Frankfurt

Sorry for the two week dry spell.  Where was I?  Oh yes, back to Germany...

Wednesday 4/13:
Steve booked us a couple of nights at the Courtyard by Marriot at the "NordWest Zentrum" just north of downtown Frankfurt.  We were not within walking distance of city centre but we were depending on the excellent public transportation we had heard about.  I was not disappointed.

We were just steps away from a large open air shopping mall, with every style restaurant and store you could imagine and the subway station was conveniently located on the bottom level of the mall.  In hind-sight it really was a perfect location.  Not much thinking or planning had to be involved to eat or to get into city centre, which is great when traveling with young kids.

After arriving at the hotel exhausted and ready to drop we forced ourselves to stay awake and get into German time by window shopping and eating at a Thai restaurant. The menu was in German but I recognized my favorites like "Panang Curry"  and "Pad Thai".

After getting everyone fed the kids got their second wind and were nearly bouncing off the walls from exhaustion.  There was no way I was going back to the hotel room with three wound up little kids. Our nerves were on edge from the hectic, tiring day, and we were restraining our children in vain.  Our eyes fell upon (of all things)  a "Toys R Us" on the bottom level floor.  It was like the clouds opened and the angels began to sing.  My head told me "Let them go bananas in there for a couple wasted hours, kids do it all the time.  It's practically expected".  Steve must've been exhausted too because he agreed.

Two hours later, after endlessly explaining why the children had to put the big toys back and pick out small toys that would fit in their suitcase, we were utterly spent, out of our minds exhausted.  However, we had successfully managed to stay awake long enough to crash in bed by 9 p.m. German time. Four hours later I was wide awake.  My body felt like I had just taken a long nap (at 3 o'clock in the afternoon NC time).   The kids had an adjoining room and they were up and playing with the lights on.  So at 1 a.m. we were all wide awake.  Steve and I herded them back to bed, explaining the time change, and turned out the lights.  They did great.  For at least two hours we all tossed and turned in the dark waiting for sleep to catch up with us again.

Before leaving the States we were like anxious college-aged kids ready to tackle Germany in a day; we had researched things to do before arriving, and had interviewed the flight attendants on Lufthansia airlines who gave us a nice list of things to see.  I was so enthusiastic about cramming in as much site-seeing as we could.   But when we actually got to the hotel we decided not to set unrealistic goals for ourselves, realizing we were jet-lagged and had three kids in tow.  We agreed to wake up and see how the day unfolded.

We woke up in Frankfurt at about 10:30 on Wednesday morning on April 13th, my birthday. Have you ever had the feeling that your eyelids feel like little weights are wanting to pull them down?  It was so difficult to open my eyes. I woke up feeling like I could sleep another three hours, not waking again until early afternoon, which brought back memories of my early teenage years.  I can't recall the last time I slept in that late, but I've always wanted to sleep in on my birthday.

Exhausted, we got up and forced ourselves into German time.  When I traveled as I kid I always liked to keep track of the time back home,  but this morning I did not want to entertain the thought.  I was thankful we had not planned a long day of site seeing.

Complimentary breakfast was over at the hotel so we found a restaurant next to the hotel, "Glashaus".   It was the only German restaurant we visited.  We arrived a little early for lunch so the place was pretty empty other than a couple of eldery ladies putting down a huge glass of...apple juice?  No, turns out Germans love their beer, beer with lunch or breakfast, there are no time standards for drinking beer.  It's five o'clock all day in Germany.

I'm used to seeing little old ladies sipping a glass of chardonney with their salad, but for some reason it tickled me to see the restaraunt filling up with elderly white haired folks who loved to chug down a pint.  No table had water or soda. 

The waitresses did not speak English, and the menu was all written in German, but we recognized "schnitzel" and asked the kids to get that.  Steve ordered something covered in mushroom gravy sauce, tough as beef jerky.  We decided that Germans like their beer because it makes the food go down easier.

After "brunch" we caught the subway which, despite the language barrier, was so simple, clean and efficient.  We got to city centre in about 15 mins and I was armed with a city map ready to hit the highlights. Of course we found a Starbucks right off our stop and welcomed something familiar.  Frankfurt is a lot like Charlotte.  It's a financial district, very pedestrian friendly, clean and modern.  The little European cars that looked so strange 10 years ago now are a common site in the States.  For the kids, Germany was similar enough to home to make the transition easy, but different enough that it was exciting.

My birthday ended at a nice little Italian restaurant near our hotel.  Spagetthi and a glass of red wine tastes good no matter what country you're in.

Universal Language (Lisa)

Tuesday 4/12: We arrived in Frankfurt, around noon German time and got a shock back into reality.  We had no earthly idea how to get to baggage claim. Poor Owen had such bad gas he was doubled over in tears, but he was made to drag his luggage around anyway.  That might sound a bit ruthless but all of our hands were full, we all had jet lag, and there was no sense in standing around waiting for him to get better.  We had to find a bathroom and had to get our luggage.   There was not a bathroom in site for what seemed like a mile’s walk through the airport.  Owen and I left Steve and the girls with the mob of people waiting at customs and together we navigated the halls, elevators, and escalators until we finally found a bathroom.  I began to worry that we wouldn’t find our way back to our clan. Nothing was written in English, there weren’t many souls around, and none of them spoke English.

Then suddenly I had a true foreigner experience.  I was waiting outside the bathroom near an empty terminal when a lady approached me with her boarding pass.  She was speaking to me in a foreign language I didn’t recognize, I think she was from Yugoslavia, I recognized that word.  Despite our language barrier she continued to ask me questions about her flight.  Holding up her boarding pass, showing me the terminal number printed on it, then pointing to the terminal we were standing at, I gathered that she was asking me why no one was there and I tried to tell her she had three and a half hours left to wait.  We awkwardly stood there frustrated at our language barrier... Funny thing about a smile, it is a universal language of kindness. So in silence we both smiled awkwardly at first then we began to enjoy the exchange. 

I guess that  compelled her to keep talking because she asked me more questions, this time more probing questions.  She said in broken English, “Florida?”, “Chicago?”, “New York?”.  I told her “New York” (I'm sure she's never heard of Charlotte) and she shook her head in excitement and gratitude that I understood her.  Others arrived at her terminal so she asked them questions in German then continued to talk to me for about five more minutes in her native tongue.  I just shook my head and kept smiling.  Owen arrived at my side and she asked if he was mine and how old he was.  I had no idea what she was saying so she held up fingers and rattled off numbers I didn’t recognize.  I pushed the appropriate fingers up or down indicating in phalanges language (fingers) that he was 8.  She smiled appreciatively at my effort, smiled approvingly at Owen,  and wished us well.  I put my hand on his shoulder as we walked away when Owen looked up and asked me what she was saying.  I said "I have no idea, but she was really friendly." 

That short foreign exchange calmed my nerves.  As I made my way back through the airport to my family I smiled at everyone I passed.  Now I felt ready to tackle this great adventure.

First leg, New York (Lisa)

Monday 4/11:  Our first leg in New York is over.  If you just want to know our status then read no further...we made it this far.  If you're like me and want to know all the details then read on.

We left Charlotte at 9:30 a.m. and arrived in New York JFK airport in late morning with 9 hrs before our next flight.  With only one goal in mind, seeing the Statue of Liberty, we quickly checked in at Lufthansa, ate lunch in the lounge and left our luggage in the lockers.  We knew the kids would get a small taste of New York that I hoped they wouldn’t forget.

We had no idea what we were doing but it’s amazing what information you can get if you ask the locals.  It’s better than any tour guide book.   The guy at the Lufthansa check-in counter told us how to get to the Statue in the shortest amount of time.  It was also the easiest to navigate with three kids.  Take the “Air Train” from International Terminal to “Jamaica Station”, then about 45 minutes each way on subway “e”, a short walk through Battery Park, and another 80 minutes round trip on the Staten Island ferry.  He advised us to take the ferry going to Staten Island because it passes right by Lady Liberty but you skip all the lines and tourist crowds waiting for the Liberty ferry (this was great advice).

The kids marveled at the urine smells in the subway, crowds of people, and all the pigeons.  At the ferry port we stood in a ginormous mob of a crowd and waited until some huge glass doors opened, then following the mob, we all crammed onto the ferry ramps, moving like a herd of sheep, as if it was the last boat leaving a sinking ship.  Owen got shoved and pushed around for the tenth time and determined that people in New York were not very nice.  We followed the crowd to the end of the boat which is apparently the only open air balcony on the boat and every tourist knew it, except us.  Arriving last, we crammed into the back of the crowd but the kids found crevices and cracks between the legs and worked their way to the front railing.  They were so excited to see the statue that it made the long trip all worth it. 

Back at the Lufthansa lounge we showered and ate a light dinner before boarding.  First class was AMAZING.  It was the new airbus 380 (like the one that just recently was on the news).  Only eight first class seats and we took up five of them.  A red rose shone brightly in the spot light at each person’s cubicle(I don’t know what else to call the space).   I was in awe the entire time we flew. The bathrooms (normally the size of a port-a-jon) had a sitting area and were well stocked with any toiletry needs.  We each got our own toiletry kit, equipped with even eye masks and earplugs, socks and pajamas.  The seats laid flat into beds and partitions could be raised to give you privacy when you were ready to sleep.  It really was an incredible experience. The kids had no idea how lucky they were.  Addien missed “blast-off” altogether.  She fell deep asleep before we even began our taxi out of the terminal.  I woke her up minutes before we landed in Frankfurt, Germany, eight hours later and around noon German time.

Blast Off (lisa)

Thursday Night 4/14:  I’m 35,000 feet up in the air flying over some beautiful snow covered mountains.  I have no idea how much longer this last leg of our flight is but I have already been able to catch up on a movie and eat a delicious vegetarian lunch on Lufthansa business class.  I feel like I left Charlotte weeks ago and yet not even four days have passed.  I am still in disbelief that I will be landing in Bangalore in just a few more hours.  What a whirlwind trip this has been so far.  So much has happened since we packed up and headed out at 6:30 Monday morning.

Addien woke me up at 5 a.m. Monday morning.  In a whisper she asked if it was time to get up yet (my human alarm clock).  She hardly slept because she was too excited about going to India.   I was exhausted from a late night of last minute packing adjustments the night before.  I was amazed at how hard it was to pack less than 50 lbs in each suitcase.  I finally relented and gave up some clothing and shoes, shampoo bottles and lotions.  I would not give up the vitamins and laptops, however.  I’ve got priorities, Facebook and good health.  At the airport the next morning the guy at the ticket counter didn’t even look at the weight of the luggage.  He just asked if any bags were over 50 lbs.  All that late night fretting and he didn’t even look at the scale.  My sleep deprived brain was not too happy.

I’m amazed at how my kids have adapted and taken to travel.  The first leg of the flight Steve graciously gave me his first class seat and he sat near the back with the kids.  Although, I really would have liked to have seen the kids' expressions as they experienced their first “blast off” (as the girls called it). 

Forget Mastercard...a Visa is priceless! (Steve)

The passport drama has finally come to an end - at 9:30 this morning we received a long awaited FedEx package with our sparkling new visas. Talk about down to the wire! Its hard to believe, but we only have one day left before we leave. The movers came yesterday to pack up the items we set aside to ship, and we've been frantically working to tie up the remaining loose ends in preparation for our 6 month adventure. We start on Monday morning (April 11) and fly from Charlotte to NY, where we'll spend the day and take the kids to see the Statue of Liberty. Monday night we leave from JFK to Frankfurt, Germany in first class. What's that? Why, yes, I did say first class. Lufthansa is my new favorite company after upgrading the whole family to international first class. We'll spend 2 days in Frankfurt, visit some real-life castles, eat some schnitzel (or something like that) and then head out on the ~8 hour flight to Bangalore. 

The trip will be just under 4 days from start to finish, which means we'll have just under 4 days to develop our family strategy to battle the taxi drivers when we step out of the Bangalore airport.  I knew there was higher purpose behind Owen getting his Tae Kwon Do black belt this year!

India - here we come! (Steve)

Its hard to believe there is less than a week before we are scheduled to leave for our India adventure!  In true India form our visas are held up in processing and we still don't have them in hand.  Of course, if we don't receive them by Saturday (T-minus 5 and counting) we will need to postpone our flights...again.  Ugh.

Its been well over 15 years since I last set foot in India, but the visa delays bring back a flood of memories:  standing in line (more like a blob) at customs, being sick in a hotel with food poisoning, fighting with cab drivers who try to "help" you with your luggage, being sick on the train with food poisoning, eating amazing food from street vendors, being sick on the street with food poisoning, etc.  Despite these vivid memories, I can't wait to return!  Without question, India is my favorite place in the world and I'm excited about the opportunity to expose my family to the wonders India has to offer.  The culture is richer than any I have experienced, the food is amazing (the street food is more amazing than words - but its also guaranteed to make you sick so I guess some things are just too good to be true), and the architecture is truly awe inspiring.  After spending over 2 years in India/Sri Lanka I always dreamed of having the chance to bring my family back...and that dream is about to become reality! 

I have my company to thank for this opportunity as I head over for a 6 month assignment to help "establish a new offshore capability."  To be perfectly honest, I have very little insight on what I willl be doing, but it doesn't concern me.  Of more importance is the chance to share a vibrant cross-cultural experience with my family - and the chance to do that within the culture of India is a dream come true.  As the details of my assignment become clear I will be sure to share, but in the meantime I am content to embrace the chance to expose my family to the wonders of India!