The 2nd of February
My day started early as I had a long day ahead of me, 33 hours to be exact (24 + 9 for traveling across timezones) My mother woke me at 4.45 AM danish time and I got up immideatly, I still cannot remember I slept at all that night, but I did.
The day before I had packet my stuff printed what needed to be printed, sat around looking at graigslist (an american site where you can post about stuff you have, or stuff you wanna have and in theory it gains everybody) and watched tv.
Among the stuff I forgot, because you HAVE to forget SOMETHING, was;
- "Rejsen går til californien" (traveling to california) which I got as a present and I was very disappointed when I roamed through my luggage later to find I had forgot it.
- a pen in my hand luggage, it is very hard to declare your stuff to the airport without one, luckily a nice stewardesse were willing to lend me hers.
- A sketch book, I SHOULD have honed my lacking sketching skills in the airport while waiting, waiting and waiting some more
- A camera, sorry folks unless I can find something cheap reliable and worthwhile it looks like you are going to have to live without screenshots of my adventures in San Francisco!
I'll probably add to the list during the next couple of days when I discover that I never actually brought a pair of shoes or that I forgot all my underwear, so stay tuned.
Where was I?
Ah we haven't even left my parents yet! So I saw some more TV, damn those apparatuses steals away time that should've been spendt finding "Rejsen går til californien", a pen, a sketch book and a camera! Anyhow I took a shower grabbed a towel laughed at my mirror image just to find it laughing back at me, put on some clothes grabbed a piece of bread got in the car and had my mom drive me to nyborg train station, yay!
I said bye to my mom, went upstairs and waited for the train to come, while I was waiting I was freezing, because it is cold in denmark, wich is a subject I will return to later on.
After about 5 or 10 or 15 minutes, or another timeinterval even, the train came to the station, at nyborg station there were already a heckload of people but there was even more in the train, I had thought it would be nearly empty, but "c'est la vie" which is about the only thing I can say in french appart from "baguette" and "sacré blué".
I remembered with my super brain that I had forgot to write my contact this morning updating him on my status, luckily yet another, or actually the first helpful lady of the day was there to save my behind, I borrowed her computer and got the mail sendt of, when I got to kastrup I was surprised by the cheery security people, one of which said to another "If we were any nicer we would be…" Something I sadly forgot, but they were smiling and chatting people up.
As I got checked in and was ready to find my gate I found out that it had no gate yet, so I drank some Americano coffee and regrettet as mentioned my lack of a sketchbook, then I decided to go look for a book, because my mom had told me earlier that during the flight I might want to read, logic I did not see at the time, but in hindsight appreciate dearly. But I had no luck none of te books seemed interesting so then I began a hunt for the toilet because I had been drinking coffee… I guess I'll spare you the details.
When a came back from the exciting adventure you will never read about, I found that the gate had been given and was already kinda open, because even though it said so, when I got there, it wasn't waited again, regretted I forgot a sketch book, looked at two danish girls who were going to new zealand, but when they started talking about applying for "Universitetet" (College), I decided they were to young for me to be looking at them, and regrettet my lack of a sketch book some more, while I drank the last sip of my coffee.
When the gate finally opened we were guided out of the lounge area, and lined up and boarded, but not before everyone had left te plane first of course.
When I got on I thought "now would be a good time to sleep", but then they mentioned something with the flight only being one hour.. Oh! By the way, this is the plane to Frankfurt.
So I ditched sleep ate a tortilla wrap and enjoyed a glass of coke with it.
Besides the takeoff and landing nothing exciting really happened, but gotta say it is fun to sit in an airplane when it takes off and you can just see how steep the angle on the plane is, it's crazy fun!
But then it landed, I got out, through more security, Frankfurt was a lot stricter than Copenhagen and the mood was not as light and I felt nervous whenever I spoke with anybody who asked me anything, like; "What's your favourite colour roses?", "Where would you take me on a date?" or "Do you know a motel nearby?".
It was like third degree!.. Well no, but I got pretty nervous once or twice, also because they speak german to you as a rule of thumb and people with power over your travel who speaks german is a bit scary to me (Sorry all you german people).
But before I boarded I succesfully found a book! The Curious Incident of the dog in the night time, which proclaims it self as a crimi during the first couple of pages, but more or less is about the main character who has a severe case of asperger's syndrome, and the his phobias of yellow, brown, and how when people ask him too many questions too rapidly he was to groan to ignore the sound the make and curl himself into a little ball…
Haven't read the end yet, wont spoil it either, but the culprit of the heinous crime is revealed half way through the book, so the rest of the book is about being scared and not understanding other people.
Well… So I got on the plane, but not before talking with an asian security girl with heavy make up and green contacts, a bit freaky because she asked me some questions about why I was travelling to the US. And I could look her in her eyes because it hurt to much to watch..
But I got through, but not before waiting and regretting my lack of sketch books…
So I got on the plane and I thought "now would be a good time to sleep", but no they put on a romantic film with a semi hot lead actress, who had to find a middleway between career and personal life, so I had to see that!
And after that they put on Megamind… Really disappointed about that one, despicable me was in my oppinion much better, but yeah, I HAD to see that one as well, luckily they showed a couple of series after that, first house, then friends and then something I completely ignored, but at that point I wasn't tired so I started to read my fabtabulous new book..
I took some naps, most of them lasteing about 5-15 minutes before I realized I was not able to sleep. At this point we were somewhere between a third of the way and halfway there…
I read a lot, I am almost done with the buggar! And then some more movies I ignored read, tried but failed to sleep, read, tried but failed to sleep, read some more, and then we landed whoohoo!
At that point I felt so comfortable in the air that I was almost sad when we hit ground, but then I was in San Francisco, and you've probably forgot, but I mentioned it was cold in denmark, but when I arrived in SF it was 16 degrees Celcius! Nice J
I got through security without any snags, I got on my laptop and checked my mail to find instructions on how to get to the place my contact would pick me up, first it was a trainride, and while I rode the train the sun settled, and then it was a ferry ride to San Rafael I was sitting at the back drinking a beer I bought on the ferry, about $4 (23 kr) for a 6.5% beer on a ferry, pretty cheap and not too shabby either, while I watched the San Francisco skyline.. It was pretty, but reaaaally windy to!
After the ferry, I got confused as so many times before (as the character in my book actually also often becomes), because it was not san rafeal, but a small district 5 miles (4½ km) away from san rafael, but my contact, Pete, came and picked me up we drove about around the neighbourghood, and told me I probably shouldn'r be out too much after dark around here, but at day time it was completely fine.
He dropped my off, jumped into bed wrote this and now I am going to bed, the clock is 8.35 over here, tomorrow Pete will pcik me up drive me a bit around so I can see stuff in daylight and we'll grab breakfeast, and then I'll probably spend the rest of the day by myself, I can start at the company friday, but they would understand if I started monday, I'll figure it out tomorrow, cheers!
