Berlin, it was august the 10th of 1999, a date I will never forget. It was the day when I was leavin Germany for one year to go to school in the United States. My parents went a week earlier to norway on holidays and were not yet back. So my grandparents had to bring me to the airport. Since non of them ever mad a driverslicence we went to Berlin, the closest airport to my hometown, by train. We left one day ealier because my first flight would only go to Frankfurt, but would leave at a really early time. We decided to stay one night in a hotel near the airport to be ready for the plane as soon as we could.
It was about 4:30 AM when we got up. We took all the lugage I had and walked over to the main building of the airport. I only had two suitcases and one backpack so I would be able to carry my own lugage in case I would have to in other occasions when nobody else would be there. We all were nervous because I still had no adress where I would end up when I am arriving in the US. I only knew I would be somewhere in Ohio, Pennsylvania or West Virginia. Other people had gotten their adress way earlier and had already talked with their host parents, but there is a toltally different story to that. YFU told me that at the latest at the airport in Berlin. When we came to the terminal where we were supposed to meet nobody else was there. Only a few other families with kids that would go away too. The people from YFU didn't show up for a while but when they did it was crazy. There were more and more people coming and all wanted to ask questions. When they finnally got every thing organized they started calling up names and gave the people the information they needed. Everybody got a little plastic tag to wear so the people from YFU would know where to put us.
A good friend of mine, with who I went through all the things YFU had for us before leaving, wanted to change adresses with me when I finally knew where I would end up. She would fly to California and the flight from Frankfurt to LA was leaving at a time the flight from Berlin to Frankfurt could not catch so they had to leave earlier and I lost her and did not hear from her for almost half a year. Such things happen in life. It always has a new surprise for you.
On the card I got that told me where I would go stood:
Host Family for Johannes Gulden (Arrival Family)
Family Hobbart
229 South Howard Street
Sabina, Ohio 45169
Their Telephone number I can not write here
Jobs: Priest/At home
Kids: Gavin (2 years) Grace (1 year)
And that was all I knew about my futur, not much but at least more than I had before. The flight from Berlin to Frankfurt than had a 2 hour delay but we finally all got on the plane. And were on our way to frankfurt from where we would fly into different directions. My next flight would bring me right into Cincinnatti. Other people flew to New York or other big cities in the US.
Then in Frankfurt my group, the people which had to go to Cincinnati had to hurry because our flight woul leave in about 30 minutes. So we just all got our things and started running behind some YFU staff person what at some point became a habbit on the whole travel. We had to cross the entire airport in half an hour and believe me it is not easy. Good that our big luggage pieces were handeled for us. But we all made it and were on the plane when it was ready for take off.
Half of the people on the plane were exchange students from germany. I sat next to a guy I met some months earlier and most of the flight we passed time by playing chess. We also watched the onflight movie what was "ED TV". I didn't like the movie and well the best thing to do on an air plane still is sleeping. The flight it self was 9 Hours long. but caused by the 6 hour time difference between germany and the United States it was only 3 hours difference from departure to arrival time. The last hours flight over the North American continent were very interesting. We saw things we never saw before. Like the fields in the north of the USA which look like squares. Or the urbans of cities with the streets going in long lines with houses on both sides and with a driveway to each house they look like some bugs with their legs being the friveways and the main body the street. It was also fun to see all the houses, almost all looking the same, having pools. And one "worm" looked alike as the others.
When we finally arrived in Cincinnati we had to wait for ever in a long line before they finally got our passports checked. Than once again we all had to follow YFU staff members just that they only spoke english this time so all of us had a hard time following the things they said. They put us into groups depending on what would happen next to us. Some people met their families right there at the airport. An other group was rushed to another flight to somewhere else and the last group was told that they would stay over night and fly the bext day. And of course I was in the group that would stay over night. So our group was sitting there in the corner while more and more people joined us. And we started to think that we would have to sleep there on the ariport. The only left YFU staff told us she needed to go get some information. So we were there al by our self. Some people called their parents in Germany to tell them they were ok. Others just went on to sleep a minute and to rest. After waiting a time that seemed for ever but wasn't much longer than maybe half an hour the YFU person came back. And once again we were all following a YFU person again. We had to walk throu half the airport to finally pick up our luggage. We than walked outside the airport and were told to wait there. Till the bus that would pick us up comes. All of us boys where amazed by the american cars. Sure we had seen them before but not so many at a time and most times not in real nature.
It was a really hot day and we all began to get mad. We all didn't really sleep for a long time some people partied all night before they left and where now up for more than 30 hours. The Bus finally arrived and we drove to the hotel we would stay our first night in amrica at. On the ride there we saw things we only knew from TV. We see all the american TV shows in germany and think it is television. And now we were here in the US and saw it in real life and really was a shock not a bad one or anything it just was interesting.
We than arrived at the hotel and went to our rooms and were glad that they had airconditioning. The hotel aso had a pool and after a hot day in the sun and a long flight there is nothing more relaxing than swimming. The water had a nice warm temperature from the sun. And after we swam for about half an hour it started to rain. It rained in big warm drops. We staid in the pool until all of us started to shiver. We went up to our rooms and started to watch TV. Most of us are big Simpsons fans and would have never missed a change to watch an original american Simpsons episode. After that the YFU person that was with us called us down to eat, we had Pizza.
We than went to our rooms to watch TV and to sleep. Causeed by the 6 hour difference to germany we all were very tired and fell asleep at a time normally non of us would think about going to bed. We turned the airconditioner on the highes cooling level and when we oke up it was nice and cold around 45 Degrees Fahrenheit. Most of us had never really used an AC before and putting it on full cooling was kind of an experiment. We don't have AC's in houses in germany only in a few. It just doesn't get too hot so we do not need them, but we have them in cars too.
The next morning we woke up around 4AM the first time and thought we are crazy to get up that early. None of us could sleep, our bodys just had not yet adjusted to the US time. It was about 7 o'clock when the phone rang. And this time it was not one of the other exchange students, we had been playing with the phones and called each other all ther time, it was a YFU person and she tried to tell us that me and another girl's flight would leave in about 1 and a half hour so we had to hurry to get ready and to leave. We hard a hard time to understand what she wanted because of our bad english and the bad quality of the phone. We got the message and I had to get together all my stuff ina hurry. We had unpacked a few things for the one night and I now had to put all that together in about 10 minutes and had to get downstairs to eat and leave. And than it started again. We were running behind some YFU person over the Airport to check in and get ready for the flight. If we would have known that that the 20 minute flight to Dayton would be 1 hour delayed we would have not been in such a hurry. So there I was sitting in an american airplane looking out the window and waiting for the flight to leave to see my host family, I was about to spend the next month with, for the first time. With my bad English I had trouble to understand what the stewardess was saying about the delay. I felt totally lost.
Once arrived in Dayton we got out luggaged and headed for the gate where we met our host parents.
This is the first story I wrote so far and I will write others. I hope some one reads them and enjoys them. Everything in them is true and they are stories as only life can tell them.
The next story will be a sequel to this one and will be about going home with my host parens.
An other person also tells her story read it here.
