Once Again: Off to the US

Waking up at 6am in the morning is never great. But waking up at 6am next to my cute little doggo is always great. Especially when I cuddle up to her furry butt until she greets me with her tongue on my face. We were laying on the couch of Marv. He would look after Aluna once again when I was flying over the Atlantic Ocean for the second time this year. And as I wasn't able to sleep in Frankfurt the day before as usual (due to a horrendous price of 395€ per night for the Maritim because of a fair), I had to wake up in the middle of the night to catch the train. But I wouldn't miss cuddling with Luni for ten minutes longer for anything in the world. That actually led to me having to run to the train so to not miss it. I'm never running. I can't run. It's horrible. Who invented that? Well, I caught the train nevertheless and it actually looked as if it would arrive on time - which it eventually did. I still got bad news during the ride: Maria wouldn't come with us. She was the group leader of the CRUSA GTE (the FAMs name) and she and her whole family had COVID now. So, as I would have shared an aisle with her, now I was flying alone. Well, not completely alone. The other person on our ticket was Yannick, another buyer for the fair. I immediately texted him to ask when he'd arrive at the airport and we made a plan to meet up. I found him without any problems, and we hit it off right away. We went through Check-in and Security without any problems as well, however, I had to go through a special security check. It wasn't that big of a deal, and was done within two minutes. Therefore, we had more than enough time to get comfortable at the gate. At last, the Boarding started and we had to get in busses to get to the plane. A last bit of fresh air, then we were on our seats. I was actually hoping, now that Maria wouldn't come with us, that we'd have an aisle for ourselves. However, there must have been a last minute booking or a seat change or whatever, because another man got Maria's seat next to me, which meant that I had to sit in the middle for the next 8 hours. But it wasn't that bad actually, as I had good conversations with Yannick and otherwise enjoyed the Board Entertainment. The flight was over quickly and we got off from the plane and into a very NASA like moon truck thingy which could lift itself up and down and dock onto the different platforms where the planes would roll to. It really looked surreal, but we thought it was super cool and efficient!
The immigration control was something I've feared quite a lot after the last officer interrogated me so harshly I thought I was a criminal. This time, a young dude asked me about my last time in Vegas, as I was wearing my Las Vegas hoodie, and we discussed the heat there. It was pretty chill and I liked him. Then he asked me whether I'd have any fruits or vegetables with me, and... Of course I still had some carrots and my obligatory apple with me. I told him as I didn't want any debacle like in Australia again and he sent me and my passport off to some other officers. Although I was separated from Yannick now, I wasn't that nervous. They were all very polite and even friendly when they brought me to another location behind the luggage collection. I had to wait a couple of minutes before an officer completely butchered my name, calling for me. I can understand... They always write my second name on it as well, as if it's one name. Another officer saw the "Michelle" in it and we all had a good laugh about it. I have already taken out the carrots and apple from my backpack, so she just threw them away and gave me back my passport. I could go. Well, that was a very nice little side-quest and not terrible at all. Coming back to pick up my luggage, I found Yannick standing there with Thorsten, another buyer and a good friend of my boss. We'd be together on the Pre- and Post-FAM, and I liked him immediately. Another woman came to us, her name Elizabeth, she's from the US government and would come to the GTE fair. After getting our luggage, we went to the arrival zone where we found Scott and Stacey immediately, who were welcoming us to the CRUSA GTE FAM-trip. We were the first to arrive which gave us some extra time to look around, go to the toilet, etc. The others were coming in one by one and then within a whole group. The FAM was international this time, so we got people from the Netherlands, France, Switzerland and Britain. It's always a bit different with an international group, because you can speak way more freely in your own language, and therefore you'll do it more and stick with your national group more. So the exchange can be there but somehow it is limited still. A good thing was though, that the French speakers were willing to speak English. Good sign. It's also always weird to be there as a younger person, because usually the older ones know each other for centuries and are like a well-oiled machine, like class mates. And I always feel like I'm the new kid that stands awkwardly at the side and is afraid of talking. But I felt that there was another "new kid", the Swiss, and I told him exactly that feeling and we bonded over that really quickly. Now, I already had a way in. As we discovered that we wouldn't be in the same FAMs, I introduced Yannick to him, as he'd be with him, and our small group grew. Then Thorsten came back and we were four. That felt good. I wasn't the new kid anymore. It's easy within tourism, though. Everyone is pretty open, pretty chill and very friendly. So, it's never difficult to find friends.
When everyone was there, we were brought to our busses and I had to say goodbye to Yannick and Sam (the Swiss) for the next two days. We'd see each other again on Sunday evening. Thorsten and I entered the bus and sat down in the last aisle which I found to be a huge mistake immediately. We were sitting right beneath the air con and it was set on "Antarctica". My brain felt like freezing after seconds and I grabbed my hoodie that I took off earlier as it was 26°C outside. Now, I was shivering and I literally felt my just shaken off cold coming back to grab hold of me yet again. Luckily, Thorsten felt the same and we asked the driver to turn off the air con a bit. He did turn it off to less, however, the air con temperature was still competing with Antarctica, so I was still super cold. After an hour of driving in the fridge, my head wanted to explode. The hotel had our room keys prepared, so that we could put our luggage in our rooms. I would have my own room which isn't a given on FAMs but I appreciated it dearly. The room wasn't really special, but it had a whole kitchen and walk-in wardrobe, which made me question how long they expected people to be wanting to stay here. Anyway, I just left my luggage behind and went down again to meet the rest of the group that had arrived earlier and to get some food. We met in one of the hotel's meeting rooms and Emily, the person from Visit Frederick who'd be with us for the next two days, greeted me. She seemed to be just as young as I was, which I thought was pretty cool. The food was catered and there were veggie options, even salad. I didn't like the vegetarian lasagna at all, but I did like the mashed potatoes (with like 50% butter in it), so I could fill my empty stomach. The other people were friendly and funny, however, my head was hurting so much and my social battery was on a very low Low, so that I could barely sit there and not fall from my chair. Wolfgang, a Dutch sitting next to me, sensed my tiredness and told me that it would be fine to just leave. I was too shy to actually do that. So when he told Emily that he'd go to sleep, I gladly followed him. He said "We could sit there for another hour and try listening to these people talk about something I couldn't care less about right now, or we could just go to sleep and be social again tomorrow." And that was such an honest and true statement that I couldn't help but smile. Sometimes, you gotta be true to yourself and listen to your body. And right now, my body was screaming for a hot shower and my comfortable hotel bed. So, I gave it to myself and went to bed at 9pm. Tomorrow would be an early rise nevertheless, so better catch some much needed rest now.Okumaya devam et