So long, and thanks for all the Wurst.

This is probably going to be my last post on Versicherung. I have been back in the States for a week now. It has been the typical rounds of doctors appointments shoved into very little time before I head back to school- which will commence on Wednesday morning.

I have found, just like when I got to Germany, that I have not been affected too much by 'culture shock', or in this case 'reverse culture shock'. This is not particularly surprising, since Germany and America are not that different culture-wise. The things that I have noticed the most since returning are little things: waiting for a host(ess) to seat you at a restaurant, having people bag your groceries (as much as I wish they would not), getting carded to buy alcohol, being able to pop down to the grocery at random hours, shopping on Sunday... The list could go on and on, but I will spare you. The things that I have found the most amusing is that I am having trouble responding to people in English- again little things- 'Thank you', 'Excuse me', etc... I noticed the other day at the pool that when a little boy asked me if the water was warm or not, I had to pause a second and think about what he asked and if he was speaking to me. Just like I had to when some one came up to me and asked a question in German when I was not expecting it. I do have to say that it is rather weird to be back here and not really feeling all that different from when I was in Germany. It feels exactly as it does when I am back at my parents house in between semesters.

Other than that, it has been the same old routine back at my parents house between semesters: getting used to Arizona time (which means I generally get up quite early...), pretending to clean up my room (in this case, unpacking and getting ready to pack again), watching the Twins on television (my favourite thing about my parents' house: they have the MLB Extra Innings package, so I get to watch ALL of the televised Twins games), working on my various crocheting and cross stitch projects, and last, but probably (definitely) the most frequent, getting yelled at for not helping out at a house that I do not feel as being my home, and getting into silly arguments with my father over stupid things, because I do not feel like I should do anything when I am on holiday. Granted, everyone else in the house has other views, since they do not see me as being on holiday when I am here. All understandable, since this is where they have lived for the last three years, but I have not lived here (in the long-term sense) and have no connections here except for the people living in this house. Sad, but unfortunately very true.

I have posted the remaining photographs that were taken in Europe. These do not yet include the picture my mother took with her camera when she was in Braunschweig, but I will eventually get them posted as well. These include pictures from our afternoon in Bad Harzburg, my day trip to Bremen, as well as my trip to Potsdam when I was in Berlin a couple weeks ago.

Overall, I will say that I had an amazing time in Braunschweig, despite the doldrums of the first couple months. Once I finally got settled and met people and started getting out and doing things, things evened out and I started having a good time. It was really sad saying goodbye to everyone I met in Braunschweig, since it is likely that I will never see any of them again. I will hopefully see some of them again, since I will be in Europe again. I am hoping that I will be able to get some sort of job in Europe at some point. But at this point I am just concentrating on getting through my last year of engineering school, and the joys of the job search.

If you feel like continuing to read by mindless blathering, I am hoping to pop in every once and a while to my other blog, Fifth Dimensional Tesseract. Thank you for wasting/spending your time reading my blog. I hope that it was some times entertaining and insightful.

Until we meet again, EMH.