In Wuppertal

Yesterday morning at 2 am, after a very long day of travel, I arrived at the very cold bus station in Wuppertal-Barmen. Shortly afterwards my good friend Tobias Ruhle arrived on his bike from his nearby apartment. Toby is always a welcome sight, but especially when one is cold, a little panicky about not having anyone to contact if this plan falls through, and exhausted.

It was a long day for several reasons. The day started with tears and goodbyes to my coworkers at Nazareth Village, and then a quick clean of my apartment. It was hard to say goodbye to both the friends and the apartment. I didn't realize I would get attached to Nazareth so quickly, and I had very mixed feelings about leaving.

To get to the airport I caught a bus to Haifa, and then the train to Tel Aviv. I got through security in Tel Aviv in only two hours! Airport security didn't ask me many questions, but I somehow scored myself a #6--you can only get numbers 1-6, with 1 being the lowest risk, and 6 being probably a terrorist. I asked Morag, my personal security guard (I mean, this is all for my own safety, right?) if she knew what I might have done to deserve a 6, but she said it was a security secret. We were friends by that point, now that she had completed an exhaustive examination of the contents of my bags, and patted me down in a back room. I spent the whole time chatting as if this were a normal way for people to get to know each other, but all the questions I was most curious about, she wasn't allowed to answer.

After the flight I still had two trains to catch between Frankfurt and Wuppertal, and I thought that German trains were always on time but this was the night that proved me wrong. My second train was an hour late, so I sat in the cold train station, and pondered my transition to a completely different world. Cultural differences were immediately apparent: the couples making out in the train station seemed shocking to me, and the other people standing around with bland expressions on their faces, as if they weren't offended by the blatant PDA, seemed even more strange.

Another strange thing: reliving all the memories I have of Wuppertal and this area. These memories aren't so old, but life has taken me in unexpected directions since then. I recognize it's cliche but I'm saying it anyway: I feel in some ways like a different person than the me who explored Wuppertal 14 months ago.

At the same time, I also feel overwhelmingly privileged to be able to visit friends so far away, so soon after the last time. Life has been good to me, too.

I'm staying at Toby's apartment for a couple of days and trying to catch as many other friends in the Wuppertal area as I can.
Then my schedule for the next few days is as follows:

Friday April 3rd--catch a ride to Kiel, where I will join in on my good friend Kate's birthday party, and relax in her Garden House for a few days. It will be SO good to see a modmate, and I can't wait to see what Kate has been up to this past year.
Mon April 6--Kate and I fly from Luebeck to Dublin, where we will do as much exploring as we can in 8 days on a very low budget. (Kate and I wanted to study together in Ireland sophomore year but life got in the way. Now we actually get to take an Ireland trip together!)
Tuesday April 14--fly back from Dublin, catch a ride to Berlin?? This part is a little fuzzy still...
Thursday April 16--arrive in Zwickau, where I will spend the rest of my time here with Harald and Claudia Funck, who own a strawberry farm.
Friday May 8--fly home.