In the Air

Friday, September 2, 2011
37,000 feet above Lake Michigan en route to London watching some Owen Wilson movie in French. Hard to believe I just said goodbye to my Mom in St. Louis less than four hours ago. The flight to Chicago was no problem, hardly finished ascending before we started our descent. Just started Jorge Luis Borges’ book, “Dreamtiger,” which is really a series of short writings exploring all ranges of human experience. This first page of the introduction talks about Borges flying into Austin, how appropriate. The stewards come by with drinks. I sit by the window staring at endless night sky. The man next to me hails from Kent, a town outside of London. He’s returning from a two-week stint of business in Chicago.
His name is Dan and he’s got a four year old and a six year old that he’s trying to get back to. We talk global news; I give him my run down of the American political situation, inevitably a diatribe against the Republican Party, even though they’re all slimy politicians. I mention something about the Tea Partiers and how rednecks are all over. He tells me that in Europe they call them chavs; don’t ask why. They were black jumpsuits and the girls pull their hair back tight and wear Ugh boots. I start to get the picture. He’s into hip-hop; grew up with it. Big into house music, an old friend of his is actually DJing across US right now, a certain Nic Fancuilli. I ask him what bands he listens to. Says I should check out Aim, Bellerouche, Rae and Christian, and that his favorite hip-hop band in the UK is Broke N #nglish (pronounced English). There’s also El Michael’s Affiar and Hot 8 Brass Band. Says I’m welcome to download some stuff from his media player, he’s got the USB.
Check out BrokeN#nglish.com—they have a free mixtape up for download.
We are currently 10,670 meters above Iceland with 4:53 hours to go and an outside temperature of -60F. We’ve traveled 2192 km, and have 4156 km to destination. Ground Speed is 953 kmh.
Can’t believe I’ll actually be in Morocco tomorrow. Being here on the plane seems so natural right now. There’s a bit of turbulence but I’m not too bothered. Waiting for this day since I first began thinking about studying abroad, basically since I’ve been at Rhodes. Today marks a crucial moment of transition in my life, yet right now seems just as normal as ever. We’ll see if I feel that way tomorrow. Mainly just excited today, never really got that nervous. The trip seems to just fall into place. Even when I left my folks, I just felt ready to jump in. I’m sorry to leave all my friends and family, who will be dearly missed, but being alone now and on my way to my Moroccan adventure doesn’t seem so crazy to me. I know to keep my guard up and stay on my toes, but I can’t wait to meet and talk to all the new and wildly diverse people waiting to meet me. I sat next to a Latino guy on the flight to Chicago but he kept to himself. Dan and I just recounted our favorite Top Gear episodes—the British version of course. He says his family is big into the Simpsons, but he doesn’t watch much Family Guy—it always comes on at random times, usually really late. Strange, I tell him, Family Guy runs 24/7 in the States.
It’s amazing how young the States are. Life back home seems completely normal; desktop computers, smart phones, and everyone driving his or her own car. The way it’s supposed to be, right? But the real world is not this. Most Americans live so spoiled and sheltered that we take things as simple as microwaves and personal bedrooms for granted. Lucky for me I’m about to see how beautiful life can be even without such commodities as modern toilets. The traditional lifestyle we in America now consider a relic of antiquity occurs on the street daily; it happened today and will happen tomorrow. In fact, much of the world hasn’t changed at all, even since biblical times. But are we in America any happier? I’m curious to find out. I also look forward to being American abroad. When you’re in America it’s no big deal, but this identity takes on a whole new dimension once you go abroad.