Sand Through My Toes

I am HOME #2

This is the sign that greeted me when I walked through the front door of my place in Germany!  I was so excited to be back after 14 months but the feeling was even better with the sign, the snacks and drinks in the fridge, along with some fruit!!  Plus, Steve and Carrie were at my place when the entire Tobash clan pulled up into my driveway to let me out!  I love my friends and can’t thank you enough for making my homecoming so wonderful!   

After a quick three-hour nap, it was time to shower and get on the bus to head downtown for the yearly Wiesbaden Wine Fest!  My gosh, to have a friend drive up from K-Town and to see so many at the wine fest, made for a wonderful evening!  I was able to enjoy some very fattening Kartoffel chips — they take a potato and use something like an apple peeler to make it into curls, then deep fry, salt them up and serve ’em up with garlic sauce!  Yum yum good and to have that as the first stop, even before wine/beer made for a great start to the evening!  

Now that the chips are had, made our way to our reserved seating and the same waitress from two years ago gets this big smile on her face  and welcomes me back — did she really remember me?  Yep, I believe she did.  Here’s to Amy for driving up for the evening and everyone else that was there that night — loved my Andechs even though it was the wine fest!  Oh well!  

Headed into work and guess what? Once again, wonderful friends that welcomed me back to school with another banner!  Ah to be missed and loved is a great feeling! I also was given a brand new box of Ticonderoga pencils with a note that said “Enjoy the sweet aroma!”  — how I have missed the smell of the best pencil ever!!  Don’t fret, plenty of the best pencils in the sand and my students loved them, too!! 

 After a lovely week of trying to get over jet lag, it was time to enjoy the Kloppenheim Fest and be a bit cultural too and see a play!  Kloppenheim was fun with friends, wine, champagne, brats, and spundekase with pretzel!  Yummy!! I am not sure that we were all on board with their 5 Euro donation to the “Rooster Fun” — PETA would not be happy if it’s true what happens on Sunday to the rooster!  Joy, did you find out?  

Cultural night at the local theater with another group of friends —  love to meet up and eat/drink at Nova as they have a good pour and it was relaxing to enjoy two glasses of Montepulciano and then continue on to “Around the World in 80 Days”.  Olivier was great — thanks for the invite Andy! 

Now, time to get ready for the start of a new school year!  Looking forward to reconnecting with my students I had prior to the sand  and meeting the new ones!  

I am HOME!!!!!

After quite the whirlwind trip home beginning last Saturday at 11:45 am Kuwait time and ending late Monday when I walked through the front door, I am finally on the upward swing of knocking out this sickness I had and enjoying my last week at home!  Fifteen hours total in an aircraft, so after five hours a lay over is necessary and although it happened at 3:10 am, it was in Leipzig — yes, my work country away from home!!  So you know what that means — although sicker than a dog, and beyond exhausted, my first Weizen beer went down so smooth I believe I could have had a slight buzz with my 102.1 fever — yep, but it tasted just great!!!  Out processing smooth, catching my flight to S FL smooth, kicking this sickness taking a bit longer than I like, and now hanging on the beach with my sister, niece and nephews — what else could I ask for!

I do have to say that there are times that I look at my watch and wonder why I haven’t heard the base wide intercom system going BEEP, BEEP, BEEP,  “Do Not Evacuate the Building, this is only a Drill!, I repeat, Do Not Evacuate the Building, this is only a Drill!”.  The crazy things I miss hearing after a week are rather interesting!!