I'm BACK!!

Hey everyone!!!

Hookay, I know you all have been keeping an eye on this here blog since Sunday, when I was expected to return to the States.

Well, I am here!! I arrived at Chicago O'Hare at 5:15 PM on Sunday, and my family was there to meet me at the gates. They were soooo happy I was returning, it was great!

The flight went well, we had a funny pilot, minimal turbulence while flying over the Atlantic, great food!!, and a smooth landing. It was much better than the flight from the U.S. to Germany, where we had some Wolfgang dude bombing into all the clouds.

It feels weird to be back, though. It all happened so fast, I KNEW it would!! We drove from Chicago up north two hours towards Milwaukee, to drop me off at my apartment to start classes hours later, on Monday morning.

We stopped off at a Cracker Barrel restaurant in Kenosha (P.S.: if you have not been to a Cracker Barrel yet, GO to one. They are great!), where I had my first meal in America. I went as all-American as I could: a half-pound bacon cheeseburger with steak fries. I topped it off with a tall glass of cold, skim milk. My first one in a month, I loved it!!!

The waitress sure got a kick out of some little girl guzzling milk. She looked at me like I had seven heads, and each one was dying of thirst for milk. Hee hee.

Alas yes, it feels different to be in classes again. Life in Milwaukee came back to me quickly, but I am sitting here in class in a fog, just daydreaming about Germany and thinking, "Pinch me!! At this time two days ago I was on the other side of the world living a dream!" The kids sitting next to me, harrumphing and dozing off in class, have no idea what I have just been through and what I have seen.

I walk along the sidewalks of campus and keep expecting to run into Joe, or Phil, or Karthik. I see a navy blue/white/light blue combo backpack and quicken my pace to catch up to the person, thinking it is Zach. Or I tune my ears to what is going on behind me, hoping to hear one of the Aussies and their accents. But no such luck.

I already e-mailed my host family to tell them hello and about my return to America. I thanked them for their parting gift they gave me (my favorite German chocolate candy bar, a Kassel picture book, and a pillow with the phrase, "Guten Abend, Gute Nacht" embroidered on it. It was the phrase I'd sing-song to them every night before I'd turn in to sleep. It was like our 'thing' to do.)



Thermodynamics seems to be my saving grace. I was apprehensive about the course, since it is a notoriously difficult one here, and my instructor for it was the same instructor that went over to Germany with me. While we were in Germany, he didn't exhibit the most coherent and responsible of personalities.

However, we had class together yesterday and it was great! He is so laid back, and when I walked into the room we started talking like we were right back in Kassel. It was nice, as if I could (and still can) relive my trip to Germany with him.







Other kids that went on the trip have commented how it has caused them to learn so much more about themselves. To an extent, I have to say the same thing about myself. Although, for my case it wasn't so much that I learned more about myself, as it was that I befriended myself.

I learned about myself and made all my self-discoveries last year, The Year from Hell, when I was forced to rely on myself and manage some diagnoses that I'll now have for the rest of my life.

This trip showed me how to be proud of myself, and live it up for me. I got to do all the things just I wanted to do. It was my first vacation, all to myself. Not a day trip somewhere with friends, not a family caravan down to Florida...just a trip for me to go on and make sure to seize the moment on any opportunity that had 'Ashley' written all over it.

Me, myself, and I. It was a great time for all of me, and only I have the memories, scents, sounds, and pictures in my head of what my particular eyes saw at any given second for the past three weeks. It is remarkable!

I am already figuring out when I might be able to return to Germany again...but this time, take as many of you with me as possible!!!!!

:)