Monday, July 26, 2010

Thousands of Feet Above The Ground In a Metal Tube

This is the journal I kept while in Europe in its original form, with no editing. Most of it was written either spontaneously during a few minutes' break, or back in the hotel room when I was exhausted and probably falling asleep on the page. Therefore, please excuse any faulty grammar, poor sentence structure, and otherwise bad writing.

Enjoy!


July 4, 2010
Somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean

Been in a plane for about eight hours. Got about two and a half left. Tried to sleep at least a gazillion times. No such luck. Hoping I'll be able to sleep between Paris and Munich. If not, I'm gonna need a heck of a lot of caffeine.

The sky outside is very pretty. It's a sort of purple-y blue, with bands of red and pink near the horizon. The clouds underneath us look fluffy, like a cotton ball carpet. Sadly, most people have the shades down, so I can only see tiny chinks here and there. Tried to get a picture. Not sure how well it turned out though.

We had dinner very early, like four o' clock our time. There was a bowl of curry pasta with chicken, which honestly was more like cold couscous than pasta, but pretty good nonetheless; some hot fish with tomato sauce and rice; a wrapped cheese rectangle; a circular, school-style container of water which was bottled in Wisconsin but inexplicably had a Canadian maple leaf on it; a bun which I didn't eat; a brownie which I quite happily did; and some tapioca pudding, which I saved but neglected to save a spoon for.

Right now the lights are off because it's supposed to be sleepy-time. I know I should be sleeping, but sleep is not forthcoming....

This place has a pretty sweet video system. You can watch movies (I've seen people watching everything from Alice In Wonderland to The Princess and the Frog to A Bug's Life to Avatar) and TV shows, including travel and nature documentaries and sports. I tried to watch the news but it didn't work. I watched an episode of How I Met Your Mother, and then watched the same episode again in French when I got bored. Mostly, I've played a trivia quiz game (geography, in French, because I can.) Also played Space Invaders and tried Who Wants to be a Millionaire but it was too hard even in English.

Started 1984. Creepy book.

Everything said over the intercom is said in French first, then English. I understand a pleasing amount of it, and of the things the cabin crew say to each other. My screen's been in French the entiere time. I've learned some new words-- most notably, 'strait' in French is 'detroit.'

Watching the map inch by on my screen. The close up now shows up approaching Ireland instead of under Iceland. I started wanting off when we were over Saskatchewan-- though I suppose it's not too terrible. I still haven't even taken out my iPod. I just want to sleep and can't.

One hour, fifty-eight minutes left. I guess I'll go for attempt gazillion and one.