It's my last night in Bremen. As usual, it's late and tomorrow is an early morning (try 4:00am). Interestingly, it's my third pre-6 wake-up since Saturday. All in order to catch planes. One plane left at 6, one at 8:15, this one leaves at 6:30am. To celebrate my imminent departure, I took today for myself. I packed til 1, then I went out on the town, stopping to look for my mother's hairbrushes at every possible place (couldn't find them!). Then I went to my favorite chinese place. Sure, it's my last day in Germany and I should eat something German, but today was My Day, and on this day I get to eat whatever I please. I bought some things, got an ice cream, (haselnuss und Schokomint) and walked around downtown taking in the feel of the city one last time. I blew 100 euros within about an hour. I bought a coffee/chocolate cake for my department, which ended up being terrible, but they liked it. I got them a little card that said "Thanks a lot" in every language that the people in the department speak. On the front it said, "Vielen Dank!" I had to put it in German, English, Moroccan, Spanish, Dutch, and French. Quite a multi-cultural department we have. Once I made it to Birgit's office to pick up Gina's forgotten suitcase, she was gone. Everyone was gone, except the Chinese girl whose name sounds like 'Yoshi'. I had to call like 7 people I didn't know and ask each of them if they would be willing to come back to the Uni in the pouring rain and let me into the office. Finally I got somebody who said she'd finish eating and then come over. I waited and waited while she ate and then grabbed Gina's suitcase. The chinese girl was really nice to me though, and let me surf the web on her computer while I waited. Everyone seemed to meet really nice people today. They all said, "And on my last day, too! Why can't all Germans be like that?" Reminds me of the Olde British Proverb that Julian told us concerning the Germans: "Splendid country... shame about the people though." just kidding. Lots of Germans are quite nice. Not the one we met on the train from Hamburg, though. He was checking tickets, and we were on the wrong train. It went from Hamburg to Bremen, sure, but it was the "slightly faster" train and we were supposed to be on the "slightly slower" train. We were sharing a ticket with our new friend David from Togo whose mobile phone I had succeeded in recharging for him. David was holding the ticket, so the officer started berating him. David asked the officer if he spoke English and he said "No" and shook his head in an annoyed manner. I jumped in because David doesn't speak German and I argued with him for a while before I realized why our ticket didn't work. Alyssa started getting frustrated and saying things in English and before you knew it he was answering us in good English and explaining the terms of our ticket. So I suppose he can't speak English to French-African guys, but he can speak English to Americans. We ended up having to buy a new ticket for the train we were on, meaning that our original ticket (costing 8 euros a piece) was worthless and unused, and the ticket we had to buy was 26 euros, being as it was on the slightly faster train. We told David our names and he broke out in a big smile, saying, "Why! These names are from AFriCA!" He was a French professor at the University of Togo, but apparently you can make more money working as an automechanic in Germany than you can make as a university professor in Togo, so he's earning money for himself and his family (mom and dad and siblings) so that he can move back to Togo. Germany wasn't his first choice of a country to go to. He confided to us solemnly that the Germans were sticklers for the rules and if we were in any other country they would have let us off with a warning. So true. So true. Alyssa said, "Get me out of this COUNTRY!" Sure, sure. But I'll miss Germany. Ah, Germany. Shame about the people though.

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