I've landed

Copenhagen day 1

Let me start where I ended last. I boarded my plane from Cinci to Chicago. It wasn’t very full so the flight attendant asked us to sit up front and ignore our seat assignments. That was a pretty short flight. When I got to Chicago, I had to find gate M15. The only signs I saw were for Gate 1,2,3,4,and 5. So I asked a guy at customer service how to get to gate m15 and he told me I had to go to gate 5. I never would’ve known that had I not asked. So I’m glad I asked. I got a Jamba Juice along the way to cool my nerves. I took a little monorail to the international terminal. I had to finish my smoothie before going through security. In line, I realized I still had 16oz of water in my water bottle, so I chugged that. I certainly over hydrated myself. Security asked me to put my laptop in a second container all by itself. I didn’t know that rule. I easily found m15 and then looked at the flight board to see that it was delayed two hours. I was really bummed. So I sat down in the gate area and some kids behind me started talking about DIS. There was a little group of 5 of us DIS kids and then more and more DIS kids showed up. The gate area quickly filled up and all the chairs were taken. I asked the woman at the desk if she could move my middle seat to anything else but she told me it was a full flight so no. Oh well. Sitting and waiting from 5pm to midnight isn’t fun. I had to get up and walk around every now and then. I bought a magazine, trail mix, and a paperback novel called The Dressmaker (because I didn’t pack a book. What’s wrong with me?) The whole travel experience was a lot of hurry up and wait.

Around midnight we boared the plane. It wasn’t a “okay rows 1-10. now 11-20.” it was a “rows 1-45.” a huge crowd charges the gate. then  two minutes later, “okay now everyone” So it was a big free for all, but we all had assigned seats so it didn’t matter.

I was toward the back and in the middle row, middle seat. I was between a Danish woman who didn’t know English very well and a hip-looking Danish man who spoke English very well. At the end of the flight we chatted and I learned he lives an hour away from Copenhagen, sells stereo equipment, travels 100 days of the year, has kids, and likes music a lot. He was bald, wore skinny jeans, a black jacket and had big thick hoop earrings. I was happy to make one “friend” on the plane. As I got off, I said “Nice meeting you” and he winked at me and said you too.

The guy in the seat in front of me was stupid because he kept reclining back and giving me no room. My personal TV was three inches from my face. One time the stewardess asked him to pull up his chair and another time I asked him.

They served us two meals. The first was like hot meat and potatoes and carrots, bread, a lemon cake, and a salad. Then for breakfast we had yogurt and granola, oj, coffee or tea and a cheese and turkey sandwich. I tried my best to sleep because I was tired on the plane but it was so hard to sleep in those seats. I wanted to rest my head sideways but couldn’t without freaking out my neighbors. I tried resting my head on the tray table and then the jerk in front of me reclined back his seat even more so it bonked me in the head. I got into a deep sleep one time but then the lights suddenly came on and the captain began talking and I guess it was time for a meal or something. I alternated between watching TV and trying to sleep. I watched one episode of New Girl, Two Broke Girls, Modern Family, and 30 Rock  and bits of the movies Inviticus, Hope Springs, Shakespeare in Love, and The Campaign.

I was happy when the flight was over because it was weirdly exhausting sitting for however many hours.

When we landed, I went to baggage claim. I picked up one of my bags pretty quickly (after I watched it pass by me the first time around) but the second bag took longer to come out of the baggage claim carousel. I waited with a friend from Denison, so that was nice.

Once I had my bags, the DIS people told us to go to the Hilton Hotel. So I followed the signs (so I thought) and almost boarded a train. I asked a woman if I needed a ticket and she said yes. I didn’t see any other DIS kids there. I asked her if this train went to the Hilton and she said no. So once again I’m glad I asked.

I made my way to the Hilton Hotel with other DIS kids. It was exhausting lugging my backpack and two mammoth bags. I was sweating, it was such a workout. Gross.

I got my Welcome packet and then they introduced me to my host family.  They drove me back to their house, I unpacked, we ate dinner, and I read over my packet. I have my own room and my bathroom next door. The house is so sleek and modern. It looks like IKEA. I love my room and am looking forward to living with my family.

I’ve had all sorts of issues at my new home. I couldn’t get the wifi on my laptop and then I asked for help and learned that the problem was a letter in the password should’ve been a lowercase and not uppercase. I also couldn’t figure out how to turn the light on in my bathroom. Turns out it’s outside. When I took a shower, it was like something out of a sitcom TV show. The knob fell off, the door wouldn’t shut, and then I flooded the bathroom. There’s a gap between the door and the ground (which is partly raised) and so water leaked out and onto the bathroom floor everywhere. Thankfully I don’t think any leaked outside the bathroom but I still was very embarrassed. I mopped it up with towels to the best of my ability. I’m just worried about my next shower. I can’t flood the bathroom every day.