| | Ok, so I know it's kinda long ago since I posted my last entry, so the
long time of waiting and being patient comes now to an end.
The USA Trip, Part I. August 26-28 '05
Last Tuesday I returned from "Down Under", but I'll discuss this
topic
later. First, I wanna tell you something about my trip to the US. As I
already told you, my former exchange organization offered me the
possibility to bring the new exchange students as a chaperone to the
USA. I wouldn't have to pay the flight, and they gave me the
possibility to get a cheap connection flight to a destination in the US
of my choice.... well, of course I had to agree to this offer. Some
time ago, I promised Amy, my bestest best friend in the USA, that I'd
come to visit her, if she promises to stay in California and to go to
school. Actually I planned to visit her next year in march, but as I
got the possibility to get to the states for free, my destination of
choice was clear... San Francisco. Well, but first I had to accomplish
a job... I had to bring 37 little students to the other side of the
world. It started all on Friday, August 26, I flew from Düsseldorf to
Munich, where all the students met, they came from all places in
Germany, but they all ended to be in Munich... that was actually no
hard thing for me, because, it was their job to get there... but it's
more difficult to finally find'em. Those people that weren't from
Munich were at the gate on time... more or less, BUT those that lived
closest were OF COURSE too late.... as usual. At least, most did show
up, in contrast to two other people... they were kinda lost in the
system. These two "missing" students did not belong to my organization,
but I was supposed to be their chaperone as well. It seemed as if their
organization shifted their flights without informing my organization,
so my organization was unable to inform me... because they didn't know
that these students were moved to another date... After a short
discussion with my Representative, she decided to check on it and I'd
fly without them. So the number of exchange students decreased by two
from 37 to 35, still a large group.... The transatlantic flight
was very smooth and there was not much to do for me, except for
checking if the kidz are all right... and..... if they did fill out
their landing cards properly..... actually it's not difficult to fill
out one of those landing cards, I mean... you know your name... your
birth date... hopefully your sex... you can look up your passport
number
and it's not too difficult to answer a few questions with either "yes"
or "no"... please notice that you just needed to check a box... BUT
NOBODY was able to do that, not because they didn't know how to fill
out a those cards, no, but they were unable to listen. The Americans
have a different way of writing the number "1" and "7" in contrast to
the Europeans. It's just a little difference, only a line by each
number, but it's important to pay attention to it, because the German
"1" can
be easily mixed up with an American "7". Before we boarded the plane in
Munich I told them to pay attention to that, the airline showed an
information film on board TWICE!!! but NO-ONE filled out his or her
landing card properly!!! So I spent two and a half hours correcting
their stupid landing cards, because if they made a mistake, they had to
fill it out again. In the end we probably wasted about 100 of these
landing card forms, until everyone had filled out his/her landing card
correctly. It was exhausting, but at least that was actually the only
thing that was kind of annoying during the whole trip. Immigration and
Customs were no problem at all. When we arrived in Chicago, we were
picked up by Staff of the American partner organization and they took
over the control. Most of my work was done, I spent the next days with
the exchange students at the orientation in the hotel... During the
orientation the students receive a lecture about the American
culture... the rules of the organization, their duties as an exchange
students... the organization rules again.... what the organization
expects... and guess what... the rules of the organization. Pretty
boring...and the worst thing about it... it was EXACTLY the same as my
orientation, three years ago. After the highly "interesting" lesson... we
made a bus tour to down-town Chicago, which was really cool. Sunday was
the day, when my little kidz departed for their host families...
actually it was hard to bring them to the airport saying "good bye".
Though I knew them only for three days, it was really nice to have am
around, and being able to tell them about my experiences that I had
during my exchange program. It was really nice, and they were good
kidz, and I really enjoyed my time I had with them....
In the Afternoon, I took off to get my flight to San Francisco....
but that's another story which will follow later... you just need to be
a little patient... shouldn't be too difficult.... you had enough time
to practice  ... Talk to ya later
|
Cindy
