Day 1-Getting There

Every airport looks the same to me. I have a fantasy that it's an amusement park ride and that the windows are really television screens showing different views of the ground. When you deplane, you're in the same place as when you started. The amusement park hires some little old man to run out to change the name of the airport on the signs. So when you walk down that long gangplank you have the illusion that you've actually gone somewhere.

The first leg of my flight was Portland to Minneapolis. I couldn’t believe I was actually on my way to South Africa. It started as a dream that I never believed would actually come true. But here I was, sitting next to a nice guy from England who had a really nifty computer. He was doing things besides playing games on it too. He even used the in-flight telephone. I was impressed. I'd never seen anyone actually use one of those phones, they cost like a million dollars a minute. I didn't think anyone was that rich. “The office paid for it.” He told me he had to check in with his office. I had never realized how many people fly all over the world for business. They are generally the ones that will talk to you on a plane it seems. And the funny thing is, they hardly ever play tourist in all the wonderful places they go. Its just a repeat of my airport fantasy but with offices instead of airports.


We had just enough time in Minneapolis to rush from one gate to another to discover that there was a delay. The airport people made an announcement that they would pay people to give up their seats. If I didn't have to catch another flight in Amsterdam I might have considered it and knowing what I know I now, I should have asked. I guess there is a limit to how close to the edge I want to go. The finally called our flight and we boarded.

I have trouble sleeping in public anyway but the time thing really confuses me. I can never figure out if I should sleep on my time or the time of where I'm going. I'm a night owl anyway. So I didn't sleep on the flight to Amsterdam. I sat next to a guy that didn't speak English so I didn't have anyone to talk to. I tried to watch the movie but I'd seen it before. I should have done what the big Dutch guy across the aisle did... he took his shoes off, put ear plugs in and a sleep mask over his eyes and went to sleep. There was a look about that almost challenged you to try to wake him. He probably would have slept through a plane crash just to prove he could. I went through the flight in a kind of hypnotic trance halfway between sleep and South Africa.




Copyright © Sheila Millage, 1998, 1999, 2000,2001,2002,2003,2004 all rights reserved.