En Route

Alright, I'm officially en route to Dakar!  

I left PDX this morning at 7am and now I have a layover at JFK before my 8ish hour flight directly to DKR.  

So I've never flown into New York before.  I'm not sure if all big flights into JFK are like this or not, but the cabin space in my plane was SO cramped.  My backpack (not an overly large one either) could barely squeeze between the edge of my seat and the seat in front of me.  I had a window seat, because I'm an over-planner and I booked my flight quite a while ago and chose my seats at that time as well.... but wow I'm so glad I did!  The poor dude in the middle seat was just visibly uncomfortable, not to mention that he was obviously a nervous flyer... I could tell by the way he kept his turtleneck over his head and his head between his knees the entire flight.... not joking in any way.  I'm pretty sure he wiped tears away right after we landed... but I couldn't really tell... because his turtleneck was over his face...

Anyways, speaking of landing... we arrived 20 minutes early and there wasn't room for us to land, so we had to circle around once before landing.  Now, I'm actually a really good flyer; I straight up enjoy it... but circling out in the Atlantic at a very, very low altitude was terrifying!  I mean, I sat there jaw-dropped and laughing to myself... not actually frightened... but I could imagine how scary that could be for nervous flyers!  Hence the tears from my neighbor...

So it's a super clear day in New York and it was really beautiful flying in... and then we dropped down to circle around.  I lived in Southern California for a bit... I know what smog is... but WOW!  I feel a little naive for being so shocked by the site of it, but the intense layer of smog hovering over the city is depressing.  It was just so intense because of the clarity of the rest of the sky, and the colors of the sun starting to go down... such a weird combination of disgusting and beautiful.

I haven't slept much in the last couple days... just nervous, excited, anxious, etc.  I slept about 30 minutes last night... so needless to say, I'm exhausted.  And the mental capabilities are suffering because of it.  I'm trying to work on being more outgoing, asking for help, talking to people... getting over our weird western standard of silence between strangers.  So I went up and asked a Delta agent where my next gate was supposed to be.  I could tell by the way she was interacting with the customer in front of me that she was just one of those people that hates her job, has no sense of humor, hates having to deal with strange people all day, etc.  So she tells me my gate number... and I had already kind of walked around and didn't see a clear way to get out of this terminal... and I'm tired and whatever... so I asked her  how to get there.  She stares at me for like 5 seconds, points down the hall and goes, "You go that way... and then, you know... you follow the signs."  She is not amused.  I realized that was potentially kind of a dumb question, and I laughed and told her that was a pretty good idea.  Still not amused, she says, "Ya... you just... follow the signs."

Thanks Delta woman, very helpful.  You should try cracking a smile, it might make your terrible job go by faster.  Also, this airport is kinda scummy and they don't even have free wi-fi.  Pretty funny to me that all you have to do is land in the airport of a city and you get a nice little sample of the vibe of that city.  Not digging the attitude here, but that's alright... only stopping over for about 7 hours...

On to the long leg of my flight!  Hopefully I can sleep a bit!