The next few posts will be from the past, but still accounts of my time as an au pair. I stopped blogging after awhile to spare myself having to repeat details. Soon we'll catch up to Australia :)
Germany:
I couldn't believe I was headed to Hamburg, Germany in only a few hours. My parents got me to the airport 2 hours before I even needed to go through security. That's a full 4 hours before my flight, but mom and dad waited with me before I needed to go through. Mom was good up until the exact moment I started to step into the security area. She started crying so hard, I started crying. Then my dad started cry. Kind of an awkward moment, but I love my family. I had already said good bye to my brother earlier that day and all my friends and church family the week/weekend before. I still miss everyone.
I was one of the first to find my gate, but had to still wait 2 hours. My 9:10pm flight was delayed because of weather. My phone had been shut off earlier that day and the internet in the airport wasn't working :( I can't believe there was no way to contact even my host family to alert them of the delay. After almost an hour of waiting, I met a nice El Salvadorian lady who lives in London named Carolina. We spent the next few hours talk and telling each other about our home countries. By 9:49pm there finally some news about our flight... gate change to the other side of the airport and departure moved to 10:30pm.
Strange side note: there was a young guy sitting 2 seats from me that looked exactly like Christoph Waltz. A British man wearing an Oklahoma jersey. And a guy wearing a suit jacket, shirt and tie with a pair of khaki cargo shorts and white sneakers, ha ha. If you people watch, you'll see some of the strangest sights in an airport :)
We finally boarded at 12:10am, a full 3 hours late. Had to have a new connecting flight booked for 6:35pm out of London Heathrow. Original flight was at 3:35pm. Carolina was nice enough to let me use her blackberry to email Sarah and Yasmina to let them know of my delay. So glad the email actually went through.
After boarding I found I was sitting next to a British lady who whistles while she sleeps, ha ha. As much as I love window seats, the hardest part is having to pee and the person occupying the aisle seat is sleeping and you're afraid to wake them up :/ We got underway about 12:45am and I have to say, the lights of Dallas are beautiful when flying over. Ended up spending most of the flight practicing my German. I could already tell that I was going to have horrible jet lag when I finally landed in Hamburg.
After landing, the airport staff directed us towards getting new boarding passes and I swear we ended up walking half of Heathrow just to get to our terminal. 20 minutes in the customer service line resulted in a wonderful boarding pass to Hamburg. After talking with Carolina before the flight, I also made friends with an Italian girl and a Mexican guy. So glad I can still speak and understand Spanish :)
Ugh, forgot to take off my jewelry when going through London security. The security officer saw my jewelry in my hands, still told me to walk through the metal detector and still gave me a pat down. Then since I hadn't anticipated another go through security, I still had a couple small, unopened water bottles from the plane in my carry on. Another security officer went through my bag started just tossing my stuff about like it was junk. How rude considering she scratched my new sunglasses and nearly broke my Nook. Pat down lady was nice, search lady was a witch. After that I still had to decipher the departure board inside the airport and the lady at another customre service desk was just as mean. Had to figure it out on my own. So far London hasn't been the best experience for me.
Found my gate and was boarding my flight to Hamburg by 6:30pm to hopefully arrive around 10:30pm. For some reason, I decided that I wanted to read The Daily Mail... probably not my best idea because I had to ask the nice British couple next to me what a few of the words meant. Stroppy = gloomy/moody, mostly used for teenagers.
Finally made it out will all my luggage still intact. Yasmina was hiding behind a pillar until I walked out. Strange. Called mom (3pm in Dallas) to let her know that I had arrived safely.
Sarah and Yasmina were funny. Get to meet the kids tomorrow. Talked to Yasmina for a little bit, but spent another hour talking to Sarah. I think we could be great friends :)
I started this days blog at 5:30pm Texas time on Sunday, Sept 18th.
I ended this days blog at 11:45pm Hamburg time on Monday, Sept 19th.
Germany:
I couldn't believe I was headed to Hamburg, Germany in only a few hours. My parents got me to the airport 2 hours before I even needed to go through security. That's a full 4 hours before my flight, but mom and dad waited with me before I needed to go through. Mom was good up until the exact moment I started to step into the security area. She started crying so hard, I started crying. Then my dad started cry. Kind of an awkward moment, but I love my family. I had already said good bye to my brother earlier that day and all my friends and church family the week/weekend before. I still miss everyone.
I was one of the first to find my gate, but had to still wait 2 hours. My 9:10pm flight was delayed because of weather. My phone had been shut off earlier that day and the internet in the airport wasn't working :( I can't believe there was no way to contact even my host family to alert them of the delay. After almost an hour of waiting, I met a nice El Salvadorian lady who lives in London named Carolina. We spent the next few hours talk and telling each other about our home countries. By 9:49pm there finally some news about our flight... gate change to the other side of the airport and departure moved to 10:30pm.
Strange side note: there was a young guy sitting 2 seats from me that looked exactly like Christoph Waltz. A British man wearing an Oklahoma jersey. And a guy wearing a suit jacket, shirt and tie with a pair of khaki cargo shorts and white sneakers, ha ha. If you people watch, you'll see some of the strangest sights in an airport :)
We finally boarded at 12:10am, a full 3 hours late. Had to have a new connecting flight booked for 6:35pm out of London Heathrow. Original flight was at 3:35pm. Carolina was nice enough to let me use her blackberry to email Sarah and Yasmina to let them know of my delay. So glad the email actually went through.
After boarding I found I was sitting next to a British lady who whistles while she sleeps, ha ha. As much as I love window seats, the hardest part is having to pee and the person occupying the aisle seat is sleeping and you're afraid to wake them up :/ We got underway about 12:45am and I have to say, the lights of Dallas are beautiful when flying over. Ended up spending most of the flight practicing my German. I could already tell that I was going to have horrible jet lag when I finally landed in Hamburg.
After landing, the airport staff directed us towards getting new boarding passes and I swear we ended up walking half of Heathrow just to get to our terminal. 20 minutes in the customer service line resulted in a wonderful boarding pass to Hamburg. After talking with Carolina before the flight, I also made friends with an Italian girl and a Mexican guy. So glad I can still speak and understand Spanish :)
Ugh, forgot to take off my jewelry when going through London security. The security officer saw my jewelry in my hands, still told me to walk through the metal detector and still gave me a pat down. Then since I hadn't anticipated another go through security, I still had a couple small, unopened water bottles from the plane in my carry on. Another security officer went through my bag started just tossing my stuff about like it was junk. How rude considering she scratched my new sunglasses and nearly broke my Nook. Pat down lady was nice, search lady was a witch. After that I still had to decipher the departure board inside the airport and the lady at another customre service desk was just as mean. Had to figure it out on my own. So far London hasn't been the best experience for me.
Found my gate and was boarding my flight to Hamburg by 6:30pm to hopefully arrive around 10:30pm. For some reason, I decided that I wanted to read The Daily Mail... probably not my best idea because I had to ask the nice British couple next to me what a few of the words meant. Stroppy = gloomy/moody, mostly used for teenagers.
Finally made it out will all my luggage still intact. Yasmina was hiding behind a pillar until I walked out. Strange. Called mom (3pm in Dallas) to let her know that I had arrived safely.
Sarah and Yasmina were funny. Get to meet the kids tomorrow. Talked to Yasmina for a little bit, but spent another hour talking to Sarah. I think we could be great friends :)
I started this days blog at 5:30pm Texas time on Sunday, Sept 18th.
I ended this days blog at 11:45pm Hamburg time on Monday, Sept 19th.
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