Airport Adventures - Part II

So the last time you heard from me, I was sipping vodka and cran on my flight to London. If only that euphoric moment had lasted haha. I suppose after that easy experience at LAX I was due for some bad airport karma. So we get to Heathrow and realize that there is no way in hell we can make our connecting flight. We venture 30 minutes to the British Airways terminal to get it sorted out. They tell us that American AIrlines rebooked us without telling us, and had we stayed in the AA terminal and psychically realized we had a flight there, we could have made it. Now we couldn't. And the dude rudely told us to go back and sort it out there. 30 more minutes. Back at the AA terminal, the new dude says that had that guy been more cooperative, we could have been checked in over the phone and still made our flight. And that was the lastflight out not just to BErlin, but to Germany in general and we were stuck in the UK for the night. But whatever, we got put up in a hotel in London with some free dinner and breakfast. Really really good free dinner and breakfast haha. It was funny though the hotel was literally right next to a strip of runway landing, we saw tons of planes all night. No checked bags but we amde do with the best we have.We pass out around 8:30 and night and are WIDEEEE awake by like 4:30 am haha. We venture back to Heathrow, which I have decided is the coolest and most beautiful airport ever. And it's Bianca's 21st birthday YAYY!!!!!!!!!!!!

Arrive in Berlin around 4. Guess what? No bags. At this point, after being in transit for days, so hungry my face hurts, ad unable to find that lost baggage office because all of the signs are in German, it's all I can do to not just sit down on the floor of Tegel International and burst into tears. And then I see a beautiful green light in the distance beckoning me - Starbucks truly solves all of my problems haha. Bianca and Kelley, who have taken over for me because my brain has stopped working at this point haha, find the lost baggage office. The bags are still in London and they'll get them to us as soon as they can, they say. With the clothes on our backs and afew things in our carryons, we venture to the hostel. We try to get the hostel phone to work for a good 3 hours. The bright spot in that though, was that we made a really good friend in one of the front desk people there. I love just being in such a different place because you are surrounded by people with such interest life stories, just so different than yours. He was really, really cool though - loved American things and was really interested in learning more about us and America. And we were desperate to hear some German pronounced correctly and learn some key phrases haha.

Anyway, phone thing is a fail. We hit up H & M for some clothes to tide us over for the next few days. Awesome, amazing excuse to go shopping. We go to the grocery store too which was an adventure lol. I was really kidding about ahving a hard time finding contact lens solution in my first post, but it actually was not that easy lol. And I was not entirely sure if it was contact solution that I was putting into my eyes the first time because EVERYTHING was in German haha. But I still have my vision, so I suppose all is ok. : ) Bianca and I then decide around now its her 21t birthday, and despite some annoying circumstances we are going to CELEBRATE! SO we work with our limited clothing options, and hit up a club and had an amazing time. We were trying to blend in for the most part, but when Drop It Like it's Hot came on we couldn't really resist lol.

The hostel was great and really fun. I loved being around so many random young people and just people watching in the lobby. I also loved hearing drunk German teenagers come back from going out around 5 and yelling to each other, stumbling back to their rooms. So entertaining. : )

We got to the center yesterday, and finally got our bags!!!!!!!! I admittedly tackled mine with sheer joy, I have never been so happy to see pieces of luggage in my life. As much as I loved being around so many new and interesting people, I still felt something akin to a tidal wave of relief when I was able to communicate so clearly and effectively, and be understood by all of the other Stanford kids. I have a whole new respect for anyone who does not speak the language well in the country in which they live. EVERY damn thing is a struggle. But gestures and pointing get you a long way haha.

First night out on the town with other Stanford students last night. We had an interesting method of learning our German numbers while out haha, ask me if you want to know I think it was quite ingenuis. Orientation is still happening until Thursday and then we start classes. Alright, love y'all and will write more later!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'll try to post some more pics later too.