It's only been a little over a week since my last post, but it seems like forever. There's been lots of news I've been meaning to write about - like a new job, a new man, and a million other things that have popped in my head during the past few weeks that I've been meaning to blog about. I just haven't had the time to do it yet. So here is the first of more posts to come...

I've been in Germany for my grandma's 80th birthday, and although it was only a 5 day trip, it was fun! We took my grandma and grandpa to Speyer for the weekend. I had never been there myself, but my parents had. True to herself, my mom booked this really nice spa hotel, which was great, but way too fancy for my grandparents, especially because they have never traveled. It's funny how we are so used to things that others have never seen. For instance, when we handed grandma the room key, she looked really confused. She had no idea why we were giving her a card instead of a key, or how this would ever open her room. It was cute.

The highlight of the trip for me was a visit to the Technik Museum. They had an assortment of airplanes on display that one could walk through and check out. Very cool! Among them was an old Lufthansa 747 that was displayed high up in the air. For me that wasn't anything new, because when I worked at Lufthansa, the 747 was one of the airplanes I was certified to do the weight and balance and ramp supervision for. But it was fun showing my parents the cargo hold and other things they have never seen as passengers. Even cooler, we got to walk on the wing and then exit via a slide instead of stairs.

And that was pretty much all that happened on the trip. It's maybe noteworthy that on my way there, my flight and train worked out perfect... the first time EVER since I had worked for Air France. I hate Paris and will always choose another airport to fly to because there are always surprises and delays. But this time I had no choice, and so I made it home approximately 8 hours before the French Railway workers went on a three day strike. Whew! The way home unfortunately did not go as well... When I got to the airport in Frankfurt, I was told that now Air France was on strike in Paris, and therefore my flight would be delayed, causing me to miss my connection to Chicago. Since I had an employee ticket (my "seperation ticket"), they could not book me on another airline. And because I was not actually an employee anymore, I was not able to purchase another standby ticket on another airline either. They basically told me to come back the next day. I freaked out (quietly, as one should in airports), because I was supposed to start my new job the next day. Long story short... I ended up calling my friend Arthur who is a pilot for United at 3am Chicago time and he issued me a buddy pass on United. Thank you Arthur!!!

That was it on Germany. More to come some other time... :)