Touching Down in Munich

After years of
talking about it and several months of
planning, James and I, along with our son Ronan, have made it back to Europe.
We moved to
Burghausen, Germany, about 6 weeks ago so I could take a job as an in-house
translator with Wacker Chemie AG, a major German chemicals company based in
southeastern Baviaria. Our journey to Munich involved a one-day layover in
Iceland,
where we rented a car and drove around part of the island for several hours,
weary with jet lag, yet excited to add a new country to our list of places
visited. Iceland was beautiful and bleak and devoid of people, just vast
distances with bleak landscapes. Ronan was so tired that he slept through a lot
of
the drive. The weather was cold and rainy, but still a great day out. We spent
the night in Reykjavik and determined that we definitely didn’t have enough
time and want to go back.
We flew off early in the morning for Munich, arriving
on a gorgeous sunny day at the end of September. Except for my interview, I
hadn’t been back to Germany for 15 years and James hadn’t been back to Europe
for just as long, so it was kind of surreal stepping off the airplane.
As we walked through the terminal, James suddenly erupted in a fit of
hysterical laughter. It took me a few minutes to see what he was laughing at.
Like so many countries, Germany too has banned smoking in public places, thank
goodness, but to accommodate smokers at airports, a "smokers' box"
has been provided. It looks almost like an aquarium with
“Homo Sapien Smoker” on display. Men and women stand around inside this box
puffing
away. As an ex-smoker, James just found it hilarious. Even with the box, the
smell of tobacco hits you like a steam train as you walk through the airport.
Cheapskate smokers could practically avoid smoking their own tobacco by just
entering the box and standing around breathing in the smoky air, they'd almost
achieve the same effect, no cigarette necessary. You'd really have to be hard
up for a smoke to enter the smokers' box. We were both very glad not to be a
smokers anymore, but it’s interesting to see how the Germans are trying to
accommodate both smokers and non-smokers alike. All in all, however, arriving
in Munich felt almost like coming home, it was good to be back.