feels good to travel...

Germany was great. I got a chance to walk around A LOT and use the trains many times. Scott was a great host and showed me some really cool places. His parents were also great. Very generous and nice. Scott and I cooked the ravioli recipe that I invented for my final for his parents and they enjoyed it. The morning I left we went to a different christmas market first. I had some glovine which is mulled spiced hot wine and the best potato soup I've ever had. We also had some fried potato batter which was called krampuffin or something. Scott took the train with me to the airport and walked me as far as he could go. I was flying air France and I had heard that they weren't that great an airline. The people checking me in had been great tho. My flight was leaving about 4 and I was there pretty early so I watched a movie on my laptop and shopped in the airport stores. It was amusing seeing that the airport had better stores than Alaska. I boarded (touching the side of the plane, of course) and sat in my aisle seat. This first part would be only about an hour and a half so I barely had time to put a movie in before we landed. when we landed in Paris I had about 2 hours to kill. I found the gate I was supposed to board then wandered around. The stores here were even better and I enjoyed walking around listening to people speaking French. Italian and French are the "romance language" but to me Italian sound much smoother. The Paris airport was beautiful and much more user friendly than any US airport I have been to. There were long rows of computers to use (for a fee) couches set up where you could play playstation 3's (for free) and an area with desks and plug ins incase you have a laptop. I found one of those and looked through my photos for a while. With about 30 minutes to departure I started wondering why there werent that many people waiting there. I looked at the screen and in red letters it was blinking a different gate number and the word "boarding" in french and english. I was surprised that they hadn't made an announcement. I had enough time to get to the other gate so it was okay. To get on the plane I had to show my boarding pass about 5 times. The plane was huge, with pretty nice seats and a new feature that i had never seen on a plane. There were video monitors in the headrest in front of me that were touch screens. You could touch them to select from about 20 movies, different TV shows, games, news, sports or flight information. I was sitting next to a young guy from Haiti that only spoke french and a young lady from Brasil They were both nice. I was beginning to think that who ever said the airline wasnt a good one when my thoughts were confirmed. They begin passing out free champagne, wine or beer and we weren't in first class! That was followed by the best airplane food Ive had. It was bree cheese, a baguette, wine, beef and rice in a kind of tomato sauce with eggplant, a salad yogurt and a little desert. That was followed by more drinks. After they were done serving drinks they put soda and water and fruit juice at different stations for people to help themselves to. Pretty good service. I couldnt sleep so I read for a while and watched Seinfeld. With about 2 hours to go they served a sanwhich and a couple other little snacks. As we begin our decent I started to get excited. Europe (especially Italy) and New York are the 2 places I've always dreampt of going too. Now I was doing both! After We landed I made it through customs pretty quick. waiting for my baggage took a while tho. When I walked out of the arrival area I searched the crowd. Mario had sent me his sisters myspace page and said she would probably be the one to pick me up. I saw a lady with a "Sean" sign and after she asked my last name she introduced herself as Mario's mother. I could tell right away she was a good person. We loaded my bags and set off for the house. Although it was about 5AM my time I was excited. Just on the way from the airport I saw the New York times printing facility, Shae Stadium (where the mets play), the US open tennis court and 2 huge bridges. We drove by Flushings which she explained was chinatown. She was a good tour guide! We went through a nice neighborhood and pulled up to a beautiful house with large columns in front. She explained that they were doing some renovations but that I would have the 3rd floor to myself until Mario came. Even with the work being done they had a beautiful home. Nice wood floors and antique furniture. My room was awesome. With wall to wall windows on one side I could see the two bridges and across the water, part of the city. Beautiful. I met one of his sisters and I could tell it was going to be a nice stay. They were the type of people who make you feel at home in a place you've never been. I loved getting into the big bed after the little thing they give us in Italy. I woke up this morning about an hour ago and I'm getting ready to head out and explore. P.S.: I HAVE LAKER TICKETS!