Relaunch

Hallo freunde!

This update is coming to you from the top room of a traditional house in Germany. Currently, Julie and I are visiting the family which hosted her years ago as an exchange student.

The house is solidly built, with thick white walls which even wifi can’t penetrate. The neighborhood is nearly mockingly picturesque. Looking out the window to my right, I can see a tall majestic tree with small banana-shaped leaves of many different shades of green. Beyond the forest of trees are little gingerbread houses, built hundreds of years before, with miniature people wandering about to complete the image.

The weather is what some would consider overcast. To me, it is the perfect day. Light enough to see, but not so bright that I shield my eyes when stepping outside. Cold enough that sweat is barely a threat, but not so cold that I must wear a jacket when venturing onto the cobblestones outside.

Ah what bliss! The church bell has just rung, to signal the passing of yet another peaceful hour in Hagen, Germany. Each toning of the bell fills up the ears with its harmonic sound, and just as quickly disappears, leaving the mind nothing but its own creativity.

This morning is sure to be host of a series of grand adventures to which I cannot even begin to imagine. The object of the remainder of this post, is to document the events and observations of the trip here.

Our scene is set momentarily in Union Station, the historic Los Angeles connection station. Busses, trains, and the “metro” (LA’s tubular mass transit system) all convene here. The building is made up of smooth concrete floors, and rich brown bricks forming to create long, spacious corridors leading to each preferred mode of transit.

My time at Union Square was to be short, as I had only to stand in line for a few moments before boarding the train which was to whisk me off to San Diego once more for my final departure.

The train ride was only two hours. Apart from my regular tea breaks (the train’s mess cars are always friendly enough to bestow hot water upon me free of charge), I read and spoke to people on my mobile phone. I said final goodbyes, and canceled US accounts (wifi providers, memberships, etc). By the time I had finished with my calls, my battery was nearing its death.

The train arrived in San Diego at 11:15pm. For many, this would be a horrid time to arrive in any city, but for me, it was perfect. I have always been one to save on accommodation if at all possible, and I saw my opportunity clearly: I would walk from the train station to the airport (along the harbor, this takes about two hours), placing me at the airport at one o’clock in the morning. The airport begins ticketing operations at 4:00am, but stays open in baggage claim, thus allowing a free lie-down in a soft airport chair.

My plan worked flawlessly. I had several deeply rooted conversations with the people sleeping on the benches along the ocean, and even found an empty bench for myself to sit at. I enjoyed this part very much, as I chose to combine the classical music station audio, with a breathtaking visual of the San Diego skyline. From this view, the lights twinkling off the building reflected in elongated patches of brightness across the water of the bay as a row-boat drifted imperturbably from side to side.

The airport was not crowded, and I was delighted to have my pick of soft chairs.

I felt as though I had just dosed off for a moment, but it had been three hours. The time had already come for me to check in and get to the gate for my flight at 7:30am.

Everyone looked the same in the check-in line. Slightly “pissed off” expressions were permanent residents, while dulled eyes and insatiable yawning accompanied. I did my best to charm the ticket agent into upgrading me to first class, but perhaps it was not the right morning for either of us, I was offered an aisle seat.

By the time I had boarded the plane, I had been able to sneak a cup of tea, and the caffeine flooded through my malnourished blood, warming both my temperature, and my personality.

I was feeling so much better, in fact, that I struck up a conversation with the girl sitting next to me. She was in the window seat, I in the aisle, and we had the middle seat to act as a buffer. Our conversation took a turn for the better when we began talking about theology.

“Amalie” was her name, and she was a French-Canadian who had moved to San Diego to go to a private Christian college. I am neither Christian nor otherwise, and thus tend to have very little opinion on the subject. Even so, she managed to involve me in the conversation.

The conversation (much to my surprise and delight) had no undertones of recruitment or conversion, simply interest. She was so interested in her own religion, she did not mind discussing its possible weaknesses with an open mind.

The time passed quite quickly, and we seemed to touch down in Philadelphia earlier than I would have expected. I made my way to my next gate and sat down. I had about 15 minutes before boarding would begin for the flight to Germany.

“The flight is delayed until further notice” the confident man boomed over the loud speaker.

Damn.

Something had gone wrong with the pre-flight testing, and they were delaying the flight until further notice. I considered stocking up to the podium and shaking my fist with the other would-be passengers, but a quick glance at the terrified airline employee mullified me. They were doing the best they could.

Thankfully, they had remedied the issue within an hour, and we were boarded and ready to take off with only an hour and fifteen minutes behind us. My only concern was whether I would be to the airport in time to locate Julie’s arrival gate and meet her there. Our cellphones don’t work in Germany, and if we failed to locate each other in the airport, I did not know what would happen.

We arrived with time to spare, thankfully. Julie’s flight was arriving at 8:50am, and it was just 8:00am CEST when we touched down.

Stepping off the plain, I was instantly reminded of the reasons I wanted to come to Germany in the first place:

1. The language (my favorite language in the world).
2. The people (who seem to consider each of my favorite foods a standard of their diet).
3. The weather (as I have already said, it is perfect for me).

And what a splendidly simple process it was to switch to Julie’s arrival terminal via the SkyLine suspended transit car.

I had been waiting to see my fiance for a long time, and it felt even longer as I hopefully glanced through the momentary opening of the arrival doors. Her shining face was finally visible as one of the doors opened, and an even brighter smile than I remembered greeted me.

We embraced and looked at each other for some time. I think it was me who broke away finally and said “We’d better get going”.

Those who have ridden the Amtrak train in the US, and say that they have ridden a train don’t know the half of it. A train in Europe is an amazing microcosm of quality and service. The dining car of Amtrak’s “Pacific Surfrider” is a vending machine in comparison with the fine delicacies available on an “ICE” train here in Germany.

When I finally stopped marveling at the facilities of the train, we made our way to our seats. We were in a tunnel when we sat down, but as we pulled out into the sunlight, a huge HDTV widescreen television monitor flipped on to our right, showing hills and villages from years past. Julie called this device a “window” and explained that the beauty I was seeing really existed outside the train. I could scarcely believe it, and passed it off as a trick of advanced 3D motion graphics rendering.

When we finally did step off of the train into the crisp air of the country, the picture of the hills and model houses remained unchanged. It was then that I knew I was really here in Germany.

The rest is history. We walked to her prior host-families home and were received, with open arms, into their spare room. We’ll be here for two weeks before Julie will go to Koeln to start her internship, and I will likely get an apartment in the city as well.

So ladies and gentlemen, I must start my day. Please leave a comment if you have something to say, I truly enjoy hearing from you.

I’ll post more soon.

If you liked this post, you might like these:

1. Earn a little, spend a little
2. Here in San Diego!
3. Trimming the fat

Tagged as: Germany