July 5, 1999 The Beginning

Hello everybody! I'm here in Berlin at Nadine's house, everything went pretty much perfect.  My flight from LAX to Brussels Belgium was kind of hectic though.  It was so cramped in that plane.  I had a window seat which allowed me some pretty interesting views.  I kind of forgot that the world is round though, so I was surprised that our route took us through Montana, Canada, Greenland, Iceland, and the UK.  I sat next to a pretty nice, but older lady named Pat.   She was from Huntington Beach and even knew where Covina was.  We both had connecting flights to Berlin, so we ended up hanging out together in the Belgium airport, which is basically a US colony (and I'm finding out that much of Europe is that way).   OK, this German keyboard is really evil... the y and z are backwards for no apparent reason, all the other letters are the same except y and z, go figure.   Anyhow, I was in the airport for a good 20 or 30 minutes before I saw anything that wasn't written in English, and they had a lot of American merchandise, like Simpsons stuff (which I got to watch on German TV-in German, very funny, but not as funny as Married...With Children which is called Schrecklich Nette Familie (the Terrible Nice Family) that you can't even get here, I wonder if it's bootleg or what?  Well, Pat treated me to a tasty Belgian brew at a little bar in the airport, and the thing was strong too!  Much stronger than any of the American and Mexican beer I've drank in my short life, but it was also the best tasting... not that I find the taste of yeast pee very appealing. : )

But a sad thing happened.  I went to check on Pat and my flight, and I noticed it was boarding, so I went back to look for her, but I couldn't find her, so I got on the plane and when I arrived in Berlin she wasn't there.  Kinda sad, but she seemed kinda rich so she can afford it I guess.

So I arrived in Berlin to be greeted by Nadine and her brother Patrick!  I was pretty excited since she told me she wouldn't be able to come because of school and that her Mom was picking her up.  Apparently she was "sick," but I guess she got better.  So we cruised around Berlin looking at the famous stuff and even stopped by Pizza Hut (I had to see if it was the same, it wasn't that different).   Actually, more proof of American colonization in Europe was apparent by the fact that Nadine tells me Germany doesn't even have fast food chains of it's own... today I saw Burger King, Subway, Kentucky Fried Chicken, T.G.I.Friday's and of course about 20 MacDonald's, but no German chains, of course there's German restaurants (but I don't think they serve German food there), but there just wasn't any chain.  I felt kind of bad walking by the Vans shoes that cost like $120 or so!  And Levi's of course!   Next time I come out, I'm going to bring my backpack and a suitcase full of Levi's and fund my trip that way, much better than delivering pizza anyway!

So anyhow, the flight went well and Nadine says hello. It's kind of weird to still think I'm actually here, but maybe that's because it's Monday night at 11:00 and the last time I really slept was Saturday night, and that was for four hours on the floor of my room! So maybe everything will make sense in the morning.

I'll probably write one more time before Nadine and I leave here, so stay tuned.

~Alan

Last Updated February 07, 2016.