Wheels Up!

And you thought McKayla wasn't impressed...

As I announced on facebook last night, Michelle, Autumn, and I are finally in Germany!  It's weird finally being here after 9 months of build-up and anticipation.  Over the past few weeks I (Jason) have been very anxious about travelling.  I kept seeing a bunch of worst-case scenarios playing out in which we forgot stuff, something got lost, or something happens to Autumn.  To avoid the last scenario Michelle and I researched bringing a dog to Europe tirelessly and made sure everything we could do to get her into the country was done.  We heard a number of horror stories about travelling with dogs and, needless to say, I was very nervous once we got to Dulles on Thursday.  Now that we are here, I am happy to report that travelling with Autumn was a piece of cake.  The lady at the United check out counter didn't even ask to see her papers, we flew through security, and Autumn didn't even have to sit on the floor, instead taking up the open middle seat between us!  She attracted a lot of attention from the great flight attendants though, who were making jokes about how high she was (altitude and sedative) and asked her how she took her coffee.    Once we got to Germany, the customs agents remarkably just waved us through.  It would've been just as easy to get her here without any papers or microchips whatsoever...better to be prepared for the worst I guess.

Like Autumn, we had a great flying experience.  Michelle enjoyed watching movies...everything from Clueless to the Hunger games, in the head-rest screens, but did not enjoy airplane food, opting for the vegetarian dish.  I, on the other-hand opted for the "chicken" not knowing what to expect.  Imagine my surprise when I uncovered my plate to find vegetable fried rice and what can only be described at general sesame sweet and sour tsaos chicken! I am a huge fan of cheap chinese food...so having cheap chinese airplane food was like winning the lottery.  The flight seemed to fly by (no pun intended), despite the fact Michelle only slept for 2.5 hours and myself only catching about 30 min of z's during MIB3.  [Michelle interjection: Thanks to nurse Rachel Livingston for prescribing walks every hour to circulate blood! It made the trip a lot more comfortable!]

     Once we got out of the airport, we had little time to rest.  Our sponsor drove us to each of the US military facilities here to get our admin stuff done.  My initial reaction was that our first few hours here felt like my first few hours in Afghanistan...there's a lot of running around trying to get ID cards and whatnot, with all the necessary offices being spread out meaning constant running around and the guarantee that you will end up missing at least one required alphanumeric form.  Also, everything from bathroom fixtures to light switches to door handles remind me of being in AF again as well.  At the end of the day 1 we were able to get our ID cards, a new bank account, and a new cell phone contract. [Note: Michelle mentioned on Facebook that you all can send us iMessages from your iPhones to our apple ID (jjdelisio@gmail.com).  Well I found out today that to send you all iMessages we will need your email address/apple IDs so we can save them in our iPhone as your contact info.] 

There is a lot more to tell of course and a lot I've probably already forgotten due to such a long day.  Michelle and I have had a great first day here and will be posting about our first attempt at exploring the city later today!