by Lucy Hamann
On our departure day, we started off our day showing up at MYAC bright and early at 9:15 a.m. With us, we had to have all of our luggage, less than 50 pounds. My luggage miraculously made it, weighing in at 45 pounds with room to spare. After loading the buses and traveling to Chicago, we prepared for a long flight ahead.
On Sunday into Monday, we traveled to Poland. But first, we had to make it through an eight-hour flight. Personally, my flight started well but declined as the hours progressed. With the family in front of me pushing their seats back, as a non-claustrophobic person, I could already feel the claustrophobia coming on. Next was dinner, I opted for the pasta which came with bread, a relish of some sort, and a dessert. Airplane food abroad isn’t exactly five-star cuisine, but it’s definitely not as inedible as people make it out to be. Still, after dinner and with four hours to go, boredom set in hard. I eventually dozed off, and when I woke up, we were in Germany.
Culture shock hit the moment we entered the chaotic German airport. Having traveled internationally once before, I was prepared for the stares, those unmistakable looks Europeans give to large, obviously American groups moving in packs. You learn to ignore them. Aside from the looks, the Frankfurt airport featured an extensive perfume shopping mall, pretzel stands, American political propaganda on the TVs, and Coke bottle caps that don’t come off. These are some of the little things that people don’t consider when traveling overseas, but are slightly different from our norm. Exhaustion was setting in fast and I began preparing for the exhausting day ahead.