but - let's start at the beginning. i left bremen saturday morning around 7:30 (knut picked me up) and made my flight in hamburg. to paris. run to get the plane to chicago. made it on time and sat on the plane for almost two hours because 13 other passengers didn't make it on time ... the fligth was long - but i finally got to my destination - chicago! and - my suitcase wasn't there. so after the air france guy tells me there's no more luggage coming i go up to the counter to file a report about my suitcase missing. the woman tells me since there's no message for me my suitcase has to be there and asks me to wait "5 minutes" (this is after my 17-hour-journey up to that point). so i wait. the counter is right next to the glassdoor out so the first contact with my sweety after not seeing him in almost a year is - waving at him through that glass door making weird figures in the air with my hands trying to explain why i'm not coming ... awesome. a-n-y-w-a-y, i end up waiting more than half an hour until she finally brings out my suitcase which happens to have been stuck on an abandoned and forgotten cart with a few other ones.

so here i am - with chris - finally! it was just great to see him and be with him. hug him, kiss him and all the rest of it - you know ;o)

now - we went downtown that night after checking in at the hotel. it was cold, the little kiosks at the weihnachtsmarket had already closed and i was sooo exhausted! but - didn't care! i was with chris! so we went back just before midnight, got something to eat and went to bed. i didn't sleep that great (jetlag - didn't matter how tired i was) and was up pretty early. okay - what then? i guess we checked out and got on the way back home. we stopped on the way and spent some time in a mall shopping and walking around. that was sunday ...

today's wednesday and i pretty much told you how my days have been since then. but - i will survive! only two more days and then we'll have a family-thing on sunday and may go to milwaukee to meet mike on monday. and i'm sure we'll do a lot more after that. i will keep you up to date about what happens. oh, and have i mentioned how happy i am being here with chris and how much i love him? i haven't? well - I AM! ;o)