I´ve managed to miss earlier ops to introduce myself so here goes; please pardon the long-windedness - I'm rather lousy at being concise.

My name's Yonatan and I´m a 20 y/o undergrad. Since I was a kid I was fascinated by foreign countries and by travel. I think it´s partly "in the blood": I was born in Israel, my dad in the U.S., and his parents in Poland and the U.K. I emigrated at age eight, and that day marked my first flight, my first time in another country (stopover in London), and plenty of other firsts. I loved every minute of it, and four days later, when I arrived in California, I said that I wanted to fly to London again. I had caught the travel bug, and have never recovered. For the next eight years, except for a visit to Israel (which marked my entry into the FF world with the opening of a TWA account), I was "grounded" in the Bay Area, and fed my interest by reading about other countries. By the time I finished high school, I'd decided that I wanted whatever career I would pursue to be international in some way.

In 1996, I got my first taste of world travel with a visit to relatives in the UK, and after my graduation, I traveled through Europe with my 15 year old sister. We enjoyed the different places and experiences, and I appreciated the open-mindedness of the Europeans. They thought it was great that we could see the continent at such a young age, while the Americans we met thought our parents were nuts to let us go on our own! After the trip, I was determined to spend a term in Europe. I continued to learn German, which I had begun in high school, and also started learning French. Incidentally, my English has a funny accent but no longer sounds Hebrew and both Israelis and Americans think I am German. The Germans think I am French, or, when I am mistaken for a native speaker, they tell me I have a Swiss accent; go figure :rolleyes:.

I spent 5 quarters studying poli sci and econ at UC-San Diego (my flights home on WN, as well as some strategic long-distance carrier switching, netted me 2 free tickets on WN), and in April, I got to come to Göttingen on an exchange for one semester. Right before I was due to return to the U.S., I realized that it would be too painful for me to leave Europe so soon, and chose to stay here to complete a B.A. in international economics, in addition to completing my original degree at UCSD by transferring credits from Germany. I hope to get my UCSD B.S. in March of 2002, and my Göttingen B.A. a few months after that.

So presently, I'm in the enviable position of living in Germany on a dollar income. I rent a flat in an 18th Century Fachwerkhaus located inside the old city walls (if any of you other young 'uns or those "young at heart" are planning a run through Europe let me know and you can crash at my place). I try to fly home at least twice a year, which has earned me silver on US, and I also try to travel around Europe when I have the chance (I recently told a friend that if I were to die the next day it couldn't be called a real tragedy, since I've already experienced enough to last several lifetimes). Göttingen itself is a wonderful place in which to live and visit. People who haven't been here assume it's a backwaters since it isn't close to any major city, but the university makes it cosmopolitan, and plenty of famous Germans (think Gauss, Bismark, and the Grimms) have studied and/or taught here. My only complaint about it is that it isn't close to any airport, which adds 25-50USD rail fare to any flights I take http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/frown.gif.

In addition to travel, I enjoy working with computers (particularly fixing broken ones), reading, and biking in the surrounding countryside. I also organize the youth group for the recently-refounded Göttingen Jewish Community, and participate in the activities put on by the AA (Americans Abroad, not Alcoholics Anonymous - it's the local expat group). In early spring, I'll intern at the U.S. embassy in Bern, and if that goes well, I hope to take the Foreign Service Exam when I finish my studies.

I first started posting on Flyertalk around the time that I came to Germany, and have found it to be a great resource for maximizing my travel dollars, as well as a great virtual community to belong to.
Yonatan

[This message has been edited by yonatan (edited 11-22-2000).]

[This message has been edited by yonatan (edited 11-11-2001).]

wharvey:
Hokie, Hokie, Hokie, Hi!
Tech, Tech, VPI
Sol-a-rex, Sol-a-rah
Poly Tech Vir-gin-ia
Ray rah VPI
Team! Team! Team!

Class of '91 http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/biggrin.gif

Finally I manage to say hello to the world. I love to fly since my first day of school. That's 12 years ago now, which makes me 18 and last-year student at Kantonsschule (High School) Rychenberg, Winterthur. Yep, another swiss guy, living some 30 kilometers out of Zurich.

Besides school I work as a web designer and PC supporter to earn some money, and I just love my computer. Might sound odd, but I fell in love with these strange machines at the age of 3 when I first played PacMan. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

Other favorite hobbies are trampoline jumping (there's a local team where I live, and no, this is not a common activity in Switzerland either), skiing, cooking, and of course travelling.

After graduating from school next spring I'll study communications and journalism, hoping to end up somewhere in the advertising / corporate communications sector somewhen. My addiction for airline marketing is obvious on my "just for fun" airline site. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/rolleyes.gif

Despite the image one might have of a Swiss I'm not saving my money but spending most of it on travel, mainly on SR and the Qualiflyer partners, where I also accrue my miles. My father's a Travelclub member and I hope to make it to the "club" by next March, after my next big mileage gainer to the US.

Memorable flight experiences so far are my Crossair flights to Lugano airport (spectacular approach!), a tour over Montana in a small Bellanca which I could steer myself and the "culture-shock" when boarding an US-plane for the first time after 12hours on SR business... http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/biggrin.gif

I found FT somewhen last summer looking for information about Sabena, and I liked it at once. FT is taking more and more of my online time, and yet I'm not regreting it at all.
"En Gruess"
airOli

[This message has been edited by airoli (edited 03-18-2001).]

gruezi airoli: nöd zufällig i de 'Vitodurania' gsi?

Rudi: ich bin iiglade, aber nonig gsii!

Ich weiß nicht! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif

(No proper "B" available! Sorry! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/frown.gif )

Have a great American Thanksgiving holiday! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/biggrin.gif

"ß" has now arrived!

[This message has been edited by doc (edited 11-23-2000).]

Just adding one more troublemaker to the list.

I'm 47, married with 2 teenagers (help). Just from that statement alone, you know why I like to fly someplace, anyplace, for business. And yes, I do have a sense of humor. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

I was born in Brooklyn (wanna make something of it). This should explain a lot.

When I was a kid, we lived near the Long Island RR freight lines. I always wondered where they were going. And as a matter of fact, I even took the subway to college everyday. I love travel.

So when I started my own business in the 80's, I started flying. Most of my trips are JFK/LA or SFO. I usually fly 25-35,000 miles per year. All on UA.

I stumbled onto the old Prodigy travel BB's about 4-5 years ago. It was a relief to find others out in cyberspace that enjoyed travel talk. Even better now. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

And I've even met some of you. And you're all normal!!!

Regards,
Dan

Gotta be good, Santa's checking his list!

My name is Peter Wang. I was "made in Taiwan" but my folks are from mainland China. The family emigrated to the United State of California when I was 10 and I've lived in SoCal ever since. Having turned the corner to "thirty-something," I've discovered everything they've told me is true - hair falling in clumps, waist size doubling every 6 months, can't stay up late anymore... but who's complaining?

I'm what you might call "careerly indecisive". I wanted to be a pilot all my life, but coke-bottle glasses kept me out of USAF pilot school, and commercial avaition emptied my pockets before I got my private ticket. A shot at the Sheriff's (but not the deputy) went south when I hit a drunk driver and couldn't re-qualify after my physical expired. So I ended up being an engineer/firefighter at this telecom/semiconductor outfit, which brought me to the world of geekdom.

I had accumulated 40 hours of flying lessons before having to take a break. I blame the new job, but in reality its because I spend my weekends in THE City (SFO for those not familiar) with Honeybaby, who has completely replaced all other reasons for my being. These weekly and sometimes biweekly trips and the overseas business trips put me into the UA Premier Executive 100k column for the first time this year. I'll enjoy it while it lasts, as the "ol' ball-and-chain" will probably keep me grounded next year.

I chose "Indurain" because I'm an avid cyclist, and the Spaniard Miguel Indurain (5 time consecutive Tour de France winner - Lance has 3 more to go) is who I imagine I am when I go on training rides. My other hobbies are vast and varied, including eating, sleeping, basketball, flying to different airports, military affairs, home theater, and more sleep!

And finally I moonlight as a website designer (can't come close to PremEx's work though), and I host a military e-zine with a couple of partners.

That's all I'll reveal here, I'm saving the details as incentive for those get-togethers! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/tongue.gif

Thanks.

Looking forward to meeting some of you new posters, even though some of you have been around for a long time.

Others . . . ?

Bringing this forward as Rudi suggested for some of our new members. What ever happened to Baobab?

Djlawman

Djlawman, you'll find baobab on these recent threads:

posted 11-22-2000 04:21 PM
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum.../000616-2.html

posted 11-22-2000 04:39 PM
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum95/HTML/000702.html

[This message has been edited by MRLIMO (edited 11-23-2000).]

I just recently posted on the original (I think) thread.

Dan

<deleted>

Four paws up for all the new posters with their bios, and Honeybaby (who with Indurian I had the pleasure of meeting! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

and Birdstrike: four paws up from Yaz and Eddie to your cats. Interesting a cat owner has a F-T handle like yours!

Check out my post on the original thread. I'm all the way on the bottom.

Dan