Saturday morning, 3:13 pm. I wake up, I don’t need to open my eyes to know where I am. Just to read the time: 3,13 pm says the watch. That means it is 06:13 am.
Matthias wakes up.
“Good morning, my dear,” he says, “could you sleep, or did you suffer from a jet lag?”
I look at him through my swollen eyes: “Well, a little jet lag – I’ve been waking up again and again since 4 am, but I was exhausted enough to fall asleep again and again!”
He also had jet lag, he says, because it would be only 6:13 am – a time from which he had not previously known that it existed at all …
Although we slept only five and a half hours, I feel well rested – as for my body it is already 3:13 pm …
The trip yesterday was perfectly fine
After the check in of our three suitcases (one is 23.5 kg, one 23.4 kg, one 23.7 kg) without any problems and also our hand luggage (once 8.5 kg and once 8.6 kg) got the OK for a further journey I am checked for explosives – my Omnibiotics (a white powder for building up the intestinal flora) seem not to be safe… I am suprised to be investigated for explosives and not for drugs: because I had given this white powder from the original glass jar, which was much too heavy for the flight, into a plastic bag, and for me, an amateur, the white powder reminds of an illegal drug…?
Stopover: Frankfurt, Germany, my place of birth…
At our stop over in Frankfurt our Visa are checked.
Matthias has received a so called J1 visa from Stanford University. This allows him to live and work for the duration of his employment contract.
For me, the situation is a little more complicated. Married I would have received a J2 visa and with this both a residence as well as a work permit. However, the status is unmarried. So what can I do?
A) Enter as a tourist for a maximum of 90 days.
B) Apply for a B2 visa: this entitles the holder to stay up to a maximum of 6 months, but without a work permit
C) Quickly find a job in the US and therefor getting a visa.
Well, C) seems too unrealistic … a) is too short. So we decided for b).
We are allowed to hop on the airplane
Both our visa are valid and now I am looking forward to our eleven hour flight. Yes, really! The last weeks were stressful and exhausting. And during the flight I will be watching TV, sleeping and relaxing…Yeiii!
Finally: Boarding
The boarding of our Boeing B747-400 (United Airlines) begins. We jump into our seats. I spread the blanket over my legs, put the pillow behind my back, and look……….at little table (?) in front of me. Shouldn’t there be a screen…? I AM ready to watch TV, sleep and relax.
For sure I will have enough time to sleep and relax in the next eleven hours, since for watching TV a significant detail is missing: a multi-media system! I am shocked, horrified, bewildered, disillusioned and frightened of the next eleven hours. No multi-media system! Not for me and not for all the other passengers.
To be fair, there are a few small screens on the corridor where films are actually shown. But only children’s films. Sigh.
After four hours of flight I am ready for landing and getting of that airplane…but I have to suffer another seven until the airplane door opens. It’s 10:40 pm local time, 4:40 am at home and in my body.
We step on american ground
By Airtrain we go to the rental car terminal. We rented a small, cheap car for ten days.
By car I drive on the highway, accompanied by the world’s best navigator: Matthias.
And 45 minutes later we park in San Jose. Here we will stay for the next weeks. With Cat and Tom – friends of my friend Gudrun from England. They are so nice and generous to let us stay with them in their nice house in San Jose.
We have arrived
Cat and Tom already are expecting us with a smile, three dogs, a baby and a delicious dinner, and at midnight we fall into our huge bed in the guest room. Good night. Yawn…
