It was a dark and stormy night, but I'm getting ahead of myself. It all began with a bitter cup of coffee in the morning...
13.01.2017
I woke up early on Friday so that I would be able to get a nice warm breakfast before I leave to catch my bus. Then I remembered about the coffee maker that my host mom had showed me. That was my first mistake. I grabbed the little pod that held the coffee and put it in the machine to let it work it's magic. A few minutes later, a hot, watery cup of coffee dribbled out. That was when I realized that I had completely forgotten to ask my host mom where the sugar was. By this time, I had only several minutes before I had to leave to catch the bus in time, so I downed the cup of coffee, suffered from third degree burns on the inside of my throat, and ran out the door.
A short bus ride later, I reached the train station, enjoying the fact that I was actually in Germany. At that moment a familiar face rose from the depths (walked down the stairs) of the train station and began moving in my direction. Turns out, Christine lives in Bad Godesburg too! Anyway, we took a short train ride to meet up with the rest of our class and go on a short excursion.
After the excursion, we came back home and split off to go our separate ways back home. Christine and I went back to the train station where we climbed down two flights of stairs until we were underground. There we ran into Sarahi and Clare who both lived in Bad Godesburg too. The train soon arrived and we all got into it, little did we know that this wasn't the four minute bus ride Christine and I were expecting. We accidentally ended up on the subway instead!
Time dragged on as we sat inside the subway, hunger eating away at our insides with no end in sight. Just when we thought there would be no end to the amount of stops the subway would make, the intercom came on and announced the stop we had been waiting to hear all night (the last twenty minutes). Finally we reached the stop we needed and all four of us stepped out of the subway, and made our way back to the surface. There we split off in our own directions with Christine and I heading back towards the Bad Godesburg train station, and Clare and Sarahi going in their own direction. Christine and I then split up to go our separate ways. I made my way to the bus stop since i forgot how to walk home from the train station and waited for my bus to come. Luckily it took only 10 minutes for the bus to come by and I quickly got on and sat in a seat, glad to be able to relax and head home finally. Little did I know that it would be a while before I would be back in my room.
The bus then moved on to begin dropping people off, and I was just enjoying the ride. After two or three stops, I checked the bus schedule to look for the name of my stop and which stop would be before it. However, I didn't recognize the names the bus was stopping at, nor could I find them on the list. Four stops later I realized that I actually was on the right bus, but going the wrong way! I had about 7 more stops on the bus before it was done for the day and I would be stranded somewhere with no way to communicate with anyone to help me. I then looked at the timings for when the next bus would arrive, which was every 30 minutes at the original stop I got on. I decided it would be fastest to get on at the last stop to wait the shortest amount of time. Finally the bus reached the last stop where I got off and realized how dark it had gotten and that it was snowing now. I noticed a few other people on the other side of the street and was about to go ask for some help, when I noticed a bus drive up and stop for them to get on. I quickly ran across the street and boarded the bus. Once inside I asked the bus driver whether the bus was going to my stop by saying "Romerplatz" to which I received no response. On my Second attempt I got a full whiplash causing head turn in my direction from a very unhappy looking lady with a booming voice that made me terrified, and then happy when I realized she said "JA!!!!!" I then quickly took a seat and quadruple checked my bus schedule to make sure the bus was actually going in the direction I wanted. Finally i reached the point where i fgirst got on the bus and was surprised to see none other than Sarahi and Clare talking to the bus driver. "Wow," I thought " they already ate dinner and they're going out for the night." There seemed to be some confusion between the bus driver and the two girls so I went forward to help them, and once they saw me they ran to the back doors of the bus and got on. I soon learned that they also have been lost for the last hour, but unlike me, they've been outside in the snow. I then told them that I'll bring them home so that they can use WiFi to find out how to get home or call a cab or their host mother, and they agreed that that would be the best option. So the bus reached Romerplatz finally, and I lead them home through the downpour of snow, which had gotten worse since I had last been out. A short three minute walk later, we reached my apartment building, and while I was struggling to open my house door, my host mom opened it from the inside. I then told her about my friends' issue and she offered to take them home. I joined along for the car ride and on our way home, My host mom was saying how lucky it was that we came home when we did otherwise she wouldn't have been able to drive them in that weather, with the roads covered in ice. By the time i got home and finally could relax, it was an hour and a half later than I would have been if I found my way home the first time. But if I had, Sarahi and Clare would have been lost all night which is much worse than what had actually happened. At the end of the day, it might have been a dark and stormy night, but everyone was warm and safe in bed which is the best way to end the first day.
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