After an excruciating flight back from Germany (I am never flying Lufthansa again - joke), sitting in the midst of German snorer and a Russian elbower, I am back in the US. And after sleeping for a few hours, I've been catching up on email and sipping espressos since about 4am, with Otto on  my lab. Life is good. So was my trip back to Europe. I am so thankful for all the friends and family I got to see, and all the other people who made this such a great trip. Most notably, thank you Jefferson Farfan, for scoring a goal against Frankfurt and letting me see a Schalke win after all. Whenever you return from a trip like this, there are always a ton of impressions on my mind. Here are a few, more coming later, complete with some pictures of our journey.

• Jen loves gelato. If we lived in Europe, we'd have a problem.
• I greatly missed Otto who is about half the size of my parents' cat
• Thank you Adam for staying with Otto while I was gone. I hope you like the new roommate I brought you from Amsterdam.
• Schalke is awesome. When I am old, I am going to fully devote my life to watch them play.
• Germany is an interesting country. Actually I think it's the greatest country in the world, but many people there are too negative to ever recognize it.
• Jen and I got along great while in Europe. We also get along great in the US, which is nice.
• My family rocks. I wish I could spend more time with everybody, such as my little sisters who are growing up to be beautiful young women. And by spending time, I mean making sure that pubertal German boys don't.
• My parents both ran a marathon. I hope I am that cool when nearing 50.
• Both my cousins are married now, with Stefan breaking the golden rule of dating a woman for 10 years before getting engaged.
• Dominik and Sebastian win the "friends of the trip" award for getting me into all kinds of sporting events while in Germany. Christian gets the same award for driving all the way from Austria in his luxurious Dacia Logan to come and visit me.
• I love German food and beer, but look forward to once again eat something green now.
• Amsterdam is one my favorite places in the world. Jen and I must have walked around for 12 hours one day, all the while we were eating Dutch French Fries. I love Dutch French Fries.
• Otto just managed to get stuck under my couch. Got to go.