Wednesday, November 7, 2007

Back Home



Well, I'm back home now. It still feels a bit odd to say that. Back Home. In Germany. With my Swedish Fish (and various and sundry Swedish gummi candies). But, alas, it is true. I did feel at home when I landed in Germany tonight.

First off, I was very grateful to be on the ground after we landed. The plane ride was a quite bumpy near the end. I thought of kissing the ground, like sailors would do after a long, long journey. But decided against it.

The Second thing hit me as I got off the plane and started into the airport. I was grateful that I could understand the signs. The German signs. And the same thing happened as I started to listen to people speak German. It was refreshing, because I could understand the random conversations going on around me (cell phones, fellow travelers, etc.).

Normally this doesn't bother me in Sweden, but being in Sweden this time around and not knowing what the signs meant and not knowing what people were saying was frustrating somehow. I took a lot of taxis this time around and that may have caused some frustration that I couldn't answer the simple hi, how are you, where are you going question. But the trip on the whole was very productive, and enjoyable. I like Stockholm and hope to get up there with the kids one summer. For good or bad, I didn't even realize how frustrated I had become until I noticed how grateful I was to hear and see German at the airport.

Then when the taxi driver dropped me off at our house here outside of Düsseldorf, I was so glad to come up to our house and even felt a lift in my spirits walking up the walk way. It is good to be back with Tamara and the kids.

By the way, the reason I looked for Swedish fish is because when I was a kid I loved the little gummi candies called swedish fish back in the states. They were one of the "penny candies" at the local quickie-mart and whenever I had more than 2 cents and happened to be at the local quickie-mart I would buy some "penny candies" and i often chose the swedish fish. I realize that I sound very much like one's grandma or grandpa talking about "back in my day when candy cost a penny". But it really happened. Anyway, here is a picture of the swedish fish I remember from my childhood. They are still available:



Hopefully some will try and identify the various objects available in gummi form below. Good luck guessing:

4 comments:

Martina said...

I see vampire teeth...

britentj said...

I see vampire teeth, race cars, swedish fish, ice cream cone, pop bottle aka soda bottle, fried egg, licorice allsorts...yum, fuzzy peach, yea pathetic, I know my candy,, I think lol all of it is yummy, my favorite, the licorice allsorts and the swedish fish!! Glad you are feeling Germany is home, there is nothing worse than living somewhere where you don't feel at home!

Gardner said...

Good guesses. I guess it wasn't really all that difficult of a challenge.

Hannah asked about the Swedish Fish and if I brought home the eggs, the ice cream cones, and the fish. Then she showed me that she already had some gummi eggs from here at "home".

Cutie pie.

Bek said...

I tagged you for the 7 random facts meme..

March 2007