The Journey Begins
KAL Lounge, Tom Bradley International Terminal, LAX - 11:37 p.m. local time
My brother dropped me off at the airport and I got through security with an hour to spare, so I've been chilling in the airline lounge (a perk of flying "prestige class," as the Koreans call it!) with a can of guava juice and free wi-fi. Just enough time to dash off one last missive before I journey to the East.
About five hours ago I started feeling lightheaded and slightly queasy. It felt kind of like the night before I left for college, and also the night before I left for New York. That sense of "waitasecondwhattheheckamIdoingI'mjustkid!" I can't imagine what the young athletes must feel like, although I bet most of them are just as tough mentally as they are physically (which is to say, much, much tougher than me).
I really am feeling nervous, like this is all one big mistake and once I get to Beijing my bosses will realize how much of an amateur I am. My introductory column for SI.com is up, and somehow my editor and I agreed it would be a good idea for me to write something about personal identity (as opposed to a sports-related subject, like whether BMX will take the Games by storm-my guess is not as much as snowboarding did in Turin). I do believe the subject matter of my essay is a worthy one, and a unique perspective that I can offer as a member of the SI staff... but there is still a lot of anxiety about my professional debut (so to speak) possibly pigeon-holing me as an ethnic-obsessed self-indulgent navel-gazer. Gah.
KAL Lounge (prestige class side):
Lounge ladies room (prestige class side):
My brother dropped me off at the airport and I got through security with an hour to spare, so I've been chilling in the airline lounge (a perk of flying "prestige class," as the Koreans call it!) with a can of guava juice and free wi-fi. Just enough time to dash off one last missive before I journey to the East.
About five hours ago I started feeling lightheaded and slightly queasy. It felt kind of like the night before I left for college, and also the night before I left for New York. That sense of "waitasecondwhattheheckamIdoingI'mjustkid!" I can't imagine what the young athletes must feel like, although I bet most of them are just as tough mentally as they are physically (which is to say, much, much tougher than me).
I really am feeling nervous, like this is all one big mistake and once I get to Beijing my bosses will realize how much of an amateur I am. My introductory column for SI.com is up, and somehow my editor and I agreed it would be a good idea for me to write something about personal identity (as opposed to a sports-related subject, like whether BMX will take the Games by storm-my guess is not as much as snowboarding did in Turin). I do believe the subject matter of my essay is a worthy one, and a unique perspective that I can offer as a member of the SI staff... but there is still a lot of anxiety about my professional debut (so to speak) possibly pigeon-holing me as an ethnic-obsessed self-indulgent navel-gazer. Gah.
KAL Lounge (prestige class side):
Lounge ladies room (prestige class side):