The Big OE

Worms Dom

My last few weeks in Germany were mostly spent enjoying the early summer sunshine, trying to find a job and somewhere to live in Vancouver and tying up all my loose ends. I spent a day shopping for new work clothes with Ellie, in Worms one of Germany’s first towns, and afternoons swimming with the boys. I took the boys and their friends ten pin bowling, and just winding down from it all really. I wasn’t an entirely happy camper to be honest, I just didn’t feel ready to be going, and would have been more than happy to have stayed for another year. But I know that if I had stayed, it would have inevitably changed, and I might not have left with such happy memories. So here are some random photos from my last days.

Mikes self portrait

The troublesome foursome

The new Au Pair Kelsi, an 18 year old from San Diego had a fantastic start to her trip to Germany. I was all orgainsed to pick her up from the airport on Wednesday afternoon, but Tuesday evening after putting the boys to bed I got a strange email from her, saying if I was having trouble finding her, she was wearing .... and was at Gate 1 B. My first thoughts were that she was just letting me know for the following day what she was wearing, but after a while I realised she wouldn’t have a clue what arrivals gate she would be at, because they don’t assign that till the plane lands. So I raced down the stairs and got Frank to check the answer machine, but there was nothing. Frank told me not to worry about it, because she would have contacted us if something was wrong, and everywhere in the house was written that she was coming the following day. But I still had this niggling thought that something was not quite right. So I checked the arrivals online, and couldn’t find anything so I rang the airport and sure enough her flight had come in that afternoon, and she’d been sitting, waiting at the airport for 6 hours. Never been out of America before, 18 years old and doesn’t have a clue where to go. I was mortified for her, but like a champ she was fine. She said although she had the phone number, she’d only ever rang it from the US and she didn’t know how to change it to ring it in Germany. Ahh well it happens, still not sure how the dates got muddled, but she got there fine in the end.

The opelbad

Sandra, Andre and Luis at the Wilhelmstrassen Festival

I was a little worried about Kelsi’s age, when I first found out she was coming, but after spending close to a week with her, I have no doubts she’ll be fine. My last week, was a mad dash of last minute packing, training Kelsi and sad good byes. Thursday was a public holiday, and feeling pretty crook I spent the day sunbathing and catching up with Ellie, then headed into town for cocktails at the Wilhelmstrassen Festival, and a relaxed dinner on one of the busy side streets. On Saturday I invited a lot of the people that I’d made friends with, and whom had helped me greatly in my time in Germany, to the house for a barbeque. After beautiful weather all day, the clouds packed in, and the rain bucketed down, meaning the barbeque was put on hold for a few hours, and everyone got quite merry on the summery cocktails. I rather grudgingly put on a dress, that Ellie had made me buy, and I’m not sure that it’ll be making an appearance again, but time will tell. It was so nice to see everyone again, but I am a terrible party host, as I kept forgetting everyone hadn’t met each other before, and I didn’t introduce anyone. Tsk tsk. Betty and Stefan (who I’d gone to Berlin and Rothenburg with in 2006), were two that I had met fairly early on at the English speaking group and whom I had become friends with announced they’d eloped on their recent holiday in the US. Stefan proposed one day, and the next they drove to Idaho and were married. I was both shocked and excited as one would imagine. As the night wore on, and people were finally comfortable with each other, I had a blissfully happy night flittering from person to person. At midnight, the group that were left decided to head into town for the festival, and in good spirits we walked into town. Of course it was all but nearly over once we got there, and we didn’t stay all that long. After getting home, we all passed out and I got up at the delightful hour of 6 am to clean everything up, before Frank and Nicole awoke.

James and I

Luis and I sharing Mojitos

Sandra, my true gift from God

I procrastinated packing so much, that I begged Kelsi to help me pack on Monday night. She did such an efficient job that I only needed to leave one bag of winter clothes there, that she’ll forward on to me once I’m more settled. On the day that I left, I felt strangely resigned that although I wasn’t happy to be going, I didn’t have a whole lot of choice, and I needed to start feeling more positive about my move to Canada. I didn’t cry, I don’t even cry at funerals, but I was destroyed on the inside. I have never been as happy as I was while in Germany. I reached a place of peace, but I’ll get into all that in another blog.

Kelsi dropped me off at the Airport, so Nicole could take the boys to school. The original plan was for Kelsi to stay with me, in case I needed to unpack my bags, and she could take my excess back with her, but because of problems with parking I told her to go and I’d deal with it. I knew my bags were heavy, but I was horrified when the scales said one bag was 25 kgs and the other was 48! I had a baggage allowance of two bags at 23 kgs each, so one weighing 48 by itself, was going to be enough to clear out my bank account. For some reason my guardian angel was working extra hard that day, because the woman at the bank counter couldn’t be bothered processing the extra charge. It wasn’t her airline I was flying the long flight with, but just the connecting flight to Munich, she didn’t know what the procedures were for my actual airline, and it was to busy for her to waste time on, so I didn’t have to pay a cent. I bet if Kelsi had stayed, she would have made me clear out the second bag. After thanking her profusely I thought naively that would be the last of my problems. My connecting light to Munich was then delayed, and when we finally landed I was in the wrong terminal, and had to race through the fairly large airport to find that Passport Control then wanted to detain me and charge me for overstaying my visa. I had not really thought 5 days over my year long visa would raise any eyebrows, but I was wrong and the guy was on a major power trip. As the final boarding calls came over the speakers “for the last remaining passengers” of my flight I pleaded with the police officer in English and German that I had a new Visa for Canada, I had somewhere to live, a one way ticket and I wasn’t coming back. With two minutes to spare, he got the call from above to let me go and I was then stopped at Security to have my carry-on luggage searched. My suspicious plastic bag in my handbag, turned out to be all my jewelry, and I set off the metal detectors every single time - damn bra underwires! Finally through clearance, my boarding gate had changed on me, and I couldn’t find where I needed to go (there are never enough signs when you need them) and running around like a lunatic, sweating profusely and breathless I found my gate and then my boarding pass wouldn't scan. So they had to play around on the computer for what felt like half an hour, before finally saying “Just go through”. You can imagine the dirty looks I got from my fellow passengers as I boarded the plane.

Marc and Ellie

The ten hour flight to Vancouver was alright, someone had stolen my window seat, but I wasn’t really in a position to argue, so I moved and luckily got two seats to myself anyway. I did manage to sneak a peek at the Arctic circle and Greenland, which doesn’t look at all green. When I got to Vancouver, I had to wait in the Immigration line for two hours, and after finally getting processed - I finally touched Canadian soil and breathed a sigh of relief. I jumped in a taxi and arrived at my new home for four months. Although its not the Ritz, it will do. It’s a small three bedroom place, and my room has a futon and a room overlooking the neighbours backyard. My roomies seem quite nice, a little alternative and have promised to take me out and show me some of the night life. I have already unpacked everything, and went to English Bay yesterday and all over Stanley park with Harry a friend I met on the Internet who’s been helping me and giving me advice on my move to Vancouver, and may even have some job opportunities lined up for me. On Saturday night I am meeting up with some of the local couchsurfers for a Kiwi movie night, and we are watching ‘Whale Rider’ which was filmed 30 minutes away from my hometown. And on Tuesday night everyone’s meeting up for dinner at an Vegetarian Indian restaurant just down the road from my place. I have a job interview lined up in the next day or two, and I don’t seem to be suffering from jetlag, so you could say I’ve definitely hit the ground running here, and loving every minute of it so far.

Miss you all, and I’ll keep you tuned.

I have just had a fantastic week soaking up the sun, reading and exploring Fuerteventura, in the Canary Islands. A cluster of several small volcanic islands located off the north-western coast of Africa (Morocco and the Western Sahara) the Canaries are a godsend to chilled Europeans looking to soak up a bit of vitamin D in the cold winter months.

The family had gone skiing in Austria, and so I had a week to do as I pleased and got a great deal off a last minute website. I was really struggling to decide where to go as it was a toss up of doing something cultural like going to some of the bigger cities in the north of Italy, Spain or perhaps the Czech Republic, or doing a trip around Belgium and Holland while staying with my sister or going somewhere warm like Egypt, Tunisia or Morroco. As January is not exactly the best month to be traveling around Europe weather-wise, the thought of going to museum after museum just didn’t appeal, and being a solo-western-woman traveling in countries, which have reputations of not exactly being the safest places in the world, I went with relaxing in the Spanish sun, naturally.

I stayed at a whopping 600+ room, 4 star resort called the Barcelo Jandia Playa, and although these massive tourist havens wouldn’t be my first choice to stay in normally, I figured it meant I might have more of a chance to meet some people to pass the time. I really don’t mind traveling by myself, and in some ways prefer it, simply for the reason you can do what you want when you want, with out constant compromise. But a little social interaction is always good, and keeps you sane, oh and it was “All Inclusive” to boot.

Now I hadn’t really thought much about what the island would be like, I just wanted to know if it was going to be warm, but what I had truly not expected was just how dry, desolate and barren the whole island was. Basically the only greenery on the island was imported, and was only clustered around the resorts. I stayed at the southern end of the island where the best beaches are, and they were really stunning. The water a beautiful turquoise, white sand and wind surfers out and about, it really did look picture perfect. Oh and the odd naked German thrown in for the hell of it. Yup, pretty much all of the beach in front of the resort I was staying at was ‘au naturale’.

Thankfully there weren’t actually that many nudists around, most were off frolicking in the sand dunes, and out of everyone’s way. The island is pretty saturated in tourists, and everywhere has not only Spanish and English signs, but also German, French and Italian. In fact, knowing the little German that I do, was more helpful most of the time than being a native English speaker. Simply because so many of the tourists are German, that people in shops and who worked at the resort could speak more German than they could English.

I basically spent my days sitting by the pool, reading. I virtually became a vegetarian the whole time I was away, as the meat in the buffet reminded me of my days at the halls of residence in first year Uni, but I never starved. I didn’t meet that many people, as firstly most guests were four decades older than me, and most weren’t exactly that outgoing. I stuck out like a sore thumb, and the constant staring just about drove me insane.

One thing these Europeans love to do, is people watch, and they treat it almost like a sport. When walking through the restaurant to get food, at the back of the massive room, or even just walking down the street, I felt like a gladiator having to run the gauntlet. You can feel all the beady little eyes on your back, and heads following your path, it was actually quite off putting but then again, they have absolutely nothing else to do - it’s just that they do it so obviously, that gets my goat up.

I wasn’t completely devoid of human contact during my time away however. I met a pretty friendly English couple and some nice Norwegians took me under their wing for a night. I dragged myself away from my books (I read three by the way) and did some Yoga and Pilates classes by the pool. And I also hired a car to tour around the island a bit. Although there’s not terribly much to see, as all the barren wasteland kind of blurs together, it was still worth it and pretty fascinating being somewhere which felt so unlivable, yet people somehow managed it.

I was really quiet lucky with the weather as I only had two days that were not so great, but still t-shirt weather, and I browned up a little. It was exactly the kind of holiday that I needed, not that my life’s all that hectic here in Germany anyway, but it was good to get some sun and chill out. Lots of people thought it was really random I would go away by myself, and the English couple thought I was so brave, which I thought was kind of odd. I simply don’t see the point of sitting at home moaning because no one could take the time off work, or could afford to go. I traveled around Italy in August by myself, and did my road trip around the North of Germany alone, and if anything it’s opened me up to doing things a little differently, and forcing myself to interact with people I possibly would have passed by if I’d been with someone else. It also makes me feel better, knowing that I’m not reliant upon other people to make me happy, its good for the soul, perhaps you should try it.

I thought I might just do a quick blog on my flights over here, since I haven’t actually mentioned yet how my 24 hours of flying went. I know you’re probably thinking – how exciting can a blog on flights be? But bare with me, it won’t be too painful I promise.
I flew with Japan Airlines, but the flight from New Zealand to Narita, Tokyo, Japan was actually an Air New Zealand plane. I managed to break all expectations and had only 19.5 kgs of checked in luggage, but had 12 kgs in carry-on (woops). The cabin was relatively empty so I got a whole row of seats to my self. I could not sleep a wink on the flight, even though I was doped up on Anti-jetlag medication and sleeping pills. So I watched a few movies, nothing too great (Failure to Launch, Casanova, Match point, Eight below). Boring details blah blah blah, the funny thing about both of my flights was the Air Hostesses concern at my size. They were never rude, and never made me feel uncomfortable I just thought it was funny (probably just the denial kicking in). The Air NZ hostess left an extra belt for me, and discreetly took it away when I didn’t need it – I had belt to spare thank you very much!! I stopped myself at whooping with excitement at my achievement! The JAL hostess actually got me to move. Yes, after the plane had taken off she came over to me and asked me to follow her, she didn’t explain why. She moved me to a seat next to a Japanese Business man, who had two spare seats beside him, I was definitely not complaining. The flight was packed and at least this way I could try and attempt some sleep.

When I was in Japan (not even 24 hours) I found the people very friendly and highly efficient. The hotel I stayed at, which was organised by the Airline was fine. The room was small but had everything I needed. I had dinner at the hotel, and went with the ‘authentic’ option.

Now I love Sushi, but this was not close to anything I have ever tasted before. I tried everything, including the mini whole fish and even attempted to use chopsticks more than once. The waiter kept coming over to show me how to hold them correctly but it would have taken me 3 hours if I hadn’t given up. Although I have been told to do a long haul flight all in one go, I’m not sure I agree. Having a shower and sleep made me more refreshed and ready for another onslaught. Perhaps it would have been different if I’d actually slept on the flights. The Airport was huge, but easy to navigate. Customs was efficient and even made me take off my shoes. Frankfurt airport was modern and huge. Customs was a joke, I just walked through into the Arrivals area – didn’t have to do a thing. Nicole and the two boys were waiting right there, and the rest they say is history. Both flights went surprisingly quickly, all those years of watching movie after movie finally paid off! My advice is drink lots of water, even if this means frequent trips to the loo at least you’re moving and it’s something to break the monotony. Don’t drink alcohol, as you feel it three times as much in the air, and are likely to feel it three times as worse the next day not including any jetlag as well. I took the homeopathic pills ‘No Jetlag’ which you can buy in NZ, of course I’ve never had jetlag before so I cant be sure, but I definitely didn’t feel as bad as I was expecting. Just felt tired for a few days. So for those planning any long haul flights to ye old Europe, JAL wasn’t too bad, would’ve been better if the movies were on demand instead of running on a loop and I couldn’t fault Air NZ at all. The airports, although huge were easy to navigate, both have English signs and if you look lost long enough I’m sure someone would help you.

That’s all for now, hope it wasn’t too painful.