Nach Italien, und zurück

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Hello Friends and Family!

John here for my third and final blog, not really but it sounds professional. Don't worry, there will be plenty more to come. So much has happened since my last blog that I have no idea where to start. In German, we would say "Ich habe keine ahnung" which is one of the daily phrases I use. It translates into "I have no idea", and it is usually what I reply to the old German ladies that ask me for directions. Although, I am getting better at understanding the german language, I wish they would slow down just a tad so a question doesn't just sound like one long word.

I just had a Fantabulous (that's my own word, mixing fantastic and... well I am sure you all know what the second word is) weekend away in Torino, Italy with my lovely girlfriend Allegra Williams and boy was it a trip or what. I was worried early on Thursday Morning about making it to the airport in time for my flight, because I had to take 2 quizzes and a test ALL before 2 o'clock. So I was able to get all that done in time to get on my bus that took me to the train station. From the Lüneburg train station, I took a train into the main Hamburg station. At this point, everything was going smoothly. I was feeling great about the weekend ahead of me, it was looking like I was going to be on time, and nothing could stop me. Except for a little thing we call the "Language Barrier". I still had to take the underground train to the airport. No biggie, right? Wrong. Either I was reading the wrong schedule, or they need to be more specific, but for the life of me I could not find which gate had this damn train. So I started going around asking random people if they knew. "Können Sie Englisch? Can you understand english? Please, can you help me???" I'd say about 2 out of the 13 people I asked replied nicely "No". All the others had absolutely no interest in helping this American boy out. Finally, in a frantic and running low on time, I jumped on a train that read "Airport". I thought to myself, I am in the clear. Then 4 stops later everyone was forced to get off of the train. End of the line. Frustrated, I thought aloud in english: "This doesn't look like the airport!" In this time, I had noticed other people with suitcases in my same boat. So from there, I followed them all to a packed bus. Infact, this bus was packed so full of people, I could feel the guy next to me breathing in my hear. Probably one of the more uncomfortable experiences in my life. This bus was hitting every red light and it looked like there was no chance that I was going to make it to the airport on time. Luckily, after 20 mins of this hell, we stopped and everybody piled out into the U-bahn station, which was in the town next to Hamburg. People were running like wild wolves with their suitcases at this point, clearly wanting to make it to the same destination as I. We found the train, jumped on it, and it took us all to the airport. MONKEY OFF MY BACK. I took my flights and landed in Milan safely, ready to take the train to Allegra's. But as I figured out when I arrived, all the trains stopped working at 10. I looked at my phone and I swear I watched the 9:59 turn into a 10. Like a kick to the jaw, I immediately swelled up with frustration. Luckily, Allegra was very helpful in finding transportation with me, and I found a bus that went from the airport to Torino. I waited for it to come, and when it did, the guy stared at me like he was waiting for me to pull out my ticket. Apparently you need to buy tickets BEFORE you get to the bus, which I had no idea about. Luckily, an old Italien lady was in the same boat and through her knowledge and competance of the Italian language, which I know nothing about, the man let us buy a ticket there. I got into Torino at about 2 and Legs was there waiting for me. I had finally made it!

Now, I know this blog just seems like one big complaint, which it is, but the amount of frustration/annoyance/uncomfortableness/ I had experienced throughout that entire 12 hour journey was something I have never experienced ever before. The feeling that I had when I saw Allegra when I got off that bus was completely euphoric and just darn delightful. I had pushed myself to keep going and not curl up into a ball and quit. I kept my head up(for most of the journey) and my proactive-ness flowing. Through that, I felt like I had grown a bit in life. These are the challenges I came here to fulfill to make myself a smarter and more aware man. Or boy, or dude works too. The struggles we experience in life and the way we handle them is what tells us what kind of a person we are. I worked hard to get there, and I had the best weekend so far over here. It was quite a reward. Plus, the food has to be the hands down best food in the world. Just delicious.

Well I am tired of writing, but this upcoming weekend the William-Watt Straße crew is heading to Amsterdam. I will put a blog up next week to let you all know how it was. Hope all is well with everyone!

John Boy

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