Trip Reflections

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This post and the next were written before the posting date. There isn’t an internet connection in the Superdorm right now… it’s broken. Which sucks. I had to wander over to a different part of campus with my laptop this afternoon to send a late “I’m here” email to my parents. So yeah, I started writing about my trip in word, and then copy-pasted it.

Anyways, I thought I’d just write a quick blurb about my flight/trip here, since my roommates haven’t shown up yet and I’m bored. The flight out of Chicago was lucky. The previous night (Monday) there was crazy-thick fog and some flight delays. Tuesday there was pretty decent weather, and I flew out of O’Hare at 4:30 towards Amsterdam. The plane was huge, with two passenger floors, and my floor had 3 seats, aisle, 4 seats, aisle, 3 seats. Most everyone had only one other person in his or her clump, and several clumps were empty altogether. I sat with a very personable character. Andre was white, with a British accent, going back to his native country of South Africa for holiday to see family. He had been with a company that used remote submarines for scouting and construction purposes, like exploring the Titanic or investigating around an oil rig. He was part of the operations branch for a while, took 8 years off, in the interim ran a skydiving place by Kenosha, WI, and now was back with the company in the construction aspect, meaning that he shows up, sets up and organizes the facility, then leaves for another area while the operations branch takes over. Neat guy.

The trip was short about 6 hours, and I only managed about 3 hours of sleep total. The flights were run by KLM, which I think is a Dutch company. Flight instructions/updates were given out in a variety of languages by bilingual pilots and flight attendants. Honestly, it sounded like the gypsies from “Snatch” and the only thing I understood with certainty was “Schiesse!” exclaimed by an attendant after she dropped something in the galley.

I arrived in Amsterdam just before dawn, and managed to find my next gate and get my new boarding pass within a half hour, letting my kill another hour and a half waiting to get on the plane to Istanbul. It was fun to people watch. There were a number of Germans on this flight, an older couple and a few businessmen. It had been a while since I’ve thought in German, but it was fun to eavesdrop. It was a short flight, and while I managed to doze a bit, there was no real sleep. Upon arrival, everyone exited the plane, and began following the signs towards the baggage claim, which for some odd reason disappeared and I heard the older German man muttering to his wife “Ich kenned das night, warum sie…” meaning “I don’t know/understand why they…” I was confused as well. The signs pointing us toward baggage claim suddenly became lines for passports and visas, so I took a gamble, got into a line, was processed and ended up on the other side, with baggage claim in front of me. I got my big bag, and went outside to catch a taxi. I put my stuff in the trunk, handed him a sheet, pointed to the address I wanted (the Superdorm) and had a brief chat as we left the airport. I don’t think we dropped below 100 kph the entire trip, which lasted about 20-30 minutes as far as I could tell. It was fantastic to speed through the city… everywhere I looked was something noteworthy, and it was fun.

Partway through the drive, there was a mistake, which I wasn’t able to understand until later. Because I didn’t have a lot of paper, I wrote down the address of the International Office and the Superdorm on the same page that I gave to the taxi driver. When the driver went to double check the address, he looked at the wrong one, and me not knowing any better, didn’t protest. So I ended up on South Campus, which isn’t far from the Superdorm, but not knowing the campus and not being able to find a map, it took about an hour or so, and the help and directions of about 5 different people. I explored a chunk of the South Campus, both parts of North Campus before one of the campus security guys walked me the five minutes to the Superdorm. All in all it was an interesting experience. I felt very alone, as no one could understand me, but I never felt in danger, or threatened, just lost and confused. I feel like a fool, for not being able to handle it any other way than wandering around, but it all worked out and although I’m still very cautious on the streets, I also feel pretty safe as I continue to explore.

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