The Way

*okay, quick note. the main reason why this took over a week is because it took over a week for me to get internet. although internet does work in Germany, it isn't always as reliable as it is in the States(which is why no one heard from me when i got here. the first chance i had to send an email was Sunday and that one didn't find it's way to Grandma Nancy, so keep that in mind if i don't response to e-mails all prompt-like. there is a good chance i didn't receive it or that you didn't receive my reply). so here we go sports fans!*

I suppose my adventure is best told by splitting my trek to Germany up into the way I looked at it, in stages.

So, STAGE 1: Train to Philly

My Trip to Germany started on the 6^th of January at 11:59 pm. I left Toledo on the Amtrak heading east towards Pittsburgh. This was the first time on a train since the trip with Girl Scouts in the 6^th grade to Chicago, so I was fairly excited. We were assigned seats in Toledo because we were going to be picking up more people before we got to Pittsburgh. This meant that I had to sit next to a guy who sprawled out when he started to sleep even though half of the car I was in was completely empty, so not a huge fan of that.

What was really weird was passing by the Alliance platform (yeah, that’s right. Alliance Ohio does not have a train station, but a platform that does not necessarily have someone working there) and actually picking someone up there. It was about 3:30 in the morning and I know I personally wouldn’t have been able to find a friend to drop me off at the platform and it’s a good 2 mile hike from the campus to the platform, so that lady gets mad kudos. That’s the main reason why I would never do the train to school; I am not a huge fan of being in the worst part of a neighborhood at 3 o’clock in the morning ;)

So I got to Pittsburgh at about 5 Wednesday morning and waited there until my train to Philly left at 7:30. I was actually a bit disappointed with the Pittsburgh airport, for a city that seems to be huge, their train station was not much bigger than the one in Toledo. I didn’t do much there other than sit and eat a little, oh, and got freaked out by the guy who was sleeping sprawled out on the floor. He (literally) jumped up at 6 and left. Scared the crap out of me.

Left Pittsburgh without incident and had a really good train ride to Philly, with the exception of an incredibly rude guy sitting behind me, blaring his music. The train was basically empty, so I had the whole seat section to myself which made sleeping soooo much easier. I slept a good way through the morning. It was nice.

Arrived in Philly and my traveling buddy Mike, a sophomore from my college who has been in many of my German classes, picked me up from the train station without a problem and we got to his house without a problem as well.

I stayed the night at Mike’s house and had an authentic Philly Cheese steak, which does not include green peppers. Actually, I had about half of one, that thing was so huge, I thought it was going to eat my head.

And that leads us to STAGE 2: Flights to Germany

And I actually have to break up this stage even farther into legs since it was pretty complicated and a bit happened.

LEG 1: Philly to Heathrow

Our flight left out of Philly at 6:55 pm Thursday night. We got to the airport without a problem. Thanks to online check-in, Mike and I were able to sit next to each other on each flight which was really nice. So, we say good-bye to Mike’s family and head up to security, which seemed tiny to me. The line only had a handful of people and there was only one, with maybe two places to enter through a metal detector. I’m used to San Francisco, Seattle or Detroit where it’s basically a free-for-all zoo with lots of different pens.

So, I go first through the metal detector and the lady asks me to walk over to the special area away from where my luggage was. It is the one that is right next to everything and is basically a walk-way with plexi-glass on each side. Turns out Mike and I both ended up being the lucky British Airways contestants to get a total “random screening.” It wasn’t too bad. Not really the way that two people who are freaking out about everything want to start their trip abroad, but it turns out it would be pretty par for the course, but more on that later.

We got through the screening process which ended up taking a half-hour or so and went to exchange money, which we did without a problem. I went and picked up some Mickey D’s (I actually ordered a happy meal. I really only wanted nuggets, but didn’t want to pay 5 bucks for them, so I got a toy, nuggets, fries and a drink for just about 4. Totally worth the weird looks I got from the cashier.

All-in-all, we had about 25 minutes in the terminal after our security thing and spent it trying to take care of everything we could there. Gave my parents the last phone call they would get for awhile, so I hope they enjoyed that as well.

Also, be prepared to shed layers if you fly from the Philly airport. It was incredibly hot there. Mike and I were both sweating a bit since I’m pretty sure it was hotter there than it is at the equator.

We board the flight and start talking to the guy who was sitting next to me. He was also from Philly and probably the most awesome of seat buddies ever. He was polite, held great conversation and was just plain awesome throughout the flight.

The flight. Well, this was my first international flight. Turned out to be only a little bit longer than a flight from Detroit to San Francisco, but was definitely way better. Since I’ve only been on domestic flights, I have never gotten a meal on a plane. This one was pretty amazing. I had beef and mashed potatoes, peas, carrots, a really weird salad, an apple pie/cobbler thing and a kit kat. It was very good.

Not so good thing about the flight is that I really didn’t sleep. Between in-flight entertainment, the “perfect timing award” winning screaming kid(I swear, every time I started to nod off, this kid started screaming), probably the rudest flight crew I have ever flown with(not sure what it was, they all seemed very annoyed when we were given anything/said anything(ie. thank you). I’m sure they were just having problems since so many people were trying to get up with the seatbelts signs on, but they were on for over 3 hours which started directly after dinner, but you don’t have to scream at someone who is just trying to adjust their seat and wasn’t even standing (not me, the guy next to me. he sat up in his seat, belt still on and all, and one of the flight attendants told him that he needed to “sit back down now.” I don’t know, I was just very surprised. It was the first time that a flight attendant has said “yeah, right” when I said “thank you” but yeah) and turbulence, I didn’t get to sleep. This is actually pretty unusual for me. I can sleep on just about anything and not sleeping always makes me feel weird.

But all in all, fantastic flight. I was very pleased and will most likely make attempts to do all of my overseas flying with British Airways.

This leads us to LEG 2: Heathrow to Hamburg

Before I continue I should say that were scheduled to land at 6:55am and leave to Hamburg at 7:55 am. Yeah, that was a bad idea. Very bad idea.

So, we landed at Heathrow at 6:25 Friday morning, a half hour before schedule. Heathrow is a very big airport. Hmmm, words can not describe how big it is. Big, huge. So we land and get off the plane where we take a bus to our terminal, which took about fifteen maybe twenty minutes, so really when all was said and done, we got to the terminal about ten minutes before we were supposed to. It was about the time we were told that we would be taking the bus to the terminal that Mike and I realized we might be kinda screwed.

We spend the next forty-five almost fifty minutes in security, which lands us at about 7:30. So now we begin to get a bit panicked(but “panicked Bethann” is surprisingly mellow, so I was still thinking pretty well) especially when we can not find our flight number on the board….anywhere on any board. We look for a 7:55 flight to Hamburg(there were two and we got lucky) and made it with maybe ten minutes to spare.

Flight to Hamburg was nice. It was on a rinky-dink plane, but I got a little sleep.

I should also point out now that Mike and I made jokes for about two weeks prior to leaving of all of the stuff that was going to go wrong while we were trying to get to and while we were in Germany. These jokes included: having to commute to school from Hamburg because of lack of housing(Mike didn’t know where he was living until he got here), getting left at the Hamburg train station(me. We were all assigned “German buddies” but I didn’t e-mail mine for a while and when I finally did she said she thought I didn’t want her and that I was going to be assigned another one, which I sort of was, but no one told me. I made plans with my new german buddy to pick me up at the Luneburg train station), being identified as potential terrorists and being left in the airport or exiled to Siberia, having our luggage lost, getting to Germany to find out that the program had been canceled and many, many more. Okay, back to my story…

So we land in Hamburg and have to go through customs first. Mike goes through first and the guy yells at him because he didn’t have a visa. Things to know if you travel to Germany: you do not need a visa if you are here for 90(maybe 99) days or less. So for three months, you do not need your visa. This is something that we were told many, many times. The program instructed us to hold off on getting our visas and that we would just do them here. So, the guy stamps the passport and Mike goes on his way. I went to the other guy(two guys in the booth thing) who did not say word one to me. The first guy, on the other hand, yelled at me too. I told him that we were with a program and that we would be taking care of the paperwork for our visas tomorrow and he yelled at me again saying that it was impossible since they are closed on Saturdays. Now, you may think I am using the word “yelled” a bit liberally, but I know when I am being yelled at, and I was.

I have also learned that he could have potentially (but not likely) denied us entrance right then and there since we said we were students. For future reference, I guess I’m supposed to lie and say that I am there for pleasure and just make sure I have a valid visa when I leave (or else it is a hefty fine).

So we get through “customs” and try to find our baggage. It is about now that both Mike and I are starting to truly realize that we are no longer in America, but still not really. This may sound very strange, like “Duh, Bethann. Of course you weren’t in America, you were in Germany!” But when you have spent the last day on airplanes or in airports, you forget where you are. It’s a different world in airports. I actually realized I was in England before I was in Germany because I had flown with a bunch of British people who spoke for a while on the plane. Very few people spoke on the flight to Germany.

So we try to find where you pick up luggage and our flight number isn’t anywhere. We walk up and down these things and there was no sign of our flight. We walk back and see our flight number on the first on we had passed (I’m pretty sure it didn’t say it when we passed it though) and waited for a few minutes. That was when we got flagged down by one of the men working at custom service (who I believe was Korean and had no German accent, which also causes problems when you are trying to acclimate yourself somewhere). He informed us that our baggage did not make it on the flight. We barely made the flight in Heathrow and our luggage didn’t at all. Luckily, it was on the flight that arrived maybe an hour or so after we did, so we gave him the address of the college and the cell-phone number of the program director (which I had luckily written down, just in case I didn’t have a “German buddy” to meet me at the train station) and went about our way.

We met up with the other two students from Mount Union, Adam and Juliann, who had landed about 2 hours before we had and were really just sitting by some doors in the airport. So from there we hopped on the Jasper, where I spoke my first German to a German in Germany (“Sprechen Sie English, bitte?” I needed to know how to get to the train station and we only had a limited amount of time, so I figured English might work better. It did. He was very very niceJ )

STAGE 3: Hamburg to Luneburg on train and bus

Took a bus to the train station and got to see a little bit of Hamburg(not too much though. First experience with German drivers though. Eek gads, they are nuts. They are all fantastic drivers but wow, you feel like you are constantly going to die). When we got to the train station, Adam and Juliann’s German buddies were standing right there waiting for us. See, Adam, Mike and Juliann had all talked to their German buddies before this moment. I had talked to my old one, but not my new one. This was when I found out something super awesome for the rest of the semester, but kinda crappy for that particular moment. We can ride a lot, and I mean A LOT of public transportation for free here, which is good because just about everyone does. So, Adam’s German buddy Jan (which is pronounced almost like “yawn”) tried to figure out a way to get me on the train. So he and I were running around the station trying to get a ticket for the train that was just about to leave (when we got off the bus, they said the train was leaving in 4 minutes, so we would have been rushed regardless). So I’m running around this train station with this, I kid you not, like 7 foot tall German guy who can’t figure out how to buy a train ticket since he never really has to.

Figures it out with like half a second to run to the train (which we do) and we get on as the doors slam behind us. Other than that, the train ride to Luneburg was very nice. It was actually kind of nice to not have our luggage since we just had to worry about two small bags instead of two small and a huge bag.

It was a nice train ride, maybe a half hour or so. Still didn’t really feel like Germany yet. It was really nice to have people who knew what was going on with us as well. We just relaxed for a half hour and then we were in Luneburg!

Mike met his German buddy at the train station in Luneburg and we said Tschuss(bye) for the time being. I gave Jan my German buddy, Edith(pronounced like it is in English, but with a “t” on the end instead of a “th”)’s cell number and he called her with a conversation that went something like this “Hey, I think I found your American student. I got her here to Luneburg, but I really think you should come and get her now.” She was actually there, I just had no idea what she looked like.

Edith is awesome! She greeted me with a huge hug and was really very pleasant. She gave me my bus pass(which is also very pleasant) and she, Jan and Juliann’s buddy, Thomas(pronounced “Tomas”) showed us where we live.

Juliann, Adam and I live in USAC(the program through which I am studying) central. It is entirely student housing and at least a third of the 45 of us(from this semester and those that are staying for the year) live here on William-Watt-Strasse.

I live with three Germans, Nele(pronounced neigh-la), Gese(gaze-a) and Thies(tease). I didn’t actually meet any of them when I dropped off my bags, but I met Nele after Edith took us into town to show us where to buy food, my best friend, ALDI!!!

I basically crashed after that, but only for two hours or so. More a super power nap than a crashing. The thing that makes it super difficult is that it gets dark really early here. Like, right now, it is 4:28 in the afternoon and it is already half of the way to dark. Also, it’s been incredibly cloudy and foggy since we’ve been here. I think maybe 2 out of 7 days we have had moderate sunshine and that was very moderate, mostly patchy skies.

It really is gorgeous here. I wish I had more words to describe how it feels, but more on that later. More adventures to come, like trying to figure out how to make my internet work. As soon as I do, I will post more often, I swear!

Until then, Tschuss!!!