First Impressions

We arrived early into Frankfurt.  The county is beautiful from the air!  GREEN!!!!  Flying in I could see multiple solar power fields and windmills.  The rivers define the boundaries here and the rest of the roads are just fit in where ever.

The airport did not have a gate for us, so came off the airplane out in the "air plane parking lot" and were bused back to the terminal.  We waiting in line for the passport checks and then on to baggage.  Found our bags just fine and they weathered the trip well, all except the big duffle bag - but that's ok because I got a great deal on it from Down East Home so no tears about that one.

I was nervous we wouldn't be able to find EVA, but a soon as we came around the next corner, there she was!  Sweet little Luzian was asleep in the stroller.  We hiked to the car.  OK.....German parking lot!  You really knew you were not in america.  First they were all SMALL!  But oh, so nice.  Eva's mini van from the states looked like our 15 passenger van.  We loaded up and she skillfully navigated her way out of the parking garage.  It was the equivalent of driving our 15 passenger van in down town Chicago.  The streets are small, and the garages even smaller.  There was a few inches of clearance on either side.

We headed back to their house.  The neighbor hood is beautiful.  Little road made from bricks.  They live in what we would call a town home.  Their street is a No parking street, it's only for playing so we unloaded the car but then she parks on the street behind them.  Her house is just darling.  I'll take some pictures and post them in the next day or so.  

We drove to pick up the girls from gymnastics, and I decided I was really glad we were not going to drive while we are here.  Narrow doesn't really do justice for the roads!  And they twist and turn like I've never seen.  We spent the evening chilling and figuring out the rail system for our travels next week.  Eva made a delicious meal for dinner and we tried several kinds of cheese.  GOODBYE diet!  The pretzels were amazing and then she told me they were out of a box.  I wonder if I could get those home.

We crashed hard last night.  Slept great and woke up to the sounds of a bird singing a song unlike any I've heard before.  I'll have to figure out what kind of bird it is.  Or maybe they just sing birdie in German too?  We are sleeping in the newly remodeled attic....it's very amazing.  The window above our bed is the neatest thing you have ever seen.

We are headed to the temple this morning, and then Eva and I are going to go do some shopping.  We will go with Mia tonight to her school BBQ.   Hope everything at home is going well.  Give my kiddos a hug if you seen them.  Miss them so much already!  I'll squeeze a little one on this end to get in my mommy hugs.   Love you all!

In flight Dinner

We were served a lovely little dinner of pasta, potato salad and carrot cake.  The bread was something from ______ and I don’t want to go there again.  It was Rye (which I don’t mind) but it was moist and flat, completely un-leavened and cold!  All in all, I think it was great, except I can tell I’m going to need more Carafate on the trip than I thought.  I wonder what they have in Germany that is equal to that?

After Dinner we settled in.  There was a movie on, but I couldn’t get to my headphones easily.  Note to self…….practice pulling things out of your carry on bag with your eyes closed while sitting in one of your kitchen cupboards.  It’s like a sick game of twister!  The couple seated in front of us is nice, but are taking way too much of their purchased space on the plane.  The wife keeps having her husband adjust her 2 normal sized pillows from home, which are slipping through the side of the seat an invading 4 inches of my 8 inches of room.  I’ve politely asked her to move her pillow so I could adjust my tray, and she was resistant.  I really hoped she would notice it was shoved clear back into my space, but within about 20 seconds, she asked in a hurried voice, “are you done yet so I can put my pillow back?”  Oh well, hopefully she doesn’t have something awful since I’m going to be very close to her pillow for several hours.

After all the work to get out my head set, I got them plugged in and…….you guessed it, the movie was in GERMAN.  RATS!!!!  I flipped though the channels and settled on some soothing classical music.  Within a few minutes, I was in my own “LITTLE” world and sleeping……sort of.  I was surprised at what woke me up.  Sensing any shift in speed or attitude reminded my ears and stomach we were actually moving.  I slept on and off till about midnight (home time) and then got out the trusty iPad, played all my lives of candy crush and any  bingo game that didn’t require the internet.  Then I decided I could catch up on some conference talks.  The one that stood out to me was from L Tom Perry titled Obedience to the Law is Liberty.  I LOVED THAT TALK.  I got much more out of it studying it along with some of my original notes.  It was a good reminder that we are here to exercise our use of agency, and the choice is really ours.  How we act or react is completely up to us. 

The kiddos on the flight were all sound asleep until several hours later when the youngest (probably 6 months) woke up very unhappy.  Her poor mama.  After some soothing and help from the flight attendants, she was back asleep and the mom breathed a sigh of relief.  I got up to use the bathroom and was a little confused as the information on the door is in German and there were no pictures.  I finally just guess and sure enough it was the toilet.  I practiced a little German while I was in there; soap, flush etc. are all very important words. 

The sun came up early, and it was bright!  I was annoyed that while the majority of the plane was still asleep, passengers kept opening their shades.  It was like blinding someone at the movies with a mag light……..PLEASE PEOPLE!!!!  After a while I noticed that the cabin lights were being adjusted very slowly, and over about 30 minutes the lights were back up.  How nice of them not to just turn them on.  Can you imagine if they did that?

They started serving breakfast and I was really excited.  I could see the trays they were passing out and it looked delicious.  OOPS, forgot that the row in front of us turns from premium economy to just economy.  Our economy breakfast consisted of a very yummy hot roll, a meat and cheese slice and a small plate of fruit.  Luckily for me, it was all melon, so David wouldn’t eat it.  It was pretty good.  Maybe we will consider upgrading our meals for the flight home.  There are many who have and there is a stark difference!

The cabin TV’s show us on a map every so often.  We flew up over Canada and Greenland, over the ocean across Ireland and England and now we are almost in Germany.  It puts up our speed, altitude, temperature etc.  It’s pretty cool what technology can provide now a day.  Most of our flight has been at 36,000 feet and we go anywhere from 540-560 miles an hour.  The outside air temperature up here is stated to be -70 Fahrenheit.  No wonder the bags are cold when you pick them up.  We are scheduled to land in Frankfurt 90 minutes ahead of schedule and I’m grateful for a slightly shorter flight. 

Hopefully customs will go well and our bags will arrive and be in one piece. 

PS  I’m grateful that working 20 years of nights has prepared me so well for JET LAG.  You should see how bad the people look on the plane……..I wonder if that’s how I look after working????  But after just sitting here and catching multiple naps……I feel pretty darn good.  

In Flight Reflections

We are safety cruising now at 33,000 feet and just passing over Denver, Co.  What an amazing sight the Grand Canyon is from above!  We are expected to land on time tomorrow after a slightly shorter flight than planned because of favorable weather conditions. 

While we waited at the gate to board I had several re-occurring thoughts.  The first was how funny the gate attendants were as they changed their minds over and over.  One sweet slightly older German lady kept saying you don’t need your passport, only your boarding ticket and state they were starting in rows 40-45.  Then a gentleman would come on and say, please have your boarding passes with your passport open to your photo in your hand and say we were boarding rows 14-19 first.  They alternated multiple times, when a younger lady then came over the speakers and we started boarding….no passport needed, and starting in the rear of the plane.  I’m not sure why I got such a chuckle out of this except to say that is makes me feel slightly better about my own “off” days at work when we un-intentionally give out miss information.  Our fellow passengers were very nice at the gate, very docile, and most just waited their turn.  Only a few rushed the gate when they called for those traveling with children or who “need a little extra time”.  I made a comment under my breath that was louder than I thought because several people around giggled when I commented on the “rushers” need to board because they needed more time.  BTW, how nice to NOT use the word handicapped or elderly etc.  The condor crew have been extremely nice happy individuals to be with.

The other things noticed by many passengers, including ourselves, were the large number of children at the gate.  WOW!  They weren’t quiet, or well behaved.  One gentleman seated by us sent his wife out on a mission to figure out where they were going to be seated on the plane……so funny.  As if he could do anything about it now.  I thought, maybe they are just getting it all out ahead of time.  I remember the stares we got when traveling with the girls.  Can you imagine seeing us at the gate?  I was always relieved, as I received countless compliments after “good” flights with the kids from the nervous passengers surrounding us.

As we made our way down the ramp and onto the plane, the Vegas heat was stifling.  The very sweet young man working at the door said it was 107 already out there!  Can you believe working outside on the tarmac in such heat?  I hope they get paid well. 

Once on the plane we didn’t have very many rows to go before we arrived at row 15.  David and I are seated in the two seats on the right side of the plane.  It is set up with 2, 3, 2 across.  There was a very cute little white pillow and freshly laundered blue blanket on each of our seats which made me smile.  I had tried to figure out how to bring a blanket or pillow but with all of the weight and size restrictions, it just didn’t’ happen.  I almost paid a premium in the airport, but decided my sweat shirt would suffice.  We got ourselves settled and the pre-flight instructions played in both German and English.  I’m pretty surprised how much I got out of the German version!  I might understand a little more than I thought.  I’m pretty rusty on my numbers though.  The captain is very GERMAN and has a sense of humor.  There was a slight delay and so I settled in.  I used my very cute little white pillow against the window and I’m not sure how much time passed before I realized we were moving and taking off.  The jet fuel smells just like the helicopters landing/taking off at the hospital.  We are sitting right in front of the massive engine, but I’ve got a great view out of my window. 

It must be a very long runway…….seemed like forever before actually lifting off.  But then once airborne it was very smooth.  The bird’s eye view of Vegas was amazing.  The detail in how the city was laid out, perfect large blocks, all the houses in rows.  Then there would be one section with one curved road through the middle of it?????? Seriously, now why would that bug me?  The main streets never faltered in being perfectly square.  Then there would be an entire neighborhood with the streets set on a weird angle.  I wonder who lives in neighborhoods like those.   There was one area that appeared to have a large manmade lake, and then houses surrounding it, with roads out in the middle like a little peninsula…..so each and every one had “Lake Front”.  I wonder what that neighborhood is called.  Does anyone know?  It was cool, right in the middle of the dessert.  I’m sure it’s $$$ to live there.

After we were airborne the flight crew served “welcome” drinks.  Free alcohol for everyone (over 18 that is).  Hmmmmm, are they onto something here?  I just had a plain jane diet coke with ice.  Kind of boring after seeing the rest of the pretty drinks.   Dave broke out the gobstoppers and we sipped our welcome drinks and felt just as good as those feeling a little more relaxed with alcohol. 

It was then I broke out the computer and started typing.  I’ve tried to post from the iPad, but honestly, can’t stand the keyboard.  It was nice to type freely on the netbook.  And so that brings me to right now, the seat belt sign just went on, the little carts filled with meals are being whisked away.  I’m thinking we have something in our future……turbulence.  YEP, the captain just said, sorry folks, we didn’t expect this, and it shouldn’t be for too long.  When the lead flight attendant came on, she explained that the meal would be delayed for a while.  She apologized and justified her decision to ask the team to defer serving dinner until it was safer for the crew to be about the cabin, and it would be more enjoyable to eat.  It’s great that she gave an explanation like that.  We could learn a lot about a service oriented industry that has firm boundaries by patterning after the airlines. 

There is a boss – the head honcho – the captain.  He very nicely introduced her in the beginning as the “one in charge of the cabin” and that she would make sure that first and fore most our safety was her job, but that her team would do everything they could do to make our trip enjoyable.  Wouldn’t it be awesome if the people directly in charge of something were given that kind of public un-conditional backing?  The crew has been well trained in being polite, but clearly stating the boundaries.  Apologizing for known inconveniences or changes to the plan, but stating they would reconcile them as best they can and in a timely manner.  Then keeping everyone informed of any updates.   I think you would be pretty stupid to not be able to figure out why they were delaying dinner, but their willingness to acknowledge that, and thank you in advance for your patience is very empowering for both parties.  I wonder how that would go down at the bedside in the NICU?  Would it be something like, “I realize that I will not be readily available to answer your questions while I give your next nurse important information about your baby.  I appreciate your cooperation and patience to allow us to be effective and punctual, even though at times it may seem inconvenient for you.”   In an effort to be available and to keep patients happy, we have dissolved lots of boundaries that make our day to day bedside nursing tasks very difficult.  I guess I have something to try when I get home.  I think I often feel like, “I told this mom she could _______, but now we are admitting another baby.  How am I going to get all this done.”  It’s really no different than having dinner ready for 300 passengers and putting it all away because you can’t control the weather.