I Made It!

Hello faithful readers! I just want to let you know that I arrived safely in Salzburg yesterday afternoon. My journey began when I boarded the biggest plane I have ever been on (in my opinion) at San Francisco on July 12. The plane was a 747, so there was an upper deck as well as a main cabin. Though I believe I traveled on one the first time I went to Hawaii (the only reason I remember this is that my younger brother was fascinated with the fact that the plane had a top deck), the plane I was recently on seemed to be wider and have more seats. Sadly, I was not on the top of the plane, but I did see the staircase that lead to the top. My ten hour flight to Frankfurt was not as bad as one might imagine--I read a few chapters from my communication textbook, watched Modern Family and Scrubs, and slept. Even though sleeping on a plane is nowhere near as comfortable as sleeping in a bed (especially in my bed at home with my cat Lily), the fact that I was able to sleep for about 4 hours was pretty good. Lufthansa deserves A LOT of credit for designing seats that are wide (there was a lot of space between the armrest and the window), have ergonomically adjustable headrests, and lean back further and have more legroom compared to most airlines.

I arrived in Frankfurt at 10:15 in the morning (we got in 10 minutes late because we left SF 15 minutes late), and walked through what felt long the longest walkway to get to the gate for my connecting flight. Even though my walk to my gate included stops at customs and security, I can tell you that by the time I got to my gate, I felt both like Moses wandering in the desert and a little kid on an incredibly long car ride asking "Are we there yet?" Unlike Moses or the little kid, I was rushed because I had to catch my flight to Salzburg in a little less than two hours. Luckily, I made it to my gate with plenty of time before boarding. As we flew over Austria, I thought, "Wow, the view from below looks like the opening page in a fairy tale book!" One hour flew by, and before I knew it, I was finally in Salzburg!

After getting our checked luggage, two students, two professors, three family members (of my communication professor), and I squeezed into a taxi that took us to the Univ. of Portland Center. We arrived there around 3 pm, which gave us a few hours to get settled before we had dinner and a quick meeting.

Despite being able to fight jet lag the first few hours I was there, I was actually tired as the evening went on. I went to bed around 9 pm--which is normally way too early than me, but I guess is reasonable for someone who has been traveling for 11 hours and had no trouble staying awake during the day. Unfortunately, I woke up at 5 am, but perhaps the fact that I got 8 hours of sleep makes up for this. I DID try to listen to music, which helped me stay asleep for a little while, but after some time, I decided to get up.

That's all for now. More to come about my first full day soon!