Full Circle In Germany

When I arrived in Germany 10 months ago I stayed with Nikki and Bert for a couple of months until I moved into my apartment. Now, at the end of my stay, I'm back. The shipping company picked up all my boxes in Mannheim last Thursday. I closed the door to my cute little "hobbitty" apt one last time and came back to Ludwigshafen. When I got here I looked at Nikki, sighed, and said, "Well, I'm homeless again." We both laughed because all that means is that the dream is finally at hand.

Bert had to go to Munich for work on Thursday and won't be home until tomorrow morning and Nikki doesn't work on Fridays so we have had a very nice long mother-daughter weekend, just the two of us hanging out. We ran some weekend errands on Friday and on Saturday we went to the farmers market, did some cleaning and then went for a long walk in Luisenpark. Yesterday we both slept late and then I went to the park to get in a few miles while Nikki did some lesson planning in advance of being gone next weekend. When I came home we had a lovely dinner on the balcony and then watched movies.

I have so enjoyed this last year in Germany. The experience has been very different from the first time I lived here. Not better or worse, just different. The best part, though, has been being so close to Nikki. That also means that the worst part about leaving will be leaving Nikki. I'm so excited about finally moving to Scotland and she shares that excitement with me but we are both so aware that it means another good-bye. I'm glad she's going with me for a few days when I leave. We're just going to play when we get to Inverness next weekend. We'll go to the pub a couple of times to see Scheihallion play, take a trip out to Culloden, walk along the river Ness and just do some poking around town. Then she'll fly back to Germany on Monday.

I will miss my little Pickle.