Germany: The trip. January 5, 2005

Hi,
It's been a while since I've writen. I am now in Germany, at the moment in Nadja's apartment enjoying her fine wireless DSL (and yes, Blin, it is password protected).

Just so you know, I did graduate. I now have a bachelors in math. At the moment, I am registered as a "German Major".

So... The trip. We drove up to Boston without event. Then we got to Boston. First, my bags weighed about 60 pounds each. So we get in the Delta line, since our tickets were Delta tickets. After getting to the front of the Delta line after 30 minutes, the lady tells us that our flight is operated by Alitalia, so we must go to the Alitalia check-in place, which just happens to be in another terminal. So we go off to the other terminal. There we get checked in and Nadja got them to give us seats next to each other. My baggage didn't get an oversize charge (it was technically a couple inches too big). Security wasn't that bad. We had to wait around the terminal for a while after that...

Then we suddenly hear "Final boarding call for Alitalia flight (whatever)". Final boarding call?? We hadn't heard a single inital call! We run over there just to make sure they didn't know English and were actually giving the initial boarding call. But nope, that was the final boarding call. We get on - thankfully.

The seats (or at least my seat) were pretty bad. We were in a 767, but the interior wasn't that great. My seat had the butt-dent in the wrong place, so it wasn't conformatable to sit up. I slept about an hour on the flight. The first inflight movie was "The Bourne Surpemacy". I didn't quite get the movie. I might have to watch it again. The second inflight movie was some sappy movie which I didn't watch. We arrived in Milan, Italy (as planned) and then had to go through Italian security. After that we boarded our next plane - a little puddle jumper to Stuttgart.

The flight to Stuttgart was really nice. It was a *really* low flight. You could see cars and houses the whole flight. The flight was only 40 minutes long (we had to fly over the whole of Switzerland). This also means that it takes only about 10 minutes to fly from Freiburg to Stuttgart (since we flew over Freiburg (approximately)). It takes 2-3 hours on a train. I got to see the alps. They're really cool, pointy mountains (at least where I was).

So we arrive in Stuttgart. We wait for our baggage. And then they take our flight off the baggage screen. No baggage. So we go to baggage tracking to be informed that they don't have a clue where our baggage is. They give me a little bag with a T-shirt, shaving creme, pads for my female bleeding (so it wasn't a gender-specific bag), and some other stuff. They take our address and tell us that we'll probably get the bags soon (within the next couple days).

So we take the train back to Freiburg. We had to transfer to a different train 3 times. Somewhere along the way, we decide to visit Nadja's grandparents, who live somewhat along the route, since we had a ticket which allowed for unlimited travel for up to 5 people. So in Offenburg, we got on a train to Gengenbach where her grandparents live. They were at home (we hadn't called up or anything - the visit was a complete surprise (for us as for them)). They are very nice people. I had already met them, but I hadn't really talked to them much. This time I got more of a chance to get to know them.

So we leave and go back to Freiburg. By this point it's too late to get my key for my room, so I stay the night at Nadja's place. By 10 or 11 or so I was asleep. I didn't wake up until 11 the next morning.

I then called up my peer advisor to get the key. I go over there, and we go into the secretary's office to get the key. We get the key and go up to my room. Seems nice. The current rent is 210 euros per month ($280 at the current exchange rate).

I then go back to Nadja's place where I am now.

So that's the current update.

Nadja has a friend who has a car, so we'll be taking my stuff to my place soon (hopefully). I don't have a case for my desktop computer yet, so I'm stuck with my laptop (note to those reading: I took along my desktop computer, but not the case or monitor since both take up too much room/weight. One of my friends here gave me a monitor which Nadja is holding. I recently ordered a case to Nadja's place, but it hasn't come yet).

Ok, so that's really it. Say stuff if you want.

Oh, forgot to say. The luggage came. The airport people paid a special delivery service to bring it (so it didn't come in the normal mail).

Archived comments:
anon:
Hi Michael (and Nadja), it's Uncle Rob of Westfield, New Jersey.

I liked the detail you put into your narrative about your trip to Germany. If PhD in math doesn't happen, you could be an English PhD.

I saw the Alps from a train (not a plane) in 1979 when I visited Uncle Jim in Austria. They are truly wonderous. By the way, was the flight to Stuttgart expensive? I have heard that local flights are not costly??

Well, glad you made it. I got this web address from a card your Mom sent. Apparently, with all the excitement at your house over the holidays, she didn't get around to sending Christmas cards until 2005!

Cheers.

Anna:
Glad to hear luggage finally arrived. So now you have to start some sort of music revolution with your new guitar. Or just play some songs. Either one's fine really.

Have you started language school yet?

And Uncle Rob must have a time machine, because although he claims having recieved the Christmas(/New Years?) card in 2005, he supposedly writes this note in November of 2004. Duh duh duuuuuuuh.

Anna:
Whoa whoa whoa! Apparently I have the time machine now!

mikepn:
My server date was wrong for some reason. Fix now, I think...