I am UPSET!

I have been so thrilled about not having seen all the corporate chains (except fast food) I'm accustomed to in the U.S. in every town. I even had just had a conversation with someone about it, saying "Isn't it great not to have seen any Wal-Marts the whole trip?" Then on the very next bus I took into Frankfurt we pass by an Ikea, a Toys 'R' Us and a freaking Wal-Mart SuperCenter!!! I am angry! No, okay I'm not that upset. Actually I'm real cozy in this tiny village outside the Frankfurt Hahn Airport where I will fly into Ireland tomorrow. This part of Germany is gorgeous! And I get a loft bed in a room with a steep sloping roof and that makes me very content. Plus, the whole room is to myself, which is always an unexpected treat.

I'll miss Germany and its little old men in lederhausen and its delicious giant pretzels. I had the greatest conversations on the train today, too. One was with a middle-aged man who taught me all about the landscape as we passed by, and another was with a guy my age who is going to law school and therefore enjoys discussing deeply intellectual things. I was all for it. His impression of Americans wasn't really great and he was definitely surprised at my ability to dish out a bit of "intellitalk," if you will. Yeah, I just coined that. Maybe I'll patent it.

Besides the train talks with other Europeans, I've learned quite a bit about people and places in the U.S. on this trip, too, surprisingly. In the last 3 days I have run into 11 Mormons from the U.S. Super nice people! The best part of this experience was when I was hanging out with these 6 Mormon girls from Arizona. They're all really pretty, so naturally there were lots of guys trying to get them to come out and party. The look on boys' faces when they are told by 6 hot American girls that they've never had a drop of alcohol in their life is priceless. Hilarious, really.