9 Jan 10

6:30 a.m.

I walked to the end of the sidewalk in the frigid cold, the campus quiet, the sky dark, stars above, and I thought- ‘this is where it all begins.’

12:30 p.m. in route Dulles to JFK New York

We took off and I realized that I have no watch and with my cell phone off as it will be from the entirety of the trip, I have no sense of time. Perhaps this is a good thing, to break away from the time rush. I rather look forward to it.

We had a laughable moment when the stewardess momentarily forgot our destination in her welcome announcement before takeoff. I guess when this is routine it is only understandable- It’s funny since for me, this is the first I’ve flown since I was seven years old. I marvel how we are all on different walks of life and how often we forget to look outside ourselves. I feel this is just the beginning of this realization.

Every time I hike in the mountains, I marvel at the beauty of the Earth meeting the sky- I get the same sensation as I look out of the window of the airplane. There is still snow on the ground and from far above, it is a beautiful perspective of winter. The flight is only forty minutes but thus far, I have been glued to the window- it takes me back to elementary school when I used to pass time looking out the window of the school bus. I find it ironic too, remembering that my bus ride taking me ten miles also lasted forty minutes. How much farther I’m going this time!

I have to laugh at myself- it took me five minutes to open the bag of airline peanuts. It figures I would be the one to explode them all over the airplane right?

9:00 p.m. in route JFK New York to Frankfurt, Germany

Katie claims she can’t smell my feet. I hope she’s not lying because I took my shoes off and it’s totally knocking me out. The guy in front of me has already turned around and asked me to stop shaking his seat- It’s going to be a long ride I can tell because I wasn’t moving that much….. The guy in our row is cool though- he’s from Germany and Katie has nick-named his “Franz” =)