Little bits of lots of languages

The plane ride went smoothly and everything was great. I had plans of reading a book or two during the flight, but Swiss Air had other plans for me. There was around 50 movies, a bunch of TV shows, music channels, and games. I played some Sudoku, Tetris and "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?"...watched two movies, listened to music, and watched a documentary about orangutans. I didn't sleep at all. I thought it was quite funny when they served us breakfast at 3a.m. Well, anyway, I eventually got to Valencia. Everything was on time and I just had to wait for my luggage. This was a pretty small airport so I'm not sure why it took sooooo long for the luggage to come--about 1.5 hours. I did have two fun experiences in foreign languages. I helped a woman find her baggage claim. She asked in German where it was going to be and I helped her out. (Apparently I didn't do a good enough job as a native German speaker said something after I helped her.) Then about 10 minutes later, a woman came and asked me where the baggage from Sevilla would be. I looked at the sign posting where baggage was and figured out hers was on belt 5. Then I had to go through the numbers and remember how to say 5 in Spanish! I wasn't really able to form a complete sentence in Spanish like I could in German. I said "Seville es en cinco." And she was super confused...so I had to try and tell her that the flight from Zurich was on belt 4 and her luggage was on belt 5...it was a lot of "Zurich es cuatro. Sevilla es cinco." Anyway, my minimal knowledge of multiple languages has paid off. Now, if only someone would ask me how to say "a little bit" in Haitian Creole...tu bitzi...

Adventures in O'hare

Standard procedure is to arrive at the airport about three hours early for an international flight...or so I thought. It took all of twenty minutes to check my baggage, say goodbye to mom and Emma, go through security and find gate M16. The flight was delayed thirty minutes. So, I was sitting alone at the gate three hours and ten minutes early with nothing to do. Apparently only about ten other people felt it was important to get to the airport early. I read for a while but got a little restless. In the spirit of the big adventure that I was about to embark on, I decided to go on my own adventure in O'hare's International Terminal. I learned a lot. For example, the terminal has many weird wooden statue things. It may or may not be modern art--which i don't like. I deciphered two of them as a wooden board with a kidney in it and a pretzel made by someone who had never made a pretzel before. Who knows? There is also a sweet fire safety exhibit for kids that was also interesting for adults. On my adventure through the terminal i decided that someday I will fly first class so that I can get into one of those lounges reserved for those passengers. As I wrote this I was sitting on the ground between a plant and a garbage can. I can only imagine the fun that lay behind those tinted doors and signs that say, "First Class Passengers Only." (The only problem is that I will never fly first class, so I am in the midst of planning an attack to sneak into the lounges.) Finally, the best part of my adventure was counting the steps it took to get from gate M1 to gate M21 (the whole terminal). Now, I know why you are wondering why I counted that. But, I ask you, why not? Nevertheless, I know I'm weird...but it was fun! Well, two check bags, three bathroom stops, a $2 bottle of water, a $5 Rolling Stone magazine, a 99 cent book called 40 Fascinating Places of the Bible, and over 1400 steps, it's time for my adventure to begin! Well, actually, I still have an hour to wait.

(This post was written on my departure day Aug. 23. I couldn't post it until I made a blog and had Internet access!)