed drinking with them in the mornings and evenings. It was a wonderful quite weekend, with a neighbor who I had met before stopping in as well. My youngest host brother even was willing to sit on my lap and we played a little before he had to go to sleep.
I awoke the next day at two in the morning, having slept about three hours and was unable to fall back asleep, resulting in staying up until five when I was supposed to have woken up. My host parents drove me to the airport in a neighbor's carpenter van and bid me a heartfelt farewell after I checked in. I maanged not to start crying when they left which was an accomplishment for me, as for the past month I had been prone to tearing up regularly when I thought about leaving them and Berlin.
I went through security smoothly, despite the fact that they made me pull out every single electronic device I had with me, including my laptop, my e-reader, my iPod, my external hard drive and my camera. After sitting for about an hour and a half, I finally boarded, only to find someone was sitting in my picked window seat. However, she was part of a group of about fifteen German students and her friend was in the aisle seat next to her, so I said I didn't mind switching with them, as I was traveling along. The switch put me in the middle of the aisle row, between two more members of the group who clearly wished to sit together, so I switched once more with one of them, so that they were sitting next to each other and I was on the other side of the aisle row.
However, my karma paid off, and the seat next to me was never filled, giving me space to stretch out during the nine hour flight. The flight passed by fairly slowly, so I snoozed, watched Game of Thrones, read Game of Thrones, and viewed the Imitation Game, which was excellent and I highly recommend it. I also had the most delicious airplane food in the world, which was Air Berlin's pasta. I don't know what was in it, but it was extremely good.
Eventually, we landed in Chicago and after clearing customs without any investigative questions about my whereabouts for the past four months, I was once again in America. As I stood in line for my second round of security screening, I was overwhelmed with the amount of conversations around me that I could understand and had a desire to talk to almost anyone. Going through security quickly quelled that urge and after grabbing an Auntie Anne's pretzel as my first food back in the States, I found my gate and attempted to start processing everything that had been happening.
After discovering that my cell phone wasn't working and wifi was spotty, I coughed up a dollar and used a payphone to phone home and reassure my mother that I was alive and well. Eventually, I also got the wifi to connect and reactivated my cell, promptly receiving a flood of text messages from friends and family who were all demanding to know my condition, which kept me busy until my flight departed several hours later.
The jump home was a quick, and soon I found myself pressed to the window, scouring the view for my first glimpse of my city's skyline in four months. Eventually, the skyscrapers loomed into view and I nearly cried of happiness and relief. After landing, I raced through the concourse and ran, crying, to my mom and grandmother who were waiting for me near the baggage claim.
And honestly, that's about where this story ends. I'm typing this from my summer apartment at school, which I moved into yesterday. I've been reunited with several friends, and today will see my partner for the first time since January.
I'm going to post summary entries and aftermath entries, dealing with topics such as reverse culture shock soon, so stick around.
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