Day 1 -Die Reise
Well today I began
the trip with 4 amazing high school girls to Dahlem, Germany. It began with us
all meeting at the airport 2 hours before our 5:30 flight out of Dulles. We got
to the SAS ticket counter and MAN was that line long, but we got to the gate
with enough time to stop by Starbucks as
per Jessica's tradition.
Everything was
working perfectly until we got on the tarmac and we got stuck there for 45
minutes. A storm was coming through and we were stuck behind another plane who
was being rerouted due the storm. Unfortunately by the time they had figured
out the new route for the plane ahead of us, our plane needed a reroute to get
out of the city. Finally after 45 minutes we were in the air, but within the
first 15 minutes we hit the storm. Normally turbulence doesn't phase me. I have
flown often enough that I know to expect it and that the plane is perfectly
under control. However this turbulence was the WORST turbulence that I have
ever experienced. We had several sudden and prolonged altitude drops that
forced me to brace myself on the seat in front of me in order to not smash into
it. Thankfully after a few minutes the intensity stopped and the captain
explained that we had gone through a storm cloud that we couldn't get around,
but that all was well.
The flight itself
was OK, but it was definitely one of my more physically uncomfortable flights
that I've taken overseas. SAS seems to have narrowed their seats by several
inches since the last time I flew with them, and they have also decided that
only one non-alcoholic drink is free during the flight. They later explained
when I asked that hot tea, coffee, and water were still cost free the juice and
sodas were the only non-alcoholics that were limited. The girls and I were all split up, but I
think the seat arrangements actually worked out really well. 3 of them are in
the same German class together and are very good friends and the other is a
year older and from another high school in the county. I was on my own a row
ahead of two of the girls and then the 2 others were a few rows back from that.
Once we actually
landed we realized how much the delay in Washington had impacted our trip. Our
flight out of Copenhagen to Hamburg only allowed for a 45 minute layover and
given our 45 minute delay we missed our flight. The transfer desk quickly
sorted out our issues, but told us that regretfully the only other flight to
Hamburg today was at 2pm. It was 8 am at the time. So the girls and I settled
in for a day in the lovely Copenhagen Airport. We had thought maybe we could go
out and explore the city, but decided getting a taxi and spending money all
over the city wasn't really what we wanted to do. Plus the airline gave us 2
vouchers for food worth €10 each. Unfortunately in Copenhagen that doesn't
translate to much food, but we were able to get some Starbucks coffees and I
got a ready to go pasta in a container for lunch.
The delay turned out
to actually be quite a blessing in disguise. The girls and I ended up spending
the day together getting to know one another and bonding as a group. We had fun
swapping stories, and I teased the girls for their sport-like boy watching. 15
year olds are absolutely hysterical to watch scoping out boys. They had little
code names like my friends and I used to for each different individual or group
of attractive males they found. My favorite being, "The Herd" which
referred to a young soccer team that the girls saw outside of a café. As we were waiting at our gate the girls and I were sitting at separate tables for a few minutes and Anna turned around once and said to me, "I'm pretending like I'm talking to you so I can look at the boys behind you." I told her I would take a picture so they could scope out the boys a little longer. The picture is below :P
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| The exhausted girls scoping out boys (and making silly faces). |
Once we were finally
in Hamburg Jay our point person here in German was waiting with a sign at the
exit. He drove us home in one of the school's vans and although He and I had a
wonderful chat about the differences in schools in Germany and America the girls
all passed out for a much needed nap on the way to Marienau. The host families
were excitedly waiting for the girls at the school when we arrived and were
promptly swept off and taken to their new homes for the next 2 weeks. Jay then
took me on a tour of the school and brought me to my extraordinarily large 2
level apartment where I will be staying, which has a beautiful view of the
forest from my living room.
He then dropped me off to get dinner in the school cafeteria (this is a boarding
school and the dinners are quite nice), where I met several of the staff
members and had a wonderful meal with them. After dinner I retreated to my
apartment and after about 30 minutes of sorting through my things and then
discovering my American Netflix account now works in Germany without a proxy
server, and that this account
essentially to my delight switched to a German account and all the shows have
German dubbing, I passed out watching Clueless in German. I woke a few hour later changed out of my day
clothes and slept again until 3 am which leads us to now when I am sitting in
my room at an absurd our blogging the minute details of our trip whilst
watching Arrested Development in German.
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| My Living Room |
Here's to a
wonderful 2 weeks in one of my favorite countries in the world.
Tschüss!
Kathleen
