Home from Berlin

I’ve made it back from Berlin! Actually, I made it back Monday night but neglected to post about it until now. It’s been a long week already. Monday was my travel day. I woke up at 5:30 am in Berlin (which was actually 11:30 pm Sunday on the east coast of the United States), had a full day of travel that included three plane rides, and landed in Tallahassee at 7:15 pm. And I still wasn’t done because I had to report a lost bag before going home. I finally went to bed at 10:00 pm, completing my 22 1/2 hour day.

And there was no rest for the weary. I used all my vacation going to Berlin, so Tuesday morning I had to get up and go to work. Yuck! It was good to see my coworkers, but it took a lot of caffeine to make it through the day. Today I’m still experiencing the effects of jet lag. I have afternoon meetings today and tomorrow in which I have to look and sound intelligent, so please me praying for me.

Over the next couple of weeks I’ll be updating my blog (as well as various social media sites) with stories, photos, and videos from the trip. You’ll be able to see my photos and videos on Facebook if you’re my friend there. If not, you’ll be able to check out my photos on Flickr and my videos on YouTube.

Here’s one quick story from my return trip. My Lufthansa flight from Munich to Charlotte had just landed. The plane was taxiing around, making its way to our gate. Only a minute or two had gone by after landing when someone in the crew switched on a video announcement. For those of you who haven’t been on an international flight before, each passenger is given their own video screen located on the headrest of the seat in front of them for in-flight entertainment. The airline can also use that screen to make official video announcements. But this announcement was unlike one any of us had seen before. It was a Michael Jackson tribute video. The tribute played his music videos, starting with “Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough.” Now, when you’re using the screen for entertainment you have the option of turning it off, but the airline purposely makes it so you can’t turn off a video announcement. So we were all forced to watch and listen to Michael Jackson videos.

Oh, but the story gets better. At this point we had already watched “Don’t Stop” and “Rock with You” and we were now watching “Billie Jean” (which is one of the few MJ songs I can say I legitimately like). It was taking much longer than I would have thought it should have for the plane to get to its gate, but apparently that’s the kind of outfit they’re running at Charlotte/Douglas. During the middle of “Billie Jean” the captain comes on over the intercom to announce that we were finally able to disembark, to which a large percentage of the passengers voiced disappointment. A cry of “Aww!” went up throughout the cabin. I ask you: When in the history of air travel has a group of passengers who had just flown across the Atlantic for over eight hours wished they could stay on their plane for just a few more minutes? This is the obscene power of Michael Jackson postmortem.

I promise none of the rest of my Berlin stories will be about Michael Jackson.