And so it begins....

What is there to say about my first couple, well really one day of my adventure. So much has happen that I am afraid this is going to be a rather long post, even with the video telling some of the story. I will do what I can to keep from rambling on and on and on and on and on. Ok, sorry about that I just couldn't help it.

Tuesday morning I woke up super early and did a load of laundry: the sheets from my bed and towel I used that morning. I made sure everything was packed, and ended up repacking a couple of my bags, at least half way. My mom came around 9 and we were out the door to the airport. The flight didn't leave until 1130, but they said we should be at the airport a couple of hours before hand. When I got to the ticket counter, I got my boarding passes and checked my bags. Meanwhile Chris was getting his boarding passes printed and bags ready to be checked, and got a couple more pieces of paper (cards) than I did. One of them was just a receipt but another was and important customs paper we had to turn in in San Francisco.  We asked the guy at the counter why Chris got more than I did and if I needed the others, and he said yes, my kiosk had ran out of cards. He was able to get me the other papers, and he told me there is a really good river tour on the Rhine in Frankfurt I should check out it if I could. I think I will; it sounds like a lot of fun.

After getting our boarding passes and saying goodbye to our families, we made our way through security. Neither of us were marked as terrorist or suspicious characters, thank goodness. I called my mom to say a final goodbye and we made our way to our gate. We hung out there for a little while. Chris called his parents and wrote a quick blog post and I filled our water bottles, took a couple pictures of us, and did a little bit of filming. By that time we were able to board the tiny plane to San Francisco. The plane was so small there was only one stewardess, and no business or first class. Just your basic commuter plane. Which I think made the next plane feel so much bigger.

By the time we got up in the air it was about time to come back down. We had made it to California. We only had an hour and a half layover, but we had to move to the international terminal so we were hurrying our way around the airport. We weren't too worried about missing the plane, but we wanted to make sure we were there in plenty of time so maybe we could get something to eat as well. We had looked at a map the day before and thought it wouldn't be that big of a deal, but I had forgotten how big airports have to be. I think we walked for a solid 15 minutes! (We went from the F gates to the very end of Terminal G.) We had to go up stairs to the international terminal and then back downstairs to our gate. We bought ourselves some $10 sandwiches, thinking our dinner wouldn't be served for a while, and called our parents for the last time for a while and boarded the plane.

What the Aurora Borealis is supposed to look like on film, under:
What it looks like on the film we have...

The plane to Frankfurt was huge! We entered halfway through First Class and then made our way back to row 42, and that was only half way through economy. Chris and I were the only ones in our row on our side, so we were able to spread out a bit. That was nice, especially when it came to trying to sleep. Although we found out later most of the seats in the back were completely open so we could have laid down completely.  We were served our dinner right away, and so we wasted our money on our tiny $10 sandwiches. The flight was mostly uneventful, a few patches of turbulence.  We flew up into Canada, over Greenland, and England, then into Germany. For most of the flight if we looked out the window we could see the Aurora Borealis. We tried to get it on film, but well you can see the attmept to the right.... In the "morning" we were severed breakfast. Mine, because I asked for a gluten free meal was, well I don't know what to call it other than disgusting. I was served rice, under cooked rice, with a curry sauce, peas and some yellow square chunks. Oh and it was cold. I took one bite and said, "no thank you". Chris was kind enough to give me the yogurt out of his breakfast pack. :)



When we got into Frankfurt we found our way easily to where we needed to go. At customs we were asked it we had a visa, which we don't. That kinda freaked me out a bit, because we were told we wouldn't need one. We don't, but we need to make sure we apply for a residency permit before our 90 day entrance stamp expires. We met Iris and Ben as we came out of the baggage claim area and made our way home.

We stopped at a couple of stores along the way. We were still speaking English, so people kept looking at us, the same way we would look at people speaking French or German in the states. Chris and I were so tired we didn't notice a lot of things we began to notice later. I will talk about them in the next couple of days. This post is getting super long, so I don't want to take the time now. When we got home we took a nap. By the time we got up it was time for dinner. We had thin pancakes with salad rolled inside. It sounds weird, but it is really good. Chris got sick, so it was really just Ben and I. Iris has to go to work while Chris and I were napping. After dinner we hung out for a bit and then off to bed. I was happy to go to bed, because it has been a long couple of days. At least it felt like a couple of days because it was morning in Germany when we landed, despite the fact it was morning when we left Boise only 12 hours ago to us.

More will be coming of my first few days here in Germany. and more videos as well. Right now I am still in a bit of overload mode, so once I get a little more settled I should be able to get my blogs going on a regular basis.