When all else fails, stop using all else

As a lifeguard, I've learned to stop relying on weather forecasts. Whenever I anticipate a sunny day to sit on the beach and work on my tan, I am handed a slightly overcast yet rather windy day along with a striped towel to wrap myself in and a pair of sweatpants. Whenever I see that there is rain in the forecast, my brain switches to the "day-off" mode that most people experience come Friday afternoon. As a tourguide, I've learned to not just ignore weather forecasts, but to completely stop relying on the weather itself. Expecting rain, I would snag an umbrella. Expecting sunshine, I would proudly don my sunglasses. I not so quickly learned that, in New England, one must bring both to be fully prepared for two hours walking around outside during the summertime.

Weather affects so many different things in our lives that it's completely impossible to say that we have any control over anything whatsoever. I'm not talking about climate and how we adapt to certain conditions, or anything scientific like that. Oh no, I am far more superficial than that, my friends. I'm talking about transportation: getting from A to B, over the river and through the woods.

Think about it. You stay up all night working on a paper due the next day, only to find out that school is cancelled due to a snowstorm. You end up driving an extra eleven miles on a detour route that avoids flood damaged roads and end up late for a (enter doctor of choice here)'s appointment. Or, as is often the case, you switch airlines last minute because you know you won't make your connecting flight from Chicago if your original flight from LaGuardia gets delayed by an hour, and, as a result, end up in a foreign country with bags under your eyes but no luggage to speak of.

Now, for those of you who don't know, Mama Q does not mess around when it comes to packing luggage. The woman used to be a girl scout, people. She lives by a very honorable motto: better safe than sorry. Maybe it's because I've had that same four-word phrase drilled into my head so many times as a child (and as an adult), or maybe it's because I have a gift for predicting the future, or maybe it's because Mama Q told me to, but I can say that, for some unknown reason, I had decided to pack a majority of my underwear in my carry-on luggage. I'd like to think it's the second of the three. But who are we really kidding here.

So, Hannah (my travelling buddy) and I took up the offer to switch airlines when we heard that, for some reason, there was some weather in the Windy City that was preventing planes from landing and taking off at O'Hare. We went from American Airlines to US Air, and had the pleasant experience of going through security for a second time. The nice lady at the front of security who looked at my boarding pass told me that I was a winner. I thought that was really nice of her. Then she told me I had won a free massage. I thought that was awfully nice of her. Then she directed me into a glass booth for "additional screening." I didn't think she was such a nice lady after all.

It's a good thing I wasn't packing any heat that day. That would have really caused some anguish. Better safe than sorry.


So it was off to Boston with Hannah for leg #1 of our journey to Frankfurt. It went smoothly enough--we got off the plane, caught a bus to the terminal for international flights, went through security a third time, and then boarded our plane to Deutschland.

Somewhere, a child cried in the night (Row 28, seat D).

But, all's well that ends well. Hannah and I reached Europe at last, and safely boarded a train to Mainz, where we met Barbara and Ana, two German students at the university, who went with us on a bus to our dorm rooms and then took us shopping for essentials. And, for me, this includes bananas. Which you have to weigh on your own in Germany, by the way. I didn't know.

Then, this morning, while on a tour of the campus with other Middlebury students and other Americans studying at the university to get their masters, a wonderful thing happened. Barbara, who was leading the tour, got a phone call that said our luggage was being delivered in a silver Mercedes, and Hannah and I had to go and sign for it immediately.

Words could not express the joy Hannah and I both felt. Not only was our luggage safe, sound, and in the same country as us-- but it was transported in a silver Mercedes! Lufthansa really knows how to treat your luggage. After it's found, that is.

Walking around campus today brought back some fine memories from freshman year at Midd, where, during the first few days, I had absolutely no idea how to get anywhere without a map besides the athletic center. I don't even have that luxury at this point, although I do know how to get to the bus stop pretty well by now. I think the one thing that struck me the most about the campus was the amount of grafitti everywhere. And I mean EVERYWHERE. I've been up to visit Hannah in a different building (luckily it's right next door, and it's a high-rise...I couldn't get lost if I tried!), and the elevator is completely COVERED in grafitti. I don't know how I feel about that yet. Maybe I'll get some feedback from you dedicated readers back home once I get some pictures up.

Tomorrow, all of us Midd kids plan to go down into the historical city of Mainz to check out everything. The mall we had been to before where we did all of our shopping was on a different end of the city, so most of us haven't seen all the places that were photographed and so beautifully arranged in a brochure for us at Middlebury. Hopefully I can take some pictures of my own tomorrow!

Hope everything is going well for everybody back home/in your respective countries of study! I miss everyone! Keep on keepin' on.

Peace, love, jetlag and smuggled American (chunky) peanut butter,
Amanda