Prior to joining in on the fantastic trip to Australia and New Zealand that you’ve read about in this paper, I had been on exactly six airplanes in my life. We flew to the West Coast to see my aunts when I was almost too young to remember. Right after my senior year of high school, a band trip had us fly to Las Vegas on our way to California. And over a decade ago, our family flew to Florida for vacation. Plus, there were the trips home.
For the school trip Down Under, we were on eight airplanes. That’s right: I more than doubled my airplane experience with one trip! Michelle figured out that we traveled 23,581 sky miles on this vacation!
Airports are a lot of hurry up and wait. We were always at the terminal with plenty of time to spare, which is much better than the alternative. I did see two people sprinting, with luggage, right after I heard a last call over the intercom at one point. I would never want to be those people!
Naturally, while sitting in airports, I had a lot of time to observe and think. And I realized what a small world we live in after all.
I would often play the game, whether it was people around me or the folks on the intercom, “What Language Am I Hearing Now?”. It was fascinating. The only language I’ve really studied outside of English is Spanish. I know a little German, based on my growing up in New Ulm. If you really, really listen, you can try to pick out idiosyncrasies of a language. The guttural sounds of German, the singing lilt of Italian and Greek, and the rolling r’s of Spanish. They were all there around me, helping to pass the time.
I would notice how quickly people spoke in their native tongue and then remind myself that English speakers do that as well. At one point, I was convinced that I had people from every continent, except Antarctica maybe, nearby. Where else would the average person find that other than an airport?
Airports are a great melting pot of people. And I always wonder about the stories of those people. Sometimes I even talk to them to find out.
On our flight from Los Angeles to Australia, I met a couple from Anoka, Minnesota, who were traveling to Papua New Guinea to translate the Bible for people. Wow! They had been doing this for some time, splitting their time between Minnesota and those islands.
On our flight home from Australia, there was a woman sitting in front of Michelle who, the instant it was allowed, shoved her seat as far back as possible, slamming into Michelle’s knees. My wife attempted to push the seat back up a bit, only to have it shoved back at her forcefully. The woman decided it was imperative to stretch her legs up on the seat in front of her as she watched, ironically, the movie Mean Girls. (You can’t make it up!)
When the lady did this again after a meal, I tapped her shoulder and asked if she might show some courtesy and let us know she was planning on doing that. She snarled at me. I didn’t know her story, but based on her heavy metal clothing and copious tattoos, I decided she must be traveling to our country for a professional wrestling event.
We flew Delta and Qantas for airlines, and everyone on those crews was very friendly. The meals we got on international flights were not too bad, and I even tried eggplant for the first time! On Qantas, if you asked for a Sprite, you got a lemonade, which was quite good.
I’m not normally a gum-chewer; in fact, I usually avoid gum at all costs. But I chewed and chewed to try to avoid my ears clogging up due to atmospheric pressure changes. No luck. There was not one flight where my ears were normal afterward, sometimes for up to a day, even when trying every trick to get them back to full capacity. But that was about the worst part of the airplanes.
It’s amazing to look out the windows when you take off and as you approach the airport for landing. How did we get here? Did the Wright brothers have any idea, over a century ago, that what they were building would carry people on 14+ hour trips over the ocean? Over 10 million people fly globally every day! That’s unbelievable! Yet, hunker down in an airport at any time, and you’ll see so many people that the number is not nearly as hard to imagine.
Our world is smaller than ever. You can hop on a plane tomorrow to just about anywhere you want to go. You can meet people from all over and know that we are one people, no matter where their origin comes from. It’s simply incredible.
Just, maybe, check with the person behind you if you’re moving your seat back. Please.
Word of the Week: This week’s word is heliophobia, which means a fear of sunlight or bright lights, as in, “Because he had heliophobia, he always kept the shade closed in the window seat of the airplane.” Impress your friends and confuse your enemies!