Day 3

St.Pancas is a beautiful building !

I get up early in the morning and have a quick bite to eat. Mrs F takes me to the train station and proceed to Marylebone. I then take a cab to St. Pancras. I check find a place to sit down at the rail station. I have about 2 hours to wait for the chunnel train also known as the Eurostar. I decide to get a bottle of water and drink it while waiting. I think I have grabbed regular spring water, no I have grabbed mineral water. Don't get me wrong I like mineral water, but I don't find mineral water as refreshing is regular spring water. I pretty much did this the entire trip...why did I not bother to read the bottles?? Apparently, if someone had stocked bottles of poison I would have just grabbed a bottle and drank it up.

I of course am worried because I am alone, people are starring at me. Like, why is she alone ? Is she married ? divorced ? She's fat, she must be alone. That's sad that fat people have to be alone, maybe a another fat man will come along and love her. I know that people just walk around looking through people. People don't look at someone and think..oh she's fat...she must be alone....bless her heart. No, people just generally look through you with something else on their minds. Like men just walk around thinking "Sex, sex, money, sex, power, sex, boobies, sex, money and sex" in that exact order. Someday, a man will approach me because at that moment he is going to think....boobies and there I will be standing with my large boobies...and then he will walk on. Anyway, I spilled water on myself and felt pretty stupid. I ended up reading on my Ipad and waiting until the train was called.

I found my seat and sat down. The fabulous thing about seating on the Eurostar is that the seats are always reserved. So, despite the empty seats around me...I end up sitting next to a man. A man who is eating a prepackaged sandwich  I am debating the entire time if I should talk to him. Does he want to talk ? Will he be annoyed if I start talking to him ? Is he a jerk ? Is he German ? French ? English? What kind of sandwich is he eating ? So, I decided to strike up a conversation with him and he was nice. Going on business in Belgium, single, sorta handsome, and sorta a big dork. It was nice just letting my anxiety out.

The train took me to Brussels, Belgium which was grey and depressing looking. It did however look like a REALLY cool place to visit. I liked what I saw :) Then I made a quick run to another ICE train that took me to Koln. I sat next to a really large man. He was very nice and spoke good English. Another train to Frankfurt with a former exchange student and then I met a very nice lady who helped me buy a train ticket to Gottingen. I am so grateful for her because the ticket machine was not supposed to be difficult, but when I saw her maneuvering around it,I realized I could have sent myself to Munich or Flensburg without realizing it !

I'm 24 and being photographed in a swimsuit...yeah, that is never going to happen again :) Travemunde, Germany near Lubeck. 

The trip to Gottingen was about another hour plus and met Jurg at the station. It has been 20+ years since I had been there. He is asking me if I recognize the station and I had not. It was all new ! We drove back to Herberhausen and he asked me again if I recognized anything and oddly enough I did. I walked into the house to find the family all there. I almost cried,  and maybe I did cry. I think those were the best times for me. I lived on my own as a nanny for 11 months in a foreign country that I did not speak the language and I had to learn so many things while I was there. I learned German, I learned about parenting, living with strangers, using public transportation, eating with a knife in one hand and a fork in the other. I learned how to make friends on my own. I learned who I was and what I wanted. So, there I had returned.

Sus had made pumpkin soup..its like she knew it was one of my favorites. She made a fabulous dessert and I was in heaven. She gave me a tour of the house since I had not been there in so long. They had a new kitchen, new bathroom, and the rooms had been expanded or moved around. I slept on a mattress on the floor. Did I care ? Heck no ! I was so happy to be there !!! They had moved the wardrobe I used to use into that room. So, it brought back lots of memories. I have been happy to see people in the past, but seeing them, staying with them, being in Germany was the absolute BEST !!