I wrote this on January 3rd but had no internet.

So it all begins, I suppose, with the first flight I have ever taken alone. I drove to Denver with my mother, brother, father, Erin and Kasey. I know what you're thinking, "Wow Laura! Wasn't it crowded with six people and seven months worth of luggage in your dad's pick-up?" I would answer you; "Crowded...Nah!... we were cozy." I sat in the back with Kasey and Erin. Erin sat on some funny-smelling-dirt-soap, and Kasey and I pointed and laughed at her because she covered her jeans in funny-smelling-dirt-soap. We're good friends like that.
We stayed with my Grandma Goodenberger in Trenton Nebraska the first night. Like most Grandmothers she was delighted to see her relations and spoiled us accordingly. It is wonderful to be pampered.
The next day we headed out at 8:00am, it was supposed to be 7:30, but I pulled a Laura. The next few hours were typical road trip. I took a picture by the "Nebraska, The Good Life." sign, it was full of bullet holes. I am excited to show this to all of my new friends. I think it will make me look like I'm from some war-torn area. I'll look tough.
When we got to Denver I realized that I could not find my bag of liquids that I had taken out earlier that day, but I figured I was okay because I had all I needed in my suit-case... can you guess what happened later? Anyway I checked in and got my boarding passed and all that, and then ate lunch with Leo and his step-brother Jesse. My mother made us take a picture... typical mom. (Just kidding mom, I love you.) Then it was time for me to go through security and say good-bye. I sang "Leavin on a jet plane" and no one would sing with me, way to make me feel like a looser guys! Geesh!
I then proceeded to wait. My flight from Denver to Chicago was supposed to leave at 3:55pm. It was delayed until 4:30. I sat and talked with a lovely elderly lady about knitting patterns. Before the conversation I knew nothing about the subject. Now... I still know nothing about the subject, but I feel that I have become much better at nodding and smiling and saying "Hmmm" a lot.
At 4:30 we were told they were having a hard time finding a plane for us, but that was okay because knitting lady had brought snacks and we shared them and talked about cinnamon rolls and her sister that lived in Colorado. We finally boarded at about 5:30pm. I had a seat next to the window. The woman who sat on the isle seat was a very chatty lady from Bath England. She works at a day care, and loves the Italian food in her city. She also likes to cook. When I asked her what, she said; boiled potatoes, baked chicken, blanched green beans and pudding. Om nom nom? She had been in Denver visiting her boyfriend. Apparently they had dated in high-school, and then had reconnected not to long ago on the internet.
Our plane had mechanical problems, so we had to get off. I then proceeded to Customer Service with the British woman. She was going home for her brothers wedding. When we got to the desk, we both found out our connecting flights in Chicago would be missed. She decided to stay in Denver for a couple of more days, because, to put it in her exact words, “My boyfriend's a great shag, and this is my brothers second wedding, so he won't miss me much." She let me borrow her phone to call my mom, and then kissed me on the cheek and wished me luck.
First encounter with a British person... how I feel about it... humored and confused. Stereotypes are there for a reason.
At 7:30 flight 938 from Denver to Chicago loaded another plane. This time I got to talk to a young Philippine woman who was in nursing school. She had just gotten married. She is 21 and had known the man since she was five. We were having quite a good chat when the power in the plane when off. (Don't worry, we hadn't taken off yet.) We all sat in the dark for about 10 minutes when it came back on again. The young nursing student and I resumed conversation. Two minutes later... no power again. She got scared and thought it was a sign and got off the plane. After the power had resumed her spot was taken by the baggage of a well traveled Latino woman. She had been to every continent but South America and Antarctica. She started in Community College part-time while working as a waitress. She then proceeded to graduate from a university and now works for an international company. She loves it.
Our plane finally left at about 9:45pm. When I got to Chicago it was late, and I was tired. I had to wait in line for about an hour with a crowd of disgruntled travelers. I talked to Josh. Josh graduated from UNL with a degree in math and technology. I told him he didn't look like a nerd. He told me he made the best Spock at Halloween. He told me I was not a mean enough person, and if I really wanted to get the best from the airlines I needed to yell at them. I told him I didn't want them to spit in my food. When we finally got to speak to someone he got to do what he thought was best, yell. He was quite animated about it. Since I was nice to my Customer Service agent I got a free toothbrush and a $15 gift certificate to any of the food places in the airport. I stayed in the Double-Tree, the airline paid for it. They had soft pillows and warm cookies...*sigh*. They gave me a toiletries pack, but they were out of women’s ones. So my soap and deodorant were green and smelled like a pine forest.
My flight to Munich had to be re-routed, because apparently Chicago only had flights to Munich on certain days. So I was scheduled to go to Frankfurt, my flight was supposed to leave at 2:35. It was delayed until 4:30. I spent my gift certificate on a sandwich, naked juice and chocolate covered raisins, and people watched for a while. I then went, yet again to customer service. I stood next to a guy on my flight, he was going to Nepal to climb some mountain. He was from Alaska and looked like a lumberjack. He likes juice. I asked. I was then told by the people at Customer Service that I would again have to get a new flight to Berlin because I would miss my first flight because of the delay. I sighed and sat at my gate, eating my raisins, and watched a small German boy who thought his toy cars were much tastier than his pacifier. In his defense they did look quite appetizing. I hope I am always the kind of person who chooses hot-rods over pacifiers.
My flight from Chicago to Frankfurt left at about 4:45. I sat in the middle row with super-parents from Sweden. They had three boys ages two, three and five. The mom's name was Helga... I kid you not.. and I forget the dad's name. The mom had Black hair and blue eyes; I’d guess she was about 40. She was a stunningly beautiful woman. The dad spoke five languages and worked for a cell phone company. He had blonde hair, blue eyes and the beginning of a bald patch. He sat next to me, and helped me review German grammar. The children were adorable and crazy well behaved for such a long flight. All of them had white blonde hair and sky blue eyes. Their whole family fell asleep after a rather rubbery dinner of pasta was served. I could not fall asleep. It was terrible. So after about an hour I gave up and played peek-a-boo with an adorable Indian boy who was in the row in front of me. After a while he started handing me the little fuzz-balls that accumulate on the chairs after lots of use. He acted like it was the biggest gift he could ever give me. I acted like they were the most impressive gems I had ever seen. That went on for a good hour and a half. It made my week... maybe month. After he went to sleep in his father’s arms I was board out of my mind. I choose to try a conversation with the man sitting across the aisle from me. He had his Bible out and was taking notes. His was 63 and was named Randy. He was going to go visit Israel for a week and then go to Ethiopia for three weeks and help build stuff. He was traveling with four other men. He was pretty rockin, not gonna lie. The plane landed and the staff wished us a happy new year. I was finally in Germany!!! I was so excited I almost forgot to get my passport stamped. I had to go through security again because they had to make sure I wasn't a terrorist. It all went fairly smoothly. Yet again I met the lovely people at Customer Service, and was moved to the 10:00am flight to the Berlin Tegel airport. It was about 8am then so I wandered the airport in wonder. There were German words, and they were everywhere! Imagine that, German word in Germany. It was super exciting. I did a little happy dance in front of the bathroom. I got strange looks. I was okay with that.
The flight to Berlin was eerily empty. It took about an hour and a half. When I got off the flight I went to get my luggage and waited by the baggage turn-ey thingy, and waited, and waited... and waited some more. It never came. I then went to... you guessed it!... Customer Service. I tried to speak German to them but they just laughed at me and spoke English. They gave me a small toiletries bag and told me my bag was still in America. They hoped it would arrive in at least five days.
I went to the place I was supposed to go to meet the people who were going to pick me up. I didn’t really expect them to be there though since my flights had been changed so often. They weren’t there. So I went to my favorite place in the world. Can you guess it? Customer Service! I asked them what I should expect from a taxi driver as far as tips and so on. They told me most of the drivers are Turkish and don’t even speak German let alone English. That really intimidated me.
So I went outside and scanned the drivers. The majority were all about 60,short, with olive skin, curly hair, and with the kind of bellies that make you want to make them laugh so you can watch their middles jiggle. As I was looking for a driver I noticed one that stuck out a mile. He was tall with green eyes, beige skin and spiked hair. He was wearing a black leather jacket and shoes, and black pants. I half expected him to burst into songs from Grease. I walked over to him and asked if he spoke German. He laughed and said, “Ja! Naturlich.” I asked him if he could take me to the address I had on my little piece of paper. He nodded. He then put all of my stuff in the trunk and we proceeded to the house of Britta Sperling, which is where I was going to be staying. FUN FACT TIME! Did you know that Sperling means sparrow in German? Back to the story… I believe I may have just found the nicest taxi driver in all of Berlin. He spoke very little English but his German was very clear. Together we spoke Germlish. He told me all about his home city as we drove through. He also showed me a picture of his wife. I told her she was very pretty and then he laughed and exclaimed, “Not for you!” I found out he used to live in east Berlin before the wall fell. He remembered the night perfectly. He told me his whole family cried. He told me no one really believed it happened. He then told me more about the city. I really enjoyed his sense of humor. He was exceedingly nice.
Finally we arrived outside Britta’s apartment. He helped me carry my things to the door and rang the bell for me. No one answered. He rang again. Nothing. He asked if I had her number. I gave it to him. He dialed her home number. She didn’t answer. He dialed her cell. The woman who answered was not Brigitte. I felt my panic, which I had been suppressing through the whole trip, start to rise. I think he saw me getting scared because he put his hand on my shoulder and said it would be ok. He kept talking to the woman on the phone. Apparently she was Brigitte’s sister-in-law. Brigitte was apparently out of town. She left because my school told her I was not coming. The woman on the phone said to wait there and that she and her husband would come and pick me up and we would figure things out from there. I thanked the taxi driver and tried to tip him. He would not take it. He said it was only good service he was providing. He made my heart happy. What a good human!
I sat down in the snow on the stairs next to remains of fire-works, Germans celebrate the new year with fire-works, and waited. Carola and Klause Sperling arrived about 15 minutes later. They spoke no English. This has been very good for me. They asked me if I was allergic to cats. I said no. They told me they had five. I knew we would get along. It takes a special kind of person to have a cat, and an even more awesome person to have five. I love animals. They live in a very nice apartment, which does not smell like cats. They have internet and a flat rate phone line to America. It’s fantastic! They were a bit touchy- feely but after a while I got used to it. I think Americans have a pretty big bubble as far as cultures go.
Carola and Klause fed me really good food, let me shower and then I went to bed. When I woke up at five in the morning German time. Klause made me tea and told me that I was just going to stay with them until I went to my second host family. He told me about the sports he used to play in high school. He spoke in third person the whole time. I think he thought it made it easier for me. He loved Volleyball and used to walk tightrope. When he was young one of his best friends was killed in a tightrope walking accident. It was really hard for him. We watched the Discovery Channel until Carola woke up. We then proceeded to have one of the best breakfasts I have ever had in my life. We ate fresh bread rolls with Nutella and toast with Swiss cheese and salami, and some crazy tasty yogurt. It was flipping fabulous. Carola then took me shopping so that I could buy whatever I needed that was currently not with me because my bag was not there. She took me through an entire super market and explained every aisle. IT WAS AWESOME! She bought me bread and cucumbers. I could not have been happier. Later that day, after we came back to the apartment their daughter Sarah visited. She is a very pretty girl with blonde hair and brown eyes. She speaks English. She helped me clarify some of the things her parents had been telling me. She told me that if I wanted to, they were okay with me staying there the whole four months. I was really tempted. Sarah then took me to the Alex mall and we got a coffee and walked around the mall. She’s fascinating. She wants to work in wild life management in South Africa. How cool is that?! She told me to keep in touch. I think I will. So far my experiences with host families has been great! I love Klaus and Carola. They are really great people.