here at last!

well, i am sitting in the hostel as i write this, using paid-for internet. apparently, cafe's in America are the only ones who let you use wireless free of charge. this is most unfortunate.

anyway...i will start at the beginning of the journey. i packed a lot of stuff. a lot. so getting through the airport was jolly good fun. after i made it through the checkpoint, i found my way to the gate and checked in. i soon boarded the plane, only to find that though it was incredibly long, the space between the seats was less than two inches. i somehow got myself crammed into a seat and sat. as we were about to take off, the captain told us there was a small vent that needed to be fixed and they couldn't find any allen wrenches that fit. after an allen wrench was found, we started to takeoff. as soon as we had gotten up speed, we stopped. they said they had some sort of warning and we had to go back and have it checked. when it was finally checked, we took off. at 645. the flight was supposed to take off at 420. grr.

about an hour into the flight the tv screens started working. i watched probably five movies and barely remember any of them. i slept for about thirty minutes but that was about it. i was totally cramped. eight hours later, i got off the plane only to find that i had missed my connecting flight by a very long amount of time. they set me up with another connecting flight scheduled for one oclock. i had a couple of hours so i put my carry on luggage under my feet and slept with my head on my lap. it made things, if possible, worse. when i woke up, i was a zombie.

on the flight was another bodenseehof studsent. wee began chatting and found that we were both staying at different places. there was someone else waiting on the flight with us who was reading an American book so we assumed he must be a student too. he wasn't. but, he lived right near the school and knew all about it. he told us he could take us to wherever we were going to stay that night. admittedly,scenes of the movie taken flashed through my mind as i thought of accepting a ride from a stranger, but when we got to friedrichshafen, he called the houses we were going to stay in and got directions. i assumed this meant he was actually going to take us there and not kidnap us. his wife was there to pick him up and we found out that they were really good friends with the staff at Bode and went to church with the students. they were really awesome and refused to let me help pay for gas.

then i got to the hostel and forced myself to stay alert through a shower and supper. then i slept for 12 hours. although my sleep was interrupted frequently by roommates coming and going, children screaming and so on. then i had a short breakfast and bought some internet time and blogged this. i am tired again and would like to sleep. more bode students are coming today to the hostel and we are all planning on eating dinner together tonight. then the bus from Bode will pick us up tomorrow morning. until next time!