I’m on my way. I still haven’t realized that I am really on my way to California…

I couldn’t sleep much last night. I woke up every few hours and checked the clock. My great mum and sister escorted me to Bahnhof Deutz. I took a shiny ICE 3 nonstop to Frankfurt Airport. I was surprised how many people was on the ride in this early hours (8AM). The sun looked like a flatwhite circle. In the first moment I thought it was the moon.

A lot of business folks. Some of them talked about strategies, but the funniest was a Lufthansa manager who logged in to their VPN and worked on a Word document. I could easily read most of the stuff, because his seat was one row before mine. A paradise for economy spies.

But the better view was the great landscape in between Cologne and Frankfurt. Of course, I didn’t see much, because the train was moving with 300km/h.

Frankfurt Airport

Did I mention I arrived 24 years ago in Frankfurt Airport? This was the first “Germany” I saw. I was five years old, coming with Iran Air, totally alone and didn’t understand any language but Farsi. Today I’m not sure if I realized what was going on. My grandma and a good friend of the family took me to the airport in Tehran. When I landed here nobody knew who I was and to whom I belonged. Women in nice dresses drove small cars and took me from A to B. I didn’t understand anything. Finally they took me to a huge door or I should rather say gate. The gate opened and a lot of people called my name and there I met my dad and stepmother. Twenty-four years ago…

Today everything was smooth. The difference between the “Main”-hub Frankfurt and other German airports I know is obvious. Here everything seems well organized. Some of the workers have funny small bicycles.

After a first questioning (Is this your luggage, who packed the bags, Do you have something that looks like a gun or that could be a threat, Why do you travel,… etc.) and an “approve” by the supervisor of the interviewer I could check in.

Now I’m sitting in Terminal 1C eating my sandwich. Hope to blog, when I will be in Charlotte/North Carolina.