Lisa's Visit to Omaha

After my trip to Berlin to visit Lisa, she came to Omaha for 4 days starting on New Years Eve and leaving January 4th.

What a perfect time together! We had such a great mix of activities:

-Delicious Indian food with good friends on New Years Eve- Thanks Daphne, Caleb, John, and Ann Marie!
-Smoking the water pipe, called a hookah, that is popular in Muslim countries. We used a fruit flavored tobacco and shared one hose.
-Das Boot with friends :-) Just kidding. 'Das Boot' is translated as 'The Boat', but we actually drank a few glass 'boots' of German beer shared by many friends at Huber Haus. Lisa was gracious in her assessment of Huber Haus, an Omaha bar, saying that it was imitation German but they did play the right music.
-Watching Holiday Inn with Bing Crosby, Fred Estaire, and Marjorie Reynolds. Classic movie minus two fast-forwarded scenes.
-The Omaha Henry Doorly Zoo .....walking around the rainforest and under the waterfalls, seeing the aquarium and watching the fish, sharks, and stingrays swim above us, seeing the iridescent jellyfish which affirms in both of us a sense of God's majesty, and watching a seahorse that looks like a plant.
-Having lunch at M's Pub, the best restaurant in Omaha.
-Stokes, the restaurant, and Fat Tire.
-WMF office introductions and tour, meeting the folks and community of WMF.
-Tea Smith with Jara and Kenley.
-Wine with Calvin and Liz and lots of laughter.
-Sushi downtown at Blue.
-Wine and cocktails at Urban Wine Company.
-Church Sunday morning at Rockbrook.
-Sgt. Peffers Friday's Chicken Florentine Soup offering. Best soup in Omaha.
-Visiting the Western Heritage Museum in Omaha (a converted grand train station) and walking among the old trains downstairs and imagining ourselves in that place and time. We got to read and see the history of Omaha and some of their special exhibits.

It was such a beautiful time and we now embark on the LDR (long distance relationship). Wise friends have told us that old fashioned letter writing is a good way to get to know one another, so we will do more of that. We also certainly miss being together.

Lisa and I

Xanadu

One positive from the earlier flight (reference Royal Air Maroc: Airplane Restrooms) was that I saw how the flight attendants "fix" the bathroom lock from the outside to make it look occupied for take-off and landing.

Now I can repeat said 'fix' and....make one restroom my own personal restroom for a flight. Like Jerry remarks about George's personal workplace restroom in Seinfeld...'Xanadu'!

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Also, I had no idea....but when flying from Canada, US Customs gets done BEFORE the flight! There is an American Section at the Montreal airport!! Like Guantanamo in Cuba,...okay...bad example. You experienced travelers probably knew this already, but I found this to be delightful....to go through security and customs in Montreal and arrive at Gate C, Terminal 1 in Chicago instead of at Terminal 5, Gate M and take a train over.

Airplane Restrooms

When I boarded the Royal Air Maroc flight from Casablanca to Montreal, I had already unleashed a horde of obscenities after spending 5 grueling hours with them the day before.

When I checked in, I asked for an exit row, because of my height. The ticket agent gladly obliged, ripping up my old ticket, and telling me I was in an exit row on an aisle.

When I arrived on the plane, my seat instead was against the exit row, with a barely reclining chair, a safety vest beneath the seat in front of me, and a restroom directly to my right. Add crying babies, no movies, a call button being pressed over and over again unanswered by the crew, and a flummoxed attendant who mentions that only one ear bud is SUPPOSED to work for the in-flight music. Thankfully, the music available is not appealing, so I don’t feel like I’m missing out too much.

Back to the restroom….

I was faced with several people who are unfamiliar with ‘locking’ the bathroom door, the door remaining ‘unoccupied’ to outside observers and therefore being opened mid-business. Each time, I was the face the user saw when the door opened…instead of the person actually opening the door.

So many people were confused at how to open the restroom door that I was asked repeatedly during the flight to help people open the door. Mid-flight I took out a hand towel, meticulously placed it folded over my forearm, took out the life-savers from my backpack and started assisting passengers in their restroom experience. Thankfully, Royal Air Maroc already provides some of the amenities expected from a high-class restroom: tissues and fine-smelling lotion. A few guesses as to nationality: ‘Bonjour’, ‘Allo’, etc. to make the experience ‘warm and inviting’ and I am the proud owner of 15 Moroccan Dinars.

Berlin

I returned Sunday late, from a week in Berlin. I flew to Berlin to meet a lady. :-)

In January, my good friend Liz introduced me to Lisa via e-mail. She mentioned, in her e-mail, a few facts about each of us and why she thought we would enjoy each other's company. Liz met Lisa at the Missionary of Charity homes in Kolkata when they both were volunteering.

Since January, Lisa and I have been e-mailing, video Skyping, and sending notes and letters to each other. We wanted to see 'where' this could go.

During the week, we saw Checkpoint Charlie, a museum dedicated to freedom and the escape attempts from East Berlin, the Reichstag, the Berlin Wall, rode a Ferris wheel, and took a bus tour of Berlin. We also cooked dinners for each other, and attended 3 outdoor Christmas markets drinking gluhwein.

Like usual, I was not very good about carrying my camera everywhere. However, from these pictures, you can see how beautiful the architecture is in Berlin. Berlin is a an international city with a famous arts scene.

Things went extremely well during the week. And I look forward to wherever this new relationship takes us. :-)

For a picture of Lisa, see my FB profile pic.



East Berlin's TV Tower


Train Station at Alexanderplatz


Spiral ramp looking down from the top of the Reichstag


An inside look at Alexanderplatz Station

A Fun, Temporary Job

Starting October 16th, I started working as a contracted courier carrying manufacturing parts, made in Lincoln, to factories in Europe and North Africa.

Trips: 6
2-Casablanca, Morroco
1-Tangier, Morroco
1-Porto, Portugal
1-Paris, France
1-Tunis, Tunisia

Countries Visited: 4
'New' Countries Visited: 3
Languages Spoken Within These Cities: French, Arabic, and Portuguese.
Words Spoken By Me In These Languages: oui, bonjour, merci, merci beaucoup, si vous plait, bon, bom dia, and obrigado.
Travel Time: Equivalent of 15 days
Total Time Spent On-The-Ground (Excluding Airport Customs & Checking-In): 60 hours mostly overnight
City Views: 1 Tour of Tangier
Movies Watched on Planes: Terminator (Huge Disappointment), Star Trek (Good), Coco Before Chanel (Pretty Good), Hurt Locker (Excellent but didn't get to finish), State of Play (I really liked), Julie and Julia (Good), Ugly Truth (Ugly Truth is Not Good), Great Buck Howard (Good), Hangover (Really Funny), and Taking of Pelham 123 (So-So).
Frequent Flier Miles Gained: American-2,420 but haggling over another 6,000, United -19,132, and Delta-17,667. I am missing some other mileage, but every leg is through a different carrier so tough to keep track AND hold them accountable.
Other Carriers Flown: Royal Air Maroc, TunisAir, SAS