wieder zu hause

Hey there :)

Yep, I'm back in Australia! I arrived at 6:30 in the morning on the 3rd of Sept. It was an awesome feeling to be returning home and I tell ya what, it seemed like forever before we finally emerged through the clouds and I got my first glimpse of SA!!! My mum surprised me by being at the airport and that was great!! Brenton & Jacque, Richard, Braden & Clemmy were there too, so it was a nice homecoming!!

I surprised John big time, cos he had been conditioned to believing that I would be first home on the 10th....just so you all know, I didn't LIE. :D He loved it! Not sure I'll ever be able to top that one!

Anyways.....it's been a long time since I last wrote, and I think part of the reason is that I didn't want to write it.....not cos I'm lazy, but because it's kind of like one more thing that makes me realise that it's all over....and I'm still not wanting it to be!! But, here it is :)

The Eders drove me to the train station at Ulm and that's where I said goodbye to the people who have been my family for nearly 13 months. It was pretty tough and there were a few tears....not all from me either! Dominik and Johanna were so cute! It was weird to be leaving them, knowing that I wouldn't be going back there anytime soon.....

I miss them a lot and have rung a couple times and written emails. I'll go back and visit them sometime!

So, I headed to Budapest, Hungary, where I did a lil more sightseeing and then went to Marty and Judit's wedding. It was a lovely day and the only part of the ceremony that I understood was when they said "iggyem" which is yes. (Sorry if I spelt it wrong!!) Oh, and somehow, I knew that they were saying the Lord's Prayer! There were a couple other ladies there from Adelaide so it was lovely to be able to hang out with them! Oh, and I also caught Judit's bouquet.....

I also went to Prague for a couple of days, after staying with my friend Anna-Maria in Stuttgart for a night, which was great! Prague was a beautiful city and I think it would have been good to spend a little bit longer there, but I also didn't especially like doing the sightseeing stuff on my own, so it was really all ok. :) I met a cool chick from Brisbane, she was in the same dorm at the hostel, and we ended up looking around a bit together, which was great fun! :)

After Prague I stayed with friends in Dettingen, the village next to Heuchlingen. The Schuh, Armin, Sonja, Lea and Anina are a cool family and I loved hanging out with them! Was good fun :)

My last week in Germany was spent staying with friends and just hanging out. It was really really good. I stayed with Elias, his girlfriend Christraude, Ola, and yeah, I just had a lovely last week! :)

I was really sad to be leaving and I cried whenever I said goodbye to people and I even cried when we took off from Frankfurt.....I still miss Germany and all the people I left behind, but I am very happy to be back in Australia :)

It's going to take a while for me to feel completely happy here again - Germany was a huge deal for me. So, if it takes a while for us to catch up, don't worry, I just need some time to readjust and settle!

I've missed being here and I'm looking forward to having a normal life and also a normal relationship with John - it's been quite a novelty to be able to SEE him!!!

Oh, and I'm in Qld at the moment! I'm the bridesmaid in my friend Vanessa's wedding on the 30th Sept on the Sunshine Coast. I'm looking forward to seeing her! John is heading up on the 30th for the wedding, and my parents are coming too. And then we all head to Synod. I'll be joining in on the Youth @ Synod programm, John's a delegate and Mum & Dad will be there too. After Synod we all head back to Darwin, which is where my parents live. So that will be nice!

Alrighty, I hope that satisfies all you people out there who complained about my lack of postage.....not that you COMMENTED!! :P

Mach's gut!!
Liebe Gruesse, Vivien