The last few farewells (I hope!)

Got up early this morning to see Petra off to the airport.  It was a good thing I went with her, because she had two rolling suitcases and a duffel, all of which were really heavy.  If she had gone to the airport alone, she would have had to get a taxi to the train station, because even with each of us rolling only one suitcase it took us forever to get to Saarlandstraße, and by the time we got there our hands almost had blisters from the friction of trying to support the weight while we were pulling the suitcases.  A couple of nice guys helped us carry them up the stairs at Saarlandstraße, which has no elevators.  After that it was easier because the Barmbek and Airport stations have elevators and escalators we could use, but it was still a big relief to turn them in at the baggage check-in!  Petra had to pay extra because the bags were over the 50-pound limit, but she didn't care.  She said she would rather pay more than try to transfer it all over to her carry-ons and have to drag the extra weight around.

Roomies!

I saw her off at the security line, just like I did for Indra.  I felt bad for not having a card for her though--I was going to make one yesterday and I just ran out of time.  I'll send her a nice love note in the mail once we are both back home.  This time it wasn't quite to say goodbye as it had been to say goodbye to Indra, mostly because I know Petra will have her family to go home to just like I will, and neither of us will have to stay in the same place and wait to see what new roommates will come in to replace old ones, like Indra will have to.  Or maybe now I'm just getting numb to all of it . . . on the train Petra said, "This is so weird.  It doesn't even seem real."  I agree--it doesn't seem possible for the semester to be over already.  But of course, none of this stuff can be helped.  All good things must come to an end, as the old saying goes, and right now this phase of good times is winding down.

It felt really odd to get back home.  It was around 8:30 so I had breakfast, put a load of laundry in the wash, and then took a nap since I was tired from lack of sleep the last couple of nights.  When I woke up I still felt the same--everything seemed odd.  The apartment just doesn't feel the same without Petra and Indra there.  It doesn't even seem like the same place anymore, and Hamburg doesn't feel like Hamburg anymore now that I've said goodbye to all the people I got to know.  In a way I want to spend tomorrow walking around and seeing all my favorite places one last time, but in another way I don't.  I don't think it will feel like it did before.  This city was my home for the past five months, but suddenly my whole routine, and my whole room, are so jumbled up that it doesn't feel like home now.  My mind is shifting gears back to California, and now that I'm basically on my own here, I'm more than ready to get on the plane and head back to my California home.  But Hamburg did feel like home while I lived here, and I can definitely think of it as a second home, one that I could come back to if the chance arose.

I spent the next four or so hours cleaning.  This past week it was my turn for kitchen duty, but I had slacked off a little bit and I hadn't swept and mopped the floor or taken out all the trash like I was supposed to do.  They divide the trash into four categories in Germany, by the way: Buntglas (glass containers), Altpapier (paper and cardboard), Verpackungen (plastic, foil, and other packaging), and Restmüll (everything else including kitchen waste).  So anyway, I did those things and I also cleaned out the fridge Petra and I shared.  I took out and washed the shelves and drawers and wiped out the inside (and found a moldy old knife at the back behind the shelf, eww).  Then I started organizing my food that I had left.  I took the things I knew I was done with and put them in Indra's cupboard (tea, spices, baking ingredients, etc.) for her to use.  She is going to inherit a lot of food from me when I finish going through my cupboard, because I ended up with a lot of pasta, rice, frozen veggies, and baking supplies that I wasn't able to use up.  At some point I took a quick lunch break and ate an apple and half a PB&J sandwich.

Next I tackled the bathroom.  I wiped off the shelves, the sink, and the faucet to get all the soap scum and dust off, and I vacuumed the floor and the bath mat.  I also cleaned the toilet and put shower cleaner in the shower.  At that point I had to stop in the middle of my cleaning, because Ninni (my Finnish friend from the Berlin weekend) and I had planned to meet at 4 to go to Hamburger Dom.  So I got my clothes out of the dryer, switched my bed linens over from the washer to the dryer, threw my stuff into my backpack and took off to catch the train to St. Pauli.

Today was a nice hot summer day, and the Dom was open and in full swing (quite the opposite of that day in April when it was cold and rainy and we tried to go to the spring Dom and found it closed!).  It is at Heiligengeistfeld, the same place where they had the public viewings for the World Cup.  Ninni and I just walked around and talked and looked at everything for maybe an hour and a half.  The Dom is definitely more reasonable than the California county fairs back home, because there is no admission fee and multiple entrances, and you can just walk onto the fairgrounds and hang out there if you want. And while the prices for food and rides aren't exactly cheap, they're not nearly as outrageous as the prices at American fairs.  The whole place is basically a giant maze of rides and food, just like American fairs, but I still noticed some small and interesting differences.  Because everything is of course German, the food and rides aren't identical to American ones.  For example, instead of Chicken Charlie's deep-fried bonanza, they have stands selling German doughnut-style baked goods, such as Berliners and Quarkbällchen.  Or instead of having Southern barbecue, they have traditional German fare like wurst and potato salad.  There were a lot of places selling crêpes, pretzels, Northern German fish sandwiches (like Fischbrötchen!), or candied fruit.  Some things were exactly the same as in America, though: ice cream and slushies, sweet popcorn, and (of course) cotton candy.  Also, some of the rides have German or Hamburg themes.  There were a few pirate- or harbor-related rides, and one with some of the Beatles' music.  I also saw a scary ride called "Tanz der Vampire," after the famous German musical Indra told me about.  And then there was the Wilde Maus, the roller coaster which I actually rode once upon a time at the Orange County Fair but didn't realize was German!

Ninni and I didn't ride any rides, not even the Ferris wheel, because we didn't want to pay for them, but I did buy a pretzel (because believe it or not, I never had one the whole time I was here and I decided it would be a crime to leave Germany without eating one) and Ninni bought two pickles.  We did two loops around the whole fairgrounds and then decided a salad sounded more appetizing than fair food, so we walked to the Variable restaurant (where we had gone the other time) and had salads.  We took our time and sat talking for a while after we had finished.  We talked about our semesters and what we were hoping to do when we go back home, and I also told Ninni about homeschooling and how it works (because in a lot of European countries homeschooling is not allowed).  Then we had to leave because a party arrived and they had reserved our table and the tables around us.  So we walked back through the fair and then down to Landungsbrücken, and we strolled along the wharf with all the ferries and restaurants for a bit.  When it got to be 9 o'clock, we went to the train station at Landungsbrücken because I needed to get home and finish organizing things.  We hugged goodbye (reluctantly) and finally parted ways.  I'll miss Ninni's smiling face!  She is really a neat person.  When I first met her I thought she was shy and serious, but actually she isn't shy, just mellow and sort of quiet, and she actually smiles and laughs a lot, especially once you get to know her a bit.  I wish we'd had more time to hang out this semester, but we were at different campuses so I think we were on two completely different programs as far as schedules and classes went.

Landungsbrücken

I have to say, between Tiina, Siru, and Ninni, I definitely want to visit Finland now!  If the majority of Finns are like those three, then I think I would really enjoy visiting their country.  I liked spending time with Tiina, Siru, and Ninni because they never got crazy or obnoxious, even if alcohol was present, and even when they complained it was generally a good-natured "oh well" sort of complaining.  I got a good impression of the Finns from them.

Anyway, my bed is still not made and I still haven't showered and my eyes are falling shut, so that's it from me for the moment.  Gute Nacht!