Europe Journal Part I: Walk Out of the Rain

7-1-2003: On runway, London Stansted Airport
Well there is a fair bit of walking in this journey. Hither and yon @ Heathrow then all over this airport. It is a good thing though, as all the sandwiches seem to have bacon in them.

Alison gave me envelopes for each phase of the trip. The first was a book mark which I will use for this journal. I keep wanting to say to people around me “Isn’t this great?!” because it is!

I need to jump into new things now, or I end up a the end of the month still sitting in the smoking compartment with a guy that looks like the uncle from the sound of music. Oh well, I am soaking up all the smells and sights this way! By the way I am pretty smelly @ this point.

7-1-2003: Katherine’s House Kirchenthumbach, Germany
24 hours from when I started and I am tucked into bed… After she picked me up we went and met her friends who play cards every week at a stamtisch.

7-2-2003: Conditeri, Kirchenthumbach
Katherine lives in a little farm town and I just walked to a bakery. I have a ham and cheese croissant and ordered coffee. I have no idea what I am getting. I looked up the words for cappuccino and espresso in the dictionary and found none! OK, just got my coffee. The words for all those things – is coffee.

This afternoon I took Verdi and walked the opposite way (from the morning)through the fields to the tiny chapel. There is a statue there to commemorate the fallen of WWI. It was so beautiful. Imagine a perfect day with a beautiful sky and the birds and rustling of the hay in the fields. Even when it starts to rain it doesn’t matter, because you can see where the rain ends and know that you just have to walk out of it.

Gwen and Cami, (to of K’s friends) came over and we grilled and made cherry preserves. There is a huge cherry tree in Katherine and Jim’s backyard. I went and picked a whole bowlful for a snack today.

7-3-2003: Kirchenthumbach – late
We made it to the Rittersport factory 10 minutes before closing! At Patch we asked a guy and he said it was in Wald der Stadt. In Wald der Stadt we asked a guy and he said “No, no, it is in ______. When we got there we asked a woman and she said “No, no, it is in Waldenbuch.” And indeed when we looked on the label of the candy bar that we had had in the car the WHOLE TIME, it said Waldenbuch. We made it and ran madly through the store tossing chocolate in our baskets.

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Every time you think, "I can't go on," not only do you immediately recant, and think that you am being overdramatic, but also, you do go on. You don't die, it doesn't snow, there is no disasater to temporarily or permanently change the course of life. Life keeps movng, and most depressingly, accepts your tired mediocrity, with nary a ripple. No one cares to notice your weaknessess, perhaps because they are busy looking at their own, but more likely because it doesn't matter. Somehow, your failures play into some plan, or just don't matter at all.