My German Encounter

I have been in Orlando all week at a meeting. It wasn't that much fun as the weather was lousy and it was fairly chilly for Florida and the meetings weren't all that much fun either.

On my flight home to Denver, I got on the airplane and had an aisle seat but noone had taken the middle seat yet or the window. I decided to keep standing until they got seated. I saw a young but tall drink of water coming down the aisle with a friend who was just slightly smaller. I said to myself, "please don't let them be the ones sitting next to me." It will be a horrible 4 hour flight being all cramped in with two giants sitting next to me" I failed to think about what they must have been thinking about moi being sitting next to them!!.

Anyway, as they sat down they were speaking a foreign language to each other. I now said "Oh Great!! Now it is 4 hours next to two people speaking a language I don't understand and taking up "my space!!" I was kind of in a grumpy mood after a 3-day meeting and so just wanted to stretch out and sleep. (I had to get up at 5 in the morning (3 a.m. in Denver) to catch a 7 a.m. flight so anyone of you would have been just as grumpy. About 30 minutes into this flight, the guy in the middle fell asleep and he was leaning over into me with his head in his hands. I said "Oh great" Now the rest of the way to Denver I was going to have this Bozo leaning on me."

After about two hours of this the tall drink of water touched me on the arm and had his ticket out and in kind of a panic spoke to me in very good english. His ticket showed that they were to leave Denver for LA at 10:10 a.m. and it was 9:55 a.m. already by his watch and he thought for sure they had missed their flight. I explained that tickets are always shown in local time and that there was a two hour difference between Orlando and Denver and so it was really only 7:55 a.m. and that we would arrive in Denver at 9 a.m. so they would have a full hour between their flights. He and his friend just howled and thought that was funny and expressed that they felt kind of foolish and thanked me. I said no problem and went back to reading what I had out. It was a article about Ronald Reagan's economic policies...Supply-side economics and the like and he asked me what I was reading. I explained and he said he spoke good enough conversational English to get along but when it got off of any light conversational stuff like supply-side economices he got lost. I remembered that is what you all said when you were learning foreign languages; that is was tough to talk anything not used in everyday "chit-chat" and gospel discussions.

He then asked me for my USA Today which had an article on the NBA on the sports page about all the trades that were made. He told me he wanted to know what players went to what team on the big trade day. We talked about BB a bit more and I found out that they played a bit of ball themselves. The tall drink of water was 6'7" and his friend was 6'5". We made quite the row on that flight!! I kidded them that at least they weren't as "big" as I was.

So as the flight progressed, we started talking about all kinds of things and I remarked how good their English was except they struggled with understanding me sometimes when I used words they didn't understand and their thick accent made it difficult for me as well. Turns out they were employees of Disney World and were working in the German pavilion at Epcot Center. They were on a one-year work permit and were trying to travel around the US during their days off to see the country. They were headed to LA for some vacation time. We talked about where they should go in the future to see the US. WE talked about their schooling and how it is different in Germany than in America. We talked about living here in America and how much they liked McDonalds where they could get a hamburger for $1.0 whereas in Germany they would pay closer to $3 for that same burger. They were on a one-year work visa and were going to be here till August, 2008. They told me all about how Disney recruited them in Germany and what their job was and that Disney let all they young peole like them be restaurant server's the last three months so that they could make more money with tips and all. They made about $200 per week but Disney gives them rooms and they all live together with young people from other countries. (French, Italians, Russains etc...... all of them not able to speak to each other for the most part except in English...kind of interesting) He told me that he thought English was easier to learn than German and that he had taken it in school for 7 years and it really helped to talk to me in English as he said most of the time (80% of the time) he and his friends would speak in German to each other and that is how they kind of grouped at Disney World. (by native tongue) The conversation went on for the rest of the trip or well over an hour.

As we de-planed in Denver, we shook hands and I showed them to their flight and they told me that if I got to Orlando to come to the German pavillon and they would serve us. I told him that if they served us well I would give them a nice tip!!

As we departed I was smiling because I realized that I had almost passed up a delightful experience due to my own mood and wanting to just be left alone. It was an interesting thing to experience and I thought to myself, here are two very nice young people (they were 20 years old) who were on the adventure of a lifetime and just making the most of experiencing another country and culture. I had contributed some little bit to their impression of America and Americans and we left as friends. It kind of reminded me of some of the Great American Road trips you guys have gone on yourselves.

I felt a little ashamed of how I had initially thought about them and kind of committed that I would approach such things in the future with a little bit of a better attitude.

Another learning experience for me. One of many I'm afraid that I need in life, even at my age.

Dad