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!