Goodbye to Horb! Adios! Farewell! Plus a visit from the Mumpkin!

Well that’s it. Our time in the quaint little village called Horb has come to an end. Our last week was bitter-sweet, though mostly sweet. For Maya’s birthday on the 24^th, we made a trip to a nearby town with a café that serves amazing cake. Thursday night, our last school night at HHK, we decided to have a sort of going away party for ourselves. It went as most of our parties in Horb did, by starting in front of the train station, and ending (for some) at Bella Arti, although the ending was a bit different, because this was the first time we were ever actually asked to leave… yikes.

The last day of classes were spent combined, where we played games and had snacks. After a final game that was a bit like “Musical Chairs” we were handed our grades, and bid farewell to the teaching staff of HHK.

That weekend, a few of the Americans moved into their rooms at Prinz Karl, the dormitory in Tübingen city, while the rest of us had to wait until April 1^st to be allowed to get our rooms. Monday and Tuesday were spent making final arrangements to move out of the Goldener Adler Hotel.

I really enjoyed my time in Horb, despite how tiny, and seemingly void of activity it was. At this point in my life, where everything keeps getting so hectic, and I have a thousand responsibilities, it was really nice to get to go to a place where things move a little more slowly.

Then, I had quite a day on Wednesday. I woke up at 5:00a.m. in order to catch a train to the airport in Frankfurt, because… drum-roll please, my MOTHER was coming to visit. Now for those of you who actually know my mother, that’s a pretty remarkable feat in itself. But the fact that she was flying to Germany alone was incredible for anyone to do.

The trip to the airport went extremely smoothly, I made every change on time, I arrived in Frankfurt when I was supposed to.

That’s when I realized that my mother and I had made the worst plan ever, for meeting up.

Mom: “I’ll just wait by the baggage claim”

Me: “Okay!”

The baggage claim. In one of the largest international airports world-wide.

Crap.

I panicked, started walking quickly up and down the large hallway where one of the Lufthansa baggage claims is located, and was just about to go find an employee who could help me page my mother, when out of the door, in an act of true serendipity, my mother walks out of the door I was just about to walk past.

What happened next was one of the most theatrically epic reunions known to man. We giggled and ran towards each other. She threw her bag to the floor and we hugged fiercely. And Scene!

In our excitement to see one another, we got on the wrong train, and ended up adding about an hour to our journey. But it was a pleasant opportunity to reconnect. We arrived in Horb, where I basically had 6.778 seconds to get my mom to the Goldener Adler, where she would be staying for the first night, and then get my bags to HHK where Herr Ost and his son were waiting with two cars in order to deliver luggage to all of the students who would be living up in the “north campus” of UniTübi.

I rode with Herr Ost’s son, and we finally arrived in Tübingen. I waited a bit for Joe to arrive, so that the two of us could head in the direction of our buildings together. The way that Fichtenweg (North Campus) is set up, there are three GINORMOUS dorm buildings, and then a spattering of smaller buildings. I live in one of the smaller buildings, next to where Joe and Maya live. I drag my luggage to my dorm and go to find Herr Frölich, my Hausmeister.

Now, I guess with a name like Herr Frölich (Mr. Happy) I should have known better than to expect someone who was actually happy, or at the very least pleasant. But I made the mistake of thinking he might live up to his name. Instead, he is a large burly angry hairy man who thought that because I am from America I neither speak nor understand German. Once he ascertained that I knew enough Deutsch to be able to move into a dorm room, he just kept pointing at things and saying in a gutteral German, “See how clean this is? It should always be this clean, and if it’s not it’s coming out of your security deposit”

To make up for Mr. Unhappy’s behavior I do have a very very nice room.

[You’re probably thinking, well, let’s see some pictures, and you certainly will. Soon. I will come back when I have pictures and add them to this post, where these words currently are]

Exhausted and a little offended, I headed back to Horb, hoping that a nap would lie in my very near future. Alas it did not. I got back, spent about 15 minutes with my mom, before having dinner with Familie Bareis and the other HHK students who lived at the hotel.

Let me just say, it is difficult to be a translator. I kept forgetting to translate things for my mom, because I assumed since I understood what was said, she would also understand. I would also translate things to the Bareis’ when they really didn’t need me to. Pretty frustrating. Fortunately, the other HHK kids all spoke English really well, and were able to keep up a conversation with her during dinner.

After dinner I took my mom for one final beer at Bella Arti. It was very strange to be drinking beer with my mother, stranger still in public, and strangest of all that I ordered it for us and wasn’t asked for an I.D. Then again, it’s been 4 years since I would have been asked for an I.D. in Germany, as they are allowed to buy beer at 16. After our beer, both thoroughly exhausted, we both went to bed at the Goldener Adler Hotel.

Thursday, we woke up, breakfasted with the family and headed out to see Horb, which took about an hour. Total. I showed mom all of the places mentioned here, and on Skype. I showed her Kaufland, HHK, the church up above, Müller, various little stores, basically everything.  We had lunch at Kostbar, returned to the G.A.H. and said our goodbyes to the Familie Bareis.

Around 5:30 or so, we arrived via train and bus to the abode of the Familie Mösinger. Kati was one of my host-sisters from the trip I took in 2006, and when we met for drinks a few weeks previous, she invited my mother to stay with her family while she was here. Score!! So we arrive and get my mom settled. We had a nice little dinner of Maultaschen which Karin (Kati’s mom) remembered was my favorite. We called it an early night.

Friday morning, Kati picked me up from my dorm and we had breakfast with her and her mom and my mom. Then She drove my mom and I to Ikea, so we could pick up a few things for my room. I can’t tell you how nice it is A] to be driven places again and B] to have my mommy there to help me pick things out and pay for them J

In the afternoon we ran into Kelsey and Annie as we took a small walking tour of Tübingen. I showed her some of my old haunts from when I was here in 2006, and some of the places I’m sure to spend time now. We headed back up to Kati’s house, which is right on the way to my dorm. In the middle of our conversation, we realized that we’d completely missed the stop where my mom was supposed to get off. She rode up to the last stop with me, and then turned around and got right back on. I worked for a bit in my room and collapsed into bed.

Saturday we woke up semi-early and headed to Stuttgart for the morning. There is a market there on Saturday mornings, with tons of fresh fruits/veggies, and also lots of stands with foods from different regions both in Germany and outside of it. We had lunch at a small café near Schlossplatz and then headed back to Tübingen, where both of us napped for a bit. I headed back to Kati’s where we had dinner and sat around talking.

I was really pleased with how well my mom and Karin got along. Everyone liked my mom, with the exception in the very beginning of Linus the Dachshund. It took him about 15 minutes to remember me, and then it was back to constant love from him. But for some reason it took him a while to warm up to my mom. It was really funny to see the change in expression from when he was looking at me, to when he would start scowling at my mother. As dogs go, Dachshunds are pretty frech (sassy) and they have very expressive faces, as we found out.

When it came time for me to head back up to FW, we all walked towards a little bar that’s very close to my dorm. We had cocktails and continued talking. I ordered a Zombie, which was quite delicious, and mom appropriately ordered… a swimming pool J

Sunday morning, I slept in. And it was good. Mom decided to go to see Paul (Kati’s brother) play soccer, which took up a good chunk of the afternoon, and we met up for a final dinner with Kati’s family. They put out a ton of different things for my mom and I to try, and they even bought me soy-schnitzel, which does exist, as it happens.

Both mom and I were scheduled to leave on Monday. Her to the states, and me to Norway to meet up with Adam for a Scandinavian adventure. I can’t say how happy I was that my mom got to come visit me here, and see what my life over here is like. I am almost certain she had a great time, even though we didn’t do any majorly touristy things, or go to tons of places. It was nice to have a little piece of home, even if it was just for a week.

We said our farewells as we got on separate trains, heading for separate airports. A great visit, and a fond tschüss to Horb.