Flying

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Sunday… or Saturday? I’m not sure anymore. Between flying 6000 miles and daylight savings time, I’m not sure what time it is.

The flight from Spokane to Denver was uneventful. Denver was uneventful. The flight from Denver to Frankfurt was uneventful, mostly. I sat down and the man in front of me was possibly the tallest man I’ve ever seen in my life. The flight attendants kept trying to find him a different seat, but the plane was full. He leaned his seat all the way back and blocked out my reading light. I don’t know how he got it back that far. The guy next to me was in the window seat (I was aisle) and he got up for something. When he came back, he asked if I wanted the window. Heck yes! Once we traded, I found out his name was Lars? I still haven’t figured out why he wanted to trade, but when I saw how much he was up and down, I’m glad we did. He was reading GQ in German. The window seat enabled me to sleep for about 7 of the 9 hours. So nice. I’d wake up and move and sleep and wake up and sleep. When I woke up for good, more than anything, I was hungry. As I was moving, I’d glance at the monitors. It told us how high we were and how cold it was outside (-61F!) and how far we had to go and other relevant information. It also showed a map with a plane on it and where we were in relation to other things. Kinda cool. The last time I woke up, we were somewhere over Ireland, and I felt refreshed. I had slept well; well enough to dream, at least. I dreamt of LC and our team and making chicken pot pie.

As we neared Frankfurt, they started giving directions over the intercom and on the monitors. It was kind of frustrating because they did everything in German, then English. I decided that Germans take twice as long to say anything. Then I started thinking about everyone who comes to America, or even just the farm, that doesn’t speak English. When I was in Mexico, I knew enough Spanish to understand what was going on; such is not the case here. The flight attendant asked me if I wanted breakfast and I had no idea what she was talking about.

We came out of the clouds and upon my first view of Frankfurt, only one word came to mind. Beautiful. Their climate is similar to ours and all the trees are turning orange and gold and red. There are clusters of houses that seem unattached all over. Looking down, I realized that I haven’t really been outside in almost 15 hours.

Customs was mostly painless, once I found my way through all the people to the correct gate. I think the guy was making fun of me a little, as he said something to me, but I didn’t catch it all. As is the case when anyone speaks to me with an accent, I answered him in Spanish. I don’t think that’s helpful here.

I got out the doors and was met by a nice German boy with a sign. We walked towards another nice German boy with another sign who was waiting for someone else. We waited for a bit, and Pamela walked out. I was so excited to see her. I knew she’d be my roommate and was from Canada and is the video director. That’s the extent of what she was to me. She’s 20 (which I was not expecting. All the Pams I know are old…er), born in Mexico City but lives in Calgary. Video director at her church and we hit it off! We talked about traveling and tech stuff. I had to laugh when she said something about how it’s hard to find the balance between lighting for video and lighting for stage. Someone else is struggling with that too! Both of us agreed that it was fun to have someone else from a different church that understands things like that. (Her church has about 7000 and is built similar to ours, lighting-wise.) We laughed a lot and have a weird amount of things in common. Should be good!

Once we got in, I walked around the neighborhood a bit. It’s beautiful! A quaint little town with lots of history. Exactly what you’d picture. Pam and I joined some of the rest of the group for a tour of the old part of town. It was fun meeting people and getting to chat with them a bit as we walked. We’ve got people from Chicago, Ohio, Dallas, Kansas City (MO), LA, Arizona, upstate New York, Germany… After the tour, several of us went to dinner together. We had a blast hearing stories, and we laughed a lot. It was hard because not everyone was there, so we were trying to piece together the names and faces of those on our teams but were missing some.

The tour guide took us into their huge church that they built in the 13th century. Well, they tried to build it. She said it this way. “The problem was they wanted to build a new church, but still needed to use the old one. So they build one new wall behind the old one, then tore down the old one. Then another new wall and tore down the old one. Then the third. They built part of the forth wall and the city went bankrupt. No forth wall, no roof, no second tower. They still haven’t finished it. And I thought I was bad at finishing what I started! It was a beautiful cathedral. We went inside and she pointed out that the builders kept changing their themes as they went. The windows on the first wall have 2 panes. The windows on the 2nd wall have 3 panes. The last finished wall as 4 panes. The pillars are different sizes and some are squared off and some aren’t. The décor at the top is completely different. I had to laugh and think of our CMT and how they’d have a field day! She showed us that all the stones were painted red and they painted white lines to look like junctions so they looked like they were all the same size. It’s a pretty cool story altogether.

When we got back, some guy in the hallway said to me, “Meet me in the bar in half an hour.” I did. Just kidding. He’s the main LD on the show and we did all meet in the bar to talk shop about tomorrow. It’s a far cry from how LC does things. They were talking about something funny when I got there. Later in the meeting, I referenced it and the guys (all the other people on my team are guys, of course) laughed and said I’ll fit in just fine. I laughed and said that all technicians have the same jokes. The SM said, “Yeah, there are no inside jokes with tech crews because everyone has the same inside jokes with their crews at home.” Pretty fun. I still have no idea what tomorrow holds other than load in. They said there may be some time where I’m just twiddling my thumbs. I quickly replied that I would not be twiddling- I’d be standing by. Looks like a good group with breadth as well as depth of experience. At the end of our meeting, we ended up talking about different ideas for “video walls” and how they do Bill’s white easel paper for camera.

When Pam and I were getting back to the room, we were talking about the day. It’s fun to see so many people from so many different places and backgrounds and denominations all here for the same thing. So many representatives from the local Church who believe in the local Church and want to see the local Church do huge things. I look forward to the next few days of learning and serving.

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Comments

[Angie]

Jami in a bar?!!?
Hey Webs! I think you're in your element! It's so great to read whats happening in such detail. I am so excited for you! How is Angelami adapting? Picking up any cute German muskrats? I want pics! You're in my prayers! Love ya! Angie