Arrival USA
It's 96° Fahrenheit in the Washington DC area!! That's 35.5° Celsius, if you were wondering.
Things that happened to me yesterday:
Transatlantic flight sharing a row with two punks who smelled like they hadn't showered in a very time, but were otherwise quite friendly. Still, my nose adjusted after a couple minutes - and I'll take pungent punks over gum chewers as seatmates ANY day.
Stumbled off the second (Newark-DC) flight even more motion sick than off the first (Berlin-Newark) but through my daze looked up and saw directly in front of me, as I exited the gate: an airport sports bar broadcasting the last three minutes of the Germany-Ghana World Cup game. That was the game that would determine whether Germany would qualify to go on, since they'd already lost one and won one and I'd been slightly disappointed when I'd realized I would miss out completely on even hearing anything about it, since I'd be traveling - now I'd walked straight into a chance to catch those last three minutes. Germany finished 1-0, so they're still in the Cup, and Deutschland can continue being madly excited a little longer.
Caught the Metro, had my ear talked off, in a friendly way, by an exuberant elderly guy about how the public transportation in Miami is much easier to use, got off to change trains and on an overcrowded platform, I ran into: Darcy, an Oberlin acquaintance I hadn't seen or heard anything about in 3 or 4 years - until just a few days ago, when photos of her wedding popped up on Facebook. Now she was standing on a Metro platform in DC (though they live in Madison) with said husband, on the way to visit another Oberlin mutual acquaintance.
Folks, these people coincidences seriously happen to me all the time.
Made it out to the George Mason University campus in Fairfax, VA, without further incident and found my friend Marisa, who's here for the summer. I hadn't seen her in four years, but she has a good excuse - she's been living in Thailand all this time. By total good chance, my trip to the US coincided with her month here and I bent my plans a little to take me to the DC area.
Marisa, with the wisdom of a person who also just recently traveled across continents and battled jetlag, planned our day today as such: whirlpool at the campus gym, yoga, walk in the woods, back to whirlpool. Also, sharing of pictures and lots of life abroad stories.
Did I mention it's a crazy 96° degrees??
Things that happened to me yesterday:
Transatlantic flight sharing a row with two punks who smelled like they hadn't showered in a very time, but were otherwise quite friendly. Still, my nose adjusted after a couple minutes - and I'll take pungent punks over gum chewers as seatmates ANY day.
Stumbled off the second (Newark-DC) flight even more motion sick than off the first (Berlin-Newark) but through my daze looked up and saw directly in front of me, as I exited the gate: an airport sports bar broadcasting the last three minutes of the Germany-Ghana World Cup game. That was the game that would determine whether Germany would qualify to go on, since they'd already lost one and won one and I'd been slightly disappointed when I'd realized I would miss out completely on even hearing anything about it, since I'd be traveling - now I'd walked straight into a chance to catch those last three minutes. Germany finished 1-0, so they're still in the Cup, and Deutschland can continue being madly excited a little longer.
Caught the Metro, had my ear talked off, in a friendly way, by an exuberant elderly guy about how the public transportation in Miami is much easier to use, got off to change trains and on an overcrowded platform, I ran into: Darcy, an Oberlin acquaintance I hadn't seen or heard anything about in 3 or 4 years - until just a few days ago, when photos of her wedding popped up on Facebook. Now she was standing on a Metro platform in DC (though they live in Madison) with said husband, on the way to visit another Oberlin mutual acquaintance.
Folks, these people coincidences seriously happen to me all the time.
Made it out to the George Mason University campus in Fairfax, VA, without further incident and found my friend Marisa, who's here for the summer. I hadn't seen her in four years, but she has a good excuse - she's been living in Thailand all this time. By total good chance, my trip to the US coincided with her month here and I bent my plans a little to take me to the DC area.
Marisa, with the wisdom of a person who also just recently traveled across continents and battled jetlag, planned our day today as such: whirlpool at the campus gym, yoga, walk in the woods, back to whirlpool. Also, sharing of pictures and lots of life abroad stories.
Did I mention it's a crazy 96° degrees??