Day Five: July 30, 2011

Today was rather busy. There was a lot that needed to get done before the christening that is tomorrow (Sunday). First I joined Anne, Peter, Henry, and Peter’s family for breakfast. For those that don’t know what a typical German breakfast would be here it is: bread (especially dark breads), cheese, butter, some cold cuts, Nutella, and maybe yogurt or cereal. Today they had croissants and various rolls, a plate of several different cheeses, Nutella, jam, butter, margarine, and a plate of cold cuts that had hams, salami, liverwurst and other things. They will have a similar thing in the evening and their big meal at lunchtime. Peter tried the Peanut Butter we bought the night before. It was his first time ever having it and he liked it. I had to explain that it’s much better with Jelly than alone.

After breakfast began a bunch of preparations. First we stopped at the Fire House where the christening reception will be. Peter is a volunteer fireman and has use of the house. As I said we had gone shopping last night, and we dropped off the goodies and checked the kitchen out for supplies. I helped Peter bring drinking glasses down from the firehouse attic and he showed Anne & I the inside of their fire trucks. The trucks here are neon orange with neon yellow stripes. I’ll get pictures at the reception. After that, we dropped Anne and sleeping Henry off at their apartment so she can feed him lunch and Peter and I went back out to get more supplies. They had to get some beer (he bought Grapefruit beer) and soda. We also stopped at a grocery store for a few more ingredients that Anne needed for some salads that she will be making for the party.

When we returned, I thought we would be in for the day. But it turned out that we were going to go to a local mall. So back out I went. First, we stopped at the firehouse to drop off what we had just bought. We got to the mall and it was a lot like a typical three level mall. We had lunch (I had some Italian food ..”penne with Ragu” ….no not that sauce….more of a meat sauce. It was pretty good). We walked around each level and I bought a few shirts. It was hard to shop here because they have sweaters on sale. Yes, I bought two, but really when will I used them again? December at the earliest? They are good for Tucson at least, light sweaters. We also stopped for ice cream. I asked the guy behind the counter if he spoke English (he looked Italian) and he said “yes, a little” and I placed my order of mint ice cream in a cone. He said “well, that wasn’t too bad.” Haha. At least we understood each other. One thing I think I mentioned the other day was how surprised I was that they allow dogs in malls and grocery stores. I finally saw a Pomeranian today; of course it was half the size of Linus and a ¼ size of a certain Pomeranian mix I know back in Tucson. ::ahem:: But there were dogs galore in the mall today. As well as babies. Wow! So many strollers out and about. It didn’t rain at all in the afternoon or evening. Just in the morning. But the day was breezy, cool and cloudy. Not so great for being out doors. It was about 60 around 7 or 8 pm.

Tomorrow (Sunday) is the big day; Henry is being baptized. I hope I don’t screw up the little line (in German) I have to say at the ceremony.

Day Four: July 29, 2011

I had a lot more energy today than I did yesterday. I’m not jet lagged, but for some reason yesterday really did me in. It must’ve been the questionable 2.9 km that I ran. Can anyone convert that for me? I’m guessing it’s around 2 miles? Anyway I was so tired after the German Gym last night that Anne & Peter dropped me off at my apartment around 8:30 and all I did was sit on the sofa and unwind. As I was typing yesterday’s entry, I was falling asleep. I couldn’t keep my eyes open. And as a result, I went to bed around 11-11:30 last night…that’s early for me. Even Anne knew that was early for me. I woke up first at 5 am, then at 6, then finally at 8 (just before my alarm). I was pooped!

Today was rather enjoyable. It felt more like (a NY) October (or an AZ February) than it did July. It was 63 degrees, cloudy and breezy. But I survived with no more than a sweater…no jacket needed. I am in shock. I suppose I’m just enjoying the break from the humidity and 95-100 degree days that await me back in the sandbox (I mean Tucson…). I stopped to have breakfast with Anne and we dropped Henry off at his grandmother’s (she lives downstairs from Anne) and she and I were off to the city for the afternoon. First I had to drop off a copy of my “proof of Catholicism” paper at the church where the christening will be held (which was easy…I just handed them the paper and that was it), then we walked to the train station. It was much easier to get around today without poor Henry and his stroller.

We first stopped at the Hamburg Rathouse (City Hall) for about 10 minutes while we waited for our bus to come. It’s actually the background photo to this blog. What a beautiful hall! I don’t remember if we had gone inside when I was here in 97. When you’re a teenager you don’t care about such things. Haha. We caught the bus and were headed towards the harbor portion of the city. Apparently the busses run on Peroxide from what Anne told me. Why can’t we do that in the US? What ever happened to that Corn fuel? The bus was a Mercedes Benz…..all public transportation is Mercedes…even the taxis. They’re inexpensive here.

We reached the harbor area and it reminded me a lot of the Baltimore Inner Harbor. It’s being built up and Anne said a lot of apartments are being built to help revitalize the area. They are building a Symphony Hall that looks like a cube. It’s HUGE. (Google the Elbphilharmonie, Hamburg). Hamburg residents are apparently upset because it is taking much longer and of course more money than anticipated to build the hall. On the other side of the harbor was a small exhibit about the hall and there were small cones sticking outside that played different pieces. It was pretty neat. Speaking of music, when Henry was crying this afternoon I pulled up a Baby Beethoven video (Für Elise) on my iPhone and he LOVED it….he was captivated and had a huge smile on his face. That made me really happy!
After our walk around the harbor area, we met with Anne’s sister, Sonja. Wow, has she grown up! I haven’t seen her in about 10 years. She helped us find a place to have lunch and then had to return to work. We ate at a restaurant on a canal. It was pretty tasty. They really loved baked potatoes with sour cream here. Who knew? That and of course Schnitzel and Wurst! Hahah.

We headed back home and after dinner I went shopping with Anne & Peter to get supplies and food for Sunday’s christening. Peter’s mother has a membership to a store that seems similar to BJ’s or Costco, but at a smaller scale. It’s actually for restaurant owners or those that are self-employed. We then stopped at another store that carries Trader Joes goods but it wasn’t an actual Trader Joes. It looked like a grocery outlet but it really wasn’t. Anyway on our way through the store they picked up “American Cookies” (aka Chocolate Chip cookies….that made us laugh), then I found Peanut Butter. I was in shock because they don’t eat or sell Peanut Butter here. Anne tried it back in 1996 and hated it. I think it was a texture thing. But I told Peter that Peanut Butter and Nutella go together well but he doesn’t believe me. He also found “Bagels” (…from Great Britain—although there were stars and stripes on the package, it said it was from England. What do the Brits know about Bagels?!). I can’t wait to see how those taste.

After shopping the three of us watched Chuck and Larry. I hadn’t seen it and they were happy to discover it can be played in English. They added subtitles for themselves (in English). Another “gay role” by Dave Matthews. ::sigh:: I was told that we are having breakfast at Peter’s parents place in the morning, about 10 people (he’s got a big family). This should be fun. It’s great exposure before the christening. Anne said there would be about 40 people there on Sunday. It is supposed to rain all weekend, but most of the nasty weather will be on Saturday.

Until tomorrow!!

Day three: July 28, 2011

Today was a calm day at home (most of the time). I first woke up at 5:30 am, then forced myself back to sleep and woke again at 6:30 am (which is about 9:30 pm Tucson time). I fell asleep again and woke to my alarm at 8:30. I went to Anne’s apartment to have breakfast and was again greeted with a happy baby smile. Poor Henry is most likely starting to get his teeth. He was fussy as the day went on. After breakfast I helped Anne with some household chores and then Anne, Henry, and I took a walk around the area in which Anne lives. Henry got a good nape in. I took some pictures of the cute A-frame houses that are in the area. There are some beautiful flowers and backyards. It’s very picturesque. We walked to a shopping center that happened to have a Farmer’s Market going on. I told Anne I am tempted to try some Bratwurst. It smelled so good! Speaking of Bratwurst, there sure are a lot of wurst commercials on TV here. Hahaha.

We walked back to the apartment and she fed Henry lunch. I played with the baby for a bit, he threw up again (just a little), but thankfully not on me! Henry went down for another nap in the afternoon and I took care of some post cards and emails. After he woke up (around 4), we stopped at the Post Office so I can mail my post cards (some of you need to keep an eye on your mailbox). After that we came back and had something to eat. Then they brought me to their gym—a German gym. Haha. What a trip that was to compare it to what’s at home. You try running for 30 minutes not knowing how fast you’re going or how far you’re going because the treadmill read in kilometers per hour km/h. I’ll work on the conversion. The cool thing about that treadmill is that it had a fan built into it to keep you cool. Why don’t our treadmills have that?! I was so exhausted afterwards that I went to bed around 11pm.

Day Two: July 27, 2011

Today was a long, but fun day. I managed to get to sleep around 12:30- 1am (which was about 3pm Tucson time. I slept well--the bed was comfortable. A bit firm to the way that I did not even sink in, but it was still comfortable nonetheless.  I woke up at 6:30 am. I was happy to hear that Peter’s mother had a spare hairdryer for me to use. Mine sounds as if it will die and go on fire when used with my power converter. I don’t need that happening. I went over to Anne’s apartment around 9 for breakfast and to get ready for the day. I accompanied her to her Mommy & Me class at the local hospital. She first asked the nurse that directs if it I could sit in and she said yes, but her English wasn’t so good. I managed to tell her in German that my German wasn’t as great either, but I understand it better than I can speak it. But I don’t think my German is THAT bad; I’m just embarrassed about my pronunciation I think. 

The babies in the class were so sweet. Henry has a friend named Lenny (notice the “non-German” names haha), Lenny is a month younger. He is so cute. Then there was an 11-week-old baby named Jennifer. She was quite the talker and had a full head of hair. Someone else came with a two-week-old baby that was soooo tiny. Adorable. Henry had fun with his friends he’s crawling all over the place and really, really, really wants to stand up. He pulls himself up and stands on his tippy toes in his playpen. He also places his feet under him and sticks his tush up in the air as if he’s ready to stand up and run. So cute.

After class was over we went back to Anne’s apartment and gave Henry lunch. Soon after we went to the city center of Hamburg by train. There is a train station not more than a 5-minute walk from Anne’s apartment and the ride in was about 30 minutes. But the hardest part is these stations aren’t very baby friendly. Strollers are not allowed on the escalators and some stations have NO elevators. One man was kind enough to help us carry the stroller (empty) up three levels of stairs to the platform. When we returned, Anne and I carried the stroller with a sleeping Henry inside it down those three levels of stairs.

It was another beautiful day. It must’ve been 75 or so. Too warm for sweaters for me! I thought I’d be cold! We walked by the lake in the middle of Hamburg and then we visited the Europa Passage Shopping Mall. Germany has sure built up since I was last here! This place was 5 level shopping mall with high-end shops, restaurants, and your typical mall stores. We had lunch (Chinese…very good!). Let me tell you it’s very strange to see an Asian speaking German. (Rini, I saw a couple Filipinos when we were outside and they were speaking German…..what? Yes.) Anyway I managed to order my own lunch and pay for it too. You don’t have to leave a tip, you can just round up your bill. Mine bill was 7.80 and so I paid 8.00. I felt bad leaving the waiter with 20 cents. But that’s just the way it is.

After lunch we did a bit of walking around and I did some shopping.  We stopped at a bookstore and I purchased some items, and as I was getting my change I see a coin with the Lincoln Memorial on it. How the heck did I manage to get a penny while in Germany? Only me. I was very amused. After walking around some more, we stopped at a coffee shop and I went to order. I was smart enough to ask if the cashier spoke English and thankfully she did. I needed COLD water, I was so thirsty.  You’d think a wetter climate would have me less thirsty.

The evening was rather uneventful. I called mom and dad, and then we watched a DVD of Henry that Peter made. It was very sweet. My Godson is just too adorable and he is extremely active.

And so ends the summary of Wednesday.  I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed living it. Until tomorrow!!

Traveling day: July 25th

 Hello from over the Northern Atlantic!

Wow, what a long day it’s been. And here it is Tuesday and it’s yet to reach midnight in Tucson. My day has been adventurous for sure. I tried to sleep at 9pm so I could get a nap in, and I slept for about 2 hours and then the cat woke me up. I think he was slightly confused as to why we were going to bed so early, but he went along with it. He woke me up around 11pm and tried so hard to get back to sleep but wound up tossing and turning until my alarm went off at 1:30 am.

The shuttle came and picked me up at 3:15, right on time and I had the van all to myself. I checked in my 43 pound suitcase and was the first one on line at the security area. Of course they don’t open until 4 am and so I had to wait about 15-20 minutes, which I was fine with. It’s as if the Tucson Airport is on a vacation timer and suddenly turns on at 4. I got through security in less than 5 minutes and had some breakfast and called dad.

The first flight was to Houston and was about 2 hours long in one mom’s favorite planes. A 65-70 seater regional jet. Ugh. My overstuffed backpack wouldn’t even fit under the seat, and I doubt it would fit in the miniature overheads so I had to deal with lack of legroom. The seats on those planes are also very narrow. I sat next to some Air Force kid (who was a real punk actually) who had a semi-black eye and when he slept his hands and arms would twitch…he hit me a few times. lol. He insisted I go to the red light district in Amsertdam. That’d be an awesome place to bring Henry! Start him off young! Hahaha.

The rinky dink plane landed in Houston at 9:30 local time and my flight to Newark was scheduled to start boarding at 10:10. I was freaking out. It was like Denver last Christmas all over again. We arrived in terminal B and I had to go E. Thankfully Houston has those awesome monorails (I felt like I was back in Epcot, BFF!). I got to Terminal E by 9:50 and then had to locate gate 18. Of course it was at the end of the dang wing. I had enough time to run to the bathroom and grab a Danish (of which the girl called it a Dan-ish instead of Dane-ish). Silly Texans!

I got to my seat and was just exhausted. This plane was about the same size plane that mom and I took to Hawaii and the flight was really nice. There were screens in the seat in front of us to listen to music or watch TV or track the flight. The TV selection was rather poor so I opted to listen to the classical stations they had piping into the plane when we boarded. They had an opera station and an instrumental one. I managed to doze off to Verdi and all that fun soprano stuff….actually not very different from my Romanticism class last semester. Haha. I slept through most of the 3 hour flight, which was great. While we were landing I started to talk to the lady sitting next to me and told her about what I’m doing with school and explained although I am from Long Island, I’m going to Germany by way of Tucson. She tells me she’s a choir director, but a volunteer one at her church and does handbells. Small world. She was en route to Copenhagen on a basically parallel flight to mine where she was arriving at 8 am and I will be arriving at 7:30. She was going on a vacation of Scandinavia. I’m so jealous. I’d love to see some of my family’s “roots.”  She also asked where my Long Island accent was. She literally said, “surely you weren’t born and raised there.” Hahaha. See, I’m so not like those people on How the States Got Their Shapes.

When we arrived in Newark I was in shock at how beautiful the terminal was! I knew they had redone it and renamed it not too long ago, but I really was expecting it to resemble Penn Station. Haha. The bathrooms did to an extent. I had a two hour lay over and managed to talk to mom and grab a B&W cookie and some Red Mango. What a tease it was to be able to see the outline of NYC and not get to go there for another 5 months. But I had my share of typical NY/NJ attitudes from the employees there (not to me, but to other people).  It was raining pretty steadily when we were leaving. I find it strange that the plane we took to Newark was bigger than the plane I am currently on. Yes, if you’re wondering what that means I am writing this out while flying over the Atlantic at 35,040 above sea level traveling at 600+ mph. I think we are at the half way point with 1850 miles to go (about 3.5 hrs left).

Dorothy, I’m sorry to report that your plug was not used on this flight. Our seats have standard plugs so I just used my regular charger. I even was able to charge my phone, which I thought was awesome. This plane also has the screens in the seats in front of you, but with a MUCH better entertainment selection. I will admit at first though that I sat in the wrong row at first. I apparently can’t tell the difference between 24 and 25. lol. Anyway, the screen is a touch screen and you have the option to watch about 40 movies from Avatar to Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, to sitcoms (there was one ep of Hawaii Five-0 which I watched before dinner…one of my favorite ones to boot). You can play games like Bejeweled on the TVs too. Their music selection isn’t so great, so that’s what I’m using my laptop for! J

While I ate dinner I watched the Obama Myth Busters Special. Dinner was okay. We had the option of beef ravioli or chicken. I had the chicken. It was grilled with some tomato sauce, peas, string beans and rice. We also got a side salad with Ranch dressing, a dinner roll, and two Milano cookies for desert.  It’s been a smooth flight so far, not too much turbulence. Which is great! 

Day one: July 26th

We landed a few minutes early at 7:25 am on Tuesday the 26^th.  About an hour before landing they suddenly turned on the cabin lights and pretty much woke everyone up (some people actually didn’t sleep at all during the 7.5 hour flight). They were giving us a light breakfast of a croissant with strawberry jam and butter, melon pieces (4 pieces total…not my favorite. I had one piece of Honeydew and one piece of Cantaloupe and called it a day) and coffee or tea. It was a surprise but, dang did they “force feed us.”

Once we passed through the clouds upon landing all I saw was green fields as far as the eye can see. I miss greenery!  I was allowed into the country (thanks Mr. Passport man) and my luggage arrived safely. I then spent some time trying to find Anne at the airport. Silly me exited out to the wrong terminal. Nothing crazy I just had to walk over to her. Anne & Peter got a new car…it’s a beautiful Nissan SUV (not a version that we have in the States), it has a HUGE sunroof….basically the entire roof is glass. It rides really nicely too. At the moment I still don’t feel like I’m in Germany. They live just outside of the city center in a quiet, green part of Hamburg. I am set up on my guest apartment until the 9^th (with no TV or internet…guess I really can study for those comps? Haha). It’s a cute little place in a quiet retirement community that will suffice for a week and a few days. I couldn’t live in such a small space forever. I will upload a walk through video on Facebook soon.  Henry is soo cute; he smiles at me and keeps staring at me. Anne and I wonder if it’s because I speak another language. Haha. He even puked on me this afternoon. Thankfully not a lot, but I thought it was funny. I met Anne’s mother in law who lives downstairs from her, and she baby sits two little 3 year olds. Hanna and Lewis (real German names, right?), they were both little blonde haired blue eyed kids. So cute…they saw me again that afternoon and shouted “hallo!” J Anne’s mother stopped by to see Henry and of course me too. It was great to see her again after 14 long years. We are able to converse a lot better now than in 1997. She made us lunch which was very tasty. I told Anne it was similar to the dinner I had on the plane. Chicken, rice and veggies. And then they gave me a sample of some Woodruff flavored ice cream. Very different, but tasty.

Anne and I went to the grocery store to get some things and I was amazed at the size of the store. Not as large as a store back home, but maybe ¾ the size. City live in Hamburg is much different than the town where Anne grew up. They had a small little grocery store, this place we went to today was like Fry’s (or Wegmans) meets BJs, but you don’t need to be a member. My tummy has been bothering me from traveling and I was on the search for Ginger Ale…I found it in the beverage center at the grocery store…I couldn’t help but giggle at the Schweppes bottle saying it was “American Ginger Ale”. (I will upload food photos soon). After shopping I came back to my apartment to lie down and I managed to sleep for an hour or two. I then returned to Anne & Peter’s apartment and watched the news with her and the German version of “Hoarders.” I am proud of myself that I can understand what’s going on. Although when Anne and her mother or mother in law speak, it’s a bit fast for me at the moment. I’ll blame the jet lag. I was surprised to see that it gets dark here at 10pm and the sky still had light in it around 11pm. Peter connected me to their wifi in the apartment, so I am able to check my email and FB from there once or twice a day.

It was quite nice out yesterday. I was afraid I would be freezing my tuchus off, but due to the humidity that I feel here (it had rained all last weekend so I feel the moisture), that made it feel warmer. It’s in the mid-upper 50s in the mornings and low-mid 70s during the day. I fared well with jeans, sweater, and flip flops.

Whew! This is quite and entry. It’s about two days worth of information. After all I did see two sunrises…one over Arizona, and the other over the UK. This morning I am accompanying Anne to her Mommy & me class with Henry. I was happy to be greeted with a big baby smile this morning! 

I hope you enjoyed my long update! 

All my bags are packed, I'm ready to go....

Tucson "International" Airport

Hello friends!

Today's the day! I'm currently sitting in the Tucson Int'l Airport at 4 am waiting to board my first flight (we will be boarding soon, actually) on my journey practically across the globe. I'm excited and nervous. I am also dreading the long day I have ahead of me. 17 hours from now, when I step into the Hamburg airport--for the first time in 14 years--it will be TOMORROW. (It will be 10pm in Tucson and 1am in NY).

I thought I'd give a brief history on how I know Anne (for those of you that have no clue). When I was in high school my German class had an exchange program with a Hauptschule (High School) in Neu Wulmstorf, Germany (a western suburb of Hamburg). In 1996 I begged my parents to host a student and they agreed. I was matched with Anne who is two years older than I. She and the other 20 students stayed for about 3 weeks and it was a tearful goodbye. The following year it was our turn to go to Germany and I again begged to go. My parents complied and in February of 1997 I was one of 25 students and one teacher to visit Germany. Not such a great time of year to go, it was rather gloomy...we saw the sun for less than 3 hours the entire month. But we had a wonderful time. We visited Berlin, Luneburg (sorry, the umlaut's missing!), Hamburg, Bremen, and Buxteheude. I took a side trip with Anne to visit her family in Bonn and I had the opportunity to visit Beethoven's birthplace. We went to some classes, reveled in the fact that 16 yr olds could drink there legally (I had maybe two sips of whatever...I wasn't much of a rebel as a teen), and we just enjoyed the experience. Since then, Anne has retuned to visit for summer vacations with my family. We took her to visit Grandma in Florida, we went to Washington DC the summer of 2001, and I even drove down to Baltimore to pick her up and bring her to Long Island for a weekend in 2007. I met up with Anne and her (then) new husband Peter in Los Angeles in March of 2010 for a few days during a layover they had from returning from their wedding/honeymoon in Hawaii. That was the last time we have seen one another. Over the course of 14 years we have kept in constant contact. She's called to surprise me for birthdays. It's been a wonderful friendship, I always cry when we have to part. :)

Last spring she kept trying to get a hold of me and I kept missing her calls. One day she finally caught up with me and she told me she was having a baby. I was so happy. Then she asked if I would be one of the Godmother's to this baby....and I cried. :) And she laughed at me. haha.  I was so touched and honored. The Godmothers are myself, her sister Sonja and her husband's sister. Of course I had to be there for the christening! Henry just turned 7 months last week and Anne tells me he has started to crawl. I am so very excited to meet him!

And here we are today...in the Tucson Airport getting ready to say goodbye to the heat of the desert and hello to the "cool" 70 degree temps of northern Europe for two weeks.

I will be staying in several places these next few days. I will be at Anne & Peter's apartment for a night or two, then in an apartment in a retirement complex for a week's time, we will visit Peter's sister in Rostok (Eastern portion of Germany on the Baltic coast), and I will possibly spend an evening or two with Anne's parents in Neu Wulmstorf. Anne told me that there is no internet access in the apartment I will be staying in (apparently retired Germans don't surf Facebook like some retired Americans I know!). I will be bringing my laptop to Anne & Peter's apartment every morning to update the blog and check my email (unless I pick up some free wifi haha) while I am in that location. It's a great excuse for me to focus more on the material for my comps, that's for sure! Gosh.

My phone will accept calls should anyone wish to call me. Please be advised that Hamburg is 9 hours ahead of Tucson, and 6 hours ahead of the East Coast. So if you call me at 4am, I'm not answering! haha. NO TEXTS please!

I should get this computer put away so I can board my flight. Keep an eye on my Facebook status as it should update as I travel! My layovers are not very long today, so you may not see a post on here until "tomorrow."

Adios for now Tucson, see you in two weeks! To my Tucson gang, see you in less than a month when class start! Where has the summer gone?!

To my NY friends and family, keep an eye to the sky around 5:45-6pm and wave to me as I take off from Newark! I promise to wave back! :)

I sure hope the years (5th-12th grade) of German will come back to me. I was semi-fluent when I graduated high school, but now I have a better listening and reading comprehension than anything. But Frau Hershey taught us well and I am very thankful for that! Vielen Dank! :)

Bye for now! :) I leave you with the weather for Hamburg for the next week.

One week to go, and lots to get done!

Ugh, packing. When I was younger, I would start packing for a trip a week ahead of time. Now, I pack maybe 1-2 days before hand. It could be that I'm more "experienced" as a packer, or that I'm lazy. At this point I think it's difficult to begin packing since I am unsure of the weather beyond the day I arrive (which--by the way--has changed to rain).  I know I can bank on the 65-75 degree highs and mid-50 degree lows (too bad I don't have my heavy winter PJ's here in Tucson. But that's good sleeping weather for sure). There's a lot that has to get done this week, so perhaps I should start gathering items and casually tossing them in my suitcase. 

In the world of entertainment, I had thought of renting several movies from iTunes (the movies on the flights look super boring), but then I had an idea. I will bring several DVDs with me to watch on my laptop. I also have the entire first season of Hawaii Five-0 on iTunes to keep me busy. ;) I might pick up some (good) magazines or a book (maybe I'll make a trip to Bookmans this week), but I have enough to read while I study for my comprehensive exams. My BFF Dorothy was kind enough to lend me her laptop power cord for flights, so I will have a constant power supply on the Trans-Atlantic flights. We laugh because her cord has earned so many miles (I even took it from New York to Tucson to Hawaii in January) and every flight I have been on to date has not had the power ports at my seat. She's experience the same thing. The cord is like a "Flat Stanley" at this rate, we think it's time to start a travel log for it. Finally several years later, it will be used! 

There is much to be done this week. Thankfully I have the next two days to myself to get things taken care of around the apartment. I am finally getting my hair cut on Friday. My last cut was in mid-May, I have not gone this long without a cut in YEARS. With the humidity we have been experiencing from the Monsoons here in Tucson, I have been so uncomfortable. My hair has reached my shoulders. I don't tend to cut much off, but it desperately needs a shaping and thinning out. I look like the Shaggy Dog! :) There are lots of lists and reminders on my cell phone so I don't forget anything. 

Here we go! Next post will be on departure day! :)

"I've lived in good climate, and it bores the hell out of me. I like weather rather than climate." - John Steinbeck

You know the date is getting close when you can see the weather for your departure day in the 10 day forecast! The weather in Tucson, Houston, Newark, and Hamburg looks pretty good. There is a chance of storms in Houston & Newark, but hopefully I will miss them. Lord knows I don't want to be stuck in Newark longer than I have to! Anyone ever been to that airport? Can I get bagels there?

The one thing that is making me giggle is the high temperature in Hamburg for the day I arrive....not even 70! That's winter weather here in Tucson! So I suppose I'll wear sweats and bring my hoodie on the plane since the low in Hamburg is 57 and I'm arriving at 7:30 am. I have a feeling I'm going to be made fun of! Time to break out the cashmere....in July?

Travel Itinerary

Hi everyone! Thanks for keeping up with me. :)  I thought I would at least post my travel itinerary for you so you can keep up with my globe trotting. My Facebook status will update automatically as I travel thanks to a handy gaget from Lufthansa called My Sky Status.

All times listed are LOCAL times:

Monday July 25:

Continental 1163

Departs Tucson at 5:10 am

Arrives in Houston at 9:32 am

1 hour 13 minute lay over 

Continental 106

Departs Houston at 10:45 am

Arrives in Newark at 3:25 pm

2 hour 15 minute lay over (ugh gross...Newark!)

Continental 74

Departs Newark (good riddance!) at 5:40 pm

Arrives in Hamburg, Germany on Tuesday 7/26 at 7:30 am 

Total travel time for the day: 17 hours and 20 minutes (with lay overs)

=======================================

Tuesday August 9:

Lufthansa 3390

Departs Hamburg at 7:30 am 

Arrives in London at 8:15 am 

3 and a half hour lay over 

Lufthansa 7621

Departs London at 11:40 am

Arrives in Houston at 3:50 pm

(a 10 hour flight!!!) 

1 hour 45 minute lay over

Continental 1193

Departs Houston at 5:35 pm

Arrives in Tucson at 6 pm 

Total travel time for the day: 19 hours 29 minutes with lay overs

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This should be an interesting adventure to say the least! The 10 hour flight has internet available so you can bet that I will be chatting with some of you from the airplane. :)

Weather

Test Post

This is a test post via my cell phone. I can blog via text message to keep you all in the loop! :)