In the beginning

I promised you stories, and you will get stories. Here are a few from my first week here, way back at the start of September:

International Travel

My journey to Salzburg began in the afternoon on Friday, September 10. With my suitcase and my backpack stuffed to capacity and ready to go, Mom, Dad and I hopped in the van and drove down to Sioux Falls to catch my first flight. The Sioux Falls airport was in the middle of a rather large renovation project, and the usual path from the check-in counters to the gates was blocked off. Instead, we were funneled through a winding tunnel built of plywood. It felt a bit like being a gerbil in a maze (Yes, the usual phrase would be about a rat, but gerbils are much cuter). I'm pretty sure we had a good long farewell hug three different times between check-in and when I went through security. Those hugs had to last me a long time! Getting through security was a breeze, as it always is in SuFu (which is one reason I chose to fly out of there), even though I was wearing my tall brown riding boots (hey, I had to get them on the plane somehow!). Of course, there is really no reason to get to the Sioux Falls airport the full two hours early, but it didn't seem right to press our luck on such an important day. So I waited for over an hour to board the plane. Ihad a window seat, which was great, except that it was so cloudy there wasn't much to see. Instead of watching the familiar Sioux Falls landmarks falling away beneath us I was greeted by the sight of clouds, but I did have the surreal experience of seeing the shaddow of the plane, darting back and forth as it passed over clouds varying distances away.

In Chicago I was annoyed to discover that I actually had to leave the terminal to get to the gate for my international flight. This meant riding the airport tram and then going through security again. I got a window seat for this flight as well. I watched the lights of Chicago drop away behind us and then settled back for a nap that wasn't meant to be. Even though this was an overnight flight departing at 10pm, the airline felt the need to feed us dinner. So the lights stayed up, and so did I. The dinner was alright, but sadly the beverage cart had no Ginger Ale (and just when living in Boston had taught me to love the stuff!). There were many options for in-flight entertainment, but in economy class we had no control over them. Several movies played at the same time, and you just had to hope that the one you wanted to watch would be starting when you wanted to watch it. I ended up watching three different movies, Prince of Persia, Letters to Juliet, and The Karate Kid, for lack of any better options. They were all reasonably entertaining, and better than nothing since I inexplicably could not sleep. However, after the first movie, I caught the second one about 30 min in, so I had to wait until it looped around again to catch the beginning. So I watched bits and pieces of movies out of order all night. It was lovely. As we neared Copanhagen the next morning, one of the flight attendants came by to tell me that my suitcase was not on the plane. I had a moment of panic and despair, but luckily that didn't last terribly long. I couldn't do anything about it in Copenhagen without leaving security, so I opted to wait until finally arriving in Munich. At Copenhagen we had to go through security yet again, and then get our passports stamped for entering Europe. I was dead on my feet at this point.

The flight to Munich was a much smaller group, and I dozed in and out quite a bit. Upon arriving in Munich I went immediately to the counter to report lost luggage, which was helpfully located right next to the luggage carousel for my flight. The airline employee was very helpful and gave me a complimentary bag of toiletries to ease my wait for my own bag. He seemed to take an interest in this foreigner with a German name who was on her way to go live in a castle.

My transportation from Munich to Salzburg was a shuttle bus. There were four other people on the bus, most of whom got dropped off before me. I dozed for much of this trip as well, because it certainly didn't feel like the reported 2 hours. I'm sure it was not the most direct route, and it didn't give me any idea what the city of Salzburg was like. It was nearing sunset when we pulled in at Schloss Leopoldskron and I walked into the Meierhoff for the first time. The Meierhoff is actually older than the Schloss, and was originally a barn. Now it's a large pink hotel with a lovely courtyard in the middle and the offices of the Salzburg Global Seminar taking up most of the ground floor.

Much of that first night is fuzzy, because I was so tired. The girl working the reception desk was very nice and called the only other intern who was in at the time to show me around a bit. Lisa is Brittish and an absolute dear. She cooks much of her own food because the kitchen staff don't know how to prepare food for a vegan, so that first night she offered to share her dinner with me. After the trials it took to reach this place, it was the perfect welcome: warm, but not overwhelming.

I met the rest of the interns and staff over the next several days. Well, I really shouldn't say all. There are still staff members I haven't met, and my time here is now a third done! But people are coming and going here all the time, so it's not too surprising. Plus, there are only a couple of us who do our work in the Schloss, so I really don't cross paths with staff members much. Tourists poke their heads into my office from time to time, and I see the kitchen staff quite a bit on my way in and out, but not my actual coworkers. I was offered the chance to work in the general intern office where there would be people around me, but I couldn't give up my beautiful view for that. Besides, the librarian needs to be by the library. This is the way the world works!

Oh, and my luggage did arrive, only a day and a half behind me. And since I spend most of Sunday asleep, I really didn't suffer that much for not having it. In fact, when I told other people at the Schloss that my luggage was lost, they generally seemed more upset than I was. But then, that's just how I react to things. After the initial shock, if it's something I can't do anything about, I resign myself to making the best of it without much thought. And really, if something had to go wrong in the adventure of getting me here, at least it was something relatively small.

Oh dear, will every story be this long and require it's own post? I may have to do some grouping or some serious editing of my usual, detailed style If we're ever to get caught up! We'll see if I can do better next time!

-Kim