Tones of Home

It's 12:30 on Tuesday, September 21st. I have 15 days left until I will finally be boarding my long flight to my homeland. I can't even wrap my head around how truly excited I am. With my upcoming trip and my ever building excitement, the novelty of living in Europe has begun to wear off and my thoughts are constantly of all the things that make living/being an American great. I can't wait to be back in homes where kitchens are not only larger, but they are usually the focal point of the house. Even my mom's small kitchen, which she always complains about, is the most homey and inviting place in the house, if you ask me. I can't wait to find myself once again sitting on the counter in the corner by the sink having long conversations well into the night with family and friends. For me, kitchens that I have experienced here mean one thing: work. I loath them here. It's never-ending dishes and cooking without a lot of the tools/ingredients I need or want. While I'm on the topic of houses: closets! It would be pretty crazy to walk into a house or an apartment and not have it have any closets of any kind, what-so-ever. Well, that's exactly what you get in homes in Germany. It's the norm. And something else I hate about the housing here. Everyone buys these giant armoire that take up half the room and it just annoys me. Built-in closets, whether they are regular small ones, or walk-ins, they're amazing and I have taken them for granted!

Now that it is fall (aka Football season) I find myself ever more missing the crisp fall air and the changing of the leaves that one finds in Ohio. Sure the same happens here, but I feel as if it goes unnoticed. Wearing jeans and a sweatshirt and drinking a cold beer with friends while settling in to watch your team take the field is something I miss more than anyone can know. I miss going grocery shopping and knowing that I will only have to go to ONE store to find everything I need. Here, if I need 3 things that may not be correlate with eachother (but nothing crazy), say an avocado, balloons for a birthday and shaving cream. You can bet that I will be going to 2 maybe even 3 different places to buy those three things. No joke. And then add on top of that that stores are only open until 8pm and closed all-together on Sundays, and it gets to be really annoying, really quickly. (Especially in my position where the only times I have to go get something at a store would be for 2 hours or so on weekdays and Saturdays when I have off.. and all without a car.. needless to say it's one of the things that even though I should be used to it by now, still drives me insane.

But these are little things in comparison to what I really miss: my family and friends. Obviously these people have always meant the world to me, but I never really thought about it until I was isolated from them. It sucks. I was thinking again that I somehow, even though I have lived here for almost 11 months, I still have no set group of friends. If I didn't have Bertus, I think I would have about 0 social interaction. Sure, I've met a few nice people through Toytown and whatnot, but it never seems to turn into a lasting friendship. For example: let's say this Friday I really want to go to a certain bar or something, if I ask Bertus and he couldn't go then guess what? I can't think of anyone else that I would be able to just call and say "hey, ya wanna go out?!" I have always been a very social person and friends mean the world to me, so to be in another country for almost a year and still basically not have any sucks a lot. I mean, A LOT. I have no one here that I can bitch to if I have a bad day (which is often what I need more than anything..) or to talk about stupid trash TV with, or go to the movies with (I have gone to see 4 movies while here, all of which by myself), or just meet for a beer and gossip. I watched the movie Into the Wild this past weekend with Bertus (which was great BTW), and at the end the character writes something that I really truly believe in also, he wrote:

"Happiness only real when shared"

I just can't wait to be home and be around people that I love, and that I know love me again. (And I'm not even going to get started about Loki and Raven...) So for all of you back home reading this, I can't wait to see you and the next 15 days will hopefully go by quick! xoxox Megan