July 3, 2007 –
Suffering from severe fatigue and hat head. It’s 9:00a.m. and I’m sitting on the floor in front of Gate D23 in Washington DC. I left the house at 3:30; the moon was high in the sky when we got in the taxi. The sun was out by the time my first flight took off. I had a crappy nervous feeling waiting at the incorrect Gate 1 at Ottawa airport.
For some reason, you can find peace in the bathroom. So far, all the bathrooms have been completely stainless steel. That’s luxury. I passed customs and got down to the waiting area. I was like a little kid staring out the window watching the planes get taxied around. The smell of bacon. It turns out there was a place to get a good breakfast. Instead, I settled with a Tim Horton’s donut. It’s the last bit of Canada I’ll experience for the next two months.
The plane to Washington was a small one. But boy did it move. I don’t remember take-offs being so vertical but I think the pressure pushed me a couple inches shorter. It was a really short flight. The flight attendant was really interested in the Rwanda aspect. A short sleep later and we touched down in Washington. Still tired but running on complementary Oreos. Plenty of good times ahead.
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Local time, 1:00 a.m. Even though all I could see were lights, whatever! I survived the transatlantic flight from Washington DC to Rome and I’m in Europe for the first time – Does this count? I won’t be seeing the sights. Instead, I’m sitting on the plane for another 45 minutes waiting to take off again to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Entertainment got me through. Drifting in and out of sleep over 7 hours listening to music, swapping between Final Fantasy III and Super Mario Bros. and eating some decent on-flight meals (I’m hungry again). Probably the coolest thing was the monitor that showed the plane’s progress, speed, altitude, location and how much longer until we arrived. Spent a lot of time watching it cycle through over and over.
And now… more waiting.
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