EPTThis is never a problem, because the teachers are great, chill people who have perfectly interesting conversations. Our Latin teacher, for instance, talked to me for three hours about Doctor Who, her favorite show. We also dabbled a little in Primeval. I told her I was ashamed when she had not watched the original Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. So the teachers chaperoning us was not a problem at all, and nobody but the rebellious kids thought it was bad.
I thought I would impart the story of our trip to you, and stave off the homework due tomorrow. So here goes.
We had plenty of time to get to SeaTac airport (Seattle-Tacoma), the requirement being arrival at noon. So up until the last hour, I just played League of Legends. I have no life, I know. Normally I would play StarCraft, but I needed to just relax. Up until this last hour, I had never really grasped exactly what I was about to do. I could not wrap my head around how cool this really was. But this last hour, it really hit me. I was going to the capital of Italy (still, I think. Too lazy to look it up), and I was going to see in person everything that I was about to study. I got so incredibly restless all of the sudden that I just HAD to leave right then. I pestered my dad like a fly on the wall until he at last relented.
I arrived at the airport, and with disdain I realized I had miscalculated how long it would take to reach the airport, by a half-hour. So that was a lot of extra waiting time. But hey, I was about to spend a week with these kids, I didn't really care. We chatted, I showed off my Brony shirt (I was so proud of that) and we overall entertained each other until it was time to start doing all the shenanigans required to reach the plane. So we got through it nicely and efficiently, and boarded the enormous plane from Lufthansa airlines. The plan was to go to Frankfurt and catch another flight to a small town just outside of Rome. The flight was going to be nine hours, so I braced myself and sat down.
I had a bad feeling about how this plane ride was going to go when I was the only kid from my school on the plane not sitting only with others from the school. I sat in the middle isle, next to a guy who I swear was the long-lost twin of John Candy. On my right was a guy who had no resemblance to anything flattering, but rather more like The Blob. He started making dad noises next to me. He also smelled like McDonalds french fries that were left in the car for too long. Dear Lord, I realized that I was in for quite the time.
Speaking of John Candy, have you guys seen the movie, "Planes, Trains, and Automobiles?" If you have not, stop reading, because reading in a cave is bad for your eyes. Anywhoo, it was the scene on the airplane that was at the forefront of my mind as the time on that plane passed. JCT (John Candy's Twin) took his shoes off right away. He even said "oh lawd, are ma dogs barkin today." Lord have mercy. They (the socks) smelled like a dead cat covered with soy beans (don't smell that, from experience it's not pleasant). Then grabbed his pillow and put it on MY chair. Like the chairs were not small enough already. I may be 14, but I am a pretty tall fellow, and this pillow was laid right about the ribcage. I ignored it for now because I assumed he was just being careless. That came back to bite me later.
I was surviving the first hour by reading, but then I finally cracked and turned on the screen in front of me. The selection of movies were lackluster, but they were numerous, so I dug deep and chose the first one I saw, Puss in Boots. HaC (Hack and Cough man) was watching my selection process the entire time. He mimicked my every movement. Why? Did my obvious good looks (that was sarcasm, I am really ugly) in his mind carry over into potential movie-choosing know-how? Or was he just a lazy sonofagun? Either way, his movie started at exactly the same time as mine.
To me, the movie was OK. Not the worst animation I have ever seen, but not the best by any stretch of the imagination. And it certainly did not have its chances heightened by the HaC who coughed and wheezed at every joke that was tried to be made. When Puss references marijuana, I swear the man hacked for ten whole minutes. I half expected blood to spew out of his likely raw throat. I even looked at his screen, and lo and behold, there was spittle on it. Why me?
Around this time we had reached a time zone where it was dark, so we were served dinner and the lights were turned off. We had our personal lights, plus the warm glow of the screen, my savior of the flight, so the lighting was not a problem. Not for awhile, at least. But for dinner we had some decent rigatoni pasta with red sauce fresh from the can. JCT gobbled it down before anybody could even open their container holding the food. He then started on the brownie, and looking at the aftermath of the explosion, I would estimate he ate really only 50% of the brownie. Crumbs were scattered everywhere, and mostly on me of course. If there was a micro-organism city on my lap (which knowing me there probably is) it would most likely go the way of Pompeii, choking on the ashes of a dead brownie. HaC was surprisingly less explosive during the meal, throat-wise that is. Referring to the rear, the man was a factory of expulsions of gas. The jet streams released by that man probably matched the bag of winds given to Odysseus by Aeolus in the Odyssey. I imagine that, were the gas passed in front of the plane, the ensuing jet streams would give the plane turbulence. But after dinner he seemed to remember his role in life and started coughing over the apple juice he drank.
Now JCT decided he was sleepy, and with a few grunts, he rotated his body and put his head on the pillow on my ribcage. See, I KNEW this was going to come back to bite me. But of course I was too lazy to act on it, so he assumed his position. But I think what we should be looking at here is the fact that the man was LAYING HIS HEAD and SLEEPING on the ribcage of a FOURTEEN-YEAR OLD KID. That is inconsiderate and what is, hopefully to you more important, creepy. Even HaC found this inappropriate. In the only way he knew how, he attempted to stick up for me and alert the hibernating bear to my left to his inconsiderateness by coughing. At least, I [italics] think [/italics] it was a gesture of kindness. It could very well be due to his salivary habits, of which there were many. But JCT was out like a light. He apparently had gone through a good, long day of sitting down. The man was a ROCK.
Naturally, when we arrived I had a huge, swelling bruise on my ribcage. I tried to chastise him as well as a 14 year-old can (and which I have turned out surprisingly adept at), but I think I terrified him. Of COURSE the man spoke only German, so the sight of a young kid giving him the works (the subdued works, mind you. Nothing vulgar or fancy. Just good, standard technique). And the thing is, every other German knows English. It is a common language for them to learn. But the ride would not be complete without him not being able to understand why I was mad at him.
I would write more, but it is 12:00 and I have school tomorrow. So maybe in another blog. This all took me an hour to type, so I apologize if the writing trailed off too much at the end there. Anyway, Lufthansa, the ball is in your court o.O
