Well, we came back from Europe on Thursday, although our flight from Philadelphia to Atlanta was delayed for a few hours (Connie and her boys came to Atlanta on a separate, nonstop Delta flight). After we got to Atlanta, my oldest sister (the one who lives in Macon) picked us up and dropped us off (over two hours later) in Columbus. For the most part, we’ve been driving between Columbus/Fort Benning and Warner Robins/Macon ever since we got back, which is (partly) the reason for why I haven’t maintained any type of presence online for the past two weeks or so since I last wrote here.

Well, the trip was great, stupendous even. Actually, Germany/France was so much like the states that I barely missed home at all. In fact, I’ll be brave in saying that, for the first time in living memory, I was actually getting used to life without the Internet, as there was no connection at the barrack of Connie’s friend, with whom she was staying while gearing up for the move back to Georgia (she had moved the stuff in her own barrack back to storage in Georgia beforehand). Anyway, the day after we got to Germany, Mom, Brandon (Connie’s older child), and I went on a bus tour of Paris, which was nothing short of amazing. So much graffiti (not considered a bad thing in Europe), so much 13th-century architecture, so much history is packed into that single municipality (especially when we walked through Notre Dame cathedral on the Ile d’France, where Jeanne d’Arc is entombed in this marble tomb thingy in the very back of the immense sanctuary).

At the duty-free shop across the street from the Louvre, I and Brandon ran across 1. these wooden “dice” which bore 6 different, drawn sexual positions; 2. playing cards which showed men and women in the “heat” of passion (yeeeah, I turned my head away as well, lol); 3. REAL swords, the kind that have been featured on many a cult-classic movie/tv series (i.e., Conan the Barbarian, LotR, Harry Potter, Highlander, you get the picture); 4. and decorated lingerie (yes, DECORATED lingerie, or shall I say, thongs with bling on the crotch [commercial: “I like to bling!”]). Since I had 20 Euro on hand, I was actually considering buying one or two of “those” for Wanda back home, since I know that she’d like those, lol!

For those of you who are simultaneously familiar with Middle Georgia AND Germany, let me make a few brief comparisons:

Kitzigen=Perry
Wuerzburg=Macon
Frankfurt=Atlanta

The lowland boondocks in France are JUST like the lowland boonies here in Georgia (summerweatherwise), “lowland” being “that type of topographical area which lacks any serious elevation in altitude”. The small carnival in Kitzigen reminded me of the Georgia National Fair in Perry, with the rides, candy, and food (except for the biergartens, which attracted alot of Army guys for obvious reasons).

The only turn-off about the trip was when we went across the border to the Vietnamese-run flea/black market in Cheb in the Czech Republic. Yes, the clothes were cheap, but I’m not necessarily one for shopping for anything that isn’t related (in ANY way) to media. Mom, Connie, and a few friends of hers had to negotiate prices with the Vietnamese hawkers, who were selling bootlegged shitrts, jeans, bling, DVDs, CDs, even samurai swords for some ridiculously-high amounts of money. Curse them, although Ho Chi Minh is still cool.

Otherwise, it was a cool trip. I wouldn’t mind going back up there and seeing more, although I’ll be alot more wary of going to former Eastern bloc countries next time around. Europe (at least Western Europe) is so much like the states: the people are hospitable, although they do respect the constraints of bureaucracy when in dealing with foreigners like myself. The experience, however, was probably better for me than for Mom and Connie because I made a conscious and deliberate effort to communicate with Germans and Frenchmen in my broken version of their language, so as to show that I could respect the fact that I’m in their country and that, while alot of them “may” know a good bit of English to get by, they use their own language as their first language everyday.

However, now that I’m back here in Georgia, I’ll have to get ready for the big moving-out in August. Its something that I await, but anxiety, bittersweet nostalgia, and fear are outweighing, overshadowing any giddiness which I may possess in regard to that event. What is all of that coming from? I’ll tell ya in the next post. Love and Peace, people (blame Vash the Stampede for that one, lol)!

btw, a question about the last episode of the new Inuyasha season: I forgot his/her name, but why are they calling her a “he”, when “he” has a woman’s voice? Is “he” gay, since “he” has exclaimed (out loud) that our red-clad youkai hero is “adorable” (especially with the dog ears and all)?