Well here is my first post from the Father-land of Deutschland!! Here’s hoping it is the first of many!!
My plane took off at 3 in the afternoon so we had to be there at 12 to meet up with the other students and check in etc. After standing in line to check in for a few minutes I was up. I put my suitcase on the weighing machine, not wanting to look. 21.2 kg’s and the chick didn’t even blink. I later on learnt that an Aussie girl had gotten away with 27 kilos!!! We were just about finished when a lady from airport security brought along a drug sniffing dog. That’s when things turned bad, really bad…Lol na just kidding, shame on those of you who thought I wasn’t! But a lady really did come up and ask me to wait there while she went to find out if I needed a special permission form to fly alone because I was 18. While waiting I got to chatting to the black-haired blonde at the desk. By the time I had left I had convinced her to go to Cambodia and help build houses for the locals with AFS. She just needed the website of AFS and I couldn’t remember if it was .org or .nz. As I walked away she called out to me telling me it was definitely .org. I asked how she knew and she goes “ ‘cause its on the back of your t-shirt.” … One word … Shame.
So, the first embarrassment had already come and I hadn’t even left the country! Crazy.
Anyways we (12 of us) all boarded the plane for Singapore and were finally on our way. I was supposed to be sitting next to a girl called Katherine but as I approached my seat an air host (yes, a guy) asked if I wouldn’t mind swapping seats with a lady so that she could sit by her friend. I was ok with that and figured it was probably better because I got a window seat. Bad move. The window seat came with small print. Sitting by the window meant that everytime I wanted to get up to go to the loo or for a walk I had to ask two people to get up, one of which couldn’t walk very well and made it seem like a mission just standing up! But all in all it was ok, especially since we had our own tv’s in the back of the seat in front of us. Time didn’t go by too slowly and none of the other students threw themselves against the plane door demanding to be taken home.
After a 10 hour flight we arrived at Singapore airport, exhausted and dreading the next 13-hour length of our trip. But before boarding the next airplane we had a four hour “rest” as such. We wandered around in the heat for a bit wondering what to do. After contemplating a nude dip in the transit hotel pool (not a pretty thought) we then spotted some entertainment of a much cleaner kind; a magic masked man!! He really was magic, every time he sneezed his mask changed, magically!! While we were watching we were approached by what seemed half-hearted monks handing out little pink bags to the audience. They were rather elegant, these little bags, with flowers embroidered on the side and delicate little handles. Wondering what goodies we were in for, we opened up the bags. Inside we did not find the sample shampoos and perfumes we were expecting, instead we were faced with 2 rather oddly shaped and unusually large oranges. Oddly shaped because they fit perfectly in these little bags, without any signs of being squashed. Imagine a round orange with the top and bottom cut off and you’ll understand. All six of us were given a bag and we were kind of disappointed. But our disappointment was quickly taken away when we were offered the opportunity of a life time…a photo with the masked magic man!! I must admit, normally I wouldn’t but when you’re an exchange student you’re allowed, neigh expected, to do crazy things. And the things get crazier when you’re a group of exchange students!! Anyway, after the photo we headed back to our oranges. I saw a lady standing next to mine. She was looking around to see if anyone was watching and then she nicked the bag and ran away! Of all the nerve! That was my random bag of weirdly shaped oranges, mine!! She must have had scurvy or something to be that desperate.
We headed back to the check-in area after the performance to check-in (duh). This is where we encountered the “beep lady”. They had these scanners which they used to scan the baggage receipts to make sure our baggage got transferred onto the right plane. Hers didn’t seem to be working, either that or the sound wasn’t working so that every time she scanned something she would go “beep” herself in a high-pitched voice. It was hilarious and also kind of strange. Scan, Beep. Scan, Beep!
After that experience we dumped our stuff in a circle on the ground and blobbed. We decided to try out the oranges. They tasted like rotten water. Really. There were no bins close by (as in, within reaching area) so we decided to use them to build a shrine to real fruit. One of us had a NZ apple so we did exactly that. Built a pyramid of oranges and put the apple on the top. We thought it was kind of cool but everyone else just gave us weird looks.
Four hours passed in what seems a matter of days and we had to go through the metal detectors. There were some friendly guards on the other side to help us find out why we were beeping. We tried to explain about the beep lady but they wouldn’t listen. I think they liked their job to much. I have a feeling that it was the first frisking of many of my fellow exchange students. I myself got through unscathed, as I have been through enough airports to know not to wear anything metal.
And so began the next leg of our trip. This was by far the worst leg as the flight was 13 hours long and we didn’t have our own TV’s and I was once again not by the isle. I slept for maybe 3 hours the whole trip whereas the Italian guy next to me blocking my exit slept around 4 times that. The leg space was pretty much non-existent and underneath the seat in front was a big pole, conveniently positioned to prevent you from stretching out comfortably. They fed us breakfast at 4 in the morning German time so that threw our meal senses off for the rest of the day. But, apart from all that it was a lovely trip J
When we finally arrived in Frankfurt I was chewing at the bit to get off the plane. We headed towards immigration and our bags. When we got to the bag dispenser there was this funny little man who yelled out “Bon Jour!” and started babbling off in French. I asked him if we had gotten off in the wrong place and he just grinned and drove off on a trolley gatherer (think of one of those new scooter things that you stand on and is electric). The AFS guy met us there and everything was good. He took us through “Customs” which consisted of a counter that said “Declarations” and a doorway next to it that said “No Declarations”. What was so stupid about it is that there was no one at the counter and so if you did for some reason want to declare something, you couldn’t!
So we walked out the door and two students immediately got whisked up by their host parents. The rest of us were catching trains to our cities so had to go to the AFS area and wait. We got there at 6 in the morn and my train left at 2:45. So there was another 8 hours doing nothing. We went to look around a couple of times but it was, in essence, just another airport. At 1ish 2 girls from nz, an aussie girl and myself decided to go and find an e-café and check our emails. We were officially supposed to ask if we could but the last 2 times we’d asked they’d sent someone to babysit us who wouldn’t let us look around but took us straight to wherever our final destination was and then straight back again. So yes, we snuck away. It wasn’t that hard, there were about 50 students mulling around so we kind of just wondered away. There was this long hall you had to walk down before turning right towards the shops and things. Half-way down this hall one of the girls says “Dudes, there are 3 afs volunteers following us!” We started to walk faster, hoping we could turn off before they reached us. Then they started running and chasing us! We were trying not to crack up and just pretended we didn’t know they were there. They didn’t yell out to us or anything, they just chased us!! When they caught up to us and asked what we were doing we told them we were going to find some internet (all the while trying not to laugh) They didn’t seem to know what to do until one suggested that we check our emails some other time. Gracefully, we gave in and let them take us back. Apparently, some chili students had gotten lost in the airport and nearly missed their flight, so they were all paranoid about us doing the same thing.
Finally it was time to head to the train station. They took us there an hour or so before the train actually arrived so we were sure to be on time. We had all our bags lined up and we were ready to get onto the train when it arrived. Unfortunately, when it arrived they realized they had made a slight mistake as to where they thought the door would be. It ended up being about 20 meters to our left. Normally it would be ok and you’d just head over to the door. But there were 14 of us, each with a 20 kg suitcase and our hand luggage. The air erupted with the sound of the AFS volunteers yelling “Run! Run!!” There was a mad and crazy dash for the train which a lot of the other students looked a bit scared about but I thought it was quite funny. There was more then enough time to get everyone on the train and seated, I can’t help but think that they do that to all the students just to get a kick out of it lol.
So we were finally on our last leg of the trip and heading towards our host families, who we were yet to meet. But the dramas did not end there. Our train was running late and therefore we would be late for our connecting train from Hannover to Berlin. Julia, the AFS volunteer, told us we would have to run to catch it and run we did. Still with our huge suitcases we were sprinting up and down escalators, trying to keep up and not lose one of our own. We got to the top of the stairs just as our train was pulling away. Julia ran towards it yelling “No! No stop!” and I could swear she was going to start banging on the windows. She didn’t quite go that far but it was pretty dramatic. So we had to wait for the next train which was an hour away. It was great, and I’m not being sarcastic. I got to get to know the other exchange students from Argentina which was really cool and we laughed heaps about what we’d just done. I got out my juggling sticks and started playing with them and showing Amilca how to use them. People were staring and would have probably put money into my hat except for the fact that I didn’t have a hat.
We caught the next train without a hitch and settled in for the hour ride. I was so tired I literally couldn’t keep my eyes open. I know it sounds like a bit of a cliché but that is really what I was like. I had 3 hours sleep over a 48 hour period and it was really hitting home. But I managed to stay awake most of the time and we all got off the train in one piece. I was met by Hermann and Anke straight away and after I gave Julia a hug and said thanks we headed off to the car.
Now I could go on to tell you about what happened after that but this post is by far long enough already and I am tired of typing. Plus, I hope it’ll give you an incentive to check back in a couple of days to see what I write next.
Until next time,
_B_
