En Route

I left on Tuesday for Switzerland, and this time my journey to Europe started in Detroit. After getting to the airport nice and early (thanks to the grandparents) I boarded a plane to Toronto for my first leg of the trip. Seeing as Detroit and Toronto are close together I expected a smaller flight, but not like this one. Only 12 people were on the plane, one per row and there were only 3 windows spread down each of the sides of the plane. Instead of a flight attendant one of the pilots climbed through the opening of the cockpit (which was kept open the entire flight) to give us the regular security talk and then assure us that if we needed anything or had any questions we could just come up to the cockpit and tap one of them on the shoulder. Needless to say I thought my trip was going to end before it even began.

Once in Toronto I did the usual customs, security, gate check routine and eventually got on my flight to Zurich. All 7 1/2 hours of it went by seemingly quick and without a problem.

After arriving in Zurich I realized what my study abroad advisors had meant when they said the Swiss took pride in how they looked. I got off the plane and was greeted with marble floors and various stores (Gucci, Hugo Boss, Prada, BCBG...) and was being passed by women and men who had been primping for anywhere between 3-4 hours that morning. I was a hot mess in a sweatshirt and jeans who hadn't had sleep in 17 hours, also known as the OBVIOUS American. After finding the gate I went to look for a bathroom and found a ladies room quickly. Once there I pulled on the door to open it and it was locked, so I waited for 10 maybe 15 minutes before a man walked up to the men's restroom near me, and pushed the door in and was immediately let in. Hanging my head in shame I tried pushing in the bathroom door and realized that the next time I travel in countries where I don't know the native tongue I will at the very least look up the translations of the words "push & pull".

Once in Zurich I also had to ask an airline employee for my boarding pass for the flight for to Geneva. I only knew of 3 German phases to say : goodbye, I love you and do you speak english? Luckily the third was the charm and I got my boarding pass, but overall it didn't go as expected, I didn't recieve the pat on the back or approval through an eye glance or arm caressing, HELLO dreamy Swiss-German male airline worker, I am the ONLY american who tried to use German with you and you're not even going to thank me?! Maybe I love you would have worked better after all.