Chapter 2 Which Involves a Ten Year Old Debt, Scientology and the Worst Airport in the World
On Saturday we went with Marco to the suburb where we grew up. Our old primary school is no more, having been demolished several years ago. The block where we used to live was pretty much how we left it. I took pictures of familiar houses and playgrounds where we used to play. Jared even found the home of another old schoolfriend of his. Presumably he has by now outgrown the paper-eating phase he was in in third grade. He wasn't home, though, which was probably just as good, as Jared still owes him money. :P
It was weird seeing the old places again. Especially since a lot of the distances were decidedly shorter than I remembered them to be. My childhood wasn't all bad. We had quite a few fun times back there.
We didn't meet any of my old classmates. That's a good thing, since they didn't like me much.
Yesterday was Sunday, so Jared and I sallied forth to church. 'Twas extremely interesting. I recognised many faces. Some of those girls had been very good friends of mine. We were practically like Siamese, uh, like quintuplets, except with six. One lady was astounded how good Jared was looking, remarking that he looked younger than before. I was confused how 22-year-old Jared could look younger than 13-year-old Jared, until it turned out that the woman had confused him with our dad. xD
Everyone was happy to see us, so it was pretty awesome. I gave some of my old friends my e-mail address, so we can try to stay in contact. Some of the things that had happened while we were gone were sad, though. One couple was divorced now. That came as a shock to me, because those people had been very close to us. As kids we called the woman Auntie Ute, even though she wasn't related to us. A few people had died, amongst them my friend's father. At least it sounded like he had died happily.
It was still more of a happy than a sad experience. :)
Marco picked us up after church and drove us around a bit to see the Brandenburg Gate and some other things in the city we hadn't had time to see earlier. While we were walking down a street, I had The Most Embarrassing Moment of the Trip. Yes, it Deserves Capitals.
I suddenly spotted a table full of books next to me. Thinking that it was a book sale, I looked a bit at the books. The first one I see has a familiar name on it in huge letters: L. Ron Hubbard. This caused me to stop and exclaim: "What the... L. Ron Hubbard!? Isn't that..."
The guy in charge of the book table, finished my thought for me: "He's the founder of Scientology."
"Yeah, he's insane!" I said.
Insert slightly annoyed expression. "Why do you say that? Do you know him?"
Only then did I notice the brochures and DVDs about Scientology on the table. It wasn't a book sale at all, but an information stand about Scientology. And I had just told a Scientologist to his face that the founder of his religion is daft. Oops!
I quickly apologised, he had no hard feelings, saying: "I know what the general opinion about us is like in Germany." He then asked if I wanted to read the book by Hubbard, so I could learn more about the religion. My thought process was something like this: "Oh crap, he's gonna make me buy a book about Scientology, and I really don't want to touch it with a ten-foot-pole, but I'm too polite to decline and I've already insulted him and I need an excuse, crap crap crap... wait! I left my money in the car! Score!"
I told him that I have no money on me, so he gave me a free DVD instead. I thanked him, and we went on our way. As soon as Mister Scientologist was out of hearing range, I buried my face in my palm and complained how embarrassing that was. After all, I'm not the sort of person who enjoys insulted people on the street, and I want to be tolerant and sensitive about religion.
The embarrassment didn't last too long, though. I think at some point I must have realised that it doesn't matter whatsoever that some random German Scientologist thinks I'm an ignorant fool. After all, I know it's not so. I don't dislike Scientology because of ignorance, but, quite on the contrary, because I actually know a lot about it. I have valid reasons to call L. Ron Hubbard and his spawn insane. I'm not going to go into them now. Partly because I know that most of you reading this respect me enough to believe me when I say that my reasons are valid, but mainly because thinking about Scientology just pisses me off and there's no point in getting angry about something you can't change.
But if you really want to hear an angry rant about Scientology from me, well, just let me know. :P
Anyway, now I have a DVD about Scientology. I'm probably going to throw it away without watching it. But first I have to break it, lest some weak-minded person finds it in the trash. I wouldn't want to accidentally convert someone to Scientology.
Later in the evening we went to the Tegel airport in Berlin to fly home. The Tegel airport looks like it was designed by someone who has read about airports and has a general idea about how they should work, but has never actually seen one. Despite the building being tiny, you have to wander around for half an hour until you figure out where you're supposed to be going, because the signs are so confusing. There isn't one security check for the entire airport, but one for each gate, so after the security you end up right by your gate. Nope, no tax-free shopping past security! At least not much. Which is pretty sucky when you're not allowed to bring any liquids through security and are really thirsty. Not to mention the bad use of space. I mean, the fricking parking lot is bigger than the actual airport!
Yeah, sucky airport. Not going back there.
We flew from Berlin to Copenhagen, where we spent a more or less sleepless night on the airport and at 7:50 in the morning flew to Iceland. I did manage to doze a bit on the plane, because I was just that tired. Which is good, because now I'm at work, and not as tired as I thought I'd be.
It'll be nice to go home and sleep, though.
So... that was my holiday! What have you lot been up to?