Today (March 2010), I was flying to Berlin. I arrive at the airport and right in front of my check in queue, two school classes (aged 12-14 I guess). After bagel and water (too early for coffee) I arrive at my gate. Boarding!!! I jump to my seat, closed my eyes and looked forward to another deep sleeping period.
Than the school class enters the plane. Sleeping? Game over!!!
95% of the entire class found their seats around my place. Just the teachers where clever enough and escaped to the back of the plane. Now first of all the normal excitement makes it first round. Happiness about the trip, to be together with friends, to be away from school. The noise level was fantastic. Everybody in the entire plane got entertained. The surprising thing to me was, wile listening to there conversations I got a lot of information. There was news about John Terry, the latest football results, something about London Fashion Week, even some political statements. I started to read my newspaper afterwards. What a waste of time. From all main articles I got the summery from the kids already. It was a bit like sitting in front of my Mac and following some conversations via twitter. So I got some kind of live update.
Now the really funny story starts as we approach Berlin. The Captain has switched on the seat bell sign and everybody is ready for Berlin. All kids are still very excited. It is a kind of foggy morning in Berlin and so the plane comes very late out of the clouds. For about 10s nothing happens and than one of the kids spotted the snow. Everything was covered in snow. Some of the lakes where frozen and everything looks like winter wonderland. In full excitement the boy tells the entire plane his discovery. And all the other kids joined in. Discussions about the amount of snow, snow heights, last personal snow experiences… where making the round. A short wile after another boy said that if everything else is covered in snow the airport must be covered. Quite clever guy. Unfortunately a girls group was concerned immediately that even the runways will be covered and that we will slide as soon as we are landing. There came another boys voice that this is all “rubbish”. Germans clean the runways in the same way as the British do. So they are ice-free. The girls where happy and some of the other boys looked at him and thought most probably “smart a…”. With all the excitement for the snow almost everybody missed the actual landing. Doors opened and soon a small group of boys started the first snow fight directly at the airfield. The security guys could not understand the amusement and tried to stop it. With no success whatsoever.
I certainly hope that I will sit in the same plane with them on my way back.