The Trip

The trip on August 3rd starts quite relaxed at 5:52 AM at the Dresden train station. And guess who I'm with: that's right, the Dynamo Ultras, heading to Fürth for Dynamo's first second division game (Spoiler: they lost hehe).

Everyone is dressed in black and there is a strong police presence, and then there's my red suitcase as we make our way to Hohenstein-Ernstthal, where I get picked up by Paula, my fellow student and friend, and her family just after 7 AM. We drive an impressive 3 hours!! Or maybe 3.5 hours; I sleep the whole time, but we definitely arrive at Frankfurt airport before 11 AM. Everything goes super fast there: my suitcase weighs 22.4 kilos, my nail scissors go undetected, my drugs in my stomach and explosives in my belly bag as well, and then we are already checked in and at the gate. There we also meet Xaver and Lydia, who are traveling with us.

Our airplane is huge, a 747, which Jone immediately recognizes. Two floors. We take off around 1:50 PM. Lufthansa takes very good care of us on the 12-hour flight! We get all blankets, pillows, two hot meals, chocolate, lots of drinks and crackers, and of course, great movies and series. I watch many episodes of White Lotus and sleep about 3 hours in between. For quite a while, I have a terrible headache, but luckily it gets better with some pills.

Unfortunately, I am sitting in a middle seat, but my fellow passengers are nice. A caricature: a very reserved German to my right, who apologizes for using the power outlet for too long. To my left, a Mexican woman who crosses herself every hour and tells me a lot about Mexico, also in Spanish, and I am relieved to be able to have a conversation!

During landing, I suddenly feel very nauseous, I run to the restroom, thankfully I don't throw up, but the stewardess stresses me out, chasing me back to my seat loudly with a vomit bag, how embarrassing.

We land at 5:30 PM Mexican time (8 hours time difference), it's nice and comfortable jacket weather. We get through the visa counter quite well and are allowed to stay for 6 months! Yay! The suitcases also arrive and funny enough, I meet a girl in the bathroom line who has been living in Mexico for a year. She recommends an eSim, which we can all buy online at the airport, so we have mobile data right away. Everything is going smoothly! Only when I try to withdraw money, my card fails, and Paula has to lend me some. I hope this won't become a problem.

Then I can call an Uber without problems (a cheap taxi), which takes us home for just 20 Euros in 45 minutes. The driver is very nice and tells us a bit about Mexico right away. We all live very close to each other, I in Avenida de las Torres 200 (Turmstraße) in the Tlalpan district. There is a large gate, with a nice little man at the door, presumably the security guard, who lets me in. Behind that is a small street with about 20 houses. An employee of my landlord even comes to pick me up; all this Spanish is a bit overwhelming for me right now. She shows me the house where we will be living together as internationals. More about that in the next entry.

Then, around 8:30 PM (04:30 AM), I'm alone with my things in my room and suddenly feel a bit lonely. But I am sure that when the sun rises tomorrow and the first day of the Orientation Week at the university begins, there will be plenty of new impressions to distract me. I am so excited and so relieved to have made it here safely! Kanipimou and Buenas Noches :)