Footprints

two

My plane lands ten hours later in Frankfurt. I walk off with my carry-on luggage and take a bus to the airport entrance with all the other passengers. I enter the airport and follow the green signs reading luggage claim, but I can barely make out colors, words, and shapes. I am getting really nervous. It seems as if I'm walking in slow motion, and the floor is going to give at any moment. Thoughts cloud my mind.

What if I don't like my host family? What if I do something totally embarrassing? What if I get lost?

Somehow, I manage to follow the signs until I spot and grab my huge 50 pound suitcase. I keep following the green signs, which now read passport check. I pass through that and turn the corner.

There they are. My family for a year. All grinning and smiling amidst other people in the airport. I see the mom and dad, Jochen and Steffanie, all happy and welcoming. Tom, the little brother, is holding up a sign with my host sister, Lea, reading Welcome to Germany, Jen! I grin and walk over, despite the fact I'm so nervous that I'm almost trembling.

"Hallo!" They all exclaim at once. Jochen takes my large suitcase and Tom grabs my smaller luggage.

"Welcome to Germany!" says Stefanie, "You saw the sign?" Lea holds it up again.

"Yes, I did." I replied, trying to keep my voice from wavering, "Thank you!"

We start walking to the parking lot, making small talk about my flight. I look around wide-eyed, outside the windows and at all of the people. We reach the car and start driving from Frankfurt to their home in Bad Boll. It will be my home soon, I guess. That will take some getting used to.

I gaze at all of the trees and cars zipping past us. It's funny. I imagined Germany to be something really different. Nothing specific, just some weird unrecognizable country. Yet, the freeway at least, looks pretty similar to the ones in the U.S. I had to imagine Germany, though, even if I was wrong in the end, because as John Green says, "Nothing ever happens like you imagine it will...but then again, if you don't imagine, nothing ever happens at all."