Benny's Arrival

Yesterday, I got up early and put some finishing touches on the rough draft of my paper before getting ready. I emailed that with the bibliography to Dr. Veltze and then took a shower and got dressed. I left the house a little before 9:00 and went to the Pasing station. I had to pick up an extension ticket to add to my regular ticket to get to the airport and back again, which cost 9 E (way cheaper than a cab). I picked up some breakfast, a raisin sticky bun from the discount bakery and a cup of coffee, and a pretzel as a treat for Benny. I went back to the station and caught the S8 train to the airport around 10:00.

On the way to the airport, I started reading the book from Andrew Fusek Peters that I purchased at the poetry conference. It's about a group of skateboarding detective kids and is very well done. There's a definite British flair to the conversation and some of the word choice, but it just makes it that much more interesting. I think that my students are sure to enjoy this series of his, especially some of the boys.

I arrived at the airport around 11:00 and found my way to the terminal where Benny's flight was due. I spent the next hour or so reading some more of the book and watching the arrivals board, looking for updates on Benny's flight. It arrived a few minutes after the scheduled arrival time of 12:25, but soon, Benny was coming through the gates. It was great to see him after so many days apart and we spent a lot of time walking to the ticket booth for the S-bahn and catching up. After purchasing the tickets for him to ride the train and bus for the time that he's here, we found our train back to Pasing. About midway through the train ride, the driver came over the intercom and said something in German and everyone got off at the next stop, so we piled off as well. It seemed that there was something wrong with the train. So, we regrouped and found another train going to Pasing and got on that one. When we arrived at Pasing, we went down to the station floor and I showed Benny some of the stores and we picked up an S-bahn map for him. Then we got back on the train to go to Grafelfing.

When we got off at Grafelfing, we took Benny's things to the house and were greeted by a wary Alegra. She was not at all sure about Benny, although she remembered me. Once we got Benny's things upstairs, he unpacked a bit and dozed on the couch some. Later, we went on a walk to the grocery store and bought a few things for breakfast and dinner; tomatoes, salami, bread, mozzarella and brie, apples and a soda that looked interesting. When we finished at the grocery store, we stopped by Petra's shop, where we chatted and offered our approval of the new window decorations. On the way home, we stopped by the park and looked at a few restaurant menus. Once back at the house, we unpacked the groceries, fixed some dinner, and enjoyed eating together again.

When Petra got home later that evening, we went downstairs and visited with her for an hour or so, chatting about what Benny would do and sharing funny stories about the dogs and our lives. It was 9:30 when we finished talking to Petra, and since Benny hadn't slept much on the plane, he went to bed and I stayed up a bit longer to finish up some blog postings. I didn't really take pictures yesterday, but I will have more to post.