Gatwick Airport
My goal was going to be to hold out on using the internet until people would at least be awake to chat with me, but as I need things to distract me from the fact that I'm falling asleep (I just spent an hour and a half in a cafe half reading half falling asleep), I couldn't hold out any longer.
Ive been writing in my journal quite a bit with the specific intention of relating everything all to you guys, but my brain's ability to function and tell the stories as I wanted to tell them is mildly disasterous.
I left my apartment, pack on my back, at 3pm yesterday afternoon. I made my way to JFK via the A train and the airtrain. It's actually not that bad a ride - with the exception of the fact that it can take up to twenty minutes for the _right_ A train to come (the line splits up close to the end), although I think ultimately you can take either to the airport one is just more difficult than the other.
So I got to the airport early. Check in was easy and I got to listen to a french couple make disaparging remarks about americans in french, thus adding fuel to the fire. :) Although to be fair, they were acting in retalation to a REALLY obnoxious bitchy lady who was indeed American.
I bummed around JFK, bought my friend Daniele an I<3NY shot glass.
The flight was pretty easy too. Ever since South Africa (18 hours), all flights less than eight really seem like a breeze. I watched the movie Junebug, which i actually really liked and I tried to sleep. There's a funny story about a ridiculous man who held up the plane, but it would be too difficult to write out here.
Got to Heathrow, long line at customs, etc etc. It was finally when I sat down on the bus to come here to Gatwick and I took a deep breath, put on my head phones, and watching the British countryside go by, that I felt it. A lot of my friends say returning to their respective regions (where they studied abroad, lived, whatever) feels like coming home for them - perhaps because many of my friends feel alienated from their homeland. I don't feel that at all. Even if I were returning to Strasbourg on this trip.
What I do feel is this, I feel a return to myself. To a persona that only exists when I'm out on my own in a place that doesn't belong to me. It's like all of my anxiety and insecurities disappear (at least for part of the time). I'm this person that I really like. Content, introspective, and certainly more fun. I'm so happy to be out in the world again. And _this_ is what I mean when I say I have the travel bug. :)
Or maybe I'm just cracked out because I still have another 8 horus to go before I actually reach my destination...and 6 hours to go in this airport...i've already been here 3 (almost)...i hope i don't fall asleep on the floor like I did at Stansted three years ago...
Ive been writing in my journal quite a bit with the specific intention of relating everything all to you guys, but my brain's ability to function and tell the stories as I wanted to tell them is mildly disasterous.
I left my apartment, pack on my back, at 3pm yesterday afternoon. I made my way to JFK via the A train and the airtrain. It's actually not that bad a ride - with the exception of the fact that it can take up to twenty minutes for the _right_ A train to come (the line splits up close to the end), although I think ultimately you can take either to the airport one is just more difficult than the other.
So I got to the airport early. Check in was easy and I got to listen to a french couple make disaparging remarks about americans in french, thus adding fuel to the fire. :) Although to be fair, they were acting in retalation to a REALLY obnoxious bitchy lady who was indeed American.
I bummed around JFK, bought my friend Daniele an I<3NY shot glass.
The flight was pretty easy too. Ever since South Africa (18 hours), all flights less than eight really seem like a breeze. I watched the movie Junebug, which i actually really liked and I tried to sleep. There's a funny story about a ridiculous man who held up the plane, but it would be too difficult to write out here.
Got to Heathrow, long line at customs, etc etc. It was finally when I sat down on the bus to come here to Gatwick and I took a deep breath, put on my head phones, and watching the British countryside go by, that I felt it. A lot of my friends say returning to their respective regions (where they studied abroad, lived, whatever) feels like coming home for them - perhaps because many of my friends feel alienated from their homeland. I don't feel that at all. Even if I were returning to Strasbourg on this trip.
What I do feel is this, I feel a return to myself. To a persona that only exists when I'm out on my own in a place that doesn't belong to me. It's like all of my anxiety and insecurities disappear (at least for part of the time). I'm this person that I really like. Content, introspective, and certainly more fun. I'm so happy to be out in the world again. And _this_ is what I mean when I say I have the travel bug. :)
Or maybe I'm just cracked out because I still have another 8 horus to go before I actually reach my destination...and 6 hours to go in this airport...i've already been here 3 (almost)...i hope i don't fall asleep on the floor like I did at Stansted three years ago...