The long and winding road to KU

Finally, after all issues concerning visa, flight and preliminary organizational stuff, had been completed, my parents took me on the way to the airport of Frankfurt... A quick breakfast was followed by saying good bye and passing all the (sometimes ridiculous) security checks.

Good to know: A leather belt is not a weapon...

The flight to my stop in New Ark was without troubles and on time, what shouldn't keep staying like that for the whole day. Of course I took the wrong counter at the immigration check-in and had to wait about 20 minutes longer than the other queues due to a nice idiot who hadn't got his immigration documents with him. At this moment I thought I had to hurry for my on-flight...

Immigration officers are really nice people looking like they wouldn't get paid for their job, always trying to leave you with the feeling that they don't care if you'd have to fly back home. The immigration check-in was followed by grabbing my luggage, having it checked again and giving it back... After all that running round the airport and passing some more security checks, I was told that my flight was delayed... Time for pizza!

Good to know: Pizza looks way different in the states, but they have IKEA too! (at least in New York)

With in the end almost 2 hours delay, I left ground with my flight to Kansas City (Funny fact: Every single one of the other german exchange students arrived in KC with a delay between 2 and 9 hours...). The plane was actually the smallest I've ever been on for such a long flight, with seats for about 40, maybe 50 Persons. I was happy to see, that my flight attendant seemed to be drunk and couldn't speak clearly anymore, which was even better because she was the only flight attendant on board. Because of the 2 hours delay of the flight the shuttle I booked to bring me from the airport to my residence hall at the university had already left. That meant another two hours of waiting for the shuttle in the very nice and very busy airport of Kansas City. I guess the delays are huge amounts of passengers they have to deal with...

Good to know: They do still care about 'The Wizard of Oz', even if Kansas City is not in Kansas (At least not as a whole. The bigger part is in Missouri if somebody is interested in that...)

But at 11:30 pm I arrived at 'beautiful' McCollum Hall, which I knew would be my home for the next week. Actually the room, that I was sharing with another guy from Stuttgart, was as charming as a prison cell... Unbelievable that one has to pay more than $300 monthly per person to just share your bedroom with another student. After that experience I was sure it was a good idea to search for a place to live off-campus.

Nevertheless, it was an awesome feeling to arrive at the campus of 'my university' of the next year!

Today's lesson:

The way to KU can be longer as one thinks...

See the related pictures!