Luggage - do not over pack!

So it occurred to me today that although I have let everyone know about the ‘adventure’ of getting my apartment together, I haven’t really said anything about my actual journey over to Germany. So today you get a two-fer.

I left Knoxville (a little behind schedule – I mean, hello, this is ME we’re talking about!) for the Atlanta airport at about 12:30/45 I think, for my flight at 6:15. Three hours to drive there, and still two and a half hours before my flight. Plenty of time.

The drive was great, even though I was exhausted. I didn’t so much sleep the night before, what with getting ready to leave the country for a year. We talked about Jesus on the drive, and it He’s a good thing to get your mind set on.

We got to the airport well before 4pm. I got into line at the British Airways counter. It was a short line, with only, maybe, 8 groups/people between me and the counter. I waited. And waited. And waited. I get to the counter by about 4:30 (I’m guessing). And I find out that BOTH of my bags are overweight. Oh, yes, and they don’t just let you pay for your overweight bags – you have to REPACK them to somehow make them less than the weight limit. [I must not that I should have weighed my bags before I left, and that I should have known better. It was my own fault that I got into this mess.]

I freak. Just on the inside. I do the math in my head, and no matter how I slice it, you can’t take two overweight bags, and make two underweight bags without taking something out of both of them. Straightforward, right? Except that I don’t live in Atlanta, and my ride is LONG gone. So I explain my situation to the nice British man behind the counter, and he tells me I have to go find this store where they sell boxes, and take stuff out of my bags so that they’ll make weight. Ok, I can handle that.

Except that the Atlanta airport is HUGE!!!!! I mean, seriously. I’d never flown out of Atlanta before, just had layovers there. I should have known better. I took my luggage and trekked five miles to the nearest box store, and bought myself a box. It was pretty inexpensive, and I figure that lots of people have been through this before, and so it’s no big deal.

I claim a little spot on the floor, and display all of my things for the passers by to see. I repack my suitcases, and the nice man at the box store tapes up my box for me. I walk the five miles back to the airline counter, and get ushered to the front of the line. At this point, I’m really pushing it to make my flight. I pay for my extra piece of luggage, check my bags, and pray that the rest of the trip is not quite so eventful.

I got to the gate with just enough time to call my family one last time before leaving the country, and then board the plane. Now, I’m excited about the flight, because I’d found out that in the plane I was to be flying on, they had the screen in the backs of the seat in front of you – so you had your own personal screen, and a selection of things to watch and listen to. As much international flying as I’ve done in my life, I’ve never been on a plane like that. It was great, good food (I LOVE airplane food…something about the individual sections, and the personal packets of butter…I know, I’m weird), and good company. I was so exhausted, though, that I passed out before the end of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Universe was even over. I woke up as we were landing in London.

I don’t have much to tell about London. I changed, freshened up, and read for about eight hours in the chorale where all the passengers wait for their gate number to be announced. The flight to Hanover was fine. I slept again.

My flight got in on time, and I proceeded through passport control without any problems, and went to the baggage carousel. My suitcases made it through fine. But the box. Oh, the box. A more accurate description than ‘box’ would be the 'pieces of cardboard loosely held together by tape.' It was absolutely demolished! I’m really very surprised that my things were actually still inside it. My bottle of shampoo (we later determined that’s what it was) had popped open and gotten on some things, so it smelled nice, but I was worried my books were going to be damaged. [They ended up being fine.] I probably shouldn’t have packed the two together, but I when I was repacking, I was (in my panic) just trying to get the heaviest things out of my bags and into the box. I figured that liquid and books were probably the heaviest, so I put them in the box. Whatever, you try to pack everything you’ll need for one year, and then come talk to me!

I’ll try to wrap this story up. The Brubakers picked me up at the airport. The traffic wasn’t too bad back to Chemnitz (while the Autobahn is famous for it’s lack of a speed limit in sections, it is also notorious for traffic jams). We stopped at Burger King for dinner (yup, my first meal in Germany – a Whopper Value Meal – but with an Apfelschorle!), and made it to Chemnitz within five hours. All that to say that it was a long trip and quite eventful!