The Flight

Hi All! This post documents the flight, so it's circa Oct 23-24th. Enjoy!

The Flight

San Diego---> Chicago ---> Frankfurt
Total Flight Time: 16 hr

Local Time departing 6:18 am

Local Time arriving 7:30 am (the next day)

I suppose I should start with my flight. I spent the night before packing, cleaning, and voting. Which meant I didn’t sleep very much. I was hoping that this would encourage my body to succumb to the time change more easily…

Anyway, at 4:30, mom and I got up to drive to the airport. It was on the way that I remember thinking (and asking) “What am I doing? Moving to Germany for 6 months to be an au pair?” I’ve never done anything so impulsive in my life!! There were a surprising number of people there and EVERYONE it seemed, was flying to Chicago. The attendant who checked me in asked if I had a return ticket. I said no I was going to be working. She asked if I had a work visa. No, not yet. “Well if the German Customs sees that you don’t have a work visa or a return flight, they make may you buy a flight 3 months after your arrival and you will be responsible for the costs incurred.” K, thanks. Bye to you, too.

Now I had that to worry about. But I tried not to. If you think hard enough about something, sometimes it happens, even if you don’t want it to. So I focused on not thinking about it. But when I couldn’t stop myself, I made a convincing dialogue that I could follow. I hoped I wouldn’t need it.

The flight to Chicago was pretty uneventful. I was in the middle seat, but it wasn’t so bad. I was excited to be in Chicago, even if it was only for a few hours, and even if it was only in the airport… That counts, right? Right?!

The airport was huge. I had no idea how to navigate around. Apparently there are 4 terminals… numbered 1, 2, 3, and 5. 5 is for international flights and I was in 2. So I took the airport shuttle to 5. There I walked around looking for Air India. Yup, Air India. Apparently Chicago is one of the few airports they fly out of and it goes to Frankfurt, then Mumbai and Hyderabad. When I found Air India, I was required to show my passport and itinerary before I got in line. The security was a little over the top.

Once it was ascertained that my luggage had already been checked, I was allowed to go in a line of about 2 people, with hand luggage. This was a relief, because the people with checked luggage comprised of a line about 40 people long. I kid you not. And it was not, like in San Diego, a guy with a buzz cut and 2 bags flying to boot camp. Every group had at least three people. Families had a youngish couple, an older woman (and sometimes a man too) and a couple of young toddlers. All of them. And not a single one had just one bag or even two. Indians do not pack light. I saw 4 bags on average. And some people had handwritten their address… I guess in case it had to be shipped. From what I saw, I guess that each family’s luggage contained their entire wardrobe… for 4 months. It was ridiculous. I think I’ve seen people pack for 3 months abroad with less luggage.

Once I got checked in, I went in search of food. Unfortunately, in terminal 5, the food court is outside the security… so you can’t take it in. What sense does this make? None. So I grabbed some McDonald’s and ate quickly. Once in line, (which had grown substantially), I met a couple who was going off to Mexico (jealous!) and there were some Germans in front of me going to Frankfurt. Besides those Germans, I believe I was the only white person. Every one else was continuing onto Hyderabad, etc.

Once through security, I got myself some snacks for the trip. I then had to check in… again with a flight attendant at the gate. It might have been easier to just drive to Boston, board a ship and get to Germany that way. Just sayin’. They said they were boarding an hour before my flight departure! This seemed like a lot of time to me. Generally, you start boarding 20 to 30 minutes before a flight… But then I realized why. All those Indian grandmas I saw earlier, remember them? Yeah they all rolled up in wheelchairs. All of them. I don’t know why all these elderly Indian women have trouble walking… maybe it was something in their diet or too much hard labor, but it was unreal. And the strollers? Lots of those, too.

I got to the plane, and a female flight attendant bowed to me… and I was like I stepped into India. All the seats were colorfully decorated with red or yellow fabric, reminiscent of saris. The carpet was the same way. As this plane was flying over the Atlantic, it was huge. Each row had 9 seats, split up into columns of three. I was in the middle column, on the left aisle. There was no one in the middle (thank God), but a nice man on the right side. Late in the flight we talked about India and such. I definitely wanted to visit now.

Dinner was ok… no beef, of course ☹ I then tried to nap, but it was hard. There was a child crying and I find it difficult to sleep sitting up. I also am not the world’s best traveler. Don’t get me wrong: I love seeing new places. But the journey getting there? Not so much. I worry about the details, afraid I might oversleep and end up in… Mumbai, which I definitely did not want to do. Getting some place new makes me anxious. I also wondered how much I could play off the whole no return flight/ no work visa thing. How ditzy was too ditzy? Should I say I was touring Europe and not really sure where I might fly out? It might be Prague, Spain, or even Italy! By the time we landed, I was a little exhausted, a little travel battered, but I was ready to get off the plane.

I remembered something my dad had told me once. Cops never know if someone is guilty until they act fidgety… then they are sure that the person is hiding something. So I knew I had to act confident, no guilt, no fear. The guard didn’t even ask me anything. He just stamped my passport and I went through, relieved I had nothing to claim. Then I got my bags and went out to where people were waiting… and I didn’t see Hannah or the boys. Then I realized. I had no phone number for her, no identifying clothes, I didn’t even Euros! How would I find her? I walked around for a while with my huge bags. Then I decided to sit and wait. I needed to find a woman with four blonde boys. I had to wait 20 minutes, until I found someone matching that. I cautiously went over and said her name a couple times. She didn’t respond. One of the boys turned around, and tugged on her shirt. It was her!! Yay!

She implored the boys to get some of my bags. Then we had to find the car. The parking lot was huge. When we finally got settled in the car, the littlest one, Carl, said he had to pee. Haha.

We asked if he could wait, then we found a bathroom on the side of the road, but instead of going inside, all the boys just whipped it out and peed right there. I laughed. I can’t imagine seeing that in the US. Europeans are just not body shy.

Now that we were driving in the car, I felt better, and the countryside was beautiful! I did it! I was through Customs! I was here in Germany, on my way to a bed. Even though I tried my best, I was tired… my body thought it was 10 pm or later, and I knew I couldn’t last the whole day. We made conversation, and when we got to the house, I didn’t even recognize it as a house. It looked too big to be a house. She showed me around and I dropped my bags in my room. She told me a lot of things. Finally I couldn’t fight it anymore, I asked for a nap in my room. I allowed myself only 2 hours. I still wanted to be tired enough to sleep through the night. Given the amount of sleep I had had in the past 36 hours, I didn’t think that would be difficult.

I was so cold… I don’t know how I got to sleep then, but later I asked for another blanket. The nap felt great, but there was still some residual sleepiness. I unpacked my bags for a bit and still didn’t feel hungry when she called me for dinner. I picked at my dinner. Oh, and at this time, the internet had stopped working. I had wanted to email everyone and assure them of my safety, but I couldn’t do that. When I next checked my internet on Tuesday, I had some panicked emails. But on that Sunday, I told Hannah that I wasn’t hungry and went to bed. Yes, at 6 pm.

And I slept all through the night.