I have officially begun my semester abroad, and I am wonderfully excited to see what the future holds. I want to share the highlights with you all. Unfortunately, so many great things have happened and I don't have much time to write it all down. I'm working on it, though, and I hope to catch you all up soon! For now, here is an update of simply my journey in getting here.
16.01.16
After a ten-hour flight overlooking the
frigid waters and lands of Canada, Greenland, and Iceland, the plane began to descend
to Amsterdam, Netherlands. I was preparing myself to rush off the plane in
order to catch the next one to Munich, Germany. Germany; the destination I’d
been dreaming about for the past six months. I couldn’t wait to get there and
start the semester that would change my life. But as it turned out, Germany
would have to wait a little bit longer.
We missed our
connecting flight, and ended up having a six-hour layover, instead. We couldn’t
leave the airport so we were stuck sitting on hard plastic chairs while the
rest of our group was already touring Munich and delving into German life.
Four more hours to
wait and a few of us decided to explore the airport and find
something to eat. Every kiosk we passed had some variation of tulips. Single flowers, colorful bouquets, or
fake cloth tulips lined windows, and some stores even had tulip bulbs to buy.
Other special
Dutch souvenirs included wooden shoes and waffle cookies.
Most airport shops had a selection of
sandwiches and other food items, and I was surprised to see one sandwich common
between all of the shops — an egg and bacon sandwich. This consisted of sliced
hard boiled eggs and cold-cooked bacon. Since it seemed to be a popular food
item, I figured it would be a cultural experience to try it myself. I didn’t
like it.
My brief
impression of the Dutch in the airport was that they are fast moving and very
tall. Someday I’d like to be able to go back and make a better discovery.
Our plane left
Amsterdam around 3:30, and we arrived in Munich by 5:00. We then loaded in vans
and drove to Nuremberg, Germany, where we arrived around 7:00. It was an
exhausting 24 hours of travel. I didn’t really see the city as we found the hostel,
so I wasn’t sure what I’d be waking up to in the morning.
