Our Day to Leave Lohr

We started our day at a local church where they had a service with an awesome bunch of musicians from the area. After the mass we went out to the back yard of the church and planted a maple-ish looking tree. I actually wish I would have known that we were doing this earlier so that I could use my resources in BC to get a maple tree seedling that has been grown specifically for this elevation...that way the tree would grow much faster and healthier. Next time I guess. Anyways, after planting the tree we got to go back to our host family's house to eat lunch and pack up our stuff. Pete and I took this opportunity to have a short nap (since we were up really late the night before) and then spend some time with our billets before we left for Cologne. It was nice to exchange addresses and emails so we could keep in touch. Laura and Nadine stopped by our house before leaving for Cologne themselves...we exchanged emails and handy (cell phone) numbers so that we can try and meet up in Cologne some time this week.
At around 2:45pm we left for town to wait for our bus which would take us to Dusseldorf. After an hour the bus still hadn't arrived, so we returned to our host families to have coffee and wait for the call to say that the bus would be on its way. This was good for Pete and I because we still needed to get a picture of us and our billets...and of course it was good because I got to consume more coffee. Our billets seemed excited to have us come back and stay with them for a little bit longer. The moment we pulled into the driveway, Tereasa took off for the kitchen to get the coffee going and water boiling for tea, and Christoph dissappeared for a few seconds and returned witha couple of patio umbrella's to shade us from the sun while sipping tea or coffee on their back terrace.
At 5:30 we got a call that the bus would be in town in about 15 minutes, so we finished our drinks and went back to the meeting place. The bus arrived shortly and we all began to say our goodbye's. Everyone was sad to leave. When we got on the bus all the families lined up on both sides of the street to wave at us and say goodbye. There were a few host mothers that were very sad to see us go...I saw them sheding a few tears. It made me feel sad that we might not see them again. They treated us like family and we love them for it. Even typing that makes me feel happy and sad at the same time.
Anyways, enough mushy stuff. We left Lohr and didn't arrive in Wuppertal (an area near Dusseldorf) until midnight. My last post was written on the bus ride which is why it is kindof scatterbrained and choppy...it was a bit hard to concentrate.