My first flight to Europe

It’s been my wish to be seen off by my family members, but now it wasn’t.  Seeing myself parting from them even for awhile to another far-away country was quite a grief. I only wish they were with me now. When I’m not near them, I realize how important it is when they are close to me. They are so dear to me, in a few words I put though I’m shy to say so in person. Seeing my father standing at the airport, my relatives waving good and friends jokingly blowing kisses toward me and my friends made me feel already homesick. But we had to hurry away and got on the plane.

If I had travelled alone, I thought I’d get lost in the airport. There were a lot of security checks and some silly procedures. But everything went fine, and here I was, on the plane to Bangkok. We stopped there and hopped onto another plane to Germany. What a ride on the plane! When the plane was ascending into the sky about 9000 metres above the ground, my stomach was turned around too. It was a pleasant feeling, though. Sleeping and eating on the Boeing plane wasn’t a satisfactory moment at all. The foods were okay, but when I tried to sleep, I couldn’t. I was in the sky for more than 10 hours. When I woke up, it’s always dark outside. My anxiety began and asked me where I was now. I started to fear a little because, you know, I’d heard of many plane crashes before. “Will the plane get through turbulence? Will we all be okay?” I asked myself constantly.

When I got off the plane, I could only thank God repeatedly. My life was never meant to be on plane. But I did have a lot of questions about planes. How could they stay in the sky for too long? I will check out for this question. However, that also reminded me of the Wright Brothers, who kept working hard on it non-stop. Thank you, the Wrights, for your hard work. And thanks to that,  here I am in, Bonn City, Germany.

Bonn City

After the plane landed at Frankfurt airport, the biggest one in Germany, I heard, someone from DW came and picked us up. I saw many German people, especially youngsters. They appear energetic and serious but smiley. We got on a car and off we went from Frankfurt to Bonn. Oh, how I loved the way down there so so much! It was a very beautiful ride on the car.

I remember red, yellow and orange five-pointed or maple-like leaves  (that makes me think of Canada) falling from the trees in front of the car. I was feeling like I was now in another world which I could declare was now my own. I saw many trees with shedding leaves. Some trees didn’t even have leaves at all. That’s funny to me, I thought. From a mile to another, I saw a few factories that were releasing clouds of smoke into the sky, and that’s a have-to-happen short-coming though for a very developed country like Germany?  I just dream for it to be very clean and smoke-free. (sigh)

We drove past very green meadows, gas stations and houses. There were not many people along the street, I remember, yet there was like several crowded neighborhoods down the hill or mountains. I’ve seen all these on TV, but I never thought I ended up looking at them in person. (Don’t feel sad about me, I’m okay.) An example of such a neighbourhood would be like: thousands of beautiful houses on the location/area next to the mountain. Ah, how could they live there? Were there enough things to eat? And wireless connection! Ah ah, I just found myself very yokel-like and yes, quite silly. I should remember that Germany is a country with both modernity and authenticity. That’s to say, no matter what, this country will keep old buildings like cathedrals built centuries ago. How fun to be in such a place? You can feel modern but at the same time go to the past. 🙂

Bonn City is quite small city, as I was told repeatedly. But my friends and I did get lost for a while. However small it is, there are so many big buildings apartments, department stores and supermarkets/markets. I asked our tour guide why there were many houses but very few people walking on the streets. I arrived on Saturday, and that’s why I couldn’t see more, she said. But she continued with the fact that Germans were very individual and independent people, so one apartment room was occupied by one person. I found this quite fascinating. But I said to one of my friends that I love a huge family and a house for all, rather than a person per room ;-). I was raised to value unionship and family bond, but I don’t judge others for what they do. It was a German’s philosophy to live independently, meet romance and then live independently again. Young people here these days don’t marry early or not at all. But no matter what philosophy, at one point of their life, they will need somebody to be with them and go through good as well as bad times together.

I think I should let the pictures speak for me, rather than boring you with unnecessary details now.