I’m cheating a bit on this post
as I wanted to write about getting ready to leave, except I’ve already been
traveling for almost a full day. I am currently in transit toward Bangkok, and
am feeling the lack of sleep really building up. But I must backtrack…
Clearly, packing is something
that should be left to the last minute. And in this regard, I am a
professional. And last minute packing only leads to minor issues: like
forgetting all your rain gear despite spending a month in Thailand during the
rainy season. No big deal.
As far as travel, my first
flight was delayed, but I still made it to my connection at JFK airport with
plenty of time. I could have gotten food… but I was in the international wing
of terminals. Why waste such great opportunities? I hunted down the gates that
were headed to Germany and parked a seat. Figured I might as well get some
German practice in. I was actually surprised at how many Germans there didn’t
speak English, but was more thrown off by a group of Austrians I tried to
interact with.
I had been sitting there for
probably half an hour when I mustered up the courage to ask a woman where she
was from. I was having a hard time understanding her and her friends because of
their accent and dialect. Well, she was put off, but I learned she was from
Austria. (This is all taking place auf Deutsch by the way.) Except, when we were
done talking she started ranting to her friends. I told her it was hard
for me to understand her, not that I couldn’t. Well she apparently didn’t grasp
this because I heard her as she spoke about me to her friends. I mean… I was
kind of being a little creepy since I was listening to them, but that doesn’t mean she had to be a jerk in how she
talked about me.
Thankfully a cute German
exchange student (he was the German TA for Oberlin College this year) found
humor in the situation and we sat and talked until his flight left.
Before long, I had boarded and
was on course for a 14 hour flight to Tokyo.
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