German plane rides

Today was one of the longest days I've ever spent on a plane. I left Seattle at 3pm on Sunday the 5th of July and arrived in Germany at 5:30pm on Monday. An 11 and a half hour flight from LAX to Munich was not my best plane ride. Yet, the flight attendents were pretty much amazing. They started to speak German to me, thinking that I would understand, and I did reply with Ja a few times, but they soon realized I didn't understand a word they were saying. Plus the old lady sitting next to me would practically yell at them in English. I guess she thought they didn't speak English.

Anyways, I slept for almost 6hrs so that help with the flight, but the old lady helped to entertain me. It turned out that she was going on a house exchange to Vienna and the other people were going to her house in Maui. After Vienna, she was going to Berlin. She had many interesting stories about her exchanges...I didn't think people actually did that, but I know better now.

Once arriving in Munich, I went through the easiest customs ever. The man looked at my passport and travel papers, asked where I was going, and then said thanks and looked at the next person. Right then, I knew I'd like it in Germany.

A guy named Rob from the lodge picked me up and we drove the hour and a half to Garmisch-Partenkirchen. I was surprised to see that the scenery in Germany was not that much different than the NW. The mountains seem to just come out of nowhere though. There are rolling hills, with small towns, and cattle roaming the fields...pretty much like the Sound of Music. It is truly beautiful.

I arrived at my dorms and found out that they are 2 to 3 miles away from the actual lodge and that I would either have to walk, run, or invest in a bike to get to work...great. Rob helped me load all my stuff inside and move into my room with a girl named Megan. She's 27 and a ski instructor...nice girl, but extremely messy. After moving in my stuff, I toured the dorm and found that it has everything from a laundry room, to a movie lounge. After unpacking, Megan invited me to dinner at a place called Peaches with her friends. I went since I hadn't eaten since 11am. The place was packed for cheap pizza night. We sat around eating pizza and drinking Germany's finest beer...