March 1st There. Across the Pond. Eine lange Reise.

So it begins!

Today… err… well for the past few days I’ve been travelling to finally get to Freiburg, Germany. It started out the few days after my going away party when I began to frantically pack anything and everything I could possibly need in a foreign country, which ended up being 2 luggage things full. I left from Indy, but because mom took me to the airport, she wanted to leave extra early just to be safe. So I got to the airport at about 5 even though my flight wasn’t until 9pm. My mom, naturally, was a little emotional seeing her son off to a foreign country for months. She was more nervous than I was! But I didn’t see her cry when I left her, and I know that took some work.  

                Anyway, my first problems of the journey began at check-in when the agent was determined I needed a visa to fly out. He said if I didn’t have a visa I was going to have to go home. Now, I had learned from the program that I didn’t need a visa and I told him I was going on a study program and that I didn’t need one. I don’t know if he thought I was lying, but he told me he couldn’t let me go. But then another attendant came over and showed him something on the computer and he finally realized I WAS studying for a semester abroad and didn’t need a visa, and I wasn’t even going to Switzerland.  Well I made it out of there and then had to wait 2 hours for my flight. So I’ll just map the trip out for you:

·         5PM Arrive at Airport

·         WAIT  WAIT WAIT: The airport was almost empty at this point, which was a little eerie to see this huge airport with no one in it.

·         9PM Flight to Chicago

·         37 min. Flight. Read one chapter lol; it was so cool when I flew over Chicago, the lights from the city clearly laid out how square the city blocks were. Also the plane was about the size of a pencil. I had to bend over walking to my seat. After the pilot wound up the rubber band, we took off.

·         International Flight. After landing I got off my plane and looked for the connection flight sign, which conveniently wasn’t working. So I asked someone at a desk who had no idea. When I finally found out that I had to be at gate K15, I realized it had been boarding for 10 minutes. (Aunt Kandy was right… not enough time to connect to my other flight!) So there I was running like a fool through Ohaare yelling out “WHICH WAY TO K15??!!” Luckily I wasn’t the only bimbo late for a flight, running around like a chicken without a head. This lady started to run beside me and said, as if the world was ending “Are you going to St. Paul??? HOLD THAT PLANE FOR ME” I told her that I was actually going to London, and she became more panicked. But someone must have sacrificed three rabbits to the airplane gods that day in my honor, because when I made it, I was just in the nick of time…   ANYWAY!  It was close but the plane that I flew over the pond on was HUGE. Compared to the smallest one I’ve ever been on in Chicago. I got 3 seats to myself in the back, which was like a half mile back down the runway…

·         On the overnight flight I slept a little, read a little and got a free dinner and breakfast! The hostesses were really nice and we talked a lot. The dinner was beef and rice and green beans… it was actually really good. They also gave out free wine on the plane… I took two. After my two mini-glasses of wine, I slept on and off for about 4 hours.

·         When we arrived at Heathrow, there was a dense fog warning, so we couldn’t land. We had to fly over London in circles several times before they would let us land, which I wasn’t too upset about, I got to fly over the center of London and saw the eye, parliament, and big ben!

·         Heathrow is about the size of Columbus, Indiana. There was a whole shopping district it seemed too. Also it was great to hear the fancy British accent everywhere. I giggled a little when the little old lady asked me for my “Teeket”  and then directed me to a “lift”.

·         From London, I flew to Basel (Bale if you’re French) which is about an hour away from Freiburg. When I landed there, I had to go through customs, which the officer’s supposed English, was only a little bit better than my German. When I finally figured out which bus I needed to take, I had an hour to kill so I chilled an hour trying to pick up what people were saying.

·         The busride took about an hour and then I was in the center of Freiburg. Now, I hadn’t made a reservation for a hotel, because the people I had tried to contact online hadn’t answered before I left the states…. So I was kind of on my own. I just went to the one hotel I knew was for sure open. It was a bit expensive, but so worth it after my hours of travelling. The front desk guy, I started to speak German to, but it was so butchered because I was so tired, he ended up just speaking English to me. That night I showered, took a little walk around the city, and then went to bed. 

That really sums up my adventures TO Freiburg. And after seeing the city just a little at night, I’m so excited to see what I’m going to do in the coming days! Also if you were wondering, everyone speaks German in Germany; Frau did NOT make up the language just to torture us in high school. Anyway! Bis Gleich!