We are now boarding...

September 9, 2011. The day my life will change forever. You guessed it! I finally booked my tickets for my flight to Germany a few days ago. It feels like this experience if finally getting underway. The ambiance in my house is a bit tense at the moment for my parents now have this date looming over their heads. If you ask them they will tell you that they are so excited to get me out of the house, but we all know this to be false! I mean, who wouldn’t miss this? Answer: nobody.

Warning: Excessive amounts of drama beyond this point.

From my quaint abode in Highlands Ranch I will make the treacherous journey to Denver International Airport. The roads that lead to my fate may possible be littered with the most reckless and dangerous of people that’s sole purpose in life is my downfall. But fret not, for I am prepared for an epic battle of my life. From there I will say a very teary goodbye to my parents and flee to security. There I will shout my parting words to America and gallivant towards my new life. At 6:05pm on the dot the plane will fire up its engines and I will feel its roar in my bowels. We will ascend to such heights that even the gods won’t be able to touch us (good thing for I am not currently on the best terms with them). The first section of my journey will come to a screeching halt in Frankfurt, Germany at 11.35am, and I will depart my temporary home of the plane with the attributes of a drunk. You see, I didn’t sleep on the plane at all because it was my duty as an American citizen to keep my eyes peeled for any suspicious activity. And by suspicious I mean an island that resembles “The Island” in any shape or form. I will wait on Frankfurt until episode two of my journey commences. At 1:35pm I will again rise to the heaven and travel to Munich to again disembark at 2:30pm. My return from my battles of greatness has yet to be confirmed, but I, the brave and gallant Shandre,  will make sure that this information becomes available to you as soon as me.

We now resume standard levels of theatrics.

It was quite a battle to get my tickets finalized and all that jazz. You see, Christoph and Max will be on their own little excursion to California while I am in Colorado awaiting my departure. They arrive late in the afternoon (5.45pm) on the 9^th of September, so obviously we tried to coordinate our flights so it would be less trouble for them. But I could not get a flight that landed later than 2.30pm! So I obviously took the flight.

For those of you that can’t do math, I have to wait on the Munich airport for around three hours before my host family comes. It will be just as I had a layover, and it will give me a chance to assert my independence! It will also give me the precious time I need to pretty myself up so that I don’t look like I rose from the Night of the Living Dead when I meet my host family. That would make things a tad awkward in the car ride back to the house.  This is what my mom says of course (she always has to be the reasonable one!). I, on the other hand, feel this will be a perfect opportunity to scope out the potential real estate of Germany… and I’m not talking about houses! *For those of you part of Rotary International, please ignore the previous comment* But in all seriousness (I know that it doesn’t happen often!) I am glad that I will have a few moments to gather my thoughts before meeting my host family.

When I was told all the wonderful and grand tales of getting a Guarantee Form back it made my mind soar. It was the thing that I looked forward to most out of the whole exchange (apart from my blazer and the beautiful men). I got it today. I guess this is a prime example of why exchange students shouldn’t have expectations. What did I get in the mail? A piece of paper. With information that I already knew. Exciting? No. But this is not to say that my disappointment in relation to my Guarantee Form lowered my overall excitement to Germany!

P.S. the above paragraph was my conclusion… so this blog is now over.