You Get A Gold Star If You Read This WHOLE Post.

(Let me begin by saying that I didn't start off this post thinking I would go into this story...but, you know, things change in the middle of a blog post...so it sounds kind of strange starting off bc i wasn't planning on going into all this and, well,  then gets VERY long...but if you enjoy reading about someone's STRESSFUL day, then here you go).

The Event started today, and I soooo enjoyed the workshop. I think it's the most fun I've ever had teaching. Everyone is super super sweet and what is so cool about this is that over half the attendees have only scrapbooked for a year or less. It's so fun to watch them try something for the first time or to see the reaction on their face when we do something a little different. I LOVE it. Tomorrow is the final day, then back home on Monday. This is has been such an amazing experience.

I will leave you with a couple of shots from yesterday. Ahhhh, yesterday. It's a whole blog post in itself. I will save that for tomorrow night. It could actually be turned into a short novel. Let's just say that our adventure into Heidelberg was PERFECT, but the "supposedly" two hour trip home took about as long as our flight over here...and yes, I'm known for exaggerating, but this my friend is so true. My mom is laughing over my shoulder while I'm typing this and she says..."well at least we can laugh about it now"...ummmm, no...I still can't laugh about it...maybe a couple of months from now, but the feelings are still to fresh. All I could think about was the "Pursuit of Joy" series that we have been doing at church, and I could hear Pastor Chris saying..."Don't let Happenings affect your happiness". (sigh) Ummmm...RAGE was boiling inside my body and I actually just didn't care by the end of the night...I was done with the whole JOY thing. I tried for a VERY LONG time, does that count for something??? Please say it does.

Okay, what the heck...why don't I tell the story.

We went to Heidelberg. We climbed a STEEP INCLINE to the top of a mountain where this Castle was...this was the view from the top. We started from down there...you see in the picture...way down there. Actually we started about near that bridge. But hey, it was all good...tiring, but good (remember craziness doesn't start until on the way home).

We spend an AMAZING day, shopping, taking tons of pictures...and then it's time to come back to the hotel. I should have known that it was about to get bad when it started getting dark looking outside. At first, I think this is normal...but wait, that doesn't happen here until like 10pm, so we have a problem. Then I hear the distant thunder. (Jer says I say things sometimes and that I should never say it in front of people...here goes one of those) Okay...the thunder sounds different here. I mean it really does...it sounds more like a crack rather than a boom. There, I said it...it really does. Anyway, this happens about the time we are trying to get on the bus to go back to the train station.

Ahhh, getting on the right bus. I was imagining myself on Amazing Race (yep, I'm a dork remember) but it would have made good T.V. and we would have LOST. This is where it began. Thunder cracks, "oh we have to hurry",  I say. "Which bus do we take", says my mother. I say "32"....look, right there. (Anyone who is a grammar teacher, please disregard my use of punctuation through this, I don't have time to think or make it perfect with all the quotes and commas and so on) Mother says, NO, we are suppose to go in the opposite direction...UMMMM NO, there is only ONE 32 bus, but okay, whatever, let's go see (as bus 32 is pulling up and now driving off) after walking, I'm thinking...I know I'm right, I am going to ask someone in this store...YEP, he points to where we just came from. We wait, the rain has not started, YET....we see the correct number on the bus 32, but for some reason once we get on it changes to 31and we notice that about the time that the DOWN POUR starts. We had not looked at the correct number once we got on...I don't know, long story. Anyway, after I realize that streets aren't matching up I start asking...Does anyone speak English, anyone...so this guy next to me says, you are on the wrong bus, you need to get off this bus and take either 5 or 21. Okay, but you can't see outside because the rain is coming down so hard.

We exit off where he says and run into a mall to get out of the rain. We start asking around just to double check we are going in the right direction and we start getting conflicting reports. We finally decide, yes, the man was correct and we purchase an umbrella and head across the street for the next bus. At this point we are pushing it to get there in time, we finally get to the station. The weather is CRAZY outside, I've never seen lightening this bad and we see a good bit of it in Alabama. The bolts were so wide...anyway....so we get to our train gate, it's FREEZING outside at this point...I mean it started off HOT, now I'm getting hypothermia. The wind is cutting through me, one million people are huddled under this little covering to get out of the rain and the train finally arrives, a little late.

So, we are on the train...we are wet, tired and then all the sudden at one of the stops a man comes over a speaker and starts talking....(we can't understand) people are looking mad...ummm, this can't be good. And they start getting off. EVERYONE. So I'm like hey, what did he say...can someone tell me what he said. Then a girl says..."the tracks are flooded, we must get off". We exit, and it's like MASS CRAZINESS. People are calling people on their cell phones, pay phones, I'm just walking around asking if anyone can speak English. Then this young guy says,  my friends are coming to pick me up, you can ride with us to the next Train Station. Ummmm, not sure if this is a good idea...I can see my picture on  Fox News. Crazy American girl goes to teach a scrapbooking class and gets in car with total strangers....later found dead. So I go to check out where another group of people are huddled, ahhh, a bus, we can take a bus to the next station. About that time a man from the train station comes out and starts talking loud. Everyone starts heading back down the steps to the train. I'm like, hey, hey, what's going on...I'm trying to find my English speaking guy, (now that it looks like I don't have to ride with him). He says...we can get back on train.

Okay, let's make this story faster. We get on train...sit...man comes back on speaker....we have to get off....go back upstairs....wait....the man comes out starts talking loudly, people look mad. The weather was so bad many buses were damaged by hail (what kind of hail damages a bus) but okay, I go along with what my English speaking buddy is saying. So the main train guy said he called in more taxis. Taxis were coming about one every 20 minutes if that gives you an estimate of how long we waited there (there were a couple of hundred people waiting) when one drove up it was like a mad dash, and it was like the clowns in the circus, how many can fit in a little car...they PILED in those cars.

I'm getting mad. I just want to get a taxi all the way back to the hotel, but my mother is wanting to save some money, bless her ever loving heart. Now let me pause the story here and say I have done VERY good up to this point with the joy thing...welllll, maybe not VERY well...but I haven't yelled or screamed at my mom or anyone else. I could feel the RAGE inside of me seriously boiling. The situation was frustrating, but to not understand what anyone is saying made it even worse. From the beginning of all this...you know where the thunder cracks and it gets dark and the bus situation. I have MAYBE said 5 words. Really. I just couldn't talk, because, I felt if I did I would go OUT OF CONTROL. So I call Jer. He answers, I say, Jer listen...I need your help...he says, "hey, can I call you back in about an hour, I'm in a movie".....WHAT...are you SERIOUS...a movie...call me back....so I say, NO, you WILL listen to me NOW. Then I calm myself...then I say, can you transfer some money to my mother's account, I want to pay for a taxi ride home...it will be a couple hundred dollars, but we don't even know where we are and we should have already been back by now...this is INSANE. My mother hears me and says, we aren't taking a taxi Monique, we are getting a taxi to the next station and will keep going from there. Oh, that does it. My no talking has expired. Jer says, well what am I suppose to do from all the way over here...I'm now YELLING...I don't know WHERE, I'm at, I can't speak stinkin' German...it's freezing, I'm tired, I'm hungry, I'm wet...I WANT TO GET TO MY HOTEL....and my mother won't get a stinkin' taxi (i've been trying not to say freaking, but I think I said it a few times too) My mom says again, we aren't getting a taxi to the hotel, we will fight right here if you want to (not physical fight)....OH NO SHE DID NOT JUST GO THERE. So...I'm directing my yelling to Jeremiah not my mom, because I'm trying to manage my temper...very hard. (Jer can take the yelling) (Sorry mom, I know you are reading this...remember you said we could laugh about it now and you are the one who said I needed to post this...it wouldn't be the full story without that). So i get off the phone with Jer and keep my mouth shut, promise I do, the next taxi drives up and the crowd parts to let us on...I think they knew it was about to get ugly.

We get to the next train station. I'm still boiling about not being headed to the hotel, but whatever. We get to the station. Long line at the info desk...people mad, one man says no more trains tonight, another says one will be 30 minutes late...yadda yadda yadda. I check on a taxi. It would be 110 euros. I say come ON mother, how much more of this can you take? NO, we are going to see if this one comes. We wait, delayed for 30 minutes, then 15 minutes. It gets us to the next stop (over an hour train ride) FINALLY, now this is our final connection. We get off, go to the info desk to get our next train gate...it leaves in 5 minutes...I'm trying to find where this gate is, the guy gave weird directions, so I just take off running, asking along the way, I think I found it...I see the train, doors open, scared to just jump on because what if it's not it ,I show the guy next to me as I ask DO YOU SPEAK ENGLISH...he says yes, I say is this our train....DOORS SHUT as he says YES.

FOR THE LOVE NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.

Next train 30 minutes. I wanted to cry. I mean total ugly face cry...I just couldn't go on...I couldn't...but I did. Next train arrives, we get on...about a 25 minute ride...but the next stop was our final stop...but then we had to WALK...in the FREEZING COLD after midnight. We exit, mother says, I think we were suppose to walk the opposite direction...what? Ummm, no...it's this way...so we go my way...we get to the overpass and there was a guy, what the heck..."hey, do you speak English" (i wouldn't normally go up to a random guy on a street after midnight in a foreign place, with NO one else around, but drastic times call for drastic measures)...I say, are we going in the right direction, we are trying to get here....NOPE, it's the other way...mother's like, I told you so...I think I smarted off with something like, well you were right one time today mother...because I SOOOOOOOO kept my mouth shut the MANY times we were going in the wrong direction and she was wrong and I was right...but anyway (sorry mom, had to through that in as well....it's not the full story without it...remember).

So there, you have it. We made it home. I woke up at 6am to teach. But had the MOST AMAZING day today...really we did. We had such a fun time yesterday...up until about 4:45pm (moment of thunder crack) and when I added up the time, it's so true...from the time we started was about the length of our flight, minus about an hour. THAT IS CRAZY. 7 hours. That's a drive to Disney World. I can not put into words the frustration I was experiencing. I've never been so tired, hungry, frustrated EVER in my whole life

I know this could be the LONGEST post in history, but hey, I've recorded my story. Tell the story only you can tell...right? I'm sure I'll read it one day and laugh...maybe.

Leaving you will some shots from yesterday.

Tschuss! (goodbye) (that blog post comes tomorrow...just a story about me being a dork)

   

Comments

[DisneyCyndi]

You did way better thgen I would have ever done. I would have just set on the ground and weeped!

[Jackie]

Dear Monique,

Thank you SO much again for coming all that long way to Germany with your Mom to come and teach us a few classes and provide us with so much INSPIRATION! We all had a really wonderful time and we hope to see you again soon! Hope your stay in Germany was a pleasant one! Now it's time for me to hit the sack! Take care and all the best! Jackie

[kelly Drinkwater]

I read your ENTIRE post and totally see myself in that story totally screaming and getting into a gigantic fight with my mother. You did well, you did VERY well.

those are amazing pictures! What an amazing place. It makes me want to visit there.