Polish Goodbyes

My grandma hates goodbyes. Really, everyone in my family hates goodbyes. When leaving the house, whether for a couple hours, or in this case, a couple months, you can usually count on adding an extra 10-15 minutes, or more, to your travel time specifically designated to long hugs and multiple “I Love You’s” yelled your way. Although it makes leaving even harder, I wouldn’t have it any other way.

The goodbyes started this past Memorial Day weekend. Although my sister and I weren’t really speaking earlier in the weekend, she planned a surprise going away party for me. So I guess she really does like me after all. She hung German signs all over the yard at my Dad’s house that read “Wir lieben dich” (We love you) and my personal favorite that read “Be Gut…. Or Matt will hunt you down.” After that, I decided to make an impromptu trip to Chicago to drive Matt back for his last weeks of school. He was running late for work Tuesday morning, so the quick goodbye on the corner of Wacker and Madison was probably for the best. Things could have gotten ugly. Goodbye #1. Then Thursday night, Bill left for New Orleans so he stuck his head into my room about 7am and in true Bill form said, “Have fun in Germany!” Next came Thursday night, I went to my Dad’s house. It seemed like any other day at first, the babies running around, giggling with each other, and my Dad “not yelling” because company was on their way and my sister’s room was a mess. Then came tearful goodbyes, well for everyone but Camryn, she’s too cool to cry. I know the tears will come in a couple weeks when she’s looking for someone to go to the mall with.

Friday morning started with a breakfast at Leo’s Coney Island with my mom, Casey, and my grandparents (who will go by G-unit for the remainder of my blog). Casey narrated the way with useful tips. “Don’t murder your roommate,” she shared, “those trials over there are crazy.” Thanks Case. At least she lightened the mood. We stopped by G-unit’s house after and Casey gave me a really nice card and gift. My grandma gave me about 35 hugs with my grandpa quietly repeating, “Man, I’m gonna miss you…” Tears flowed again… I’m such a sap. My mom, Casey, and Ralph drove me to the airport. After my mom bitched out an 80 year old man crawling in a Buick on Oakwood, we were at the curb of DTW departures. Although I warned everyone “NO TEARS,” I broke my own rule when I started to say goodbye to Ralph, of course. Casey and Mom played it cool. I was mildly disappointed I couldn’t get my mom to cry at the curb. She famously cries at McDonald’s commercials and doesn’t cry when her babygirl is going halfway around the world!? It’s okay, she admitted tears later.

So, after a stop at New York’s JFK and a couple delays later (who’s idea was it to only leave JFK with one runway?), here I am on a plane headed to Berlin. I’ll be studying at TU Berlin with a group of about 20 U of M engineering students, or as my roommate Lauren lovingly calls us “engiNERDs.” 6 of us are flying over together from DTW, which makes the trip a little more bearable. I will be taking two classes, one centered around a computer programming group project and the other an intermediate German class. When we get to Berlin Saturday morning, our program director will be picking us up and taking us to our apartments. I’m so anxious to see what they are going to look like. Then we have a meeting at 5pm as a meet-and-greet. We have been warned not to sleep on Saturday so that we can get acclimated to the 6-hour time change. Looking forward to an exhausting day… Should get some sleep in now! 5 hours to go. Auf Wiedersehen!