Amazing America (3/3)

Unfortunately every great time has to come to an end. After two weeks full of amazing trips with Hannah and her family the time has come to say good bye. I'm writing this entry while I am sitting at Paris, Charles de Gaulle, Int'l airport in France waiting for my connection back to Berlin. Previously I had two flights. One from Indy to Chicago and then non-stopp Chicago-Paris. Eventhough we had a kind of last-minute arrival at Indianapolis Int'l airport everything worked out quite well. This time TSA was not so in favour of putting me through their full-body scan. Hence the whole way to the gate was pretty smoth and fast. The same could be stated for the flight to Chicago. Eventhough Hannah told me in advance that O'Hare is a very big airport I was not aware of the fact how big it really is - until I got there. During my flight I was writing a last letter send on U.S. soil. Writing was not as much a problem as the actual sending.

After arriving at the airport I asked several times whether there is a possibility to send standard U.S. mail in the airport. Based on statistics I should have been fine. Several times people assured me that there is something in the international terminal. So I went there - through security check, which was extremely overcrowded, passed it and found a mail box - but no stamps. Asking at several points people apologized and explained that they don't use mail any longer. Stupid... on this point you might ask how far you would go for a simple letter to be delivered. I thought it might be a bright idea to search for stamps outside the security area - I had about 3 hours to my boarding sequence and it was okay to go back... until I arrived there: the number of people standing in a more or less ordered line had doubled, tripled or whatever... It was really not fun. Despite the extreme crowded lines I had no stamp by this time. After asking at every counter I ended up with an Asian girl working at one of the many duty-free stores offering her help. She will deliver this mail. I'm sure. And yes, sometimes you get lucky sometimes you don't.

One of the nice observations you can make when standing in a line is how different people react on new situations. In the line next to me there was a guy - from Italy according to his passport. He was surrounded by a family from Greece trying to stay together. He was super stubborn insisting on his position in the queue. A man accompanying the family asked him whether he wants to stay in the end of the line and threatened him to let the family pass. You may argue that this is considered to be rude - but honestly it was the guys behaviour which was rude. After offering several times that he might go ahead and pass the family to the front he disappeared. Later I saw him again. He was standing in front of security, an Indian girl in behind him. Somehow he had changed his mind and offered the girl to go first. Sometimes people need a bit pressure to change :)

After being screened and checked twice I made my way to the gate. Air France is my carrier and they are supposed to offer great service. Thanks to SkyTeam - paying Delta getting Air France. I just hope that my luggage makes it way back to Germany. On the plane I met Patricia, from Chile, but working in Madison, WI. She graduated at UW so it was a quite interesting talk and a very short flight. After a few hours talking I'm certain that Madison is a possible option for Grad School at a later stage. She was going to visit friends and do vacation in Europe. Much nicer and smarter conversation about the different prejudices and differences between Europe and the States. Just the time was too short to sleep or rest for more than one hour, but the service was close to perfect. The dinner was either a pollock or a beef something french - very nice and almost healthy - together with champaign and white wine... classy :)

Hannah warned me about the huge size of Charles de Gaulle where I'm currently sitting and waiting for my plane to board. It took me about an hour to come from one terminal to another. On my way I had to leave Patricia without saying good-bye. I might send her an email later but I had to follow a complete different path from my terminal to my final gate. My body is feeling like 5 am - which is the time in Indi.

I will get back to you later, completing my previous posts, adding pictures and telling you how the story continues.

Amazing America (2/3)

This post is intended to report about the events during my two weeks stay in the U.S. with my girlfriend. :)

Update: 15/08/2009

Hey folks,

before I'm flying back to Sweden in less than 12 hours I want to use a bit of my spare time to report about the events happened at the other part of the world (about a month ago). I have to apologize for not writing earlier, but I was really busy preparing for a joint future with my Hannah. But that's yet another story.

So in a nutshell:

I arrived in Chicago where my angel picked me up from O'Hare after an overall flight time of 12 hours. I was exhausted and since I had taken my flu from Sweden to the States my overall feeling was not so good. However, the appearance of Hannah at the airport even before I picked up my luggage was a bit like a drug. And yes, I am addicted to her. After a welcome-hug we took my bags and left for the subway together with her friend Anna. After the arrival at our hotel, the Wit in the theatre district in Chicago, I just changed and I probably would have fallen asleep, though we were hungry and so we decided to get some dinner first. After having some nice and quite exclusive food: steak tartar, baked mushrooms and salmon in addition to two desserts which we got for only one payment, we fell asleep and tried to recover from our long journey. The next day was devoted to the exploration of Chicago; after a power brunch at some pastery we went to see the Sears Tower, Millenium Park and Navy Pier. The latter however we just saw from the lakeside since I was not really in favour of doing some attractions such as giant wheel, car scooter or rollercoaster. Instead we decided to take a nice and very calm walk along the waterfront before leaving to pay the museum of science and industry a visit. It was amazing, though the display of U-505, the Nazi uboot which has been captured by the Allied during WW2 was kind of strange for me. It was a bit overwhelming and presenting America as the white angel fighting against black devil Nazi-Germany was a bit too exaggerated. I will probably upload some of my pictures to Flickr or something else, so stay tuned to see the photos I have taken while being in the States. Later this day we started our 3 hours drive to Indie. On our way down there we stopped in West Lafayette, close to Purdue, Hannah's university and got some nice sandwhiches for dinner. We got a bit distracted and bond by a nearby thunderstorm: one of the architypes in the Midwest. Unfortunately I failed miserably trying to capture the lightning, so there are no pictures from that event. Later this night we finally made our way to Hannah's parents house in Indianapolis. They live in a suburb about 30 minutes from downtown but her dad is working directly in downtown. After some short small-talk we went to bed and immediately passed out.

After a two-day intermission in order to recover from the flight, we were about to take of for Washington D.C. Hannah's family was planning to go on vacation and they took me with them. Unfortunately her dad had to work during vacation, thus only the two of us, Hannahs mom and her brother, Brian went to see D.C.. It is simply too much to write about every little detail of our trip to Washington. So, briefly spoken we explored the area around our hotel in old town Alexandria, 30 minutes train ride from downtown, but part of Virginia during the first day. On our exploration we encountered some glass-musicians, visited the torpedo-factory, a artists centre and attended to a little ghost-story tour of ancient Alexandria. On the second day we checked out four of the Smithonian museums, visited the National Archives after staying in line for 2 hours and had some nice lunch in a food-corner in the American-Indian museum. Later we went to visit Hannah's aunt Debbie and uncle Mike (her dad's brother). There we had the first time a true American barbecue. It was very nice especially since Debbie revealed that she has German ancestors. It was a great sign of Virginia hospitality and we spent almost all night there before Debbie took us back to our hotel. Early the next morning Debbie picked us up yet another time to take us to Mt. Vernon, the former residence of George Washington. Visiting Washington-Mannor was quite impressive and after my trip my overall opinion about American polititians has significantly changed. Afterwards Debbie dropped us at Arlington national cemetary, where we paid a visit to the JFK tomb and the tomb of the unknown soldier (including a change of guards, impressive but a bit too much for me as a European who never had to serve in the army nor that I have ever seen that much display of the military. ). We topped all our previous visits and trips in D.C. with an overall ride along all important monuments, including the Washington Memorial, the Thomas Jefferson Memorial, the FDR-Memorial and many more. Close to exhaustion we made our way back to the hotel where we passed out yet another time.

After flying back to Indie, we had another short break. On the first day Hannah and me prepared some German Schnitzel with some really nice green beans and impressed her family with our cooking skills. On the second day, we visited her grandparents in West Lafayette and Hannah showed me her university. The first American university I've ever been so far. Finally she showed me her new residence area where she is counting every day backwards until we meet again.

On Saturday morning we left for the big family reunion in a state park in Kentucky. The way down there was a bit similar to our roadtrip to Dalarna and the landscape was as forrestry and hilly as in Sweden, just a bit bigger. We shared our cabin together with Hannah's aunt Sharon and her two sons and in a result Hannah and me slept on an air-mattress in the living room. However, since we had the room for ourselves, we had more privacy than it would have been when sleeping in the same room as her parents. During a one and a half-day intercourse I got introduced to all of Hannah's living cousins, aunts, uncles and other relatives which brought me to the conclusion that I'm aiming to do the same with her when she is coming to visit me over Christmas. Besides talking to a lot of very charming people, we encountered a severe thunderstorm and tornado warning toghether with a spate of rain pouring down while we were sitting under a shelter and trying to celebrate the reunion. Prior to the sitting we went tubing and I literally passed out on the boat after being on the tube for about 5 minutes but Hannah did much better than me. Additionally we showed her relatives how to play KUUB, a game we learned back in Sweden. One of the final events on the reunion was the horse-race. A game where children play jockeys and the adults place bets on the participants and I was a jockey too... Surprisingly I won the run when I was a jockey. On our way back to Indie we stopped on sunday afternoon at a restaurant where you can get a 1-inch thick steak together with a lot of other food and a delicious pie desert. Fed up from this lunch we made our way back to Indianapolis and after arriving there we realized that the fireworks intended to be fired on 4th of July had been postponed because of severe rain on the 4th of July, to sunday evening. After a quick decision we drove into town, got some dinner at a pasta-place and watched a very nice fireworks (although without sound) from the office of Hannah's dad, the second tallest skyscraper in downtown area.

The last two days we managed to spend together, just the two of us. We paid a visit to the Indianapolis Zoo, visited the King-Tut-exhibit in the children's museum and did a bit of shopping (thanks to the strong conversion-rate of the Euro). Sadly on wednesday I had to say goodbye and we had one last hug and kiss which now have to last for quite a bit - until Christmas, until we will be together again.

Amazing America (1/3)

Hi folks. It's time for a short update of my most recent adventure on the other part of the world. Since Wednesday 24th I am back together with the most precious thing im my life - my lovely Hannah.
Keeping the long story short, I booked a flight from TXL to OCA via JFK. For those of you who never been to the US, OCA stands for Chicago O'Hare airport. And yes, my journey to the North turned out to become more mindblowing than I ever thought and influences my life more than everything else. Before I leave one half of my heart with my greatest love and take her half with me, we decided that I am going to visit her in her home country during the summer.

The flight took about 9 hours from Berlin to NY and it was quite good. Despite that I sat next to a simple minded girl from Baltimore, the showed movies were crap and that I lost my feeling for time and space, the jetlag have hit me only the next day. On my way to Chicago I met a few very interesting people: the vice president of the Berlin historical association, who was a pilot on one of the Rosinenbomber back in the time of the Berlin blockade visiting relatives im the Strats, an US-army officer on vacation with his Polish! wife and his deaf daughter, a prosecutor from Miami visiting his girlfriend in NY and finally the curator of the Chicago Bonzai collection in the botanical garden. I had some really interesting conversations with them and bottom line everybody said that it will work out with my Hannah. As far as I can tell they were right...
Since this blog entry is now rather long already and I don't want to bother you with endless posts, I have decided to split it - right here...