Well, I’m back in the US—my time in Austria now feels unreal, as if I merely had a very long, vivid dream. I still plan on doing a few blog posts with photos I haven’t uploaded yet, but who knows? I can already tell I’m going to start slacking on blogging again.
In the meantime, I can use jet lag as an excuse for my laziness; yesterday I was awake for at least twenty-four hours straight; I only slept a few minutes on the plane as all twelve or so hours of it were full of bright sunshine. (The plane was going the same direction as the sun, so it was like it was permanently 5:00 PM.)
I had a stroke of luck getting my luggage through; Lufthansa had a 23-kilo limit and mine was definitely overweight. I tried to lessen the damage by putting all of my books and sheet music in my carry-on, which made that well overweight. Remember how I was hoping that they’d be lenient on me?
Well, when I got to the counter and the lady asked me to put my suitcase on the scale, I watched with terrified anticipation as the counter went up…all the way to 28 kilo. I was more than eleven pounds overweight.
“When I weighed it at home it was twenty-four kilo,” I said innocently, stretching the truth a little.
“Yeah, you can’t trust those home scales,” the lady said sympathetically. “That’s why I never weigh myself, I’d get depressed thinking I was fat, fat, fat!”
I laughed, hoping this was a sign of niceness.
She actually had me put my suitcase on the scale again, with it hanging off a little; it was still 28 kilo. I finally asked how much it would cost to pay for the extra weight, so she started typing on the computer.
Several minutes passed, and she finally said she couldn’t find it. “I know that with Piece Concept it’s a €150 fee,” she told me. €150? I’m doomed, I thought. But then…
“Well, never trust those home scales! Now you know,” the lady said cheerfully, sticking the tag on my suitcase and letting it go through.
Thank goodness for miracles!
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