Bomb evacuations and an alternate universe

One month ago, AIB had a dinner party in which we were supposed to socialize with the other students and have dinner with our host families. We also had to prepare a skit, which, I must say, was the best of them all.

Unfortunately, my host mom could not attend, but fortunately, it left me the opportunity to sit and eat wherever I chose. I went to get my food, and spotted the cutest little girl with her dad. She was half Asian- a fellow half Asian can always tell. As I went to sit down with Josh and Melania, the rest of my bench was left open. That's when, ten minutes later, the little girl and her father asked if the seat was open. They brought along two other little girls and the mother to sit next to me, and that's when I heard the mother speaking Vietnamese.

Now, my mother is Vietnamese. I have two sisters and a white American father. I saw this family of a Vietnamese mom, a white German dad, and three little girls; and in their image I saw my family (like our clones in an alternate universe). I went to the mother, as hearing Vietnamese always gets me bit excited, and I introduced myself. After talking with the parents for several minutes and throughout dinner, I was invited to come and visit their home some time.

That time was this last Friday. I planned to meet them at the tram station at 5 PM. As I walked off the tram at 5, I was met by Chuc, Johanna, and Janina. We walked to their house and as soon as I walked in, I was hit with the familiar scent of a Vietnamese household. The herbs and noodles of traditional Vietnamese cooking delighted my senses. The black and gold wall art reminded me of my grandparents' home. I played with the twins as we waited for their little sister to come home from Kindergarten with their father.

Two hours later, dinner was ready. Right as we sat down, a knock on the door disturbed us from taking our first bites. Frank went over to answer it and on the other side was a firefighter. I saw the girls starting to put their boots on in excitement. "We have to leave!" They told me, as they listened to the firefighter talking to their dad. Frank walked over with a tired look on his face. "We have to evacuate. The firefighters found a bomb. An American bomb."

I doubted that he was translating German into English correctly. I was extremely confused but I got dressed to go, and it was clarified to me that, while working on construction for a new train station, they found a 500 pound bomb underground from WWII. They evacuated all houses within a 100 meter radius. Apparently, this is not uncommon in Germany.

After a trip to a bomb shelter for Snickers and a friends house for pizza, we were allowed to go home at around 11 pm. We ate our dinner, exhausted, and I ended up sleeping over. The next day, the girls and I had breakfast, played outside, and had pizza for lunch. As they drove me to the tram station at 4 pm, I heard the girls asking their mom in German "How long will Vivi be here? Can she come back to see us again?"

They gave me big hugs and waved at me as they drove away, and I was happy to have not one, but two families abroad.