Poison and Reunion

I think my toothbrush may be poisoned... I bought one of the little folding travel toothbrushes and I think it's for little boys- green and blue, thick rubber handle etc. Well the maker must have had it out for male children because it tastes like straight up arsenic when I use it. Add "new toothbrush" to my shopping list. Speaking of shopping- that's how I spent my afternoon! Landed in Frankfurt around noon and Sarah met me at the airport. After a traipsing around probably the entire complex once or twice, we got me some Euro cash and activated my Eurail pass! Then Sarah and I went to a giant, beautiful almost-outdoor mall in the city. This mall honestly had everything from H&M and Primark to a drug store and florist/open air fruit market. It was also where I had my first meal of the trip. I wanted it to be authentic German, and lucky for me there was an Alpen-style bratwurst restaurant in the mall! It was designed to look like part of a ski lodge with carved "wooden" benches, "snow" on the roof of the kiosk-type restaurant, and little woodland creatures displayed about the area (A lovely compliment to the LIVE chick petting zoo in the center of the ground floor for Easter!). Anyway, my käsekrainer was sehr gut) Our shopping trip was pretty reminiscent of the exchange program, since that's about 60% of what we did haha Unfortunately, this time around I have no room in my backpack or my budget for shopping =/ So Sarah drove us back to Zweibrücken and I fell asleep in the car before we left Frankfurt. When I woke up, I was so shocked to see the countryside. I had forgotten how startlingly beautiful Rhineland-Pfaltz is! Low green rolling hills for miles in every direction off the Autobahn. Maybe it was just that stretch of road, but it seemed like every inch of that land was planted and manicured perfectly. There were no crumbling farm houses, overgrown yards, rusting out card...I really love the character those things give to an area, but this was really wonderful too. It's just a pretty big contrast. I am so glad to be back in this house)) Surrounded by memories of 2010- I noticed right away that it has the same scent, the multitudes of bottled water and appfelschorle (my favorite) offered to me, the little palm tree in "my" bedroom, the tiny tiny shower. All of it just makes it feel like home! Of course I miss everyone from home and wish I could share this with them, but I'm not lonely or uncomfortable. This was the perfect place to start my trip because it is so familiar. Staying up much too late is also familiar! In Germany I always got the sense that days are longer, I figured it was a mix of the 24 hour clock and the sun patterns, but maybe it's because I consistently lose track of time and end up awake past midnight)) So, I'm safe in Germany! My toothbrush is probably slowly poisoning me, but all in all- I ate sausage, pizza, and German pretzels (for Kirstyn!), drank appfelschorle, stumbled out some German with the family- I'm good and glad to be home away from home)