2010.

Thankfully, week 2 went much smoother than week 1. I still wasn’t able to make it to Brussels, but I got caught up on paperwork & site visits, etc. I’d say it was a pretty good 4 day week. I’m hoping to spend more time in the centers next week, something I haven’t been able to do enough of quite yet.

Of course, it’s that time of year to reflect on how far you’ve come since last New Year’s. These past 5 years have been pretty eventful for me, if it wasn’t a year of huge decisions to be made, there was a lot of travel and other big events to keep me busy.

This past year has tested and challenged me, and although I still have a long way to go, I’ve grown a lot. Supervising in Key West this past summer was probably one of the biggest learning experiences I’ve had. There were definitely days when I just wanted to give up, and when I finally left I wanted nothing to do with that summer. Looking at it now, I can appreciate it for the experience it was. I learned a lot about myself, how to handle stress, leadership, management and communication. All of which has helped me at work & here in Germany (and I’m still learning!)

As always, along with the reflection on the previous year comes the resolution for the next. This year, I’m not going to make some extravagant resolution that will be too out of reach. Instead, I’m keeping it simple. This year my resolution is to approach those new & potentially challenging situations (and there will be plenty) as opportunities for growth. I tend to put a lot of weight on the negatives, and hope to make that one small change this year that can have a huge difference.

I hope you take a minute to reflect & make a resolution this week :)

“The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.” -Nelson Mandela

Overnight Bag.

Just when you thought it couldn’t get much more eventful than it’s been… it does. The rest of the week went pretty well. The K-town girls had their orientation in our housing on Tuesday due to the weather. They figured it would be easier to transport 3 trainers rather than 11 interns. It was more laid back than any orientations I’ve attended before, but probably the most informative. It was very helpful, I learned a lot :)

On Wednesday, I drove out to Baumholder with 2 of the interns placed there that were stranded in K-Town for 2 days without a ride. I was hoping to bring them on Tuesday but the roads were just too bad. So Wednesday morning we ventured out, and what everyone convinced me was a 20-minute drive took just under an hour. Thankfully we left early, so we arrived right on time. We had orientation at Baumholder, again very informative, and then were given the afternoon off to make trips to the grocery store.

I came to Baumholder with the plan to leave Wednesday night or possibly stay until Thursday morning. But of course, everything changes once I make plans. So halfway through the day on Thursday when I was planning on leaving to go back to K-Town, the trainer from Baumholder called me to tell me she couldn’t find anyone to pick up the girls at the airport so I would need to do it. This isn’t in my duties, it’s the responsibility of the MWR, but since they couldn’t find anyone I took the drive. Finally, my last 2 interns arrived on Thursday !!! As of then, we just had 1 more intern stranded in Paris. As far as I know, they’ve safely arrived at their site now.

The drive back to Baumholder was an interesting one as there was a lot of traffic for the 23^rd & of course, snow. We finally made it & it was too late and the roads were getting too bad for me to drive back to K-Town, so I stayed in Baumholder another night. (With an overnight bag packed with minimals for 1 potential night’s stay…)

Friday morning, Christmas Eve, the plan was to drive to K-Town so I could change & shower and then head out to a Christmas Market. But “surprise” it snowed a ton again and we were stuck in the housing. Not the most exciting way to spend your Christmas Eve in Germany, but we’d watched a few families struggle to get out & those that did make it out returned not much later due to the roads. So we decided to stay put & make the best of it. We decorated the fake house plant & made the apartment as “Christmas-y” as we possibly could. It turned out to be a lot of fun, and we even made Christmas dinner. We watched as other families that were planning on spending Christmas elsewhere began putting up decorations too as they realized they weren’t going anywhere either. It was a simple Christmas Eve, but definitely one I’ll remember :)

Saturday morning we were finally able to leave the apartment, yay! The roads weren’t great, but thanks to my experience from driving in the snow belt, we did alright. We went to Baden Baden, the only city we found that had a Christmas market open after the 23^rd, and open on Christmas! Of course, Baden Baden was in the opposite direction of K-Town (with all of my stuff) so I was still living out of this overnight bag. Thankfully the other girls were kind enough to let me borrow clothes & shower stuff.

The city of Baden Baden was such a pretty setting with the snow and lights & the little stands for the market. There were a few families and some tourists, I think it would be a fun tradition to have on Christmas. My Christmas dinner was a German brat & hot chocolate :) Although not many things went as planned, I am really glad we were able to see a Christmas market on Christmas day, it was pretty perfect!

This week should be another eventful one. I’m hoping to make a trip to Brussels & still manage to provide grocery runs for K-Town & Baumholder. A few of the girls still haven’t received their luggage, which I’m sure is the case for many people across Europe right now. Hopefully we can find some type of store that’s open after 6pm so the girls can get some clothes to tide them over.

I don’t have any set plans for New Year’s yet, but Munich & Brussels are potentials. We shall see what everyone else has in mind too.

So far, I think this break is off to a good start. It’s definitely going to be a learning experience, I just hope I’m up for some of these challenges.

Hope you had a wonderful Christmas! "Froliche Weinachten” in German :)

“Remember, no matter where you go, there you are.” –Earl Mac Rauch

Hurry up & wait

Well, I made it safely to Germany! It was definitely a long trip, and running to catch connecting flights now seems to be the least stressful moments of this first day (days?).
I’m not even sure what day it is.
We arrived at the airport in Cedar Rapids on Saturday afternoon ready to go. It took us a while to check in because there was a huge family in front of us that seemed to be having a lot of trouble with their luggage, along with another family whose flights were cancelled. (I should’ve seen this as foreshadowing…)

Finally we made it to our gate, only to find 2 other Camp Adventure interns waiting to depart for Hawaii on their flight that was over an hour late. I’m hoping they made their connections!

We got to Chicago safely, a little late but overall not bad. We decided to find our next gate & then get some food. However, my boarding passes would only print for my first flight from Cedar Rapids (didn’t happen to the other 4 for whatever reason) so I had to get those printed while the other girls found lunch. As he was printing my boarding pass he made the announcement that our flight was already beginning to board. So we hurried up to find everyone, and I ended up eating McDonald’s as our flight departed Chicago towards Montreal.

Montreal was a fun trip as well. We were scheduled to arrive at 6:15pm with our next flight’s boarding time at 6:05pm. Not a huge deal, but of course our flight came in around 6:30. So once we landed we did our best to rush off to find our next gate. However, that wasn’t going to be so easy as everyone’s valet checked luggage showed up, except mine & one other passenger’s. So Andrea & I sent the other 3 girls to find our next flight so they could at least make it while we waited for my bag. Once my bag arrived (they just “forgot it” downstairs) we ran through the airport to find our next flight. Thankfully everyone in Montreal is very nice, maybe a little too nice. Every attendant that we passed, either at a desk or just walking around, stopped us to ask where we were headed to make sure we were going the right direction. Finally we made it downstairs to the customs counter where they would check our passports & boarding passes. As Andrea & I arrived there, we saw the other 3 girls waiting in line. (hopefully you’ve caught on to the recurring theme & title of this post by now). So we waited, not so patiently, for our passports to be checked & were off and running again. As we entered the next terminal we genuinely had no clue where we were going, but knew we had little time to get there, so we ran. Thankfully as we were running an announcement came over the speakers calling for last call for our flight, telling us which gate to report to. So after rushing & running and finally catching our breath, we waited in line to board our flight.

At this time it was just minutes before 7 and our flight was scheduled to leave at 7. We got on our flight & found our seats (over 65 rows with 9 across) and got settled. By the time I found my seat the flight attendant assured me that my carry on bag was not going to find room near my seat (row 43). She directed me to bring my bag up to row 21 where I would find room. I then told her I would need some assistance lifting my bag (bad combination of my height & the weight of the bag). For whatever reason she was not impressed with this request and made no attempt to help me. Thankfully the guy sitting in a seat nearby (the one I probably would’ve hit had I tried to lift the bag myself) offered to help.

The flight into Frankfurt was a long one, scheduled for 7 hours & overnight so it would be perfect to just sleep and overcome jet lag. Of course, that’s easier said than done. After waiting almost an hour before we took off (without an explanation) I was already restless. I watched a movie & some TV and was surprisingly not tired after a stressful day. I’m convinced that sitting in the middle seat didn’t help either.

One guarantee with long international flights is that you’re going to meet some interesting people. The woman to my right is from Ruwanda, living in Montreal and heading home to visit her family. As I approached the row to find my seat, she had to ask another passenger how to undo her seatbelt. She was a very nice lady, not too great at English but we managed a decent conversation. I then helped her use the TV/movie screen & how to use the headphones and she was good to go.
The guy sitting to the left of me in the window seat didn’t have much to say for most of the flight. I was a little bummed that he kept the window shades drawn for the entire flight, but I guess it’s nothing I haven’t already seen. At the end of the flight we talked for a little bit. He is a student in Montreal & is heading home to Saudi Arabia for the break from school.
After sitting with these 2, suddenly my story didn’t seem so fascinating.

Finally, we arrived in Frankfurt !!! It was just before 9am on Sunday morning. The best part about rushing to our flight in Montreal was that our 5 bags were the first 5 down the baggage claim. We were all thankful & knew that it could never happen twice.

Once we got our bags we changed out of our PJs to be presentable for the MWR personnel picking us up, where we met 3 other interns. One was on his way to Vicenza (Italy) but the airline valet checked his bag for the smaller flight but accidentally sent it to baggage claim. Luckily he had a long layover in Frankfurt so it wasn’t a huge deal.

We made our way to the USO where we met up with even more interns headed to Kaiserslautern (K-Town) & Baumholder. The K-Town group went on their way & I stayed with the Baumholder group for a while. The USO is for active duty military and were nice enough to let us hang around too.

After many phone calls & delayed & cancelled flights, I finally got my rental car around 1pm. The car Camp A rented for me is a manual, which I’d practiced on a little in Iowa. However, once I got the car I quickly realized I was not ready. I did my best to make it a little ways, but not far out of the airport with the snowy roads made me realize this wasn’t a good idea. I went back to the rental place (after making may German drivers angry) to switch the car out. The rental return attendant was very patient with me, although I knew he was thinking “stupid American”

So I exchanged my cute Opel Astra for a Mercedes Benz. Not a bad trade, but I’m still not sure how much I was charged for the exchange. The receipt from the rental company is pretty vague so I think I’m going to call the company tomorrow.

After just over an hour of driving in the snow, and calling Melissa (the current PC in K-Town) because I was lost even with the GPS, I made it safely to the K-town base in Landstuhl. Finally.

The housing here is really nice, family style apartments with 2-4 bedrooms, full kitchen dining & living room, laundry & 2 bathrooms in each. I have my own room & my own bathroom, which are pretty nice. I’m still fighting with the internet, Melissa gave me her wireless internet stick & I paid the 25Euro to get unlimited internet for the month, but my computer doesn’t seem to like it. I’ve been trying it out a few different ways and it doesn’t seem to be working so we’ll see what happens.

Monday morning we woke up bright & early to head to the pass & ID place, only to find out that it doesn’t open until 9 (we got there at 8). So we started our orientation & went to get our passes later.

Around noon we were informed that the road conditions have been changed to “red” which is the code the military uses. Once the roads turn red, military vehicles aren’t advised to travel anymore, which of course caused problems with our airport pickups. But even our orientation ended up being cut short. They had to drive us back to our housing (about 20 minutes) so that we would be able to get on base & the staff could get home in case the roads went to “black” (no travel). So the 15-20 minute drive took us about an hour. The autobahn was packed with cars (we assume there was an accident) so we took our own little detour through some smaller towns. The snow was coming down pretty good, but it was so gorgeous. I was just thankful that 1- I no longer had a manual car & 2- I wasn’t driving. :) Here is a picture of the autobahn just when we took it for the last stretch into Landstuhl.

Out of my 23 staff at 3 sites, 14 arrived on Sunday. So that meant a lot of phone calls & rescheduling of flights. Thankfully all but 2 have arrived as of tonight (Monday night). Those 2 will be flying in on Wednesday & Thursday.

As you can probably tell it’s been quite an adventure these past 2 days. I’m constantly confused as to what day it is and just hoping to get adjusted soon. For tomorrow’s orientation the trainers are coming to us because they figured it’d be easier to transport 3 trainers instead of 11 interns. I’m personally thankful for that :)

This first post from Germany is a long & eventful one. Hopefully this won’t continue. This Friday (the 24th) is a federal holiday so we’ll have a 3 day weekend. I’m not sure where I’ll be traveling yet but I’ll post soon!



“Unless you try to do something beyond what you have already mastered, you will never grow.” -Ralph Waldo Emerson

Procrastination.

Hi there, Michelle here.

I've been meaning to start a blog for a while now (hence the title of this post). This seems to be an easier way to send my "updates" of my travels to friends & family.

As of now, I'm not on any exciting travels. Just finished my 3rd semester of grad school (1 to go!) and am applying for jobs.

I guess I shouldn't say that, I'm leaving this Saturday (3 days) for a month in Germany. That's pretty current, and exciting. So while I'm gone I'll do my best to update this blog & add a picture or 2. As I continue in the program I seem to have less & less free time, which I'm okay with, but it makes it more difficult to send lengthly updates & pictures. So this is me admitting that I'm going to try & do better, feel free to hold me accountable for it!

I'm a little nervous for this winter's trip for a few reasons. 1) I'll be missing the holidays at home. I'm very excited to see Europe at Christmastime, but that comes at the price of missing the holidays with my family. I'm sure it'll be more difficult but I have a few good friends traveling with me that will make it fun. Also, I'm pretty sure this will be my first New Year's ever without Dick Clark & watching the ball drop in NYC. Although I've never been to NYC, I'm afraid to admit it's going to be weird without watching the T.V. at midnight. 2) I have to drive a manual car, in Germany & Belgium, during the winter. Yikes! I've had a few driving lessons here in Iowa so I get the jist of driving, let's just hope it clicks under pressure ? I'm sure I'll be fine, just nervous for it. 3) Supervising over winter break. I always get nervous before another stint of supervising, and it's more the anticipation than anything. Since this program is only 4 weeks it should (hopefully) be easier, especially since all of my staff have participated in the program before. Hopefully I didn't just jinx myself in saying that (knocking on wood).

I think that's more than enough for my first post. I'm going to (try to) end every post with a quote I like. Here's todays:

Like all great travellers, I have seen more than I remember, and remember more than I have seen. ~Benjamin Disraeli