Well I am officially on my way! As I write this, I am somewhere between Detroit and Philadelphia, though I probably won't be able to post it for some time. They should really work on getting a good wireless signal 30,000 feet in the air.
As I watched the ground fall away beneath us in Detroit, I couldn't help thinking about how it was the last time I would see Michigan for almost four months. As long as I've lived there, I've never been away this long. It is just warming up for summer in Ann Arbor, but when I get back it will almost be time for it to start cooling down. At least I got to see the cherry and lilac trees bloom before I left, that is my favorite time each year. I wonder if they have many lilacs in Bavaria? I hope so.
I still have a lot of flying ahead, an hour to Philly and then 8 hours to Frankfurt. Our flight was delayed an hour and a half in Detroit, and I had to get a coffee to stay awake in the terminal. Now I can't sleep at all, I hope this wears off in time to get some serious sleep in over the Atlantic. The woman next to me was out like a light before the plane even took off, at least that means I can stare past her out the window without creeping her out. We're between two layers of clouds, little puffy ones below and a almost solid ones above, with just a little ribbon of blue in the middle. I love the view from airplane windows!
I booked my hostel room this morning, so I should have a nice place to stay for the weekend when I finally get to Erlangen. Hopefully I'll get there with time to go talk to the Studentenwerk about a room for the summer, but with this delay we'll just have to wait and see. Luckily the main office is just around the block from the hostel, and my host company is just down the road from there! If I'm not totally wiped out, I hope to walk around and take lots of pictures of my new home tomorrow evening. There's a large park right in the middle of the town next to the university, maybe I'll take my German copy of Siddhartha over there and start trying to decipher it. I guess I should find somewhere to pick up a dictionary first :P
The pilot has told us that we are only 75 miles outside of Philadelphia, so we'll be landing before too long, then I get to figure out what plane I'll be taking to Frankfurt. The one I was supposed to be on leaves in five minutes, so I'll probably be on the 6:15 flight. At least now I won't be sprinting across the airport trying to catch the earlier one!
The woman next to me woke up, and we chatted for a few minutes. For those of you familiar with the German-American metaphor, she is definitely a peach. All smiles and small talk, and then goes right back to her work like you've never spoken. My professor was right when she said there's no way to learn about a foreign culture without taking a closer look at your own, you can't help noticing the details you would have otherwise taken for granted.
On that introspective note, until next time!
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