Back to the morning of departure. The car ride was the quickest ride to Cleveland airport I've ever experienced, sitting in the backseat with MJ and speaking with Dad every few minutes while I took in as much of home as I could before leaving it. We were at the airport before I even got uncomfortable in the car. Wasn't this the same drive that seemed to take forever when I had to pick up Justin from the airport the time he missed his flight? I suppose so. The circumstances, though, change everything.
Thankfully when we got to Cleveland Hopkins Airport Dad was able to go in for a few minutes to make sure I wasn't totally overwhelmed. Flying is not something I do often; this is only the second trip I've ever made, and the first major one. First time out of the country, ever. We got my bags checked and said goodbye. See you soon. Since she was flying out after me, MJ got to be with me until I boarded. So, she was my airport guide, my own personal Beatrice, as Professor Shutt would say. And she truly is my Beatrice, in more ways than one. For now, I'll just say that she kept me afloat through an unfamiliar journey, and taught me the things I would need to know for the next 3 airports I would visit. For the third time, thank you. I have no idea where I would be without you, in so many respects. In this respect, I would probably still be wandering around La Guardia or the back alleys of NYC trying to find JFK. So we sat at the gate, wishing that time could stand still. Eventually I was called to board, and we said goodbye. I'm glad we both looked back. The five days we got were, as a whole, a blurry rush, but the time we had together is crystal clear and will be in my mind often, treasured above all else. Again, see you soon.
So I left Ohio, finally. This will be the first time that I will live outside the state I was born and grew up in, in so many ways. It was a bittersweet departure; I have no great love for Ohio, but I must admit whatever love I do have is a profound one. Home is home, life is life. In true Ohio fashion, though, before it could let go of me there was an hour-long runway delay because of fog in NYC. The bigger place wasn't ready to bother with visitors from somewhere unimportant. Typical. During the delay I opened my book of choice for travel, Professor Kluge's Gone Tomorrow. The first thing I saw was a shock: a card, one that I had hoped to see sometime, but at the moment was altogether unexpected. I got to read it then and there and have read it probably 20-some times since then, while traveling and since I have arrived. It means the world to me and will be read many more times throughout my time here and the rest of my life.
One of my main goals here in Germany, along with being the best football player I can be and seeing as much of this land and others as I can, is to use my down time to read and write as much as I can. Once I got in the air from Cleveland the bug bit the first time. I wrote a bit on my iPod notepad; like the fool I am I forgot to pack a physical notepad or pen. Here's what I wrote:
Passing over the land below, through wisps of clouds, green fields and grey roofs of houses like miniature models, roads and rivers like veins leading to the epicenters of little towns and snaking through perforating the grid, baseball diamonds off the grey of the highway like jumbled pieces of pie. The lake underneath, grey and green and alarmingly mostly brown, but looming nonetheless. Goodbye Ohio, goodbye love, goodbye life. Hello New York.
A little sentimental and crappy, yeah, but I don't know how it wouldn't have been at that moment.
I landed at La Guardia Airport in NYC and took a shuttle immediately to JFK. This was much easier than I expected, and I found that I enjoy traveling: the bustle of the airport, the obvious signage directing the herds of people around here and there, the dirty cocktail of strange people and strange languages floating through the place. Unfortunately, once I arrived at JFK I found out why I had such a long (from 9:45 AM to 5:15 PM) layover there: the service for Air Berlin, the partner of American Airlines I would be flying on, didn't start until 1:30 in the afternoon. I arrived around 10:15 in the morning. Surprisingly, there were no seats anywhere in the lobby, and with nowhere to check my bags, I was stuck there. So I set up shop against a wall, read my card a time or two, and delved deeper into Gone Tomorrow.
I navigated the airport well, so after three goodbye calls I was ready to board. Almost everyone on the flight was a German heading home, so the language barrier reared its ugly head for the first time. The man I sat with was very nice, but seemed to only know a few words in English. So...it was a long flight with the close quarters. It was alright though; I was so excited to be flying and looking out the windows and reading so I didn't care.
The reading was fantastic. Fellow Kenyon alums (yikes, first time saying that) should take it upon themselves to read this incredible book. I realize that I'm biased to like the book, being a Kluge follower, but overall it was a well-written love-letter to writing and Kenyon. There were many moments that I laughed out loud, mostly from simply imagining Kluge doing what he described his protagonist doing, and a few where I came right up to tears. It is a surreal experience, reading a book, imagining the author's own voice and style of dictation and being able to envision the settings not out of imagination, but memory. The reading reminded me that I will be back to Kenyon, very soon. That it's home. I finished it halfway through the ride to Dusseldorf, so sleeping was hard without something to really distract me from my thoughts, but that was fine. Expected. Then a 4:15 breakfast woke me when I finally drifted off. My only question was why now? Oh well.
We landed in Dusseldorf well, and I managed to navigate well again and only confused the passport agent with my poor pronunciation of Osnabruck for a quick minute. I'll get it down eventually. I found my teammate quickly upon picking up my luggage, which was fortunate, and we took the long (2 hour) drive from Dusseldorf to Osnabruck. That wasn't terrible, apart from a long delay after what looked like a horrible accident. The Autobahn is no joke. Although this did happen:
Apparently public urination isn't as frowned upon in Germany as in the US. Interesting.
When I arrived at the Klietsch household, I was welcomed with open arms. I met my American teammates and roommates soon thereafter, and they took me around the city on their own volition. Thanks, guys. I think we'll have a great time together, we already have an easy camaraderie after 2 days. The city was amazing, with the modern shops and places right next to buildings from the 16th Century. I have plenty of pictures on Facebook, so here I'll just share a nice photo from the City hall of Erich Maria Remarque, who wrote the WWI classic All Quiet on the Western Front. Hopefully I can channel him a bit while I'm here. Without the war and loss of innocence stuff.
That was Day 1. Day 2 I slept til noon to avoid jetlag and had my first practice. I loved it. Great team, great guys, great to be back on the field. I struggled a bit on the playing surface, old school carpet-like turf, but I'll adjust. I'll write more about the football stuff in other posts, but for now I'll come to a close. I'm waking up at 6:30 in the morning to catch the bus and workout with Mitch and Steve, so I should probably get some sleep. For now, I'll just leave a picture of my jersey that I got to see today, and say thank you to everyone who helped me in getting over here, from Chesterland, Gambier, and in Osnabruck itself. I can't tell you how excited I am for the rest of this journey, or maybe I should say trek, to keep in line with this blog's title.
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