7-16-04 The flight from Minneapolis to Amsterdam was long - even longer than the wait at Minneapolis. I was tired but I couldn't sleep. In my journal, I guess I was falling asleep and I put, "I was tired but I couldn't sleep or else she knock my teeth out or something." Things I found curious/amaying/interesting/or I had never thought about it:
Dutch stewardesses
Dutch airport orange waver dudes, security guards
Dutch is so much like German, it sounds like a German trying to speak English.
People know English.
Anyway, in Amsterdam I wanted to take a tour, but it would take too long since my flight lef tin three hours. After checking in, I discovered I had to check in again to see the Rembrandt displaz. Then I had to check in again to get back to my gate. (The display wasn't that great.)
I:
-exchanged money and took forever signing traveler's checks
-slept and kept getting bumped by a girl I wanted to talk to, but I wasn't sure if I should use formal or if she knew English.
- sat in an empty row in the plane - finally (!) and so I slid over next to the window!
-ate some cheese sandwich provided that spilled crumbs everywhere and was not good.
-saw cool fields of green and a freeway under grass with columns
-found my luggage and the place to purchase a bus ticket.
-purchased a map of Kiel that didn't go south enough to show where my host family lives, in a store with scary magazines.
-asked a girl if this was the bus-stop for Kiel, finding out the girl next to her was in the U of U group. The German girl offered to help me, calling all the phone numbers I had and saying her husband could take me there. She told me all about Kiel. Here English was amazing. She is a doctor for the army. She said she and her husband could give me a tour next week since they will be hosting their nephew. Her name is Dr. Nicole Humbold.
-got off the bus and discovered Prof. Von Schmidt as well as the Kiel director, who relieved Nicole. They called around and found out my host family is in New York until tomorrow, so I stayed in a dorm.
-saw the BEAUTIFUL city of Kiel - cute little brick streets, charming buildings, the ocean, bike riders, and BMWs, VWs, and Volvos.
-found Ray Bradford, so I walked around with him. He bought a baguette (he had to point, because the lady didn't understand "eine Loafe") which he nibbled on and dropped several times. He called out, "Tschüs" to people as they passed, which I found hilarious since it means "bye". He also was brave in using his German, although it . . . terrible. We went to a Milano Pizzeria, and the Greek-looking dude kept saying, "Schön" when he put things down, so I didn't know what to say besides, "ja". The piyya was awesome, the water was NAST. (Mineral stuff.) The waiter asked if we were from Denmark. He said he had a brother in Denver. In German, I asked, "Hat er ein Restaurant?" "Does he have a restaurant?" Yep, and he gave us his card.
-took pictures of everything so I could send them to Matt.
-looked up words in the dictionary every few minutes.
-walked to the store and bought milk, corn flakes, juice, and yogurt. I always thought it a shame that passionfruit is called passion fruit, such a boring name for such a great taste. Here it is maracuja! I saw the picture on the front, bought it, drunk it, and knew passion fruit now has a cool name!
-walked all the way back to the dorms only to find out the kitchens are locked with un-understandable signs on them.
-walked outside and gave my milk and yogurt to a punkish gypsy family in my horrible German, realizing what I could have said later.
-struggled with every door in the building, either with locking and unlocking, or with not realizing it was for pushing, not pulling, or vice versa.
-laughed while Ray talked to a darling girl on a bike at the crosswalk until she spoke in English. He said, "Your English is better than my German." She said, "I hope so."
-went to sleep at 9 and got up at 12.