welcoming

A happy guy picked me up at the Frankfurt airport...it was Easter Sunday. A new beginning.

After a long, turbulent flight and dealing with a lot of heavy luggage, it was nice to see great guy. The immediate changes I noticed were his longer, shaggier hair (his hairdresser moved away and now he has no idea what to do) and a switch from long sleeves to a short sleeved shirt. It’s summer here in Deutschland.

We headed straight to the father and maid marion’s for Chinese food lunch out on the terrace. Birds were chirping like crazy…and lilacs were smelling like crazy. Bees, bugs and even mosquitos were all out in force. I could not believe that 18 hours before I was in the land of snow.

In the evening, after some napping and unpacking, we jumped on the motorbike and went for a spin to Ingelheim. There, we sat by the Rhein and caught up on the past few weeks apart and made happy plans for the coming month…Hamburg? Spain? Renovations? A novel? Okay, I’m dreaming a bit.

The folks from the house, rock ‘n roller and jülchen, and best friend, all came by to welcome me back. I handed out small, Canadian gifts, like Rocky Mountain chocolate hedgehogs and maple syrup, although the latter I ended up dropping in my exhaustion, on our hard, terrazzo floor. Maple syrup is not fun to clean up…even if it is organic. Rock ‘n roller is threatening to spend more time with me, best friend still laughs a lot through her red-lipsticked mouth, and the geese and ducks still squawk and honk with gusto. Not much has changed here, aside from the weather, but even though, it feels like I’m on a holiday.

But, I’m not. This is where I’m living now…and I’m glad.