Well my time in Germany was drawing to a close. A few days and quite a few more cafes and soccer games later, I sent my brother off at the station as he headed back to Canada, and I found myself with little more than a week left before I�d follow him. I had been here for thirteen months now, and I had seen and done a lot. I now had a successor, Brandon from the United States had already been in the office for a few days and I was trying to teach him whatever I could to set him on his feet. The end was in sight and now it was time to squeeze in a few of the things I had been meaning to do but never gotten around to. Cologne is a city of the arts, and yet I had never been to any kind of performance. So, Michelle and I bought a few tickets. First we went to see a so called Schloss Concert. The rich palace of a former archbishop outside Cologne that we had visited before played host to a chamber concert in the most lavish period settings. We got dressed up and took the train a short twenty minutes into the countryside and joined about one hundred others. The main entrance to the palace served as the concert setting, with chairs placed in the covered area where carriages would once have pulled up. The orchestra sat at the top of the grand marble staircase below a chandelier, the location where the original owner would have welcomed guests in front of the full company of his house. The next day, we took our seats at the Opera after a nice dinner at home.
Then it was time to pack my things. I found myself trying to sell all of the things I had acquired during my stay, my dishes, my furniture. Soon I was putting everything I had left into the two suitcases I�d started my trip out with. I could still remember hauling them off the train when I came into Cologne for the first time. A year goes by so quickly. Friday night I must have said that quite a few times as I had drinks with Luis, Brandon and Michelle. As we talked into the wee hours just before I had to leave, I though back on trying to shop for souvenirs. It didn�t seem right shopping for souvenirs from your own town. After taking so many guests trinket shopping, there I had been, asking myself how to sum up my experience in an object. I decided it couldn�t be done, and left the beer tankards, the spoons, and the t-shirts behind and settled on the pictures I�ve taken and the words I�ve written and the memories I�ll keep as long as I may.
