NYC - Abu Dhabi October 10 - 11, 2007
On the move again. This time on the most crazy romantic trip I've ever been on. Flying half way across the world to the Middle East a woman alone so I can feel married again. As I board the plane, one of few Americans I notice, I think to myself - How crazy am I?
October 11, 2007 - Happy Birthday Mom! The day of your birthday starts with the most amazing skyline. The horizon is cut in half by a black line. I'm not sure if it's the clouds or the earth that appears black. I suspect that the earth below is not yet awakened as we fly overhead. As I stare at the orange glow that opens up to a brilliant blue sky I feel awake and refreshed and yet as though I haven't slept. I am reading the Time Travelers Wife and it befits the day. Travelling through time forward and yet backward simultaneously, missing hours, a day, or a night, it's too confusing to contemplate in my sleep deprived mind. It's a bit lonelyand yet somehow strangely comforting to be travelling in our own cocoon drifting silently above the earth, barely detected by the sleeping world below us. Geography has always been a strong subject for me but I have lost touch, not quite certain where we are. From the map the only thing I am sure of is that we are equidistant between Baghdad and Tehran, somewhere I never imagined myself as a civilian, a mother. Intellectually I think we are flying in a safe corridor but I am still untrusting. The moment I boarded this plane I felt as though I left my country, no longer in the comfortable strong arms of my America.
I didn't manage to fall asleep until we were over Cork, Ireland. I slept soundly and yet acutely aware of the sounds and movement around me. A child fussing, the stewardess moving around the cabin ensuring the comfort of her travel weary passengers. I awoke over Poland another country of my heritage. If only it were possible to stop the plane at my whim so that I could experience the homelands of my ancestors before flying to such a foreign land for the first time.
Mountains have appeared out of the darkness below. Beautiful outlines of fading blackness as they rise and recede in the distance. I see a lake or winding river below as I eagerly await my first clear glimpse of the Arabian Peninsula. The sky seems to extend forever as a 3-D red blazing sun slowly emerges from in between the black ridges of the mountains spreading an echo of crimson lines spreading horizontally across the horizon. I will see my husband in 1 hour. It occurs to me that I haven't the worries of my fellow travellers sitting around me - my next destination, my transportation - my goal is at the end of the gate.
October 11, 2007 - Happy Birthday Mom! The day of your birthday starts with the most amazing skyline. The horizon is cut in half by a black line. I'm not sure if it's the clouds or the earth that appears black. I suspect that the earth below is not yet awakened as we fly overhead. As I stare at the orange glow that opens up to a brilliant blue sky I feel awake and refreshed and yet as though I haven't slept. I am reading the Time Travelers Wife and it befits the day. Travelling through time forward and yet backward simultaneously, missing hours, a day, or a night, it's too confusing to contemplate in my sleep deprived mind. It's a bit lonelyand yet somehow strangely comforting to be travelling in our own cocoon drifting silently above the earth, barely detected by the sleeping world below us. Geography has always been a strong subject for me but I have lost touch, not quite certain where we are. From the map the only thing I am sure of is that we are equidistant between Baghdad and Tehran, somewhere I never imagined myself as a civilian, a mother. Intellectually I think we are flying in a safe corridor but I am still untrusting. The moment I boarded this plane I felt as though I left my country, no longer in the comfortable strong arms of my America.
I didn't manage to fall asleep until we were over Cork, Ireland. I slept soundly and yet acutely aware of the sounds and movement around me. A child fussing, the stewardess moving around the cabin ensuring the comfort of her travel weary passengers. I awoke over Poland another country of my heritage. If only it were possible to stop the plane at my whim so that I could experience the homelands of my ancestors before flying to such a foreign land for the first time.
Mountains have appeared out of the darkness below. Beautiful outlines of fading blackness as they rise and recede in the distance. I see a lake or winding river below as I eagerly await my first clear glimpse of the Arabian Peninsula. The sky seems to extend forever as a 3-D red blazing sun slowly emerges from in between the black ridges of the mountains spreading an echo of crimson lines spreading horizontally across the horizon. I will see my husband in 1 hour. It occurs to me that I haven't the worries of my fellow travellers sitting around me - my next destination, my transportation - my goal is at the end of the gate.
posted by Melanie at 12:00 AM
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