I’ve been very excited and a bit nervous at the same time about my trip to Jordan – I didn’t know what to expect, had doubts and fears – and true reasons for it because I wasn’t the one choosing the destination at the first place. But I took it as it came and so I flew. I flew into the big big world – on my own, there was only me and the world. Earlier than expected, air-berlin flight assistants were welcoming me with breakfast and a nice smile. There is no flight assistant uniform that is more impressive than the one at Singapore Airlines, I thought. I will always remember this one flight with Singapore airlines – everything was so perfect and beautiful and crazy at the same time. So here I was with my breakfast, which I decided on eating later, diving into a crowd of people – all kinds of different looking people: short people. Tall people. European looking people. African looking people. Asians. Brunettes. blondes. pale people. tanned people – Every kind of people. They spoke afrikaans, French, English, Danish, Japanese, Spanish and so many other languages, that I wasn’t able to identify. I was really enjoying this. It made me feel like I am a million miles away from the world – maybe on a different universe where no unitary culture exists. When I listen to people talk in an unfamiliar language, I always have the urge to ask where they are from. This time though, there was no way of asking – it wouldn’t have had an end so I assumed and probably landed with my mind at a totally different part of the world. Oh well, I left it at that.
After a little time of rather 'walking' than flying to my destination, I passed through lots of regions in Africa where people smiled at me and wished me a good morning. Of course I was the one always smiling back and greeting them genuinely. There is something about their nearly black eyes – they give me a special feeling, I am not sure what kind of a feeling – maybe a little magical sadness, I don’t quite know. There were a thousand thoughts in my head – I wish to just could have stopped walking and ask everything about their culture – my curiosity rose to infinite. But, instead of getting answers to the countless questions in my head, I had no time to chat and hurried my way further to Jordan – that is where I had to go.
J: „Are you german?“
Me: "Yes. Why, do I not look like one?"
J: “No – Youre always smiling and the germans never smile.”
No, I unfortunately did not go on a real trip to all these countries – obviously. But this basically was my first impression of arriving at the International Tourism Fair in Berlin (ITB). Even though my main purpose going there was for work, I still had the chance to get to see as much as possible from the trade show. It was very interesting working with the Jordan people because first of all this is a country I just haven’t had any reference to and what is better than getting to know the country from the natives telling you stories!? They were all very obliging, genuine and appreciative – very different to the German mentality.
There was this one conversation I had which was very interesting. The guy asked me if I was German and so I told him I am and asked him if I don’t seem like one. He replied no and said that I smile so much but Germans never do. It really made me think and honestly it just proves the image I have of the Germans - sadly enough. Us grumpy little Germans!! - I will keep smiling and try not to carry on with this bad grumpy image then ((:
xx
No comments:
Post a Comment