Even the longest holiday has to come to an end. And so did my 4 weeks in Germany. After a grand finale shopping trip to Frankfurt I found myself checking in at the airport for LH 726 to Shanghai leaving at 10:30pm last Wednesday. No actually I need to put this right: I tried to check in - and got into trouble since the scales screamed: "she´s got 52 kilo´s of luggage!!!" at me. I know what you think now: What on earth did she have in her suitcases???
Well here ist the answer: Half of the portfolio from “DM” ( a german drug store) and half of REWE (supermarket). Why? Because everything imported is either mega expensive or it includes whitening cream - and once you know what toiletry shopping is like here you would agree it is like entering heaven when you walk through the doors of any European drugstore.
So there I was with 6kg overweight and no ex Lufthansa colleagues in sight who would for sure have let me off..
Smart as I am I had parked my rental car outside with all my (another 15kg!) handluggage. So the check in agent asked if I can maybe shift some of my weight into my carry on bag since I didn´t seem to carry anything with me. “Sure!!, I widly grinned.. and unfolded a little travel bag which I always have with me for such occasion. I re-loaded 6 kg into that and eventually got my boarding pass.
When I dropped off my rental car I instantly regret having that much hand baggage. The amount of stuff I had to carry was as much as I remember Indian families carrying with them for 4-6 people.
Too late I noticed several liquids in my bag and therefore made the guy from Sixt rental cars very happy by donating to him a huge bottle of honey, a bottle of contact lense solution and a very expensive sun taint lotion - bugger!.
Fortunately my flight was 30 minutes delayed and therefore I got the chance to relax from all this stress in the Lufthansa lounge, phoning friends for last good byes and to enjoy once more “Brezel and Leberkäs” (traditional Bavarian meat loaf with prezel).. (at least my silver card is worth something if not extra-extra luggage..)
At 10:30pm I ventured to the gate and got slightly overwhelmed and excited by the look of a Chinese crowd. Even though through my shopping trip to "Kaufhof" in Frankfurt, I was somewhat prepared to meet again so many of my potential neighbours again. I was thrilled when hearing the boarding announcement in Chinese. Because I noticed that it sounded familiar to me and I was actually able to understand most of it.
All of a sudden it hit me: "Oh my gosh! I´m living in China!!!"
I just could not believe that only 6 months ago Paul and I entered the very same plane into a totally new life, not really knowing what it would be like. And there I was, understanding elements of Chinese and feeling actually comfortable with the hussle and bussle and the noise of the crowd as it pushed itself onto the plane.
And you know what? It felt good. Just like flying back to Germany 4 weeks before it felt like that this was the right thing to do. Flying back to Shanghai, back to our old apartment right in the heart of the city, back to Paul and back to friends waiting for some mad birthday celebrations for Paul ahead (Side note from Paul - there will be no post of that. Three days later he is still recovering from it..)
And as I´m writing this post I´ m sitting on the Huangpu river again, drinking my favorite star bucks coffe latte, the sun is shining and I´m watching the ships and the chinese world go by Yes, it is good to be here and to know that many of you follow our stories from this mad city.
Sometimes it feels like I want to hug the world! :-)!!!!!!!!
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