Lesson #1 - Never stand in a line just because everyone else is!

I made it to Germany!

I left Kansas City on Monday July 11, 2005 and flew through Chicago and London. When I arrived in London, I had one hour to spare before I needed to board my flight to Cologne/Bonn, Germany. As I was walking from my gate, I kept following the signs to "Flight Connections." I suddenly came to this long line of people who were also following the signs to "Flight Connections." We were waiting in line for a reason that I am not sure of to this day. Finally, airport personnell came around and made an announcement that if you weren't switching terminals that you needed to be in the "long" line, and if you were switching terminals then you could follow the small 8x11 computer printouts that were 3 feet off the ground leading you to the next que line. In a matter of minutes, I made it I made it from a REALLY long line to one that wasn't quite so long. I then got to stand in another line to catch a bus to take me to the next terminal. There were at least 100-200 people standing in the line that I was in and each bus maybe carried 50 people. Let me remind you that I departed my plane around 7:15am in the morning. Where do all the people come from??? After I made it out of the terminal that I arrived in, I was dropped off at another terminal that I would be departing to Germany from. After having to go through security (again), everyone was standing in this really, really long line. I think it might have been immigration. It is now 7:55am and there is no way I'm making it through that line before my plane departs. So, being the risk taker I am, I got out of line and went to an my airline counter to ask what I should do. She says, "Oh, honey. You don't need to stand in that line. You can go down the escalator and you'll be right at your gate." Go figure. I was standing in line again for no reason. It's a good think I went to the bathroom on the plane before we landed!!

Klaus Irrgang, who is a contracted driver for the International Paralympic Committee (IPC), was waiting for me when I arrived at the Cologne/Bonn airport. Getting my bags was fun. I of course, have to make sure that I think (and take) everything with me. My bags were pushing the 70lbs maker that the airlines go by. One bag was about 67 lbs, another was around 55 lbs and the last one was right around 47lbs. They were heavy bags for my little arms. I did manage to get everything off the bag carasoul to the cart. Then, as I was waiting in line for customs, I noticed that everyone was taking their bags off of their carts to put through an x-ray. So, I was fortunate to have to lift my bags up to the scanner and then get them off again. Now that I think back on it, it was probably kind of funny looking! Mr. Irrgang helped me after that. He was very nice and gave me a wonderful audio tour driving into Bonn.

It's now Tuesday, July 12. I got to the IPC office, which is a great buidling. It used to be two residences that was combined into one when the IPC was being brought to the city of Bonn. It's like a maze though. I've already gotten lost a couple of times. Thank goodness I work on the first floor! I'll have to post a picture of it soon. Everyone in the office is very nice and has been very helpful as far as answering my questions. My living accomdations are great. Kind of like a giant hotel room. It won't be too bad. I'll try and post a picture of it soon as well. On Tuesday evening, after I took a little nap, I ventured out into the city of Bonn to find a grocery store. After getting a hand-drawn map from someone at the IPC who didn't know street names, I eventually ended up lost. But, that is not always a bad thing. I did manage then to find the Hauptbanhoff (Main Train station) and the downtown area. I found a DM store that had some food in it...but from the looks of it, it was all health food. So, I bought what I thought was ceral and granola type bars and some juice. As I knew that milk would be in a container that would be on a shelf and not in a refridgerator, I was searching for the Milk. I found a box whose front picture resembled milk, but I wasn't sure. So, I bought it. Turns out it was Rice Milk/Drink. Milk in german is spelled MILCH...I will remember that now. The Rice Milk isn't that bad though..but I do miss Fat Free Skim Milk. I like the watered down taste! I had someone order me pizza for dinner that night(Tuesday). It seemed like the easiest thing to do. Did you know that 'Pepperoni' pizza in Germany is not what we American's think of it as? It's peppers...and hot ones too. It's a good thing someone told me that!

On Wednesday, July 13, I went to dinner at my supervisor, Andy Parkinson's, flat/apartment. His wife Annette was very nice and 8 month old son Cole was adorable. They have a "lovely" place. Ikea is very big hre in Germany and they gave me a catalog to look at...in case I want to buy an unfurnished apartment. However, unfurnished usually means that you are renting 4 walls, a floor, and a ceiling. Unfurnished places don't even have kitchens or bathrooms in most cases. So, people purchase them from Ikea.

On Thursday, July 14, a girl from work invited me to go to dinner with her and a couple of other co-workers. Amy needed to go to the train station first, so I went with her. She didn't want to walk, so we were going to take the train, but then she remembered that she had two bikes and said that I could use one. So, I had my first bike ride that evening. Bikes are everywhere..it's unbelievable. Instead of parking garages for cars...they have them for bikes. Weird. Anyways...so we rode to the train station and then on a bridge over the Rhine River to the other side where we ate at a little Riverside Cafe. It was neat and the river is beautiful. Very fast moving.

On each side of the River there is a walking and biking path. So, on Saturday, July 16, I woke up early because I went to bed so early the night before...trying to catch up on sleep. So, I decided to try out the river run. The path that lines the river is known as the Rhine Promenade. It's very beautiful and it was a great run. The loop that I did is about 6 miles long, but it seemed much longer than that (but I kept stopping to look at stuff). You cross the river twice on two bridges. At the beginning of the run, I did manage to find a flea market, which from the looks of it at that point in the morning was a giant garage sale. So, a little later in the day, I managed to find it again and it was a giant garage sale. I've never seen so many people walking away with so much junk..and I mean junk. Some of the hand made stuff was neat and maybe worth buying....but I'm still having trouble saying 'how much does this cost' in German. We're working on that though!

That might be the most frustrating part...the language barrier. For example, when I was following my co-worker on the bikes, there were lots of people out running. We were passing some people and they started to get in front of me. I have no idea how to say "WATCH OUT" or "ON YOUR RIGHT." So, instead I said 'OY....OY....OY!' It's a good thing no one has been hurt yet.

I do manage to learn a few new words every day.
Bitte Warten - Please wait. (The printer at my office taught me that)

Week one is almost over, so that is a blessing....jet lag is gone...and now I can start to have some fun!
I hope all is well.
Best Wishes from Germany.
Miss everyone tons!
-Betsy