Three things: I am sick, jet lagged and my head feels like its somewhere in the clouds, so please forgive my spelling/grammer.
Weather Condition Case History brought to you by TANK GIRL: We left Atlanta on Tuesday night at 6pm, it was a beautiful sunny day, but very cold and windy. Once we arrived in Frankfurt it was sunny and the sun felt warm, but on the shuttle to Illesheim is was very foggy and cold.
LEGS and I arrived at the airport 6 hours before our flight departed, for several reasons, to get Karmella figured out, to check our bags, and because we had to check out of the hotel by 1230 pm.
Unfortunately I had come down with a cold. My throat was dry, scratchy and felt like somebody had set it on fire, and my nose was clogged up and draining into my already raw throat. I didn't feel like myself which was annoying because I had envisioned being so excited and happy on the day we left, but instead I was sitting in the airport miserable and trying very hard to pull off the act of being happy and jovial.
Several other military families were there very early as well. We made new friends that will be stationed all through out NEVER NEVER LAND. We had to wait several hours for the flight check in staff to arrive, but once they arrived we were first in line. We successfully checked in all of our luggage and were able to get Karmella on board. At this point I started to experience the relief and elation of making one of my life long dreams come true.
We took Karmella outside for awhile, gave her some water and food. I wanted to tire her out as much as possible for the long plane ride. After painlessly getting through security we went and had our last dose of American Food at T.G.I. Fridays in the International Section of the International Atlanta Airport.
A few observations:
* One bonus to being military is short security lines (we have a special line) at the airport and they don't give you too much grief.
* We were only allowed plastic knives, which LEGS was confident if somebody was really motivated they could hurt somebody with it, he didn't need to convince me as I worked in a Juvenile Delinquent Center where 'shanks' were common.
* I noticed an immediate change in style and culture:
-People were dressed in all kinds of clothes, we saw people with turbans, traditional middle eastern dress, high fashion, high heels
skinny jeans, high boots with high heels, flip flops etc.
- They had a live piano playing in the center of the food court, fresh flowers on every table, lots of high quality alcoholic beverages to choose from.
During dinner, LEGS had a margarita, but due to my current condition of having a raging head cold I opted for Air Borne, pain reliever, and sleeping pills. We also sprinkled Karmella with pixie dust, who, was beginning to act up.
Once we got on the plane, we were fortunate because it was not a full flight and we had an extra empty chair in our row of three. By this time, Karmella was tripping!!! I put her in her container on my lap and proceeded though exhausted and sick to comfort her for the first 6 hours of the flight. LEGS helped me as much as he could, all she wanted was to be on my lap, however the flight attendants were very watchful and continually harassed me about Karmella's head poking out of the container. During the last 20 minutes of the flight, Karmella ripped a gigantic hole in the side of the container and NEXT TIME she WILL BE put under the plane.
The next part of the trip was one of the worst parts of my life.
We de-boarded the plane, went through passport checks, and went to pick up our luggage. We sat there and waited a very long time for our luggage and soon realized it may not have arrived. We asked the airport staff what was wrong, at first they said, they had a dilemma unloading the plane and our luggage should arrive on the claim shortly. Then they said that our baggage had not arrived and we needed to file a claim with the luggage people.
I found this amusing since we had only taken ONE flight straight from Atlanta, but LEGS and this German lady were PISSED. Watching a German woman curse in half English half German was incredibly entertaining. It was also funny that she walked up to LEGS and asked him a question in German, he just sheepishly smiled and requested she speak in English.
I went to the bathroom and could not figure out how to work the faucets, a lady in there chuckled playfully at me and showed me how to work it. I started to really feel isolated, everybody was speaking a different language, all the announcements were made in GERMAN on the plane and in the airport........this language barrier is not going to last long with this talkative girl.
We went over to the Luggage claim place and the most wonderful thing happened. Our luggage popped out on the claim. I felt as if I had won the lottery, all of us were hooping and hollering as only those silly Americans would.
Once we got out luggage we were paraded through the entire airport in single file line following US Army Staff. I found this slightly humiliating for several reasons; number one they told us not to draw attention to our military/American background while en route, and once seeing the sophistication of the surrounding Europeans I began to feel uncomfortable with the sloppiness of my American counterparts.
We were led to the US Military 'reception area' where we were once again lined up and herded like cattle for role call etc. As I looked around I could not determine who was leaving and who was arriving in GERMANY, but I was shocked at how many people were there due to the fact that I thought we were a little special for getting this particular duty station.
We had to wait several hours for the shuttle. I was absolutely miserable, my ears began to hurt, my nose was either running/dripping, or plugged up solid, I was so exhausted my eyes were red, dry and burning. We couldn't catch any rest because of how uncomfortable this 'reception area' was. LEGS and I had some coffee at Starbucks, he told everybody via facebook we had arrived safely, we walked Karmella who was now perfectly calm and VERY well behaved......
I had to keep going to the bathroom to get toilet paper to blow my nose. European Toilet Paper is like sandpaper, so my nose was completely raw, red and begging for Kleenex. Still I told myself to remain optimistic and not ruin LEGS' arrival in NEVER NEVER LAND.
I watched in utter humiliation as my American counterparts completely botched the obvious and easy to follow recycling trash containers. Then I observed one of the sanitation workers basically re-separate the waste properly, it was sooooooooo embarrassing, no wonder these people can't stand Americans, and the American Military.
Finally we were rounded up like sheep again, paraded through the airport in single file again, and loaded onto the shuttle. By this time we were so tired, exhausted and beside ourselves that we were only keeping our eyes open by manually holding them open. The battle was lost when hit thick fog and weren't able to see anything. LEGS and ARMS passed out so badly we were both mouths open, drooling and snoring....
Several hours later we were dropped off on the base in Illeshiem, which was severely obscured by thick fog. We had to move our 500 gigantic bags for the millioneth time five different times, before we were whisked away by our sponsor and his wife and put into the 'Pastorius House.' A little bed and breakfast.
LEGS went with his sponsor to get sandwhich's from 'Doner's', which is comparable to a Gyro. We both visited with the Peterson's who are located downstairs in the same B&B, then we took Melatonin and passed OUT!
Over & Out.....
Just another relocation, duty station, oversea's trip in the life of an unlikely military wife.......**
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