England Travel Log #1 - June 11, 2000

 June 11, 2000

Sunday

First leg of the trip and I've already mixed up one thing.  After last night's party I had wine speckled all over the khaki shorts I wore.  So I hand-washed them this morning.  I laid them outside to dry.  Well, now I'm in the Richmond airport and they're still out there on my front porch for the world to see or steal.  I called a friend and left a message on their machine asking them to pick up my shorts.  I'm sure they'll get a good laugh over that.

Right now I've got all sorts of butterflies in my stomach.  Of course, part of that is last night's wine, but this happens to my every time I fly.  The excitement of going somewhere far away - somewhere new that I've never been - and it's only a few hours away.

BTW - my handwriting is worse than usual right now because I only got three or four hours of sleep last night -- and most of that was the sleep of the passed-out-dead-drunk.  I'd better get some good sleep on the plain tonight or I'll be dead when I get to London.  My contacts are functioning really poorly since I put in the new pair today.  Probably just my poor tired eyes.

Just talked to the guy sitting beside me here, also waiting for the flight (which is running ten minutes or so late) - he's in the army and going to Frankfurt, Germany.  Small world, this is.

Well, the contacts are off, the glasses are on.  Tired eyes don't deal well with contacts I'm realizing (and tired fingers still don't write well).

The crowd is getting rowdy - their flight is late and everybody's ready to go.  There's an interesting blonde lady waiting.  She looks like she was a debutante thirty years ago in Texas.  Big hair, sun-roughened skin.  Cute little brown-eyed girl-baby just pulled my hair from behind.

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Yay!  On the plane and only fifteen minutes late at doing it.  Karen, beside me, had her US Air flight cancelled and was dumped into this little flight.  Little meaning three seats across and only ten rows.  It's hot, you can smell the people around you, even if you can't see them.  One guy just jumped on, but the flight's apparently over-booked by one.  Nice lady from up north just gave her seat to him since she's apparently not in a real hurry to get away from her family.

Please god, let the flights over go safely & without mishap.

Always makes me nervous when the stewardess asks the people in the exit row seats if they're willing to assist the other passengers in case of evacuation.  Patrice just made the final announcements (she's the stewardess) and it's now almost a half-hour past the scheduled departure time.

The people behind me are sarcastic & nasty, feeling compelled to comment on everything they see as less-than-perfect.  But the heat in the plane could do that to anyone.

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June 11, 2000 (cont.)

In the Kennedy airport right now.  It's funny how I can look around and tell the English from the Americans by how they look &/or are dressed.  I'm setting across from an American couple who look like college students.  It seems strange that it's the American accent which sounds out of place here.  

When we landed here I saw airplanes from more companies than I'd ever heard of before.  Israel, Ireland (clover on the tail), Africa, France, China, Japan, Saudi Arabia -- I think just about every country or continent under the sun.  And, of course, people from each of those countries.  Not that this truth is new to anyone -- an International airport should be so colorful & multi-cultural.

How do I describe the difference between the Americans & English here?  That the English are perhaps more angular?  Not that they're necessarily skinnier - but they have an edge to them, where americans tend to have softer and more rounded features.

Are they more serious?  Perhaps.  If not, they do look it at least.  I still don't know how I'll get used to hearing the English accent surrounding me.  It feels like I'm listening to a foreign language even though it is my own.

I was reminded earlier of one of the opening scenes of the movie "Dogma" where the two 'angels' just sat around watching or talking with the airline passengers.  They would do it just for fun -- I can see the attraction now that I'm alone in the airport, myself.

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No one seems particularly interested in talking, so I may as well write some more.  We're playing a bit of musical chairs here.  I went to the bathroom & someone sat in my seat, now I've done the same to someone else.  We've only got a short while before boarding and all the empty seats are being filled up.  The airport is cold, so I put on my faincoat, which is surprisingly warm.

There've been a couple of Orthodox Jews walking around with their big beards, long black coats, & wide-brimmed hats.  They look a bit like the Amish.  I never realized before that they shave part of their heads.

We just got notice that due to the lightening outside, they've stopped fueling the plane & we have an undetermined boarding time.  However, one of the men I met here said he just came from the check-in desk and there are about a hundred people still checking in & that must be the real reason for the delay.

I am loving the Air France announcements in French & English.  I could pick up my French again by listening to them long enough.

The man beside me is from Bulgaria, but is now a resident of NYC.  He doesn't speak very good english, so I've been trying to explain to him that the flight has been delayed because of the storm.  He'll be flying a long time since he's going back to Bulgaria to visit his parents.  I don't envy him the flight.  Poor guy can't even understand the announcement about which rows are seating.  I tried to explain, but he doesn't understand.  I guess I was lucky to be able to explain about the storm.

(Kennedy to Heathrow: 5 hours, 45 minutes)