So my journey to Turkey began at 5:30 in the morning on September, 13. I woke up, put on the clothes I would be wearing for my travels, and went upstairs to get some breakfast. After I had finished, I said goodbye to my pets and my house, and walked out the door. The drive was like any drive to the airport, but I found myself with this one looking out the window, trying to remember everything about Portland just the way I remember it. We reached the airport, made our way through the check-in counter, which was where my country officer found me, and afterwards we all proceeded to my gate. The goodbye wasn't excessively sentimental, just a meaningful hug to my mom, and a firm handshake with Terry and I began going through the security line. I don't feel the need to explain the security line, judging how we have all experienced having to practically unload your pack and strip to your underwear. I moved past security and went on the board my first flight to Chicago.
As I was sitting, waiting for 2 hours for the plane to board, I decided this would be a good time to cram as much Turkish into my brain as I could. A few minutes after I did this, a couple came over to me and asked "Are you going to Turkey?" to this I gave my pre-programmed response that I will be an exchange student, living in Manisa for a year. They told me that they had been to Turkey quite a few times, and loved it a lot. I sat down with them, and we had a very nice talk for the rest of the time we were waiting. Then the plane started boarding, we said our goodbye's and wished each other luck on our travels.
The flight to Chicago wasn't bad, the lady I was sitting next to was nice, we had a tailwind, and I was actually able to get some rest. When we landed in Chicago, I had 3 hours to figure out what to do with. I got some lunch, and then walked around for the majority of it. Something cool that I found in the Chicago airport, they have a brontosaurus replica, and on the ceiling of the underground pathway to the other gates, there was this laser-light show. Chicago was were I was supposed to meet up with the other exchange student from Washington who is going to my district, and for the longest time she didn't show up. I saw another Rotary blazer and went to go say hello, but this exchange student was headed to Istanbul. None the less we stayed with each other. She was from Iowa, and her mom had accompanied her to the gate. This was her first time at international travel, and it showed. About 20 minutes before the plane started boarding, the girl from Washington showed up. We all sat down together and started talking about Turkey. Of course another travel over heard us and came up and asked if we were all going to Turkey. We all said yes, and that we were exchange students. She turned out to be going to Izmir as well. The boarding started soon afterwards, and then we took off for Munich.
The flight seemed a lot longer than 9 hours. On the brighter side, I had a very nice man from Serbia as my neighbor. We spent a lot of the flight talking about soccer and other sports related things. There was also a pretty good selection of movies that were playing, and the food was some of the best I've had. Once we landed in Munich, I had another 3 hour layover, but it was nice this time because I had company. Before I walked into the terminal, I was under the impression that I was going to find a nice bratwurst stand, and enjoy a good sausage in Germany. In reality, most of the stores at the airport were over priced, designer clothing stores that would wipe my bank account with one purchase. We went to the Burberry store, and the cheapest thing we could find was a $120 napkin. We ended up just sitting by our gate trying to make time go faster. I got the window seat for my final flight, and as we were flying out of Munich, I saw a very picaresque view of the Alps. There snow covered peaks just poked out of a sea of clouds, and they seemed to stretch on for miles. After 2 hours of flight, which made a grand total of about 24 hours of traveling, I finally touched down in my final destination. Turkey.
Elveda,
-Torvald
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