The Pakistani and the German

International travel is always excellent and a step above ornary travel because of all the interesting people you get to meet and see. Ok well really any travel outside of the US is like that.

My immediate family and I (Al, Abby, my Mom) all drove from the beach condo in Ocean City Maryland to Washington Dulles International Airport (IAD) and we arrived at around 1 or 1:30 in the afternoon in the airport, tried to check in my luggage but couldn't because you can only check luggage six hours before your flight leaves, adn also because it was overweight. I had two large suitcases, one that weighed about 54 pounds and the other 53 and a half. 50 pounds is the limit, so I ended up opening up the suitcases and handing stuff off to my family right there in the air port.

Then we had Abby's birthday as a supprise in the airport, which was cool. Then we said good bye, and I had a good amount of time before check in. While I was waiting in front of baggage check in sitting on the air conditioning vent, a man came over and sat next to me. There was really good people watching there because everyone would show up with their two suit cases then weigh then only to find out that they were overweight. We could both see the scale at different times, and when one of us couldn't see, we would report the weight to the other. Then we got to talking and I told him that I was doing an exchange year in Germany, and he said that he was a pilot for the Pakistani Navy. We talked about all sorts of things, like his family, flying, international affairs, Pakistani vs. American culture. He was visiting a friend in New York for the weekend, then flying back home. I want an international profession!

Later on, on the connecting flight from Frankfurt to Leipzig I sat nest to a fairly young German probably in his late 20s who had impeccable English. He was also extremely personable and friendly; it figures that he would be a flight attendant. He was himself a flight attendant for Lufthansa, which was the airline that we were currently flying on. He flies all over the globe and grew up in Halle. We had a really good conversation, mostly in German because he knew that I needed the practice, and we talked about langauges, and musicals, and foreign languages, he told me about where to go clubbing in Leipzig and where to stay. He had also just passed an exam proving that he knew enough Japanese to be a flight attendant on flights to and from Japan. Once while he was flying back from Japan, he was part of the crew for a private flight for Lady Gaga. Ridiculous. He had pictures of himself with her on his iPhone.
He's probably the nicest guy I ever met while traveling, although the Pakistani guy could give him a run for his money. Both were in the airline industry.