Sunday, April 29, 2012

My first flight to the United States of America

My Honey and I decided we wanted to get married.  It was in late April my Honey started to get homesick.  My Mom and Dad gave us money to buy our tickets,as a gift for our wedding,  for our trip to the United States for our Honeymoon.  We purchased the tickets to our paradise in April for May. We were all exited to go. We got two round trip tickets from Belgium to New York and from New York La Guardian Airport to Columbus Ohio and back.  The stay was three weeks.

 The day had arrived we were all packed and ready to go. Of course I had to goof up and  take  some   laxative early that morning, so I wouldn't feel so full on the airplane, because we had to fly six hours in the plane over to the USA.  My sister and my Mom took us to the bus stop that supposed to take us to  Belgium. As we all waited for the bus to arrive, my stomach started to rumble and gurgle and I felt overcome with urgency. I asked a by passer-by  if they knew where the restroom was? and I was in luck, their was one right across from the bus stop.  I had to run a few steps down below to get to one.  By the time I was done, which I tried to hurry up, I got back to late. The bus had stopped and Harry had boarded the bus with my purse and luggage and was gone.

One thought that I have now. I am glad this didn't  happen in the bus,  I would have been in real trouble and a big stinking mess that I would have had to deal with at the time and talk about embarrassed I could not even imagined.  So I was still glad it ended this way.  Good thing my sister took us that morning with her car. Now we had to find the route the bus took and chase it down.

 My sister started to have a migraine headache  and I was all in tears. Mom tried  to keep us from falling apart. "What a day".
The trip was from Frankfurt to Brussels roughly 300 km or 186 miles apart. We finally after a lot of hours of driving found the Brussels Airport. Their he was my Harry standing and waiting on me. I was so happy that he was still their. Of course the plane had taken off.  So we missed the plane.
Luckily the next plane to New York left the next day. We said our gratitude's to my sister and good-bye's, then she left to go back home. 

We had to find a place to stay for the night close by. We walked around the area asking people,
but some people didn't speak American or German. So it was kind of hard to find a place.
Well, after a lot of walking we found a place to spend the night. It was in the backstreet alley.
Were one night standers or hookers go. That little hotel cost us $25.00 for the night. We had a long day behind us so we were glad to have found a bed for us to rest on.

Let me tell you that bed , if you can call it a bed, the springs were so used up it hung clear to the floor.We tested the springs, yes the felt like a slinky. My back did hurt in the morning when we left.
The next day arrived and we were back on our way to the airport.We boarded the plane and flew to
New York.
It was a smooth flight no turbulence. We flew over Newfoundland to New York. As we approached
the airport we seen the Statue of Liberty from the plane, as we rolled across the big bridge. How beautiful and exiting everything looked. Those big Skyscrapers it was all amazing. I used to see all those things on TV, and here I am seeing it all for real. While we were waiting on the scuttle bus,
I seen huge Limousines. I had never seen them in my whole in tire life before. Then we took the scuttle bus to La Guardia airport, from their to Dayton. Our flight plans had changed, because we missed the first flight, instead going to Columbus we have to fly to Dayton and then to Columbus Ohio. They put us in first class because the plane was kind of empty and they had to keep the balance
just right, that's what we were told. I felt real special since this was our Honeymoon Vacation.

The stay here in the United States was beautiful, everybody was real nice, this country is very pretty.
I got to meet all my new family members and got married. The three weeks went very quick.
I even goofed up a word when I had to repeat my vow es. Oh , well, not knowing the American
language had a lot to do with it. but we were married that's all it mattered.

Our trip back to my home in Germany went without an incident, nothing else exiting happened.
We had a lot to talk about when we got back and lots of nice pictures to show. Everybody was glad
to see us back home. My mom and dad had every thing nicely decorated in our apartment when we
walked in. With lots of food to eat, to celebrate our wedding that they couldn't be part of.

We stayed in Germany about a half a year until my immigration papers came through. And then we left for the United States for good. I have lived in this country for 35 years. I feel I am an American.


Story wrote by Gabriele Bales, Oh.

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

My Little Ballerina

I was visiting my aunt and uncle and grandma in another town, for the summer.  Never met my cousin before.  I was still young not quite ten years old. My mom and dad  allowed  me to fly all by myself.  The stewardess was my guardian at that point in time.  I was all exited to go.  The stewardess sat with me during the flight and talked to me I had a lot of questions to ask  about her job. She was really nice.  From that moment on I wanted to become a stewardess too.  That became my dream.                                                   
The flight went well, I arrived at my destination.  And stayed with my grandma the whole duration of my summer vacation.  I had a good time while I was their.  Everybody was real nice to me.  One day I went to visit my cousin.  I guess I was  a bit to early in the morning and she really didn't have that much time to visit with me.  She had to get ready for work. But while I was their in her place,  I noticed a pair of ballerina shoes hanging up and I asked, if they where hers? She replied yes they are and she wears them when she dances. I thought that was so cool.  I didn't know that we had a  real ballerina in our family.  I just wished I could have watched her perform.
When I seen those woman dance on TV before, I thought they had to stand on their tip of their toes. But when  I checked those shoes out, they are lined with a wooden bottom and a wooden block at the end of their shoe.  They are  made out of satin.
I wanted to ask her more questions about it.  Lord knows I had tons of them at that age, but she had to leave and so did I.  My visit with her was short and I never got to see her again.  Too bad I never really got to know  her all that much.  I went back home, summer vacation was over the time went too fast.  When I got home I told my little cousin, that lived in my town all about my visit.  Her and I  asked if we could be in a ballerina class, but my mom said ! " no" and my cousins mom said! " yes".  So she was allowed to practice and I was not.  After her lessons were over she quit and never picked it up again.