Departure to the USA (Summer 2013)

Long Post Alert.. bip bip

June, 23^rd 2013

After weeks of anticipation here comes the day of my departure. It’s the 22^nd of June and the flight will depart at 7.35 pm. We left home at 1pm because we are so worried about the traffic jam that might caught us on the way to the airport. However it turned out that the traffic wasn’t so bad and we were able to reach the airport in hours. So it was 3 pm and we are already at the airport, the check-in counter wasn’t opened yet so we leniently had lunch for hours.

That day was very interesting because I ran into several people at the airport. The first one was Kak Barkah, my cousin who had been in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia for several years to do his study and his job. Now he has completed the program and returned home and it happened on the same day of my departure. Next, I met bu Listi, my high school teacher who was about to travel to KL with her family. She was and still is one of my favorite teacher with her infamous sarcasm, LOL. But we got to be very close for some reasons. One of them  is that because she wrote the recommendation letter for my YES Application and it happened that the application successfully went through the selection. So we chatted for a little bit and talked about the previous and upcoming that attended and will attend my high school. The other people that I ran into (or actually the meeting was already pre-arranged) were Ganjar and Aska. Two friends, one from high school and one from college who are leaving for JENESYS program on the same day, we met for few minutes, chat a little bit, took a photo while waiting for my Mom who was shalat at that time.

 Not long after that, my plane was about to board, or actually it is already boarding time and I was all slacking. But luckily it didn’t take long to go through the immigration to reach the gate. I was lucky though, because right after I got into the immigration counter, a massive group of EF homestay student was behind my back. I was lucky that I got to the counter right in time before them coming because otherwise I might get stucked in the queue for a long time. As soon as I reached the gate, it was already the last call for passengers.

Well, I got into the plane, It was 1 hour 45 minutes flight to KL. It went all fine but the plane was a little late. We arrived in KL at 11.20ish and my next plane to Frankfurt will have their gate open in 11.25, so I had to kinda rush to the gate in the other terminal. It was a little hectic because I needed to go to the restroom and washed things. But luckily, I got to the gate in time for the flight. I BBM my family and posted twitter updates as KL airport has generously provided free Wi-Fi.

And again I got to the airplane, my seat  was perfect, it was on the aisle so I didn’t have to misi-misi if I want to go to the lavatory. It was even better because the seat next to me was empty so I could kinda laydown to the seat beside me. The flight was around 11 hours. I always hated flights but I have no options. So I just tried to sleep. I guess I was so tired I wasn’t even interested in checking the in-flight entertainment until the last couple of hours. The food was OK, or actually I think all airplane food tastes exactly the same, I mean the sauce and everything has this similar tastes.

I got off the plane, arrived in Frankfurt Airport. Second time in 4 years. It was still a pretty big airports for me. The transit took 6 hours and I was really bored because I was alone and really had nothing to do (or, well I had plenty of things to do such as writing my study guide but I just didn’t do it). The airport as I expected wouldn’t be as generous as KL airport in terms of giving Wi-Fi. But it was quite decent, 30 minutes free Wi-Fi times 3 different devices that I brought along with me (laptops, cellphone and galaxy tab). So I spent around 1.5 hours staring at my devices and posting unnecessary things out of my boredom. And then I walked around the airport, looking at some shops, saw some cute magnets and things but decided to buy it later on the way back home.

One thing I needed to do was to get my boarding pass for the next flight. I wasn’t sure how to get the boarding pass. I thought I   would need to just check-in at the gate later when they announced it. I asked some staff and they all directed me to go the main hall outside the gate. I was a little puzzled because I don’t think I can go out of the terminal to the main lobby without having a visa. But then they told me to follow the exit sign to the main lobby. I was really confused when the exit sign leads me to passport control. I approached the bundespolizie (federal police) guy only to asked for direction. But I was surprised that he also told me to go out to the main lobby, he checked my passport and stamped it with the Schengen arrival stamped. That was just crazy, because I didn’t have Schengen visa…. But then I was just following his direction, go out of the passport control to the baggage claim area and finally I was in the lobby. Well, at this point I realized that something wrong happened, because I was right in front of the airport entrance and I could go out anytime I wanted and there I am, entering Germany without visa… Well, that’s what I did, I went out of the entrance and breathed German’s air. It was so fresh… The summer breeze was breezing.. However, I realized that I broke an international law by doing that, so I just took a couple of photos and headed back inside to get my boarding pass.

I went across many counters (there were like almost 1000 check-in counters at the airport, which was crazy). I passed one of the Chines carriers and there were very long lines of Chinese waiting to get their boarding pass. Well this is the phenomenon I’ve been observing all over the airport. So many Chinese traveling. But anyway, I got my boarding pass and I headed towards the Z20 gate. Obviously, I need to get into another passport control/immigration. I showed up there, handed my passport to the the bundespolizie, and quite apparent he was confused with my passport. He asked me where I was heading, where was I earlier, did I have another passport and etc. Well, now I got caught! haha. He saw the Schengen stamp in my passport but  didn’t see Schengen visa anywhere in my passport. So then he asked me what happened, and so I told him what happened and he said he needed to take me to the office. I was nervous because I took some photos outside the airport and it was clearly breaking a law. So, I deleted the photo in my phone and in my tab instantly. I was worried that he was gonna check my belonging and searched through my stuff. He didn’t, however. He was just consulting with the other guy in the office and striked the arrival stamp so that it gets invalid. He was really nice though, he said that next time I entered the EU country don’t go out and just get your boarding pass at the gate. But he said it wasn’t my fault and everything and finally he said take care and have a nice trip.

That was an interesting experience… I mean, my solo travel wouldn’t be so exciting if there’s nothing out of the ordinary happening. So, eventhough It was kinda crazy but I was glad that it happened!