Sleep Walking in Frankfurt

so after an hour and a half at the check-in, several hundred dollars in lost documents (namely tickets) ((kindly paid for by eye-triple-E)), and a couple disgruntled exchanges with Lufthansa employees aptly draped in navy and gold, we were on our way up the elevator of the Philadelphia International Airport.

I know i'm only one (extremely long) sentence in, but I must immediately make note of the fact that there is a couple making out next me. Curious. Being that this is my first time out of the country (St. Croix hardly counts as leaving the country), I still have much learn about worldly customs. Nevertheless, i still find it strange that two people can so affectionately engage each other in a brightly-lit public arena while not under the influence of alcohol at 0940 GMT+01 [0340 GMT-05 (aka our beloved EST)] in the morning without drawing looks from anyone other than the disheveled, red-headed blogger typing furiously adjacent to them. But the girl is pretty hot (more on that later), so i can't fault my boy. he's doing work.

now, let's rewind. back to 1745 GMT-05 as we (by which i mean to say the VP of the IEEE Educational Department/Drexel ECE Department Head and myself) start off on our transcontinental jump. I say the Lufthansa employees were aptly dressed because navy and gold also happen to be Drexel colors (another organization well known for giving people the shaft). despite our unpleasantries earlier, the plane ride was quite satisfactory. I was especially fond of the onboard service. We received a snack, dinner, intrabreakner [intra=between dinner + breakfast = breakner] beverage, and a breakfast. Unfortunately, though not intentional by the Lufthansa flying crew i hope, the dinner was quite mocking. It was turkey.........

.........oh thanks, rub it in, you bastards.

"oh, you're going miss the best meal of the year. then, why don't we go ahead and shove that in your stupid face with a meal that just barely passes as a substandard version of the one you would be eating."

.....it was turkey, green beens, a roll, chocolate cake in the form of a 1" equilateral triangle, and half of a strawberry. half? the real tragedy of all this was that I didn't think to take a picture of the meal for kings (with my new camera phone!) until after I had already hastily consumed the pitiful rations. the upside was that i asked for beer..........and they gave me one! it was german too, by the name of Warsteiner. Not too shabby. It's no yuengling, but it was good enough to leave me wondering what other wondrous beverages might grace the land of schnitzel. i fear this is a question that i will not find the answer to on this adventure. even though i will be in germany twice (now and on the return connecting flight), i will never leave the terminal, which strictly limits my ability to peruse deutschland’s many beer related establishments. pity. for a another time, i suppose. it's kinda like that episode of tiny toon adventures where plucky (my favorite of the toons that are tiny) goes with hampton's family to disney-equivalent amusement park of their universe. forgive me, but i am failing to recall the particular name of amusement park. to make up for it, i will tell you that this story plot was part of a three episode mini series entitled "how i spent my summer vacation." anywho, when they show up to the amusement park (after much toil including but not limited to picking up a suspected serial killer), they ride around they tour the park on the monorail and then leave! when plucky urgently inquires why, they claim it's because they want to leave some for the next time they visit.

well, needless to say, i can now fully sympathize with plucky's plight (that rhymed, kinda) as i also just rode the monorail (between terminals) and am now being forced to leave. i can't help but feel that this would indeed be a fun place to visit later on in the future. do not fret though, i'm sure russia will have much to offer as well.

for the other 98% of the flight that i wasn't eating food, i played ds. that's it. and, my good friend google tells me that it can last for 19 hours on the lowest light setting. hazaa!

alright, now i can go back to why european girls are hotter than american girls ----> they aren't fat. ok, so that is a bit extreme, but the point is that european girls do not have extra weight. they are either average or skinny. and, i kinda like their style too. that basically means they don't walk around in ugs with "pink" written across their ass. call me old fashioned, but i think they are just a bit more classy than their american counterparts. plus, the girl working the cart at which i just bought some food (with euros!) looks like elliot from scrubs! this makes a lot of sense as elliot has german heritage.

if it hasn't already become blatantly apparent from my disjoint, rambling, and long-winded writing, i'm running on a high no-sleep to sleep ratio. I slept 6 hours sunday, 5 hours monday and tuesday, and it's thursday now. so, that's something like a 31:8 ratio. not that i'm not use to staying up late, but i usually sleep pretty late as well. strictly speaking, i'm no good on anything less than 9 hours of sleep for 12 hours of being awake (that's a 4:3 ratio for those that are keeping track). accordingly, i am currently 3 fold over my limit. but, eh, whateve.

so, i should probably tell you what this is all about: basically, i was bored so i decided to start a blog of my travel. i will try to update it at least once a day (if not more, time and internet access permitting) for the duration of my travels. of course, this is all pending that i ever find a voltage adapter to charge my laptop. i know, "way to come prepared."

finally, i'll leave you with some statistics of my travels thus far.....

time:
22.11.2007
St. Petersburg - 1234 GMT+03
Frankfurt - 1034 GMT+01
Philadelphia - 0434 GMT-05

start time - 0230 GMT-05 21.11.2007
time elapsed - 14h 4m

charge left on my laptop - 46min (41%)
# of hours spent playing ds - 7h
# of hot girls i've seen - approximately 10

Current song:
Lufthansa club mix
the armchair radio had 30 stations. 28 of them were Russian or Indian, one was soft rock, and one was house. presented with the options, i’ll take the house dressing. soft rock sucks only to be trumped by crap rock and wuss rock.

points - the world:
making us fight with airport officials before we even leave the city we live in -> 1
mocking me with a turkey dinner while missing thanksgiving -> 1

points - ryan:
not dying…..yet -> 1
getting told by Moshe to do work instead of play ds at 0400 EST -> -1

score:
the world - 2
ryan - 0