it is so surreal. was i really there? did those 3 wks really happen?

the more i try to validate it, the more it seems like a dream of long ago, shrouded in the mists of memory, coloured by the magic of fantasy.. more fairytale than reality.

and yet, the photos are there as indelible proof..

a thought struck me a few nights ago while i was in bed. it is the memory of people that you take with you when you leave a place. i may, at this moment in time, remember how to walk to our school in Magdalene Strasse from my busstop at Raphaelsklinic -

cross the road, straight down, turn right at the corner, straight down towards the Stadthaus and Rathaus, turn left, cross the road, straight on to cross the Domplatz, turn right at the Uberwasser Kirche corner, pass the Eis Cafe, turn right, cross to street and then left

but would i remember it 10, 20yrs down the road? perhaps. but if you were to ask me what made Muenster such wonderful place, i would answer: the people

what made the daily walk so memorable - the company. what made the lessons bearable - the teachers. what made our stay in Muenster so memorable, the people - the bus drivers, the store keepers, the friendly drivers, our host families, the ordinary people on the street...

we were asked, in the unaviodable and expected feedback form - would you ever visit Muenster again? my answer: Natürlich!

the instant sunday passed and monday came, we knew it would be over soon. but no matter how much you prepare yourself, you can never be 100% ready. home looms very near and while my body has been craving for good, warm meals (all we have here is bread and wurst! =) and vegetables, Münster has taken on the scent of home and our little group of 8, the feel of an extended family...

we go to school each morning, we go shopping in the afternoons, we go to each other's houses.. it's not a holiday, it's not an immersion program, it's daily, ordinary, everyday life...

i sit at the dinner table with my Gasteltern and i am gripped with this fear - a fear that suffuses every nerve, every fiber: in 3 days i will be gone .. buried within is a well of tears that threatens to flood. perhaps Uli was correct, i am a 'romantic' girl..

the 12hr flight back would be a long and lonely one..

"i sit by the fire and think, of people long ago, of people who will see a world that i would never know. but all the times i sit and think of times that were before, i listen for returning feet and voices at the door."

.....................

"Über allen Gripfeln ist Rhu, In allen Wipfein spürest du Kaum einen Hauch; Die Vögelein schweigen im Walde. Warte nur balde ruhest du auch."

Goethe. Ein Gleiches

i saw sunflowers in the field yesterday... gold within gold, their faces turned towards the rising sun... they weren't there the previous day so they must have bloomed over night.. it's unbelievably beautiful...