The Return Back

I was still in a daze the Monday and Tuesday after Spring Break. The trip back to the US had been even longer. In order for me to get to the airport on time, I had to leave the night before to ride a train that would put me an hour closer to Frankfurt. But the buses had stopped running by that time, so we had to walk 2 or 3 miles to the train station. When we got to our stop, we sat down in the McDonalds all night. We busied ourselves with drawing, food and conversation. In Germany, McDonalds is the place to go after partying and the place was never not busy.

Around 1:30 AM it was packed and we were at a 4 person table. 2 drunk German guys came up and sat with us because there was no where else to sit. We had fun trying to communicate with each other. They had broken English and I only knew a few cuss words in German (not very useful). But they were really nice and funny. Both of them were named Mike. Because of them, we found out that it was daylight savings time that night. So thanks to them, I made my train. But, now that I have experienced daylight savings time 2 times, an hour of my life is gone forever. I can never get it back! My true anger came from the fact that they could understand Arlene's English better than mine. If you don't know, she is from Puerto Rico. Yes, everyone knows English there, but they all speak Spanish. I wish I had been taught English in a British accent; that would help so much and it sounds much nicer.

The total duration of my trip from Frankfurt to Atlanta was 14+ hours (not including all the night before with the train and McDonalds). So when I got back to Atlanta, all I wanted to do was to unpack my stuff, shower and go to sleep. When I got off Marta (the metro), a homeless guy asked me for money. I told him that I had just gotten back from Europe and didn't have anything on me, but I could take him out to eat if he wanted. He didn't really want that so much, but it was better than nothing and so he came. I told him I'd meet him at WingNuts across the street after I put my stuff in my room. When I told Trip (my roommate) that I was going to feed him, he wanted to come too. So we took James to WingNuts and I was going to pay for his meal with my credit card but they don't accept those after 12. So Trip ended up buying him fries with the $2 he had in his pocket. We talked with him while he ate and he was an alcoholic. I could tell that he didn't really want to change his lifestyle and that made me think a lot. In my mind, there wasn't much I could do and giving him money just didn't seem beneficial. So I felt a little down about that, and it didn't help that I was quite tired.

So Monday went by and Tuesday went by and Wednesday afternoon my studio class was going on a field trip to High Point, North Carolina for one of the biggest Furniture Fairs in the United States.