Oh the trials of traveling (especially when you have the terrible triad an international flight, Delta Airline, and Atlanta Airport)! Those three elements mixed with the winter storm that hit the south the day before I was supposed to leave developed into the most stressful sendoff of my life.
Delta informed me the morning before I was booked to leave that my flight (along with 4,000 or so others) was canceled due to the expected winter weather. As my dad scrambled to rebook my flight, I (in tears) stressed over the minuscule hurdle that I had no control over. My mom and I drove up to Atlanta before the storm hit on Sunday and then sat in the hotel room all Monday without stepping foot outside (the roads where closed due to the ice). Long story short, I arrived in Berlin a day late. As my roommate at Sewanee pointed out in a text, my tardiness allowed me to be the "mysterious girl that no one knows," which turned out to be true--I was "the one whose flight got canceled."
Anyway, after a lot of paperwork and busywork the entire program (32 students in all) went out to dinner at the Kartoffelkeller (Potato Basement). After dinner, I finally was able to go meet my host family (a married couple in the mid to late 50s) and unpack my belongings. My hosts (Regina and Eschi) got to know me a little and showed me around the "flat." The quaint apartment is located in an historic district of Berlin (Schöneburg), where I have not one, or two, or three, but four keys to get into the apartment (two of which are skeleton keys!). The positive is that my room is far larger than my past dorm rooms at Sewanee.
As I stood in my room figuring out where to put all my belongings, I listened to Eschi's music from the speakers in the other room. All of a sudden the music became increasingly loud as the first few chords of Lynard Skynyrd's "Sweet Home Alabama" blasted through the house. I was truly amused and of course felt like I was back in the "southland."
Today, I discovered that I may not have missed much during the orientation day, but I did miss some important information. As I was walking around Berlin with some of my peers, a woman walked up to me with what looked like a sheet of directions and asked if I spoke English. I, naively thinking she needed my help, stopped only to realize she wanted my money. After giving her 10 cents (the only euro coin I had at the time), two things happened simultaneously: my group began to yell "Maggie, come on!" and another beggar was at my heels asking me for her share. Realizing my group looked concerned and said no to the second woman and caught back up with my group. They explained that I missed the talk during orientation on "gypsy beggars" who seek out Americans for money only to relay the money back to a pimp figure. Damn flight cancellations!
While the missed orientation has caused some difficulties, I believe the language barrier causes me a few more at times. I studied Spanish up to the literature level; therefore, I constantly find myself translating words, phrases, and questions into my familiar foreign language. I even thanked one of the IES Abroad staff members with "gracias" and said "porfa" (abbr. for "por favor") to a waitress. I guess the upcoming four hour "Intensive German Sessions" will assuage my problem a bit.
Anyway, we will see what tomorrow has in store for me!
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