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May 10:
Time elapsed: 6:22
Time to destination: 2:20
Miles traveled: 3178
Miles to go: 899
This is about the time of the flight (in my experience) that
is the best. Yes, it can be
exciting when you first get on the plane, but when you look at the little monitor
that tells you you have over 8 hours to fly before you get there, it’s a bit
depressing. The worst time is about four hours in. That’s where you sit there
and think you’re going to explode from the dry air, cramped space, lack of
people to talk to or things to do. Luckily, having flown as much as I have, I’m
prepared for that horrible hour in the middle. I take care of it by taking a nap usually. Today, that
worked fantastically, seeing as I have two empty seats next to me. I almost
could lie down – I’m not usually curled up into that tight of a ball when I
sleep in my bed at home, but man was it comfy for an airplane! Plus, I brought
my own pillow. Fantastic.
So far, there hasn’t been too much culture shock. I have my
little movie screen on the back of the seat in front of me set on German and
keep talking to the flight attendants in German so I don’t have to dive back
into it all at once. Still, as soon as we hit the ground, that’ll change. The
biggest culture shock moment today, actually, was when I was standing in our
apartment this morning and C handed me the set of keys I have to my dad’s car
at home. Just the feel of them in my hand – the plastic automatic door lock,
etc. – felt so different from the keys I carry around in Mainz – I hadn’t held
my car keys in months. That was a real „whoa“ moment.
I’m going to fill out the fun customs form and then see how
much time I have left in this plane. Then, a bit of time in Philidelphia, and
then off to the tiny plane that will take me amost all the way home.
(This is May 20th Emily writing now - I just have to say that in that second, smaller plane -- it was an experience. For those of you who have never flown in a propeller plane (what we like to call a "puddle jumper"), let me just explain it to you like this: depending on whether the propeller (which was directly next to the window that I was directly next to) was spinning slowly(for a long time on the ground before we took off) or quickly (when we were in the air) it either felt like I was in an echo chamber where someone was trying to learn to play the didgeridoo OR like I was inside of an electric razor. Unpleasant, but somehow entertaining. )
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May 15:
On the other side of my journey now – well, not quite. I’m
sitting at the dining room table of my grandmother’s apartment in Washington,
D.C. I can look down at the streets from the tenth floor and hear the abulences
whizzing by and see the planes soar overhead and think about how tomorrow
afternoon, I’ll be on one of those.
The trip really has seemed like a whirlwind. My sister
graduated, all of my family was in the same place at the same time, I was back
in the states, and now I’m off again.
It was wonderful to see everyone, even if the trip was so short. I was expecting huge culture shock on
the first day, but I think it was so easy to slip into „being home“-mode that
it really didn’t come that quickly, and when it did, it wasn’t what I
expected. It was seeing the types
of cars people drove, seeing the different style of advertising in the
supermarket, hearing the way people talked to each other – that was what really
hit me.
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I realize those blog-bits were quite short, but I wanted to give you something. I was informed by the folks back home that people do enjoy reading this blog, so I will attempt to write more frequently. At this moment, I have a week and a half's work to catch up on and though I'd rather just tell stories here, I tink I'll go do my actual work for a bit. I'll check in soon!
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