Ich Bin Ein Jenaer: Germany here I come!

I was supposed to fly out friday but the plane had mechanical issues and weather problems in chicago. We were delayed for 8 hours and finally the plane got canceled so they put us up in a hotel in chicago. yay...

So saturday I finally got on my flight and I ended up sitting in the one seat that that the tv didn't work. The it was a touch screen and the programming was broken so it just kept pushing all of the buttons. It would turn off, turn on, change the brightness, turn on the volume etc., It was also in control of the reading lamp so it kept turning the reading lamp off and on. The guy sitting next to me was German and super annoyed and thought I was an idiot so I let him play with it for a while, until he figured out it really was broken. So that was fun.

I got to london and when I went through security they pulled my bag off to the side and had to look through it. I forgot I had left a coke in there. In the london airport they don't tell you what gate your flight leaves out of until 40 minutes before the flight and then it will show up on the board. So when i finished with security it was posted. I ended up having to go to the furthest gate to load. On the way there I needed some water to take some medicine but I couldn't find a drinking fountain anywhere. I don't think they have those in Europe, they don't even have any in the institute here in Jena. So I bought a water bottle from a store and grabbed a candy bar that I'd never heard of (I took a picture of it so you can see it). When I tried to check out, like an idiot I went to the automatic checkout. I had to scan my boarding pass and I was scared to because I didn't know if it would charge some random account somewhere. So finally I scanned it after asking the lady attendant. She left, and then I was trying to scan my card which wasn't working. It wouldn't read the strip. Finally, the lady came back and stuck the card (with the chip) into a slot that I couldn't even see. I finally got my candy bar and water and made it to the plane without incident.

A note about the London airport, everything there is super fancy. They have gucci, tiffany, and other super high end stores. They had a caviar store that I wanted to try but I didn't want to pay 65 pounds for half a gram of the cheapest dish. Also, the people there just sounded so nice, there was a british guy arguing with security because he was going to miss his flight and security was taking forever to get to his stuff. They were yelling at each other but they just sounded so jolly. I couldn't get over how ridiculously "british" everything was. It was quite enjoyable.

On the plane all the seats were made of leather (it was a british airways flight) which just added to the fancy image. however, they had even less leg room than the american counterparts. Luckily, I had a window seat and there was nobody in the middle seat, so i had a little room. There was a lady in the row seat from Poland, after figuring out that we couldn't communicate in any language we just communicated by smiling and looking pleasant towards each other. On the plane I got breakfast which consisted of a super good bacon sandwich, orange juice, and a stick of milk (I took a picture of that too).

When we landed in Germany on Sunday I got off the plane and I really had to pee. The airport had two lines, one short one for EU citizens and a longer one for everybody else. I got sent to the longer one and when I made it through I found the bathroom. However, there was already a guy in there and there was only one toilet, awkward. So I went to wait outside by the baggage claim and I saw my bag so I ran and grabbed it and put it on my back. I went to bathroom again and it was empty but it was very narrow. with my backpack on I couldn't turn around. So I walked up and used the toilet and then slowly backed my way out. After that fun ordeal I walked outside and immediately found a taxi right outside the doors. It was an older man that drove me to the train station. He spoke english with a heavy accent. I asked him where the brandenburg gate was he showed me a street and told me if I went "streicht" on that street I would get there.

We made it to the bus station and I went to go buy a ticket. Unlike the british, the germans don't sound very nice, and they do not try to hide any annoyance that they have. I talked to the ticket guy and he was annoyed that he couldn't hear me and then I couldn't hear him which made him annoyed. Eventually, I got my ticket on the next bus and tried to find the bus terminal that went to Sonntag leaving at 1:15. I couldn't find it on the board until I eventually figured out the bus was going to erfurt. It wasn't until later that I learned that Sonntag means "Sunday." So I found my terminal and I was waiting at the station for about an hour. Then I had to go pee again. I walked over to the bathroom and looked for the fifty cent piece that I had received from my taxi driver to pay for the toilet but it wasn't there. He had given me two 2 euro coins and 1 50 cent coin. I thought I had tipped him a 2 euro coin but I guess I just tipped him the 50 cent coin, oops, he probably thought I was super cheap. Oh well. So I paid for the toilet after getting change from a 2 euro coin and I had to go through a revolving door again with my back pack on. I just kind of crunched in there and barely squished through. I did my business, bought a hamburger from mcdonald's for a euro (what a deal) and waited for my bus. When the bus got there the driver got out and announced stuff in german. I had no idea what he was saying. He opened the luggage doors and I went around to the other side of the bus to put mine in because there were too many people on my side. It's a good thing I did because I saw a sign for Jena in the luggage bay. It turns out that that was the only luggage bay opening when we got to Jena (the first stop of the three). So I got on the bus and found a seat. I pulled out a piece of paper in the seat back pocket and read through it. It said something about a certain sign you would see for an outlet. I was excited because my phone was dead and I really wanted to charge it. I looked around and alas, no signs for outlets. Then a german girl came and asked if she could sit next to me. At least that's what I think she said, it was all in german. Either way I responded with "ja" and she sat down. We got under way and after a little bit I slept for several hours. The first good sleep I'd had in a few days. When I woke up three hours later we were still about an hour away from jena. I watched the countryside as we passed green and bright yellow fields (I took a picture) and modern wind mills for electricity production. Eventually we came to a stop. I turned to the girl next to me "Jena?"

"ja."

and I rushed off the bus.

After arriving in Jena I had no idea where to go and I really had to pee. There was a small train station across the street and a bus station down the street. I walked to the bus station, it had a little restaurant, but no bathroom. I walked into the town and found a little cafe and.... success! it had a bathroom. After taking care of that I assessed my situation, I needed to find a taxi to take me to my apartment. I walked over to the train station and there was a taxi! But the driver door was open and there was nobody inside. It didn't look like there were any more taxis going to appear, the place seemed kind of deserted but I knew there was another train station. I walked the long 4 blocks to the other train station and when I got there, alas! no taxis. I wandered around the train station till I found a sign pointing towards taxis I followed the signs and ended up where I came in. There were still no taxis in sight. I saw some people sitting down by the station and figured they were waiting for a taxi. The elderly couple left and there was just a man sitting there. Then..... A TAXI! I figured the other guy was here first so I let him flag it down, but he didn't so I hurried and jumped up and waved it down. I took my stuff over and showed her the address and got in. She talked in german with the man, I guess he didn't want to come. She got in and drove me to the apartment and I was finally there! I put the code into the safe and it opened up! and I went in and sat down in my apartment. it was glorious to be there. And then I needed to go poop but there wasn't any toilet paper in my apartment. This is the one time where getting over a head cold came in handy, I have several tissues that did the job. I was able to make contact with some of the byu students that are already here and they were able to hook me up with some food and toilet paper (in Germany all the grocery stores are closed on Sunday). As you can see (from the pictures) my apartment is very small which is fine for me. It will be interesting finding space for everything once Tenery gets here; I’m currently using her bed as storage for random odds and ends. I finally made it to Germany!!