Arrival in Munich, Brought to You By Julius and Peanut Butter

Hello Everyone,

Peanut Butter: So we had a very nice, but very long trip.

Julius: Yes, it was certainly very long. I hate being stuffed in a bag for 20+ hours.

PB:  Me too. What time did we wake up, like 4:45am?

J: Yeah and then we were stuffed in a bag and hauled out of the house at 5:30am. Jumped on the plane about 7:45am, then arrived in Boston at 8:45am.

PB: That layover was just awful. We were there from 8:45am until 6:15pm or so. Holly kept herself busy with computer stuff, nonograms, and phone calls but we were kept in the bag most of the time, except when she had to rearrange her stuff.

J: She had a LOT of stuff. Let's see... there was the bag we were in with her computer and all her wiring, there was her beach bag full of clothing and things, and she had her blanket and pillow, which her other special blanket was inside the pillowcase of.

PB: I have no idea how she did that. Way too heavy for me.

J: That's because you're full of cotton.

PB: Anyhow, the Aer Lingus airplane was awesome! There were two seats on each side of the plane, and four in the middle. And everything was very green. The seats were green and even the flight attendants were wearing this weird bluish-green color.

J: That's because we were on an Irish airline.

PB: And also on the airplane were these really neat mini TV's in the back of the seats. You could watch all sorts of movies and TV shows and listen to music and even play games! And in the arm rest was a little controller for the TV screen. Completely equipped with a directional control pad, toggle buttons, and a full keypad.

J: After that five hour and ten minute flight we were in Dublin, Ireland at about 4:40am local time. We all get off the plane, and we have to go through customs.

PB: Talk about an interesting experience. Never been through customs before.

J: We had to wait in a very long line. And then after they made sure we were safe, we had to go through a machine again! I'm a very fat fox. Not a bomb.

PB: Yes we know. So we make it through customs and have to find our gate, which was number 423. It was in another terminal and as soon as we get there, the first store we see everything was green and there was a big Guinness sign.

J: That's because we were in Ireland.

PB: Yes, I know, thank you. So we find our gate and we are totally exhausted by this time. We boarded the plane at about 6:30am local time and we were off by 7:00am.

J: Finally the last flight to Munich. I tried to sleep a little during the two hour flight but I find it hard to sleep on a plane.

PB: We arrive in Munich about 10:10am and have to go through the passport check in point.

J: The man wanted to know how long we'd be here and stamped the passport (first time it's ever been stamped) and we walked to baggage claim.

PB: It was kinda cool being in the Munich airport, with all the advertisements being in German, but we were way too tired to really appreciate it. In Buffalo it would have been 4:10am so we'd been up for almost 24 hours at this point.

J: But our host father and children came to pick us up, and they saw us right away. They are super nice.

PB: After we got our bag, our host father got us all in the car and drove us a little around Munich to see some of the sights. The architecture was really beautiful.

J: It was also somewhere between raining and snowing. Plus the drive home was about an hour.

PB: When we got to the house (which is beautiful, by the way, pictures to come on that) we were shown around the house and had a very light lunch.

J: And we were given access to the internet so we could announce to the world our arrival, and then finally sleep.

PB: We finally fell asleep about 1:30pm local time, which would have been 7:30am Buffalo time, which means we were awake about 27 hours.

J: Holly woke up about 4:30pm and the family had gone out, so she unpacked her things and got everything situated.

PB: Then she had her first true German family experience: Brotzeit.

J: That was super cool. In Germany when you don't necessarily want a huge cooked dinner, you cut up bread and lay out cheese and sliced cured meats, and have "bread time" which is what Brotzeit literally translates to.

PB: She stayed up until about 9:30pm or so, then finally fell asleep.

J: I certainly slept well all night.

PB: We woke up about 7:50am. And since then we have kinda just hung out. Holly caught up on some au pair stuff, but we were given today to just kind of rest and get acclimated.

J: Holly has posted pictures below with some commentary. Enjoy!

PB: We'll post again sometime, I'm sure.

Calysta, who has become my cat more than my grandma's, didn't want me to leave. (That's my lap she's on.)

My very first collection of Euros. I found out I get my own German bank account while I'm here!

This is my room while I'm here. There were flowers in my room when I got here. My family is so nice.

Also in my room was a full dresser and a wardrobe.

And a chair with an ottoman!

This is the view from my bathroom window. It is lovely.

And this is the view from my bedroom window. I love German style houses.

 I think I'm going to have a wonderful time here. They have the equivalent of organic food, they refer to it as "bio" and they have some specialty stores here for bio food. The children are very nice, but the family just got back from a vacation themselves (Thailand, I am very jealous), so they were a bit tired. They already want to set me up with language classes and they are not pressuring me to begin working right away. As a matter of fact I don't feel very well, I'm not sure if it's jet lag or a slight cold, so the mother suggested that I rest for a little bit. I also haven't eaten much so I'm sure that may have something to do with it as well.

I will write again as soon.

Take care,

Holly