A Turbulent Caning

I am writing this post while sitting in the Brussels airport – 1/2 way to Delhi! My flight here was quite the experience. All seemed to be going well. There were no crying babies, a good movie selection, the food was decent, and despite being sandwiched in the middle of the middle row, people on either side of me were of slim stature. But, about 20 min before landing, we flew through a crazy storm. Despite it being light out for the previous hour, it all of a sudden got very dark… and that is when we hit the worst turbulence I have ever felt. And so, the babies started crying, my stomach went into my throat, and I gripped the arm rests tightly trying to decide whether to be scared or place my trust in the pilots and enjoy the rollercoaster ride. Then, CRASH… a loud sound accompanied by an incredibly bright flash that illuminated through all the open windows. Did lightning just hit our plane? And that’s when the very nice African man beside me started letting out large moaning noises and gripping his stomach. Through the dips and shakes of the flight, all I could think was, “DO NOT THROW UP ON ME! PLEASE DO NOT THROW UP ON ME!” Finally, the turbulence stopped, and we soared through the dark clouds still seeing the occasional flash of lightning, though much less frightening than before. We landed vomit free in a sea of fog and rain… which left me both impressed with the pilot and concerned that the landing was attempted despite me not being able to see the ground from the windows on either side. Naturally everyone on board let out a sigh of relief when we were safely on the ground and erupted into applause for the fact that we made it through. At least it was exciting!!!

On a different note, one of my favourite parts of traveling is the people watching that is possible in airports. Here are some random things I saw and observed:

-An old Indian women (age estimate: 80 yrs) hacking the biggest lugie known to man in the middle of the airport

-The willingness of travelers to stand in line for 45 minutes to pay 10 Euro for a ham and cheese breakfast sandwich… I elected to go for the 3 Euro Belgian waffles they were selling in duty free.

-An incredible amount of visibly able people electing to be carted between gates in wheelchairs pushed by airport staff or on the back of those annoying beeping vehicles.

-Three consecutive Americans in front of me in the duty free line complaining about the low value of their currency when compared to the Euro to the poor woman working at the cash.... because apparently she controls international exchange rates??

And finally…

-The same old Indian woman hitting her grandson (assumed) with her cane when he tried to pick up her bag for her.

I hope all the old ladies have that much spunk in India!

New Blog, New Adventures

For those of you who have known me for years, you might have read a couple of my posts from my last blog, www.tailsofafrica.blogspot.com. Unfortunately, because my next adventure (the one I leave for in 3 hours) is in Asia, the tails I will be seeing and the tales I will be telling will be of a different nature. Thus, here we are, at a new blog for a new adventure... and for future ones to come. I plan to share the silly things - small day-to-day observations that might make you laugh or cringe or thank your lucky stars you're at home! And, I plan to share big things - the ones that make you feel frustrated, or thankful, or inspired. But most of all, I just want to share my experiences with those I love.

And so, I am ready and packed to start my three and a half month journey! Here is the basic outline for my time to come:

First, I will be traveling to Thailand for 2 weeks with Aubrey who I haven't seen in 3 months. After the most stressful summer of my life - MCAT and O-Chemx2 - we're going to have some much needed R&R on the beach for the first couple of days. Then, it will be north to Chiang Mai for fun with elephants and tigers!!

After we say our goodbyes, to start another 3 months on different continents, I will head back to Delhi, India. There, I will be doing research for the Public Health Foundation of India (www.phfi.org) in the field of animal-human viral transmission. The semester of field work fulfills 5-course requirement within my program - Global Health Specialization within a Bachelor of Health Sciences. So... I will be working, and getting school credit! WOOO! Unfortunately, full tuition is still being paid :(.

Based on the fact that I wrote my MCAT two days ago, I haven't really allowed myself the time necessary to process the fact that I'm leaving. I am excited really, that's all I can say. I hope to share with you my adventures the best I can.

And I'm off... like a herd of yurdles!