Week 11: Returning Home

Sadly, due to the rampant spread of COVID-19, the study abroad was cancelled. On March 12th, Jen and I woke up in Paris to a call from my parents who let me know that I had to return home. We had already planned to return to Bonn from Paris that day, so we gathered out things and headed out to the train station at 5:45 AM. We did not leave the hotel room early enough, however, and we missed our train back to Bonn. We waited an extra hour and paid an extra hundred euros just to take the next train. Luckily, Jack and his family happened to get on the same train as us at a stop in Brussels, so we got to talk to him for a little while. After returning to Bonn, I said goodbye to my host family and went out to Tacos one last time with Jack and Jen.
The next day, Jen and I had 10:00 AM flight back to Dallas from the Frankfurt airport. The trip to the airport that morning was the most stressful four hours of my life. Jen and I met up at Bonn HBF around 5:30 and immediately got on the wrong train. It only took us a few stops to figure out that we were not going the right direction and got off in what I can only describe as the middle of nowhere. We walked around this small town until we finally found someone to ask where we could get a taxi. He said the only way out of this deserted hell hole was from the train station. We waited for the next train to take us to Cologne in hopes of getting on a high speed train to Frankfurt from there. The train to Cologne continued to get delayed until it finally arrived forty minutes late. We hopped on the train and arrived in Cologne around 7:45. The only peaceful part of the trip was the fifty minute ride to Frankfurt from Cologne. I took a short nap and arrived at the Frankfurt airport at 8:50, forty five minutes before our gate closed. We ran through the airport, which did not seem to have a single working escalator, until we finally arrived at the bus stop. We waited impatiently until the bus finally arrived to take us to terminal 1. We sprinted to the American Airlines check-in counter. The lady at the desk questioned my reasons for staying in Germany, and I answered them as quickly as I could until she finally asked me why I was so nervous. I explained that I was out of breath from the last twenty minutes of running and really did not want to miss my flight. My anxiety seemed to anger her, but I finally got my boarding pass. Jen and I made our way through customs, where I dropped and broke my phone. The automatic passport scanner did not properly scan my passport, so I had to wait in line to get my passport checked by an officer. After customs, we ran to security check, which was thankfully went smoothly. Shortly after, we boarded our flight and returned home. I guess that's what we get for flying home on Friday the 13th. I never plan on travelling with Jen again after this brutal week of travel.
The week after returning home was very uneventful and really only consisted of me playing video games and adjusting my sleep schedule as I prepared for classes to resume the following week.