The JĀSÖN has landed

Well, the first day of my trip is now in the books. The flights over here went exactly as planned. I was lucky and got some good seats where I had a little extra legroom. The flight from Philadelphia to Frankfurt was actually 1 hour early. The downside, it was 5:00 am in Germany and nothing was open in the airport. We were so dang early, that they made the aircraft park away from all the main terminal gates. We then had to take a bus towards the baggage claim area. I still had one more flight to go, so somehow I had to find my way back into the terminal to catch my last flight to Graz. Finding my way back wasn’t so easy. They had no walkway back into the main terminal from baggage claim, so once I went through German Customs, I had to exit outside. All the signs outside were pointing you towards the taxis and busses. I was able to communicate with someone who didn’t speak English enough for him to point me on my way.

Believe it or not, I didn’t sleep at all on my flights. The goal was to sleep on the flight from Philadelphia to Frankfurt, but in the row in front of me were 4 screaming kids who didn’t sleep at all either. This one little girl kept playing with my shoes and petting my leg. Next to me was this cool German scientist dude. We just BS’d the entire flight. I bought him a couple of beers, but towards the end of the flight, we both were hoping to get a couple of hours of rest. No such luck! At least this German dude cursed more than me. It was nice to hear someone else drop more ‘F-Bombs’ then I drop.

Needless to say, I was friggin’ tired the entire day. I landed in Graz at 9:30 in the morning. Gregor and Vesna immediately took me to Gregor’s father’s office where he introduced me to Danilo (Gregor’s dad). We then drove to a little coffee shop and had an espresso. After the coffee, it was time to see Gregor’s house in Hajdoše and meet his mother, Boža. As soon as I arrived, Boža had some Slovenian champagne waiting for me. They wanted to give me a toast. After the drinks, I unpacked and handed out the gifts I brought with me. Gregor and Vesna got me this DVD about Slovenia that is in English. We then waited for Sergej and Simona to arrive. They also wanted to have a toast of champagne with me.

I stayed awake until about 9:00 pm Friday night and then just crashed. We tried to watch another movie, but I kept dozing off to sleep. I didn’t wake up this morning until about 11:15 am. I feel much better now ;-). It’s been nice. I now have a whole bunch of teachers teaching me the Slovenian language. Who knows, maybe by the time I come home, I will know more then 4 phrases.