theflorencefiles

[theflorencefiles]

I just want y'all to know that my hostel in Barcelona has this weirdly intense drawing of Groot touching Rocket Raccoon's face and I don't know how I feel about that.

[theflorencefiles]

Guess who just accidentally gatecrashed a funeral?

This dumb bitch.

[theflorencefiles]

Day 0.5 - August 29, 2017

UPDATE: I MADE IT!

It is 11:11 pm Florence time which is the same as German time

I made it. I actually made it. 

It doesn't look like much but I made it. 

11:18

There is no baggage claim. Just picking up my bag off the tarmac. Awesome. 

Nvmd that's just small checked baggage I still gotta pick up my shit. 

So apparently there's like giant ass mosquitoes here I should get some bug spray. 

Darcy lost her phone(?) getting off the plane in Düsseldorf so we waited for her to fill out paperwork to try and get it from the lost and found. I don't think she'll find it – there's too many variables for it to have made it to Florence. Also the Italian airport seems really disorganized – a ton of passengers lost their luggage. 

And that’s all I’ve got for prewritten updates. I have no pictures from the Italian airport for you, I’m sure you’re devastated. Anyways, just a quick wrap up, after picking up my bags I met Danny (and Valentina, who is super sweet) by the exit and we left - I didn’t have to go through customs or anything, which was kinda weird, but I’m glad I didn’t have to take the extra time. Upon arriving at the hotel, which Danny generously booked, I lugged my enormous bag into my room, was unable to figure out how to work the light switch (apparently you have to put your room key into a slot on the wall for it to work) fished out a phone charger, and fell asleep (sheer exhaustion: 1, jet lag: 0).

[theflorencefiles]

Day 0.5 - August 29, 2017

Update: 6:14 PM German time

Flight still hasn't shown up on departures board despite the fact that flights after mine have appeared. I don't want to get up to talk to people but it looks like I'm gonna have to if I want to see what's going on.

6:53

Asked someone for help and learned that apparently I am in the wrong terminal/wing of the airport. I got talked down to by some flight attendants at an empty gate who I asked for help and they directed me down a creepy empty set of stairs to customs where I had to go through passport checks/security like getting my passport stamped and everything and I thought I was in the wrong area again when I first got there so I turned around and headed in the other direction and I was literally the only person in this whole massive stretch of hallway (see picture)  - tres creepy. So I go to the whole other side of the airport (just follow the green line with yellow arrows to the connecting flights terminals in gates A and B) to be fair the woman who checked my passport was nice. It's a long ass walk though - past all the baggage claim centers and up a bunch of stairs and then I had to go through the German equivalent of the TSA again and I also got picked for a random check and patted down. Then my bag got flagged for a random check and I panicked and thought it was because of my prescription so I was dumb and asked if the frickin prescriptions were why I got stopped - I might as well have held up a sign and shouted "I'm carrying drugs" at top volume - but luckily the security chick was like done and didn't investigate further or whatever. And I was hot and sweaty and because I wasn't expecting to go through security again my water was full so I looked like a moron and had to dump it and maybe they just didn't speak English but no one would talk to me or acknowledge me and the people were rude and then once I was through security I still had to find my damn gate which was not listed anywhere because my flight got delayed an hour or actually no it's not listed as delayed the departure time is just listed as an hour later than what's on my ticket. And my gate is in the asscrack of nowhere and I can't find anywhere to refill my water and just ugh.

Also my head is like overcrowding on languages I've been listening to at least five all day and my head is spinning because it wants to translate them all but it can't because I only speak one of those!

Update: Mildly later, once I’d calmed down.

All I gotta say is thank God mom convinced me to get a flight with a longer layover because I really wouldn't have made it in time if I only had a 45 minute layover

Also apparently smoothies are really big in Germany - or at least the Düsseldorf airport because I've seen a lot of smoothie bars.

They sell chewable toothbrushes in the bathrooms - gotta say I'm tempted. It's been like a day and a half or something since I brushed and I feel nasty. Also how often am I gonna get the chance?

8:54

Met a bunch of other CSU students at my gate. Thank goodness. None of them know where they're living either.

There's Darcy, the African American possibly Irish one (didn't catch her major).

Alice named after her dad's mom but Americanized from her family's native language, which I only know is middle eastern.

Nora who is Hungarian.

And Sha, the one who's full name I can't remember but who is super nice so far and does not intend to reinvent his wardrobe.

Also: I paid extra for a window seat on this flight and somehow managed to pick the only row with no window.

We are currently sitting in an honest to God twin prop propellor plane. We had to ride a bus over the tarmac to get out to the plane and then I got to climb real airplane stairs to get in - I feel like I'm in a black and white movie. Is this Casablanca? Woohoo!

Airports are creepy when they’re empty.

Sunset from a new continent.

Me, tired as balls.

[theflorencefiles]

Day 0.5 - August 29, 2017

Update: 3:58 PM

Ok I've relocated. It has several things have occurred to me as I was wandering the shops.

1. They sell a shit ton of beer in Germany – this stereotype is true.

2. I am old enough to buy and drink said beer.

3. They also sell cheese and sausage and such in German airports that looks really good but that's probs because it's morning for me even though it's 4:00 here and thus I need to take my meds soon. Because it's morning I mean

4. I am currently writing this while hidden in a corner. What gives.

5. This airport is really quiet. Weirdly quiet.

6. They sell kinder eggs in Germany. Kinder eggs that I am old enough to buy.

7. It has occurred to me that I have no money.

8. Is the tap water safe to drink here?

9. So far, in the 20 square meters of it that I've tracked, Europe has excellent recycling facilities.

10. My adapter is in my other bag so I can't charge anything

The food here smells really good. I exchanged some cash and got my first euros (they're so colorful!!!) and got a rolbrot?? It smells delicious??? Picture????

5:56

Was digging around in my bag for a pencil with lead in it when I found a card mom slipped in there for me. That really made my (weirdly unending thanks to time zone shenanigans) day. Things would be near perfect (as perfect as you can get while trapped in an airport) if my flight information would show up on the damn departures board I'm sitting across from.

[theflorencefiles]

Day 0.5 Update: 6:15 California time August 29, 2017

First glimpse of a new continent. I'll take a picture.

Update: 6:16

Can't get a clear shot it's too cloudy. But there's fields! And houses! And trees! And it's real! It's really real! I made it to a whole new world! Technically I made it to the old world but whatevs

3:23 pm (German time)

Touchdown. Will update again when I hit German soil.

3:31

It's humid as shit

3:41

The bathrooms are super nice – much more spacious than in the US. They also have tampon machines in them that aren't empty all the time!!!! And on top of that the bathrooms sell condoms and vibrators which is insanely cool. There's a surprising amount of signs written solely in English – like English shops and stuff yknow? Not sure where I need to go now – my flight is far enough in the future (at about 8:30 I think? I'd need to double check (that should be my catch phrase by now "I need to double check") that it doesn't seem to be showing up on the schedule board.

Just texted mom to let her know I made it safely – let's see if the WhatsApp goes through.

Ok I gotta stop and mention this – I'm sitting outside of a random gate near some shops and the restaurant next to me is playing "Take On Me" really loudly as like ambiance music or something and I'm trying my best not to laugh. Maybe it’s the sleep deprivation.

I have seen two refugees so far.

Ok I feel like one of the guards has been giving me weird looks for sitting here for so long. I'm gonna move.

Ok now they're playing "Help" by The Beatles.

[theflorencefiles]

Straightening my hair really brings out the best in my hair. Getting ready for a night at the club.

[theflorencefiles]

Day 0.5 - An Interlude

Before continuing I’d like to take a moment to do something that I was too exhausted and cranky to think of doing during the flight: describe the actual plane.

My first flight aboard one of Air Berlin’s finest was from San Francisco to Düsseldorf, with a connecting flight from there to Florence, where I am (as I type this) currently sitting and enjoying my year studying abroad.

The road to get here was long, full of stumbling blocks, missteps, and even (yes) dumb mistakes.

But that’s another post for another day.

While at the airport, I bought a hummus plate (having forgotten the leftover sushi I had planned to bring from home) which consisted of watery hummus, some decent pita bread, really dry falafel, and a weird cucumber salad which I tried to eat because it was healthy, but then gave up on after two bites because hey, it’s airline food – how healthy could it be?

My flight to Düsseldorf took off at 8:00 PM on August 28, 2017 California time, and I was allowed to board at 7:45 (the latest possible time). I hadn’t bothered to shell in for a better seat for the first half of the flight so I ended up in the middle row of seats near the center of the plane, and while I had an aisle seat, I still couldn’t see very well out of any of the windows.

Here’s a fun fact about Air Berlin: They filed for some form of bankruptcy (after a quick Google search I think it was “insolvency”) a mere thirteen days before the flight I’ve been planning, stressing, and waiting for for the last six months.

I was not told about this btw, my grandfather, who is a retired accountant, mentioned that he’d “heard about some European airline going bankrupt and was that my flight by any chance?” this happened I think three days before my flight. A quick Google search at the dinner table confirmed that this was, indeed, my airline. So the next day I called the customer service line and called to make sure that my flight hadn’t been cancelled, and it hadn’t so everything worked out fine but it was still a scare.

Anyways. Each seat (even us lowly economy-class passengers) was given a pillow and blanket for the night. So, like sweet. However, at my mom’s suggestion/urging I had managed to fit my pillow from home into my laptop bag (it should be noted for posterity’s sake that this was the only thing in that bag), and can I just say it was a godsend – the airline pillows were fucking tiny – thanks mom.

The plane was decently sized, crammed with passengers from all over Europe on their way home from vacation, and the occasional baffled American tourist just to keep things interesting.

For the record, I was one of those baffled Americans. While I am conversational in Spanish and well on my way there in Italian, I don’t speak a word of German, and it showed. However, Air Berlin was prepared for my ineptitude, or perhaps just for the diversity of languages in Europe, and had each of the touchscreens in the backs of the seats programmed for German, Spanish, French, and English – thank goodness.

The touchscreen program was actually really nice – it was all free of charge, and included movies, TV shows, information about the airline, in flight meal options (which we would have had to request before boarding – and paid extra for), as well as a few games like mahjong and solitaire. But my favorite feature was the flight tracker, which showed where we were as well as giving occasional updates on how long we had until landing, the outside temperature (usually below zero given that we were a few miles up), and air speed. I stared at that screen a lot – pretty much whenever I had the machine on.

The in-flight meal consisted of a choice between pasta or chicken, and the flight attendant serving us went down one aisle of the plane first, and then the other as those of us on the other side looked longingly at the food. They actually gave us a lot of food, and while I had technically eaten at the terminal, the food would have given me a purpose, and thus a means to alleviate the crushing boredom. We were given a roll, coleslaw, some sort of mystery desert, rice, butter, and a cup of water stored the same way you would apple sauce in a kids lunch.

Of course, by the time the flight attendant came up my side of the plane all of the pasta was gone as everyone had (wisely) chosen to skip the rather sketchy looking chicken. But I ate it all anyways. I'm so ashamed.

For breakfast there was only one option – orange juice (although the drinks cart offered coffee), a muffin, butter, jam, a warm roll, some nasty yogurt, a slice of brie, and some meat to put on the roll I think. That’s all I remember.

Also, there was almost no leg room.

So that pretty much sums up everything I remember about the flight over here.

[theflorencefiles]

Day 0.5 - 5:51 AM California Time

August 29, 2017

Update (on the longest flight ever)

We land in 30 minutes in Düsseldorf. Jesus Christ that was a long flight. I could not fucking sleep for the life of me. The seat reclined maybe an inch and the guy sitting behind me was really tall and had hardly any leg room so I felt bad for using the recliner at all. I ended up taking over the seat next to mine (which was empty) and trying to turn that into a makeshift bed. Sorry to the nice Spanish woman one seat over who I kinda nabbed that idea from (she tried the idea first). I’m not really sure if I managed to get any sleep at all, but if I did, it wasn’t very much, and it wasn’t very good.

Now that it's 'morning' a lot of women pulled out like bags of makeup and just started doing their faces on the plane?? Maybe that's normal, but I've never seen it before and it was amusing to me so I'm mentioning it. Fuck I'm tired.

[theflorencefiles]

Day 0 - 8:52 PM

August 28, 2017 

Update Update: 

Food is taking forever. 

[theflorencefiles]

Day 0 - 8:34 PM

August 28, 2017

Shortly after take-off in the most cramped plane in existence.

Update:

Fuck I'm bored. The woman in the row in front of me is watching beauty and the beast with Emma Watson. The guy in front of her is watching mad max. I just gotta say that's a really jarring shift in aesthetics from one to the other. When does this flight land anyway? I don't remember. Fuck. I'm tempted to go to sleep but they're gonna be serving food (full of calories I don't need rn) and sad as it is I’m looking forward to it.

Fuck it I want food.

[theflorencefiles]

Day 0 - 7:45 PM

August 28, 2017

Update:

So long new world, bring on the old.

[theflorencefiles]

Day 0 - San Francisco

Me and my luggage (the picture doesn’t do the size of the suitcase justice).

August 28, 2017 at gate A7 at sfo.

Plane boards in exactly 20 minutes and I will be off to Düsseldorf and from there, Florence. I'm sitting on the floor in a corner so my phone can barge – I don't know when I'll get the chance to charge it again. My trip through security was uneventful aside from the fact that I was crying a little bit from saying goodbye to my mom. A security guard asked me if I was all right – he thought I was in pain. I gotta say I feel really sexy today in my skinny jeans, new boots, and fave red shirt with the cute Italian bralette. Is this exposition writing? It feels like exposition writing – any second now I’ll introduce myself as enoby dementia Raven way. Vampire. Maybe I'll take a selfie at some point soon to include here. But probably not. Then again my mom and I took a bunch of pictures today. I feel so nervous but at the same time I'm calm – I feel like I should be more scared. There's a simultaneous mix of butterflies and a large rock in my guts right now. 14 minutes. Phone is at 92%. Hopefully I'll hit 100% before we board. Jeez this is the most boring intro chapter ever. I guess that's cuz nothing has happened yet. Alright imma try and fill my water before I have to board. Will write more later.

[theflorencefiles]

Saying goodbye to my sweet sweet girl - Bubbles (the Wonderdog). She saw the suitcase by the door and was moping all day because she knew someone was leaving. 

[theflorencefiles]

My mom, grandparents, and me at a farewell sushi lunch the day I left - miss you all!