Friday, July 30, 2004
In Transit
44 hours from my KL apartment to Home Sweet Home Iowa
I put my sister to the task of creating a travel scavenger hunt for me. Within minutes, she had sent me a list of things to look for to help me occupy some of my time in airports and planes.
I succeeded in finding these things on my way home:
A masculine flight attendant
Someone speaking Arabic
A bilingual child (must hear them speak in both languages) [Chinese and English]
Woman over 50 wearing hoop or dangly earrings
An unattended bag
Bald man wearing sandals [a Buddhist monk!]
Person with brightly dyed hair (pink, green, etc)
Newspaper from a country/city other than the one you are currently in
Purple bag
Twins (bonus points for triplets) [twins mentioned in my book, a bit of a stretch, I'll admit]
I didn't manage to find/notice:
A woman in a floral dress [Malaysia Airline employees wear flowered skirt and fitted top...but no dresses]
A man in a floral dress ;) [perhaps if I was in Bangkok or Chow Kit]
Green trashcan [all were silver]
A parent speaking harshly to a child (and write down what they say! Sometimes it's so funny to overhear parents scolding children)
Among the five airports I passed through was Narita (Japan). I had been here once before--on my first trip abroad. I was 16 years old and going to Japan for a 6 week host family stay. Landing that day, the airport I remember was dark, dingy, smokey and I immediately went into the bathroom and threw up. It's not the same airport I arrived at this time, though everyone tells me that it hasn't changed...
I've come a long way, baby. Now it's to the point where travel--even international, multiple day travel--doesn't really phase me. I used to ponder the ability of a big hunk of metal to fly, but realized yesterday that thought didn't enter my mind this last time around. Until Sunday afternoon, I thought I was leaving KL on Wednesday night--in reality, my flight was for Tuesday night.
Bad news: my brother can't come back to Iowa while I'm home, so I only got to see him for a few hours in the San Fran airport.
The Little Things
[I'm Spoiled]
My parents and sister were waiting for me at the airport; my mom had brought me all kinds of food (a peanut butter and pickle sandwich, Oreos, grapes, carrots, a thermos of milk) and I got the honor of sitting in the front seat of the car (in years gone by, the front seat was subject of many o fights).
I said hello to my dog, unpacked my dirty clothes for my mom to wash, and decided I couldn't be bothered to shower (though I had been traveling for two days essentially). In the morning, I opened the pantry door and granola was waiting for me, along with some strawberry yogurt. Yum. Then I was treated to a massage by my massage-therapist mother.
Thursday was the last day of the annual 4H fair (pictures coming soon). 4H is like the Boy Scouts for farm kids and I was a member from the age of 9 to 18, showing rabbits and sheep in livestock competitions and entering projects of sewing/cooking/flower arranging/photography/etc. The fair happens the last week of July each year and I used to spend virtually the whole time there. Besides having to feed and water the animals, I had friends there to roam about with. Since graduating high school though, each time I go back, I recognize fewer and fewer faces---and I'm less recognized. There used to be a time where the Schnoebelens were famous in the rabbit barn. Now our cousin Braden has taken up the torch.
I had to smile when I saw an old farmer in striped bib overalls--that's so Iowa. I had to laugh when I went into the pig barn--thinking about what the reaction of many of my Muslim friends might be to the fact that I had once bathed my friend's pigs before the competition. I had to stare when I saw teenagers wearing tube tops and belly shirts to the fair. I shivered from the cold (though everyone else complained of humidity), but still scarfed down an ice cream cone (real ice cream!).
I drove home--one of the things I love about coming home is having access to a car and the corresponding freedom of movement. I crashed at 9 pm, though I had wanted to watch Kerry's acceptance speech, and was up by 7 am.
Things to come: catching up with the few friends from home who are still in Iowa City, a graduation party for my sister on Sunday with lots of family coming to our house to eat lots of food, a trip to St. Louis for a wedding (the last wedding I was in was 20 years ago, as a flower girl).
44 hours from my KL apartment to Home Sweet Home Iowa
I put my sister to the task of creating a travel scavenger hunt for me. Within minutes, she had sent me a list of things to look for to help me occupy some of my time in airports and planes.
I succeeded in finding these things on my way home:
A masculine flight attendant
Someone speaking Arabic
A bilingual child (must hear them speak in both languages) [Chinese and English]
Woman over 50 wearing hoop or dangly earrings
An unattended bag
Bald man wearing sandals [a Buddhist monk!]
Person with brightly dyed hair (pink, green, etc)
Newspaper from a country/city other than the one you are currently in
Purple bag
Twins (bonus points for triplets) [twins mentioned in my book, a bit of a stretch, I'll admit]
I didn't manage to find/notice:
A woman in a floral dress [Malaysia Airline employees wear flowered skirt and fitted top...but no dresses]
A man in a floral dress ;) [perhaps if I was in Bangkok or Chow Kit]
Green trashcan [all were silver]
A parent speaking harshly to a child (and write down what they say! Sometimes it's so funny to overhear parents scolding children)
Among the five airports I passed through was Narita (Japan). I had been here once before--on my first trip abroad. I was 16 years old and going to Japan for a 6 week host family stay. Landing that day, the airport I remember was dark, dingy, smokey and I immediately went into the bathroom and threw up. It's not the same airport I arrived at this time, though everyone tells me that it hasn't changed...
I've come a long way, baby. Now it's to the point where travel--even international, multiple day travel--doesn't really phase me. I used to ponder the ability of a big hunk of metal to fly, but realized yesterday that thought didn't enter my mind this last time around. Until Sunday afternoon, I thought I was leaving KL on Wednesday night--in reality, my flight was for Tuesday night.
Bad news: my brother can't come back to Iowa while I'm home, so I only got to see him for a few hours in the San Fran airport.
The Little Things
[I'm Spoiled]
My parents and sister were waiting for me at the airport; my mom had brought me all kinds of food (a peanut butter and pickle sandwich, Oreos, grapes, carrots, a thermos of milk) and I got the honor of sitting in the front seat of the car (in years gone by, the front seat was subject of many o fights).
I said hello to my dog, unpacked my dirty clothes for my mom to wash, and decided I couldn't be bothered to shower (though I had been traveling for two days essentially). In the morning, I opened the pantry door and granola was waiting for me, along with some strawberry yogurt. Yum. Then I was treated to a massage by my massage-therapist mother.
Thursday was the last day of the annual 4H fair (pictures coming soon). 4H is like the Boy Scouts for farm kids and I was a member from the age of 9 to 18, showing rabbits and sheep in livestock competitions and entering projects of sewing/cooking/flower arranging/photography/etc. The fair happens the last week of July each year and I used to spend virtually the whole time there. Besides having to feed and water the animals, I had friends there to roam about with. Since graduating high school though, each time I go back, I recognize fewer and fewer faces---and I'm less recognized. There used to be a time where the Schnoebelens were famous in the rabbit barn. Now our cousin Braden has taken up the torch.
I had to smile when I saw an old farmer in striped bib overalls--that's so Iowa. I had to laugh when I went into the pig barn--thinking about what the reaction of many of my Muslim friends might be to the fact that I had once bathed my friend's pigs before the competition. I had to stare when I saw teenagers wearing tube tops and belly shirts to the fair. I shivered from the cold (though everyone else complained of humidity), but still scarfed down an ice cream cone (real ice cream!).
I drove home--one of the things I love about coming home is having access to a car and the corresponding freedom of movement. I crashed at 9 pm, though I had wanted to watch Kerry's acceptance speech, and was up by 7 am.
Things to come: catching up with the few friends from home who are still in Iowa City, a graduation party for my sister on Sunday with lots of family coming to our house to eat lots of food, a trip to St. Louis for a wedding (the last wedding I was in was 20 years ago, as a flower girl).
