On our last and final day in the United States for one full year, we awoke early because we had to check-out of our dorm rooms at 7:00am. All 75 of us then proceeded to put our luggage in one of the two luggage rooms that the program had secured for us. We then went to eat breakfast, our last American one, at the cafeteria that overlooked the Potomac.
I felt sombre, as the weather wasn't ideal. Humid, rainy, and overcast. Looking out the window onto the Potomac and into Alexandria, it began to dawn that this was it. I was leaving, my world, my home, my family for an entire year. Well anyways, we had our last seminar that day before our trip to the airport. The people at CDS wishes us farewell, and at 1pm we were off for Dulles Airport. Right after we loaded our luggage and boarded the bus, it began to downpour.
The trip to the airport was uneventful. America passed before my eyes as the bus got closer to the airport. Cousin Joe came to the rescue though, as I left the greater portion of my stuff at his house. Joe delivered my stuff to me at the terminal before my flight. At the airport, I checked in at Lufthansa, but I skipped the line because of my wonderful Uncle and his US Airways Platinum Star Alliance membership card. With this card, I was able to check-in in the first class line, but as Lufthansa is a German airline, they required to see the card in order for me to get the perks of using such a card. Just giving them the number wasn't enough. I argued, told them that I didn't need the card for the year. In the end, the man allowed me to check in 3 bags, which was great as I really didn't want to take the bag onto the plane, as I already had so many, and I sure didn't want to pay the $150 fee for an additional bag.
In the airport, Terminal B at Dulles is fairly nice, but not as nice as DTW's McNamara terminal. This was my first time flying Lufthansa, and as we arrived to the airport 3 hours early, our plane had not arrived from Frankfurt yet. When it did arrive, the weather was already better, and the sun had come out. The plane was late though, very un-German, and even worse, we left late. The plane in question was a Lufthansa 747-400. Most of the CBYX'ers now known as PPPler in Germany (Parlimentarisches Patenschafts Programm). We domineered the whole rear of the aircraft. After pushing back from the gate and heading on our way to Frankfurt, finally bidding farewell to the US, we got the word from the control tower, that we needed to wait for bad weather to pass before we were to depart. We were also 11th in line for takeoff. After waiting 40 minutes to take off, we were given word by our disappointed pilot that we would have to wait at least another hour. As we waited on the tarmac, away from gates, we were instructed to stay in our seats, but as more news became imminent, we were allowed to move about and use our cell phones. In all, our flight left Dulles 3 hours late, making all the ordeal of getting to Radolfzell, Germany much harder as everything had to be pushed back.
Frankfurt was not what I expected. The airport was crowded, cramped and hard to follow. Additionally, the lines at passport control were long, and it took nearly an hour to receive our luggage. One of my bags was damaged, and therefore I had the distinct pleasure of unwrapping lufthansa tape from one bags.
However, we were greeted by the inWEnt staff at the airport, and we loaded our stuff, once again, onto the bus for our 4 hour bus ride to Radolfzell. For those of you, who aren't familiar with where Radolfzell is, it lies on Lake Constance on the boarder with Switzerland. The closest major city to it is actually Zürich Switzerland.
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