Does anyone else find it ridiculous when the pilot asks you to “enjoy your flight?” As far as I know, the commercial airline industry has seen exactly one instance of people boarding a plane for personal enjoyment. Here it is.
I think a more appropriate entreaty would be to “endure your flight,” especially on those stupid flights that have now replaced in-flight movies with Direct TV. “Hundreds of live channels!” they say. “You have to pay for them!” they don’t.
Because I refuse to pay for Direct TV on principle and I don’t sleep well on planes, this leads me to seek out alternative forms of amusement. On the first leg of my journey, suitable diversion was kindly provided by the large, fifty-ish woman sitting to my left, who spent the entire flight memorizing sections of the handbook of the Order of the Eastern Star, which, I gathered after a few pages of reading over her shoulder, is a sort of co-ed Masonic organization. Happily, the woman was on the “Initiation Rites and Rituals” chapter, and so I spent the trip from San Francisco to Newark quietly and contentedly inducting myself into the Order.
The flights from Newark to London and London to Nairobi, on the other hand, lacked both good movies and fraternal reading material, but were salvaged by the fact that the entire flight crew was British, and so it was possible to entertain myself simply by waiting in line for the toilet at the back of the plane and eavesdropping on the British conversations of the flight attendants.
After many, many hours, I, the five other Princeton undergrads who were traveling with me to Mpala (and who shall, in due course, be introduced here), and our graduate student chaperone finally arrived in Nairobi!
All that remained was a four-hour van ride from Nairobi to the research center, along which I was enchanted to discover that Africa looks remarkably like Africa. The savannah is not just a figment of Lion King animators, and I will be posting more photos soon to prove it. On the way up to Mpala, I was astonished and delighted to see giraffes, zebras, and elephants, but my favorite was still this little guy:
How cool is that! The first time I heard a turkey gobble in the wild, I said, "wow, that sounds just like a turkey!". My family has never let me forget that one. But I am glad to hear that Africa looks like Africa!!! Sometimes places do not look like their stereotypes and that is very disappointing. I am looking forward to seeing more photos of real Africa!
ReplyDeleteI found that link about the fake airplane in India incredible. I guess it makes sense that people want the experience, but I just can't imagine boarding it and sitting there... stationary! I wonder if kids go and fight over the window seats.
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