Flashback Friday: Early Days
Welcome to Flashback Friday, a series in which I post excerpts from old journal entries from my various travels. This week, I'll be featuring entries from my early days in new places or on the road.
From my first travel journal, in 1992. I was eight years old when my family embarked on a trip around the United States that would end up lasting about 13 weeks. I've left the original errors for your amusement.
Let the Adventure begin! We've just arrived in Burns. We ran out of gas in the middle of no where, not knowing what to do! Dad had to flag someone down. Now we've got to Idaho. We saw the Snake river it was very nice. We entered Boise Idaho. We found the Boise K.O.A. We saw ligtning, fork and sheet in the mountains.
From later in the trip: a photo I took of Old Faithful, Yellowstone National Park
The next big adventure I went on was to Germany, where I spent my senior year of high school as an exchange student in Hamburg. We arrived in-country in early August and had a few weeks of language camp, and unfortunately, I didn't bring that journal with me to Croatia. I do, however, have the record of my first full day at school:
September 3, 2001
Today was the first day of school. It was quite interesting. I went early so I could get my schedule. As it turned out, the schedule wasn't ready at all. So, I went with a Mr. Limberg to his first hour geography class. After that, I went back to the office to wait for Mr. Feindt, the man who does all the scheduling. When he came, we went to his office, and spent the second hour making my schedule. I'm in the 11th grade here, so I got to make a few choices in my schedule. I'm trying a typical 11th grade course load for a week, then I can make the changes I want/need.
Say, for instance, that I would rather be in a twelfth grade English class. We'll get it fixed so that I can do that.
The schedules here are more like in college. On Mondays (so the schedule now stands) I have History for two hours (which I missed today) then German for an hour, Physics for an hour, and then a beginning course in Spanish for two hours.
Tomorrow, I have the first two hours free, then German for two hours, then Physics for one, then English :) for one, then a free hour, then P.E. for two hours.
On Wednesday I have Philosophy for two hours, then Chemistry for an hour, then an hour of Math and an hour of Spanish.
On Thursday I have my longest day: English for two hours, something that's supposed to be like Social Studies for two hours, Music for two hours, Biology for an hour, four hours free (I'll come home for them), then Drama for an hour and a half, then Choir for an hour and a half. Choir gets over at nine o'clock p.m.!
Friday I don't completely know about yet. During the first two hours I'm supposed to have some sort of computer class, but they don't have a teacher for it yet, so it might not work out - I don't know. I might have the first two hours free. We'll see. Anyway, after the first two hours I have an hour of Spanish, two hours of Math, an hour of Biology, and an hour of Chemistry.
Then, right after school on Friday, I will see Herr Feindt again and fix my schedule according to how everything goes this week, though I'll have to wait until Monday to find out how well I'll be able to understand the History class.
Today after school - but wait! I didn't talk about how my classes went!
German was ok. I didn't catch much of what went on, but I got some of it. The teenagers in Germany don't raise their hands like we do. They just rest their elbows on the desk and raise their forearm, and instead of raising their whole hand, they raise their index finger. It's very interesting.
After that was Spanish. That class actually started last Friday, so I copied the notes of the student next to me (during the break before class started). It was ok, though, because everyone is just starting out with the language. I'm definitely going to keep this class.
So, after school I made a bunch of vocabulary flash cards for Spanish - 28 to be exact.
Tomorrow is my late day so I get to sleep in a little. Yeah!! So, guten Nacht!
03.09.01
-By the way, last night I finished reading Mark, so tonight I'm starting in Luke. 03.09.01
I'm not sure why I didn't write about my Physics class that day, but I probably didn't follow anything that was going on. More than any other class, I sat in Physics with my excellent Bantam pocket dictionary and looked up words the teacher used that I didn't know. Long after I had stopped doing this in my other courses, I continued doing it in physics, lol.
Incidentally, for some reason I've thought all this time that I was with the 10th graders, because students specialize more in 11th and 12th grade, and I would have a more stable core group of classmates with the 10th graders. But apparently I was off by a year!
Me in Lübeck, Germany, later that year.
I didn't journal my experiences in China in a book at first, and I'm not sure where the electronic journal entries went, but I did hand-write about our trip to Tibet while we were there.
January 19, 2008
Yesterday we set out for Lhasa via Beijing. We left our apartments at 8:30 and were driver to the train station in Baicheng by the travel agency manager. After that unforgettable conveyor belt experience in Beijing in August, imagine our surprise when we bypassed Baicheng's conveyor belt and went to the "soft seat waiting room." There we found really really comfortable chairs. They felt like sitting on a pillow. A western pillow.
We got on the train with no trouble and found our tiny but comfortable compartment. I had one of the Ritz Handisnacks Ben sent me. It was disturbingly good.
There was a small heater in our compartment, but it didn't do much until late late in the night.
We arrived in Beijing at 2:20pm today. The travel agency had arranged for us to be met at the train station by a driver and a translator, who would take us where we wanted to go in Beijing during our 7-hour layover in their "bus." We figured they meant "van," and asked for clarification. They confirmed our understanding.
But the two women who met us were not tour guides, nor did they have a motorized vehicle of any kind. *sigh*
Long story short, we took two taxis to the hotel Taka, Naomi's boyfriend was staying at. We sat there for about an hour and a half, until he got back from his tour of the Great Wall. (He, by the way, had a driver with a vehicle. He made his arrangements with a Japanese travel agency.)
So, we all trooped downtown in two taxis to eat dinner and walk over to the train station. Here we had to do the whole conveyor belt thing, but it wasn't as bad as the other Beijing station in August. Then we went to the soft seat waiting area, but it was crowded, so we stood the whole time (perhaps an hour and a half).
Then we got on the train. There are four of us now, so the tiny compartment is even more cramped, but it's also much newer and cleaner feeling. There are also little TV screens at the foot of each of our beds, electrical plug-ins, and what I'm hoping is heater control. We're right next to the dining car, so that's also a plus.
On another bright note, Taka came bearing gifts - maple syrup and maple butter and mustard for Janice, a Germany pastry thing for me called Baumkuchen, and various other scrumptious items.
So all in all, we're pretty happy right now on our first of two nights on the train to Tibet. :)
Me in Baicheng, wearing a brand new winter hat I bought from one of the vendors behind me.
Lhasa, Tibet - temple in the foreground; palace on the hillside in the background.
From my time in language school in the Air Force: I spent a month in an immersion program in Jordan.
27 September 2009 6:00 am local time
Here I am in Jordan. The trip yesterday was very very long, of course. Six of us met in front of the library and took a bus to the San Fran airport. We flew from SF to Chicago, then a 12-hour flight from Chicago to Amman. I slept most of the trip, but did manage to stay awake for a movie (The Proposal). It was okay, and Sandra Bullock's acting was, as usual, excellent. Best part of the movie.
At the airport in Amman we got visas (10 Dinar each) in our passports. Customs was the easiest I've ever seen. It consisted of glancing at our visas & taking our H1N1 reports. After that our luggage went through another scan.
We were met by a shuttle driver who took us to [our lodging - name redacted - a large building with apartments and common areas]. On the way out of the airport I saw 2 armed guards, a couple police who checked our driver's paperwork, and, at the airport entrance, a Humvee with a big gun and a third soldier ready to operate it. Pretty good security, I'd say!
[Our lodging] was a pleasant surprise - I'm not sharing a room with the other two girls but rather an apartment. There's two two-bedrooms attached to a big living room, a bathroom (w/shower w/low water pressure) and a little kitchenette w/fridge/freezer and a microwave.
On the main floor is the kitchen, dining room, sitting area, office, and library, then downstairs there's a computer lab w/free internet, & laundry services for a reasonable price.
Last night the six of us who traveled together went out to explore a little and got some shwarma, Arabic bread, hummus, veggies & a diced veggie mixture. It was great and the guy gave us some Falafal free! :) Total cost for feeding 6 hungry travelers: 15 Dinar (~$28).
The other two arrived later, I took a shower, unpacked a little, sent an email to family, tried to call w/a card, and read a little of the Mysterious Benedict Society book 2, which I started on the trip.
Didn't sleep so well last night - first night in a new place & rather warm apartment. Woke up for good @ 5:45. We're all meeting up downstairs at 7:00 for breakfast & to get organized; then it's off to the first day of class (hopefully just tours - we're all pretty tired).
There was a good deal of English in our conversations last night - everyone was tired and the brain just doesn't work as well after a huge long trip that lasted a grand total of 25 hours, from the time we left DLI to our arrival at [our lodging].
Me under an archway in the ruins of the Amman Citadel.
In the summer of 2010, having graduated from language school and cryptology school, I moved to Augusta, Georgia. Here's my first entry there:
7 July 2010
Today was my third day in my new apartment. Last night my washer leaked everywhere - Daniel the maintenance guy brought his shop vacuum over - I had already mopped up a bunch of it with towels (my few, & the guy's downstairs). So I met a neighbor! He's Nate in the Navy doing Farsi.
Today I got my couch - it looks great. Then I made myself dinner: pork chops cooked in that Dole orange peach mango juice (with cream added to it & some salt & pepper; it also served as a sauce), and sauteed vegetables (celery, bell peppers - green, yellow & red - and some diced onion with a little salt & pepper). Very good. I have enough for tomorrow's dinner, too. Then it was strawberry shortcake for dessert. Quite nice.
[I should perhaps mention that I was running a lot at that point in my life - burning lots of calories, lol.]
On a leisurely hike in Georgia.
My most recent stint living overseas was in Slovakia. Here's my first journal entry from that time:
12 Sept 2019 - Thursday
The church bell just struck 3 times to indicate it's a quarter to the top of the next hour, though my cell phone says it's only 7:40, but Tomáš did tell me the church clock is not always acurate.
A week ago today, I was given the official go-ahead to get my plane ticket and move to Slovakia. Two days earlier, I had found out the school had interest in me coming for this school year, even though it had started on Monday; two days later, I was on a plane. I had asked the school about me coming this year the week before, when it occurred to me that I was available - I had originally been thinking maybe next year could potentially work. But here I am. Apparently the first couple weeks of school here are quite chaotic, so I'm just adding a bit more to the chaos - but in a good way.
I flew United Express from Indy to Newark on Saturday, then a red eye from there to Vienna on Austrian Airlines. I was not impressed by the Newark airport. I was impressed by Austrian Airlines - "the charming way to fly," lol.
We got to Vienna 40 minutes early, at 7:30 am. I had the quickest and easiest passport control, baggage claim and customs experience I've ever had. Then I got to [wander] around for 4 hours until Tomáš was able to pick me up at noon. He came with his oldest son and we drove to Bratislava, where we had lunch and then dropped his son off at the dance boarding school he attends there.
Tomáš and I kept each other awake by chatting about my background and the school, and a little about the castle ruins we passed here and there, then by me learning and practicing some Slovak pronunciations from the highway road signs we passed. I think the cadence will be hard to get used to - the first syllable is always the one that gets the emphasis, but there can be long vowels later in the word, and enough syllables for secondary emphasis.
Me in Old Town Martin, Slovakia, in the pedestrian zone, wearing a homemade mask kindly given to me by a colleague shortly after the pandemic shut everything down in March.
I hope you enjoyed this survey of early days in new places from the journals I grabbed to bring with me for this purpose. I did! :D