Deutschland

I have so much to write...all good and adventurous things. I'm actually not going to class because I'm so content in my room, in my big sweater while I blog right now.

I'd love to leave a video message, but I think I'll type this one out just because it deserves it.

I left Paris Nord at 11h30 on a Thallys high speed train to Cologne in Germany.
I was actually supposed to be on an 8h25 train, but I ended up running onto the platform as the minute turned from 8h24 to 25 and my train pulled out of the station.

There is no feeling like the feeling of your train leaving without you on it. Watching it move away without me was torture.
All I could think about was the empty seat where I should have been , and how the person who I was supposed to sit next to would just be so happy to have extra room to put their feet up and relax on their way to Germany while I was still on the platform, catching my breath from the run through the station, trying to calm down and figure out what to do while my whole body was shaking out of frustration and disappointment and aggravation and pessimism.

Then someone tapped me on the shoulder. "Excusez-moi, Mademoiselle." A woman was standing behind me with my NaviGo pass (my ID for getting on any public transportation in the city). I hadn't even noticed that I'd dropped it, but it must have happened on the run to the train. I thanked her a million times, especially because she must have found it, and then looked for me using my picture on the ID. So that was when my day started looking up.

I booked another train to Cologne for 70 euro, sat down at a cafe in the station and caught my train at 11h30. When I got to Cologne, since I missed my connected train to Annika (in Bremen) I bought a new ticket to Annika...except I didn't have a seat because the train was full. It was FINE with me because only after I was on that train was I sure that I was actually going to make it to see Annika. So, no matter how I got to Bremen, seat or no seat, 3 hours late or on time, I was so happy. Plus I was pretty anyways for making it from Paris to Germany by myself.

On the train to Bremen, I met the kindest German folk. One man who let me borrow his cell phone to call Annika, and a 25 year old girl named Maya who was going to Bremen for a convention on climate change and geology. She asked me to sit next to her when she saw I didn't have a seat and we ended up talking for almost 2 hours about traveling and languages and hippies and activism and volunteering and LIFE. We hugged goodbye and it was such a day maker...
I got off the train and Annika and I yelled each others names and ran towards each other and hugged the best hug I've had since I said bye to my family at the security gate at Logan in August.

Annika took me to her lovely apartment where we made dinner together, caught up on new things and remembered old things.
Annika made the most amazing scrapbook of her time in the US in 2006. It made me so happy--it was like going back in time--there were so many pictures of great times, ticket stubs, class schedules, track and cross country numbers...everything.

We fell asleep watching The Edukators--such and Annika movie!

The next morning, we left for Berlin and met even more friendly Germans on the way. We bought a group ticket for the ICE (Inter City Express) train and found some kind German guys to sit with us and split the cost.

...Ok To Be Continued tomorrow!