Finally, the day has come! My journey technically on early Tuesday morning (around 3 AM, actually) when my mom, sister, and I headed to Chicago to spend a couple of days there before my flight on Wednesday. This is the uninteresting part. We just did a few tourist-y things in Chicago, such as go see the bean. However, the next day I said my final goodbyes to my mom and sister (and it was way sadder than I would have predicted) and then at around 9:15, I finally boarded the Turkish airport, where I had nearly 11 hours to just sit there.
On the flight, I actually sat next to a really nice Turkish lady who offered me gum and Doritos. Though, as the flight went on she started to annoy me, asking me stupid questions such as "Where do I plug in my headphones to watch a movie" and then she would always ask to get up (she was next to the window) and be gone for 15 or 20 minutes, then disturb me again to sit. Finally we just swap seats cause I wanted to sleep. I thought I'd watch several films on this flight, but I really only watched about 20 minutes of Identity Thief. I had too much on my mind to focus on watching a movie.
So then finally I land at the airport in Istanbul, Turkey. This was the part of travelling I was most nervous about. I don't speak any Turkish and was definitely not confident in my German. Somehow, though, I managed to figure out exactly where to go with literally saying not a single word in any language. I literally just spent 2 hours sitting there, looking at a screen waiting for it to say "TK 1709 Stuttgart -- Go to Gate" We actually boarded 20 minutes late, but still managed to only leave 5 to 10 minutes late. This flight I sat between two German men. They talked over me most of the time and I just awkwardly sat there. I was nervous about this flight for the same reason as I was in the airport. What surprised me though, was that the flight attendants spoke not Turkish and German.....but Turkish and English. As in, if you didn't speak Turkish or English, you were basically SOL. Phew.
Finally I arrived in Stuttgart! Here I had to go through customs, which took like 2 seconds. The man asked me why I was there, laughed at my "Checkpoint Charlie" stamp from when I was there in summer 2011, pointed at it and showed his partner, then gave it back to me. Um. Excuse me for being American wanting a Checkpoint Charlie stamp three summers before now.
Baggage claim. This was way more stressful than it should have been. I seriously stood there for 20 or more minutes waiting for mine to come around on the belt. I was getting some serious worries that neither of my two luggage bags were there. But finally they both came, next to each other. :D After claiming my baggage, I walked through a door where I was instantly greeted by Shannon (my host-sister) and her father. Ater a two hour drive to Pfaffenweiler, I was finally at my new home. They briefly showed me around my floor (Yes, floor. I basically live alone in the basement, complete with my own bathroom a TV!), we sat down briefly and drank a beer, then I went downstairs and slept finally.
So it's late here and I'm tired. Soon I'll update and talk about my first couple of days here! It's been a great day, though.
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