The Priceless Adventure: At the airport terminal, I waved my lastgood-byes and began to nervously walk toward the checkpoint, turning aroundtwice, telling myself I was absolutely crazy! I had finally found a way to livein another country. There I was, on the next flight to Germany, with noknowledge of the language or how different it would actually be-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-Category:MiscellaneousPaper Title:The Priceless AdventureText:At the airport terminal, I waved my last good-byes and began to nervouslywalk toward the checkpoint, turning around twice, telling myself I wasabsolutely crazy! I had finally found a way to live in another country.
There Iwas, on the next flight to Germany, with no knowledge of the language or howdifferent it would actually be. But I was on a mission to be a part of a newculture and see if the grass is greener on the other side. This was my first time on an airplane, a twelve-hour flight from Los Angeles,California to Dusseldorf, Germany. I was flying on a German Airline called LTU. I found my isle seat and tried to get comfortable when I noticed everyone wasspeaking German. It was quite a shock because five minutes before everyone wasconversing in English.
This is where the culture shock began. The plane landed on time in Dusseldorf where my eight-hour layover wouldunfold into quite an adventure. I couldnt wait to get off the plane; I was soanxious, I found myself pushing the people ahead of me to hurry up. As Icornered around the turn to the exit, I caught my first glimpse of the place Ihad never set eyes on before, which was quite exhilarating. The skies were aperfect blue with not a single cloud in the sky, and surrounding the airportwere fields that looked like they could go on forever.
Once in the airport,after the chaotic entrance through customs, I collected my luggage and decidedto check the place out. It was not as modern as the airport in Los Angeles, andit reeked of cigarettes due to no laws against it. Later, I found out that itMaldonado 2was allowed practically everywhere, even in hospitals. After walking aroundwith two heavy pieces of luggage, I had to call home to report I was safe andtalk to someone familiar. I found a pay phone and started to dial collect when aloud message began to shout in my ear. I slammed the phone down and reached intomy backpack for my English-to-German book.
I saw an elderly lady sitting on abench near the phone, and I slowly moved in and sat next to her. She lookednice, so I turned to her and blurted out, Hello. I started to fumblethrough the pages of my book, and I couldnt find the right words to explainmy problem fast enough. At this time, she was speaking to me in German, and Iinterrupted her with, Do you speak English’she began to ramble again, andI couldnt help but laugh because I didnt understand a word she had justsaid. As she went on, a young man about my age, 18 or so, approached me.
Hi, is there anything I can help you with?Well, yea, I dont know how to use the phones here to call the US. OK, what you have to do is buy a phone card and, then, I can help you makethe call. He directed me to this little store directly across the way from us. I ranover and almost knocked over a rack of post cards.
At the window there stood twoladies chit chatting back and forth. I had to interrupt because they did notnotice me practically falling in front of them. Excuse me, I pointed to the phone cards. She surprised me with, How many minutes would you like?Maldonado 3The one with the most, please. I was thinking in the back of my head, do you have one that would last eighthours? I pulled out a wad of cash and was immediately pointed in anotherdirection.
I walked fast across the way to a bank that would convert my Americandollars into Deutsche Marks. I had never been through so much to make a measlyphone call. I grabbed the cash, which resembled play money. I then paid for myphone card and spotted my help.
All full of excitement, I flashed him my cardlike I had
