My journey began Saturday evening when Mary and Mikaela dropped me off at the airport. Since Icelandair flies out of the smaller terminal at MSP airport, I had checked my bags and was through security in minutes - NO LINES! This was my first ever international flight from Minneapolis, and I was surprised to hear so many foreign languages as I waited at the gate. My flight was a little under six hours, and I slept for most of that time. Thankfully, I had an aisle seat and the middle seat was open even though it was a packed plane :) Lucky me.
ICELAND! I arrive in Reykjavik, Iceland early Sunday morning - what a small airport. I followed the crowd to the passport checkpoint (where I was all nervous about needing to show proof of a return flight, so I bought a cheap ticket to London at the very last minute before leaving home and printed out multiple pages of documentation)...I only had to wait in line for about 3 minutes, and then the guy looked at my passport for 2 seconds, stamped it, and said "thank you". So, no worries there. Easy as pie.
Next, I was starving - I couldn't believe they didn't give me a free meal on my 6-hour flight! So, I took a peek at the tiny food selection at the tiny airport. Since everything was in Icelandic, I took my best guess and grabbed an embarrassing selection of snacks: strawberry yogurt and [what I assumed to be] BBQ potato chips. When I went to pay, the lady said "700" for the total, so I swallowed hard, handed over my check card, and hoped for the best. Later I would come to find out that 700 Icelandic Kronur equals about $5.80 USD. Whew! A little expensive, but what else would I expect at an airport.
Only about 15 minutes passed until I was ready to once again board the plane for my next destination: Copenhagen, Denmark. Immediately after I found my seat, a lady asked if I would switch with her since I was sitting by her friend. Since the trade appeared to be an aisle seat for an aisle seat, I found no problem and agreed to switch. Well what I didn't know was that she had already traded with another person, and then I was in someone else's seat - anyway, I ended up in a middle seat next to a guy that sounded like he was hacking up a lung. Oh boy - more sleeping...
After just under 3 hours, I arrived in Copenhagan at a large airport that appeared to be more concerned with clothing than planes. Shops were everywhere! It was so big! There were even electronic signs to estimate how long the walking time was to different gates. I hurried along until I found my gate and had to force myself to look away from all of the merchandise for sale. As I waited at the gate for my final flight that would finally take me to Berlin, I got to thinking about how fascinating airports can be. I am usually very excited to be at an airport because I associate flying with rewards/vacations/fun. Well, that is obviously not the story for everyone. Many people are traveling for regular work duties of course, but there are other reasons that might be more trying on a person's emotions: illness or death of a family member or friend, moving, deployment, or a job interview. I wondered about this as I looked around and listened to the babble of languages incomprehensible to my brain...Fascinating.
Fast forward, and my flight to Berlin was the shortest flight of my life. I swear we were only in the air for 25 minutes! I drank a cup of tea, and we were there. EXCITING! I felt kind of cool as I left the plane because I walked directly out of the plane door to a set of stairs going outside (just like the President haha) and once again followed the crowd to a bus that took us to the baggage claim area. I was relieved to be reunited with both of my suitcases right away (neither of my suitcases arrived in Australia when I studied abroad), and I was SO ready to see my host family. Since I didn't see them inside the airport near baggage claim, I walked outside with the hope that I wouldn't have to wait long. My flight did arrive 15 minutes early, so I knew I couldn't blame them ;) However, no worries, because they pulled up in less than a minute! They (Barbara, Lutz, and Jakob) quickly jumped out of the car to greet me with hugs! It was wonderful to meet them in person after our conversations via Skype.
My oh my, this post is getting quite long. Ok, so then my host family drove me home and showed me their beautiful house and yard. I love it here. It is just so nice and clean and cute. My room is perfect. Ah, speaking of "my" room, I finally got to meet Anne! Anne is my 21-year-old host sister who lives with her boyfriend, and now I live in her old bedroom. She is excellent. She also lived in the US when she studied in Idaho for 6 months during high school (Idaho is so random, right?). Anyway, she speaks fluent English as well and has been more than kind to me. I really like her! I also met the dog, Charlie the cat that always bolts inside if the door is open, and the 3 chickens. This is my new family here :)
Sunday night proceeded with talking and eating. Barbara even prepared a delectable, traditional German food called rollladen that looks and smells like your typical pot roast, but it's actually meat that is rolled and stuffed with cucumbers, mustard, and I think something else but I forgot - ah, I should have paid more attention! It is difficult to retain all of the details about everything because I am constantly being exposed to new things. It is such a great place to be.
Today (Monday) was a full day. In the morning, I met Anne and her friend (Jette) for breakfast at a local cafe. I should have taken a picture of the beautiful plate of fresh food presented to me - no grease/nothing fried! I was presented with a delicious concoction of bread rolls, fruit, cheese, and meat served with yummy fruit tea. This was kind of a big deal because it was my first successful food order auf Deutsch (in German). BUT I had Anne there to help me, so I still consider myself a beginner ;) Ah, that's another thing - I don't know as much German as I thought I did. Don't get me wrong, I understand many of the things I hear, but it's so fast! I only catch a few words of each sentence. I will learn. I am already learning.
After breakfast, I went shopping with Anne and Barbara in a nearby town called Bernau. We talked to many phone store representatives to try and figure out how to make my new iPhone work here, to no avail. UGH. It's frustrating, but I think I've worked out a solution. More on that another day. It would be very difficult to do this on my own since the majority of the people we spoke with do not understand English.
We then stopped at a cafe for ice cream and walked around a bit, including going inside a very very old church. Barbara told me the history of the wall in Bernau that used to surround the entire city during the Middle Ages. Apparently when the French (? don't quote me on that) would try and attack the city, they got hot tar poured on them from the top of the wall. Yikes. Here are some pictures from our outing in Bernau...
Ok, so then tonight I spent some time with Jakob as he tried to help me with syncing all of my Apple products and getting hooked up to iCloud. I also went on a bike ride with Lutz and Jakob where they showed me both of the nearby train stations and the village of Panketal where we live.
Tomorrow I am taking the train by myself into the city of Berlin to meet Anne and Jette at the gym. Wish me luck!
In case you are interested in contacting me directly:
Skype: christine.dornbusch (I am 7 hours ahead of Central time in the US)
Email: cmd928@gmail.com
Snail mail: Meraner Strasse 41
16341 Panketal, Brandenburg GERMANY
I am seriously so lucky to have been placed with this family. I am doing well. Thanks for reading!
Oh and I adjusted the settings so anyone can comment here! Be nice :)
ReplyDeleteYAY!! I am glad you were able to find a workout buddy!! Good luck with sticking to a regular workout. Remember, if you can run for more than a mile. :)
ReplyDeleteKA