So, here’s the deal: I’m leaving home to go home. Does that sound confusing to you? It sure is for me. Because I’m glad to go home to where my real life takes place with work, friends, and all the obligations. At the same time I’m sad to be leaving home, where I’m among like-minded people, where also a lot of my friends live, and where my family is, too. So, these days, I’ve been slowly saying good-bye. Good-bye to my little hometown, to all the old familiar places, and I’ve been trying to imprint on my mind all the details of home and the life that I’m going to be leaving behind here. It’s a very slow good-bye!

We have a lovely visitor among us this days. My sister, coming all the way from the south to see me. This, however, means that my time in Germany is coming to a closure (because she came to see me one last time before I’m heading out). It also means that I won’t be here any more when the time of the apple harvest comes (which is almost here already), nor will I be able to enjoy the plums, and nuts and all the other yummy things that are growing in my parents’ backyard. So, actually, though it makes me very happy to see my sister, it also makes me very sad, because of what her coming really means.