Travel Day

Atlanta Airport
We’re about to board the flight to Bogota. I’m starting to get nervous. It’ll be fine though. I understood most of what the front desk guy was saying… of course he said it all in English first.. :P


It was amazing the start of the transition from known to unknown, as soon as we got on the escalator to the international terminal, I started hearing different languages. Always a little disorienting. But English is still primary.

They’re boarding…

On the plane
Turns out Jeffrey and Andrea Smith were on the same flight to Atlanta, and they had the about the same length of layover, so we had lunch together, and played some fun little word games – Jeffrey called it Fictionary, the precursor to Balderdash I suppose.  I had my Spanish-English dictionary to try and look up some weird words to use, but most of the word were easy ones, that a person would actually use, heh heh. Oh well.

The meal on the plane was really nice! Spinach ravioli with a creamy sun-dried tomato sauce and pine nuts. :O Tiny salad, bread roll, cheese and crackers and a brownie. Thank goodness they figured out that just because some one is vegetarian it doesn’t mean they only eat twigs and leaves.

I’m so bummed, they just changed the in-flight movie to The Legend of Zorro yesterday! When G and Collin came they got to see Walk the Line, which G told me “is a really good movie, you’ll really like it! We should get it on video!” Great. I was the one who really wanted to see it when it came to Fairfield, and he wanted to see Fun with Dick and Jane instead. Woof. I didn’t really like this Zorro movie in the theatres, it’s more cheesy than the last one, which I did like… :P I listened to it in Spanish for a while, so I guess it wasn’t a total loss, but I got bored of it already. Listened to one of my Spanish lessons on my iPod instead, now I’m listening to my Juanes/Shakira mix  I love noticing how many more words I understand now. It’s my only real measure of progress, since I’m not taking any class with grades or anything.

Both flights so far we’ve been on the back of the plane, unable to recline, boo. Luckily with some nice seat shuffling (so a few different people could sit next to their traveling companions), my mom and I are sharing a whole row, so we’re able to spread out a little bit.

Turbulence. Suck.

I’ve been reading “The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill”. Neat book. I liked the documentary, and this just expands on it. What a guy you know? Who just stuck to his path, trusted and really was provided for! Pretty amazing. And I love hearing about his different relationships with the different birds, and all their unique personalities. Animals are really so amazing, I miss having a pet. I’ve had several birds before, but it was also always so heart-wrenching when they died! They just aren’t meant to live as long as we do, and I go so attached… Ah well. Sometime again, I’m sure.

I’m really looking forward to the “interaction between the moms” when my mom and Gilberto’s mom try to talk to each other. They have a lot of similar qualities! Collin and G both laughed when I mentioned it on the phone to them the other night. Collin says being there is kind of like being IN Telemundo, one big soap opera in Spanish all the time. Heh heh. I’m sure it’s a bit more active and crazy there than normal because everyone is coming by to see G, but it probably really does feel like that for him.

Whoa. It’s really nice to just get to write and write for me, with no deadline, and no needing to go to bed or anything. I sort of forgot how much I used to do and like just writing, just because. Very therapeutic.

I should fill out my customs form. G said it was going to be all in Spanish, but he’s a liar!!! They have English versions - ha ha! Take that!