Home Again, Home Again

Random 'getting used to America' moments.
-I took a sip of Coke in the car on the way home from Detroit and thought, 'Wow, is this normal coke? It tastes like there are spices in it.' After seeing the 'Classic' written on the bottle, I realized that I had simply been used to German Coke and that this was real Coke again.
-I went into the bathroom at home and thought, 'Huh, there's an unusually large amount of water in the toilet. And then I realized that I wasn't in Germany anymore and that it is normal to have that much water in an American toilet.

Right now I'm listening to one of the CDs that Ross made for me for Christmas. :) Christmas was nice. I got to see both Ross and Anna... and I got an iPod. I can't wait to see everyone!

My trip was interesting. I got to Frankfurt on Saturday afternoon, took a taxi to my hotel, settled in, and then explored the city (despite the cold). There's really not much in Frankfurt, but there was enough to keep me occupied for a few hours. I didn't get to see the Goethe house though. Maybe later. I woke up the next morning, got dressed, checked out (in German: auschecken), and took a taxi to the train station where I bought a ticket to the airport. At the airport, I had to walk a ways to get to Terminal 2. As I stood in line to check in for my flight, an airport lady checked my passport and then pretty much gave me the third degree. Then after she left, an airport guy did it again. But they were nice.

Then I went to go through a door to the carry-on baggage screening place, and a guy asked me if I had any liquids. I said no, and then he said, "well what's that?" as he was pointing to the 1/4 full bottle of coke on the side of my backpack. Whoops. I drank it and went through to security where I had to take off my coat, scarf, watch, and take out everything in my pockets and then walk through the screening thing. It didn't go off on me and my stuff was fine, but then they wanted to screen my DVD player. So I went to a little room where they screening it while I put my stuff back in my pockets.

I then went to look for my gate, but I couldn't find it, so I asked an airport lady and she told me in German. She then asked if I understood and I am glad to say that I understood completely. To get to my gate, I had to go through security again, which meant I had to take everything out of my pockets again. After waiting at the gate for a while, the airport guy informed us that our flight would be delayed until further notice. Apparently there was something wrong with the plane and they had to get a crew from Mainz. There was a collective moan from the waiting passengers. But then a little bit later, we were informed that it wouldn't be too much of a delay. We ended up taking off a little more than an hour behind schedule.

The flight was fine. I traded seats with some guy's wife so they could sit together, but I still had a window seat so it was all good. It was cloudy, so there usually wasn't much of a view. I did get a glimpse of Scotland, Greenland, the Atlantic Ocean, Canada, and Michigan though. During the flight I watched Pirates of the Caribbean 2, Invincible (about the Philedelphia Eagles), The Little Mermaid, and an episode of King of Queens and Everybody Loves Raymond. Landing was fine, but then US customs are Nazis (heh). Everyone had to fill out at least one form before we landed and then go through customs before and after we picked up our luggage. It was fine for me though. I had no snags. My father was waiting for me (and jumped up from his chair when he saw me) and then we went home. I was so tired that I went to bed around 9:30 (but then woke up at 6am).