Return from the Big D

Today I arrived back in New York after nine days in Germany. I spent half my time in Mainz and the Rhine River Valley region and then I traveled to Cologne, Muenster and Hamburg and back again in four days. I spent a lot of time with my German friends and a lot of time by myself reading novels in train stations and sleeping and drooling on grandmas sitting next to me on Deutsche Bahn Trains. It was a great vacation.

I get a lot of satisfaction from traveling around Germany. Every leg of a trip completed, every conversation carried out in another language, every minor transaction, feels like a major accomplishment. Traveling back to New York felt tedious and annoying. I took an awful taxi ride from JFK to my apartment. The BQE was even more backed up than usual so my cab driver decided to come all the way up Flatbush. I couldn't help but compare North Flatbush to some of the small, shimmering Rhinegau towns I had just recently left behind. There are a lot of words to describe Brooklyn, but gemuetlich isn't one of them.

When I finally got to my place, I didn't feel any accomplishment or even any relief. I think the only thing I felt was, 'boy, it's stuffy in here.' My first days in Germany I was damn near dumbfounded that there was no air-conditioning or fans to be found anywhere. Anywhere. But I soon got used to the three showers a day, the constant mineral water drinking and the fresh air/open window cooling policies. [But I still think offices should have AC, especially our home office, a giant glass building that the sun beats down on like a light bulb in a Tasty Bake Oven]. So when I stepped into my hot, stuffy Brooklyn apartment I made to open the window before I remembered where I was. I never open windows here. For starters, I only have two and one looks out onto an air shaft. My main window cannot be opened without first rearranging some furniture so I can open the interior metal gate that is there for my protection. I looked at the diamond shaped bar pattern and blinked. Then I went to my kitchen and turned on my Air Conditioner.

I think we can all see where this is going.

Although I asked the post office to hold my mail, a few days worth had been delivered. I picked up two credit card bills, my Internet bill and my student loan bill but I wisely did not open them. Instead I flipped through an old issue of JANE magazine but first I put on a Biore Clean Pore Strip. I had forgotten to pack some of those and after nine days, the junk that had taken up residence in my face were starting to develop faces of their own. I also have a big blister on my left foot that a few days ago was red and pulsing but today is just yellow brown and fetid looking.

I called my brother's cell phone. Our whole family was having our big annual party on the beach in Rhode Island and I could hear everyone around him. I wished I could be in Rhode Island and back in Germany simultaneously. It's like being home sick for two different places, neither of which is currently my home. So, after cathing up on voicemail and email there's not much to do but shuffle around the apartment. I keep hearing crunching noises under my flip flops, but when I look down nothing is there. I tried to use the Dust Buster to clean up the phantom crumbs, but the battery is dead. The battery is always dead. Now I am just trying to stay awake for two more hours to get back on New York time.

I will be posting photos from my trip over the next couple of days, if you can stand the excitement.