This trip has been pretty similar to other travel experiences I have had, but also different at the same time. Recently, I have been traveling on planes by myself, so it was a nice refresher to be traveling as a group again. We all got to play cards together while waiting to board the plane from Pittsburgh to Newark, which was really fun. Camryn taught us a card game called Pay The Man, and it was surprisingly easy to learn. The flight from Pittsburgh to Newark was smooth sailing. I had planned on starting a new book, but ended up talking and getting to better know the other people in the Germany group. I heavily enjoyed this as I felt as though it was a great bonding experience.
I had never been to the Newark airport before, and it was definitely an experience. It was a massive terminal, and I was surprised to learn there were two others at the airport. Most of the group was pretty hungry, so after finding our gate, we split up into groups to find food and watch all of our bags. I ended up finding an Asian restaurant and got General Tso’s chicken, which was pretty good. I was surprised to see how big the plane we took from Newark to Munich was. I had been on a similarly sized plane through Delta a couple of years ago when I was traveling to the UK, but the size still shocked me! I was lucky enough to be seated at a window seat on the way to Munich, which allowed me to see a couple of different gorgeous views. Unfortunately, that was the only highlight of the flight. Walking onto the plane, we saw all the passengers in first class, and they all had beds! I was quite jealous of them when trying to sleep in my seat. Luckily, I was able to get a few hours in before we landed. When going through customs in Germany, 19 other people and I, some in the Germany group and some not, got randomly selected to go downstairs to the “secret” customs line. I say secret because there were about five other people there. This allowed us to get through customs extra quick!
Throughout the program, I am most excited to get to know the German students we will be working with, along with getting to experience a new culture. Although I have been abroad before, this is a much richer and in-depth experience. Getting to see Germany through German student eyes helps to get the full experience. Another aspect I am looking forward to is all of the company visits. Growing up, I had visited the Henry Ford Museum in Detroit a couple of times, so I am interested to see how these visits compare! Looking forward to the next two amazing weeks!!