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This was the moment in which once more I started wondering: Somehow, accessibility and services for the blind did not seem to work the same way here in the USA as in Switzerland. I always seemed to have these strange things happening to me, whenever there was an accessibility issue involved. Do other blind people around here feel the same about this? Or am I doing something wrong?

Dreaming of an accessible America

In Switzerland, especially as an employee of the Access For All Foundation, I often thought about the United States and about what a great example they were when it came to accessibility. The law, such as the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), the banks and their talking ATMs and Braille Bank Statements and the internet and its accessibility requirements… Just like in the old days, it seemed to me that everything had to be somewhat better and more developed over there. However, I started questioning the truth of this assumption already at the time when I wrestled with my Visa Application Forms.

It began online

In the United States, Federal services, forms and websites have (if I understood this right) to be accessible to anyone, including blind people, as defined by a law called Section 508. Of course, one can find the forms required to apply for a visa electronically - in fact: In most places, the form DS-156 mandatorily has to be filled out online.

DS-156 however was about the only really accessible form I had to fill out during the application process. Another document I had to fill out, called Form DS-157, was only available in PDF Format; I could choose between a version in which my screen reader could not detect any form fields at all (German translation) or a version with a list of untitled form fields and radio buttons, whose order however did not correspond to the requested information (English Original).

I discovered this problem in mid July 2007 and informed the appropriate Section 508 office immediately. At the beginning of August, I received an email promising that the document would be adapted, but also informing me that the conversion process would not be done by the time I had to have the form filled out.

And even now - we are almost at mid November - one still finds the inaccessible version of DS-157 at the official web site of the U.S.: State Department - so obviously, the government and its work towards accessibility seems to be as slow in the United States as in Switzerland.

I have to add though that the Consulate General of Switzerland in San Francisco provided me with an equally inaccessible PDF Form when I tried to register myself as a Swiss Living Abroad (it was another document with not recognized form fields). At least, in this case the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs took only three weeks to provide me with an accessible MS-Word version of the form.

Money: Inaccessible bills, lying ATMS, normal banks

After bringing in my incompletely filled out application forms, answering a ton of questions and giving my finger prints three times, I finally made it into the United States in mid September. One of the daily difficulties blind people face over here is the inaccessibility of the local money bills. They all are the same size, made out of the same material and are missing any tactile sign which could make them distinguishable. Of course there are ways to make them accessible - Rhiannon provided me with some kind of Bill Braille Marker a while ago already. But still, one has to know the value of a bill before one is able to label it correctly.

I don’t have a clue what made the United States introduce such inaccessible bills. There is the Money For All Online Petition, which tries to get them to make the bills accessible; but I can’t help looking at an obvious slowness again in this area.

Of course, they do have those great talking ATMS over here. One has to know though that really not all ATMs in the United States do talk, so it is still possible to have to sometimes ask total strangers for assistance when getting money out of the machine. And then, there are those talking ATMs (we have got one of these on our campus), which simply provide you with wrong information: “Please insert and remove card with magnetic stripe up and to the right”. I got to hear this message about 30 times, when I tried to use this ATM for the first time. It took me about five minutes until I realized that I really could take money out - I only had to insert my card with the magnetic stripe not to the right and up, but to the left and to the front. And now, tell me to actually trust these machines…

Another disappointing experience was the one I had at the American Savings Bank of Hawaii, when I opened my account. Not only did they neither offer any documentation or their statements in Braille, nor did they seem to have ever heard of any bank actually providing a service like this.

Banking seems to be rather inaccessible in general. It is, for example, not only rare, but in case of my bank impossible to do wire transfers (sending money from my account directly to another account) from home - I would have to visit my bank’s counter to do that. In Switzerland, wire transfers are one of the most popular ways of paying bills and other stuff.
The popular thing here in the States seem to be Checks. You fill them out (which means, if you can’t write yourself, you ask someone to fill them out for you), send them to the recipient and let them go to the bank to be cashed in - at least, this is how I understood it. And again I catch myself asking for accessibility: Is there a way for blind people to fill out checks independently? Have I not discovered a special aid yet? Or do blind people really have to get someone to do the writing for them whenever they send a check?

In Traffic: Non-Talking buses and missing sidewalks

Then there are the issues related to my location within the United States. I had been informed prior to my arrival in Kailua Kona, that the town was not exactly overflowing with services for the blind. Kailua Kona, I was told, has about 30′000 inhabitants and is located on the Big Island in the State of Hawaii. Something you hardly find over here is public transportation. There do seem to be some bus lines, which however focus on bringing you from town to town rather than providing in-town transportation.
During a weekend I spent in Honolulu, I was very pleased with the Local bus services, equipped with audible bus stop announcements and friendly drivers. So far, I did not yet check out the bus services in smaller towns, but if you want, you can take a look at Maverik’s Blog (German), where he writes about his experiences during a recent visit to Hawaii.

Something that struck me while I was walking through Kona was a general lack of sidewalks. AT some places, they are missing entirely; Then, there are other places, where you can find a white line (very good for blind people), separating the street from the pedestrian walk; the other sidewalks seem to be OK, but I think one did not really prioritize accessibility when planning sidewalks in this town - probably because pedestrians are generally less important over here than cars. Anyways, I’m glad that Leo, my guide dog, seems to be very capable of correctly interpreting sidewalks with the white separation lines.

At intersections I sometimes notice some kind of tactile mark on the ground. The mark does however not guide you directly to a cross walk, but seems to follow the curve of the sidewalk, going from one cross walk to another. So one should not use the mark to determine the direction in which to cross the street correctly. I’m still working on those marks and trying to make them useful and logical to me.

Blind pedestrians search vainly for accessible traffic lights in Kailua Kona. Just like in Switzerland, one has to correctly interpret the noise of the passing cars to determine the right time to cross the street. It happens that friendly drivers stop their cars, letting you cross although they would have the right to drive. And there are the rather stupid drivers, stopping their cars right on the cross walk - so you can say it is all just like at home.

The Good Things

Now, all these rather strange impressions would really paint too dark of a picture in relation to my accessibility experiences in the United States. Of course, there also were the great, the awesome things:
I was, for example, very pleased when, after I had been waiting for only a month, the National Library for the Blind and physically Handicapped in Hawaii, provided me with a tactile map of my residential area of Kona. This map is doing a great job helping me to gain some basic orientation around town. It came to me at no cost and I was not even required to ask the government to get it financed (in Switzerland, this would have been necessary). Even faster, I was provided with access to tons of ‘talking books’, although I am not even a permanent resident of the United States.
My request for mobility training seems to take longer, but is at least being processed. If everything goes right, there should be an orientation and mobility specialist coming over from Honolulu and assist me in the areas in which my sighted friends at the University weren’t able to help anymore.

Leo, my guide dog, has the legal right to accompany and assist me wherever I go. He is even allowed in hospital rooms (with only a few exceptions) and, at no additional charge, in hotels, including the ones that normally wouldn’t accept dogs. As for Switzerland, I am still dreaming of seeing this freedom being established one day.

During my weekend in Honolulu I attended the yearly convention of the National Federation of the Blind in Hawaii, where I got to meet some of the blind locals. It felt good to notice that there were some awesome and some rather weird ones, just like in Switzerland (which is true for the sighted people too by the way). I also got to hear some of the rumors about Switzerland, which seemed to me about as exaggerated as what the Swiss think of the United States. While for example the Swiss social system was found to be excellent, I am thankful for the good and generous system we have, but I also know that it often can be tough, slow and disappointing. One also told me that the drivers were generally more dangerous in the United States, which is another thing I would not generally agree to; if you ask me, I think one drives generally more dangerous in larger towns (like Zürich or Los Angeles), while keeping a more respectful attitude in smaller places (Thun or Kailua Kona).

What I conclude so far

Yes, there are some laws for the disabled in the United States, which I would love to see being introduced by Switzerland and other countries. Talking ATMs, many Braille Labels, a fast and uncomplicated delivery of tactile maps and talking books are other things I would urge my home country to offer as well. But still, I do not really feel more equal over here. Many of the great and popular Accessibility-Measurements which the United States became so famous for are just not available or known in lesser populated areas like Kailua Kona. On the other hand, I expect there to be some services which I just haven’t discovered yet; it might take a while until I find and effectively use them all.
I would like to know how far the law actually goes. Is a non-tactile sidewalk supposed to be accessible? And how much time is a department allowed to take to provide an accessible version of a rather simple form?

Switzerland has got the previously mentioned Social System as well as better accessible money. Many railway stations are equipped with tactile orientation lines and when building new streets, one takes better care of pedestrians, by providing tactile sidewalks and such. But just like in the States, many good things are only available in some parts of Switzerland. And it does happen that accessibility is not provided, even in the cases in which it is legally required.

In general, I got the impression of blind people being more dependant on sighted assistants here in the United States - take the comments on money and the lack of public transportation as examples. I wonder if this is already what they imagine to be independent? Or did I observe something wrong? And what is the situation like in other parts of the United States?

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Should you have an aircraft spare or know on where to get one for cheap, please report to our crew members as soon as possible. We thank you for your cooperation.”…

Note: I made only the last two sentences up!

Course I have loads of awesome excuses in store to apologize for this lengthy delay, but I won’t even start listing them all, considering that someone, none of them would really take me out of dept. But now, I would actually like to start updating my blog more frequently again, frequently meaning more than once a year at least!

Want to know what you missed during the postless time?

Well - actually not that much. IN April 2006, after returning from California, Leo and I - for the very first time in our lives, moved into our very own flat, placed in the beautiful Fischermätteli District in Bern. Moving there, getting settled and living independently was challenging but always great fun. Rhiannon and many other people helped us getting installed - it was awesome!

During summer, we held the mentioned seminars with Dan Kish from World Access for the Blind in Switzerland. Dan Kish stayed in our country for about a month. The great advantage for me was that he did teach me some useful cooking tricks - to the great disappointment of my Microwave Device, which I used less frequently as a result.

At the end of summer, Rhiannon returned to the United States, while I continued putting furniture into my flat - at that time, I had just gotten my very own office desk…

In November, I had this phone call with Jack Oppenhuizen, whom I had met during my last trip to California. He told me about a new project, which was about to start at The University of the Nations in Kona, Hawaii. Back then, I understood that the peoject’s goal would be to make it possible for people with disabilities to get involved into mission work (trainings and outreaches) and to make the University of the Nations accessible to people with disabilities. He asked me if I could check the possibility of coming to Kona in Janauary 2007 already to help building this new project for two years.

As fast as possible, I started to prepare everything for an as soon as possible departure. I talked things over with my employers from The Acess for all Fundation and Illusorialand Museeums’s crew, got myself an appointment to apply for a visa at the United States’ Embassy in Bern and started checking prices for flight tickets.

Unfortunately, more and more delays followed. It started with the university requesting that I, before becoming a staff member, would officially apply for the position. Since their staff application was only available as a totally inaccessible PDF Document, I wasn’t able to just fill it out normally; and it took the staff office crew in Kona a rather long while until I was allowed to apply by phone. Jack had meanwhile decided to move the starting date of our project to summer, to the end of the official school year. And then, there were some rtiring moments while I tried to figure out how to import Leo, my service animal, into the state of Hawaii, without having him go through quarantine first.

In april 2007, while I was still in Switzerland, Leo almost caused an accident, when he ran out of a forest onto a busy street, with no apparent reason. This event was certainly impacting, but thank Goodness not damaging to his guiding abilities, as we discovered in some extra training sessions.

July 2007 came. And finally, my application was processed and officially confirmed by the university. It took unfortunately another month until I finally got to apply for a visa at the United States Embassy. At the same time, I did find a young coupple who was willing to take over my flat, including its furniture, for two years - so I safed myself the pain of getting rid of everything I had bought before.

There were some more weird things happening before our departing flight. There was, for example, this person from the Swiss insurance for the disabled (or however they’re called in English). This person called me to let me know that I wasn’t allowed to export Special Aids for the disabled (such as my guide dog Leo). As a response, I wrote to the Insurance, explaining them and sending evidence that and when I was planning to return myself AND MY SPECIAL AIDS to Switzerland. So far, there hasn’t been any reply from them to my letter. But if someone of the insurance gets to reads this and wants to get Leo back to Switzerland, you at least know now where I can be found.

On September 17th finally, Leo and I departed Switzerland. We first made it to San Diego, where we spent two exciting days. Then, we continued to Los Angeles and, on September 20th, finally made it to Kailua Kona, Hawaii.

So as I said: It wasn’t too much that had happened since my last post, but what happened was very important, for it brought me to the place I am today!

Next time I’ll tell you more about what exactly I’m doing here…

I again seemed to have caught a lot of sleep for when I woke up, it was already 8 am over. Entering the living room, I found that it was totally empty and neither Dan or Leo were to be found; luckily, it stayd like this for only a few minutes - then, Dan, who just had been out to get some water, came back and told me that he had let Leo out into his backyard before he left.
The rest of the morning consisted of another great load of beans, oranges, rice and other nutricious elements as well as finally of the talk on possible seminars with Dan Kish in Switzerland. As he is very popular for not only his remarkable sense of echolocation, which makes him gain very improoved orientation and mobility, but also for the “No Limits” Philosophy which he and his organization, World Access For The Blind, put into practice in such an impressive way, you can imagine that there are many things that one can learn at one of his seminars. IN fact, we already did have Dan Kish in Switzerland last August and enjoyed three very successful seminars on echolocation. Now for this year, we are still beginning to make plans, to find sponsors and so on. But if things should turn out to their best, you can expect us doing almost everything from private echolocation training to even some bike rides. So as you can see, our talks were very successful. And if you feel like being one of our sponsors, just feel free to contact us right away

Well, the time in Longbeach passed much too quickly. I did like to be in those so quiet surroundings of the city and I hated to leave - but still, I did. Shortly after 2 pm, Leo and I sat in another Greyhound bus on our way back to San Diego. This time, Leo did not need any five minute break - the back yard of Dan’s house must have be enough of a bathroom for him.

Ahead of us llied the trip to Mexico. I got there for the first time in fall 2003, doing the YWAM Discipleship Training School for about five months. It was then when I met Melissa and Mike who both were my class mates. The time in Mexico is probably one of the most beautiful and challenging ones in my life and it feels great to think and go back from time to time. In June 2005, I had been there for the last time, acompanied by Leo, the most intelligent dog in the world. But before now being able to get to Mexico at all, we first had to find YWAM’s San Diego office and this turned out to be more big of a problem than one would expect: It was at first pretty easy to find a taxi, since they were located right outside the Greyhound station. Now, the office was - acording to their mailing address - to be found at 35th street in National City. I was therefore shocked to hear from the driver that he was just unable to find the 35th street in this town at all. Instead, he told me over and over again that he was able to find the 30th, but not the 35th street and that after this one, the town of Chula Vista already began. We questioned about 20 people and I even called the Office in San diego (where nobody answered) and then the one in Ensenada (which ate up most of my minutes on my cell phone) without getting any smarter either. After way to long of discussions, we just entered Chula Vista and found not only the 35th street, but also the actual YWAM Offices. I still don’t really know how it can be that a building which so obviously sems to be located in one town has the name of the neighbouring one in its mailin address, but I was still thankful that we found it after all.

It only took about half an hour until Giezi showed up. Together, we first picked up Bethany, who is his girlfriend and another of my former class mates. Then we did some more shopping and finally had a great dinner at Unos, which only started up kind of strange, for it took them about five minutes to decide whether they wanted to refuse the entering of Leo, my service animal or not - I am glad they found out that they had to let him proceed in the end.

At about eleven this evening, we finally arived in Ensenada. For those who can’t see, it is still noticeable for one is welcomed by a typical smell of a nearby fish factory - and I can tell you that although the smell is something rather disgusting, it really does help greatest memories to come back into someones mind
So this is where I am right now. And yes, it does feel just great to be back. The smell of the sea (don’t worry - the fish factory is far behind), the sandy floor everywhere, the mixture of Spanish and English, it all makes it just a wonderful place. No wonder Melissa and Mike fell in love over here.
Tomorrow, I might give you a report of their wedding.

Disappointingly, my Mexican Cell Phone Number stoped working just a few minutes after my arrival; you can still call +1-888-675-7494, but for now you will just have to be happy with leaving a voice message. To communicate faster, you preferably leave a comment on this post, won’t you?

As soon as the internet started working again, I found an email from Rhiannon, my girlfriend, giving me some information on how long it would take me to the San diego Greyhound Bus Station and similar, which was not only very helpful but also made me realize that I would still have enough time to pack my things carefully, feed my dog and show him the trees close to our room. We got to the station by taxi, which took us about 15 minutes and made me pay just an impressedly smaller amount of money than a taxi in Switzerland would have charged. the bus ride itself was actually boring, but Leo was very thankful for a five minute break which we had about an hour after our departure: For some reason the trees at the hotel must not have suited his bathroom needs and so he peed and peed and peed at another one somewhere between San diego and Longbeach.

We met Dan Kish shortly after our arrival at the bus station. together we first made our way back to his home where we had freshly picked oranges and beans as kind of a breakfast replacement. Since I had not seen him in a pretty long while, we had a lot to chat about - not about seminars by the way, just about all kinds of other stuff going on in our lives. Leo meanwhile enjoyed very much having a run in Dan’s back yard, which is covered with a lot of uncut plants. As the afternoon went on, we left his house to do some shopping and check out a chinese restaurant. There, I got pretty much stuffed for the first time since I left my country. A big meal was exactly what I needed after this mostly airline kind of food I had during the last 24 and more hours. I don’t know though why I always end up going to chinese restaurants when I am in the States, but it obviously has to be that way - Not that I dislikd it of course, it is just funny.

As one can expect, we felt pretty lazy after such a meal so therefore we decided to take a lazy way home; so the idea would have been to basically just go to the next bus stop, then take the bus and drive back home. Now unfortunately no matter how far we walked, we did not find any bus stop. And, which was strange too, we did not find Dan’s house either. So after a rather long walk, we found out that we must have taken a curve without noticing and therefore must have been walking in the wrong direction for a while. I was glad that Dan really knew Longbeach and had a remarkably good sense of orientation, for he managed, after walking back the wrong way, to bring us back onto the right track. Before going home, we checked out another restaurant for desert: I got to eat a huge slice of apple pie which definitely topped up my stomach to the fullest and made me feel like having eaten enough for the next couple of years.
Now the negative impact of this food was that when we got home (it was already seven over by then), I was just nothing but tired and not in a discussing Seminars Mood at all anymore. so we decided to postpone the whole thing to tomorrow and going to bed kind of earlier than we normally do. Before falling asleep, I finally managed to have a phone call with the people in Ensenada; although Melissa herself was not there, I talked to a very nice guy named Giezi who not only knew me, but also was the one who was asked by Melissa to pick me up the next day in San Diego. Knowing this and where I was supposed to be tomorrow, I felt much more like falling asleep peacefully. When then, not knowing that I just called the Ensenada people, Melissa herself called my mobile phone only a few minutes later to basically tell me what I just heard from Giezi, the fun was totally completed
I actually did fall asleep to the sound of airplanes, flying towards or from the nearby Los Angeles airport. It was not that they were really bothering me or something, but they must have had an impact on me, for I ended up dreaming of Leo and me flying one of them once more…

After the front-passenger seat of my dad’s car, which brought us to the Thun railway station, we got to experience the chairs of the Swiss Reilway System for about 100 minutes, until they managed to arrive at Zurich Airport - I hardly remember anything of this train ride anymore though, since I spend most of it sleeping. At the airport, there were first the sensationally strict security checks, then the procedure of checking in and finally alltogether three chairs on which we were placed while waiting for someone who would assist Leo to his bathroom and the two of us to the airplane.

Following, we made a trip outside the building, where Leo got his very ultimate chance to mark the airport’s wall; then, we were placed - of course on a seat - in a bus which brought us close to the gate, where we continued our waiting - while sitting. And some minutes / hours later, the great moment finally came and the doors of our plane opened. The seat next to mine was kept free, so that Leo and I could sit down without getting bruises. We stayed in this row oof seats for something more than eleven hours - except for Leo who was once taken for a walk by a flight attendant who wanted to show him the aircraft.

Besides, we spend most of the flight either sleeping, eating or starving. Let us therefore use the time until our arrival to finally write down the actual purpose of our trip:

It all started with the invitation to the wedding of my friends Melissa and Mike, who will get married on March 31st 2006 in Ensenada. This wedding was the main reason of our flight to San Diego, which is located kinda close to Ensenada and for which I got the flight ticket already negatively mentioned in the previous post. To make the trip somewhat more eventful, I decided to go up to Longbeach on March 29th to visit Daniel Kish, executive director of World Access For The blind to discuss possible seminars to be held in Switzerland. And then, there were some other friends in the San Diego area which I hoped to have a chance to see again as well throughout my stay - so one can say that there were multiple missions which Leo and I had in our heads to acomplish.

The first problem we had to face was the one of spending the night in San Diego. Although my people in Ensenada promised me to take care of this and that they would let me know as soon as they had found something for us, but unfortunately, this was about the last thing I heard from them; no new messages were arriving, neither by email, or by phone - this was kind of anoying, since I did not really know whether I was supposed to find us lodging spontaneously myself or if there was everything ready in San diego and it was just the message that failed to be delivered.

Brooding over such and similar thoughts, our plane finally reached Dallas, where we had to immigrate into the United States and then change to another airplane. While Leo, acting very nervous and pulling on his leash like crazy, communicated his urgent need to go to the bathroom, we now got to most detailedly and purely enjoy the U.S. Immigration Procedure. Of course, our suitcase had to go through extended screening since they did not believe my promise that Leos food I brought with was compatible with all American Anti-Terror-Laws. Besides, I got to leave my finger prints once more - although they did not care about Leo’s paws. This whole procedure was extended by us having to wait in many lines, by the airport assistants beingng kind of overwhelmed and by the impressedly high number of other disables passengers longing for assistance. Then, FINALLY, Leo got his Bathroom Trip, which we had to keep very limited though, for at this time, I still believed in the ilusion of me actually catching my connecting flight, which was supposed to leave in ten minutes.

To make this definitely impossible, I was more or less totally being taken apart at another security check now. Although the officer, scanning me with his happily beeping metal and drug detecting device, was in a friendly and even funny mood (and, by the way, even had another chair to offer), he could not change the fact that his fuss ate up another about 15 minutes of my precious live. When he finally would let us go, another chair was waiting for us: It was attached to a Dallas Aisport Transportation Car and sitting on it we got to taxi through the building for some more minutes - and before we actually reached the gate, the message came by radio: “The Plane Had Already gone.”.

remarkably fast and even without additional costs, we were re-ticketed for the next flight. Also, David, a friendly man who obviously had to face the same fate as us, took us with him into the American Airlines Admirals Club Lounge, where we not only found another chair, but also wireless internet access. Thanks to this, we found out that there were still no messages from San diego or Ensenada; so I had the pleasure to find us something on my own and not really for a small amount of money. Starting off at Hostel World, my query got refused with the reason that I was trying to book to far ahead. I then had my success on the american Airlines Hotels Page, if one can call a room for $59 excluding taxes a success.

It won’t take much time to tell the rest: On the flight to San diego we met Francis, who lived there herself and offered us hef help, should we have any problems finding public transportation or similar during our stay. After the landing, Leo made me and many others very happy by placing one of his piles onto the carpet of San Diego Airport. Stepping out into the open air was disappointing: After feeling the sun in Dallas, San Diego now welcomed us with a windy and very rainy evening; so while the water made its way through my sweater and Leo’s coat, we waited for the shuttle service to bring us to the hotel.

In my room - which by the way was equipped with only one chair - I was excited about having free wireless connection to the internet, which made it possible that I could tell all the world that we were still alive and stuff. I even managed, by dramatically topping up its balance, to get my phone to work again - so if anyone wants to call me, just dial +1-888-675-7494!

At eleven, a sudden tiredness seemed to overcome me again and since Leo did not want to go for another walk either, I went to bed right away. I had planned my trip to Longbeach for the coming day. This required me to catch a bus at 10:30 am from San diego.
To not run out of time before and to be able to enjoy the complimentary breakfast in any case, I set my alarm clock to seven in the morning - although I actually expected me not to sleep that long due to the time difference.

I still remember my first flight to San diego, which I took nearly three years ago. Back then, before actually boarding I think I was everything but happy about my travel plans either. Some days ago, I had been robbed just like yesterday. Then, I always had to think of the lenght of this trip, which in the end separatd me from my old friends in Switzerland for about six months - this again was causing tears. And then, there was a strange skirmish going on about my U.S. Visa, so that in the end nobody could tell me for sure if I would be allowed to enter the States at all or not.
Well, somehow it seems as if my travel worries and temptations have not changed that significantly throughout those last three years, doesn’t it?

If I think this further, then I remember the moment of the total change. There was this time where it seemed as if my worries would just vanish. It was a moment of realizing that there was something extraordinarily great approaching and of noticing that it would just be extraordinarily great, no matter how much worrying I would bring with me from home. In one go I knew that though I would not see my friends for a while anymore, I neither would lose them; though I got robbed, I still had my whole live; and although the U.S. authorities might indeed just send me back home, I was still sitting in an airplane as for now; and in exactly this moment, this exact airplane finally took off - WITH ME!

Now also, that I am thinking about all this, I can feel my mood finally change back to the good. Of course, I am not yet sitting in an airplane yet, but still on my fantastic, blue office chair, while I am listening to the rain as it caresses my town’s ground. A few driving minutes away from me, Rhiannon, who is not coming with me, is probably sleeping; Far over my head, there are airplanes flying whose passengers, in contrast to myself, do earn frequent flyer miles; and at a place which is completely unknown to me, there is probably also this certain chap hanging around and taking dumb pictures of his sad environment - AND WITH MY CAMERA!

But in spite of all this, my airplane is going to be taking off soon anyway - And Again WITH ME! And even though Rhiannon can’t come with me, I still won’t be totally separated from her; and if I won’t be able to take pictures, I will collect sounds and texts instead; and concerning Ebookers - well, they actually still have about eight hours left to adjust my booking

IN any case, the trip is going to be extraordinarily great again - and my misery won’t change a thing on that.

OK, and now I have to finish packing my suitcase!