I'm on a Plane

I decided to take a vacation. After two months of training and 12 months of service I figured that it would be nice to spend the holiday season with my family back home. While the plan itself was simple enough (request vacation days, get aforementioned vacation days approved, purchase plane tickets, and make it to the airport on time) the actual execution was a bit more difficult.

The first step was actually pretty easy, I spoke to my major about how I was going to go home for vacation and he was all about me going to the US (he hadn’t been back to his village for a while either so we were on the same page about wanting to see your parents, family, etc.) So he signed my paperwork saying that I had informed him that I was going to disappear for a period of 3 weeks.

Unfortunately we both wrote in black pen. Apparently this was an error because after you copy a form the ink is…black. Meaning you can’t tell whether a form has been copied or whether it’s waiting to be copied, or whatnot. This did not help in the accomplishment of step 2. But, step 3 went pretty smoothly.

Step 4 is a story in and of itself but suffice to say an activity that I was participating in was pushed back 24 hours while my plane schedule did not. So rather than having 24 hours to go back to site, pack up my stuff, say goodbye to people and tell them that I was, in fact, coming back I only had 2 hours to accomplish the same thing. But I was unable to find my Major or the Doctor.

As luck would have it, I was on the same plane as two other volunteers who had just finished their service, so we all got to hang out in the airport together and ask ourselves, “Our tickets say the plane leaves at 2:35 AM, why is the airline saying it leaves at 12:50AM?” Turns out it was a communication error on behalf of the airline and that we were, in fact, leaving at 2:35AM.

The plane ride pretty smoothly all things considered. As someone with relatively short legs I don’t often find myself in need of extra legroom but it is actually quite awesome in this case. The food was really good though I’m not sure if that’s a result of my standards going down or the airline standards increasing.

And, while there was no in-flight movie (really noticeable on an 8 hour flight), thanks to a friend in the Peace Corps- I was able to watch The Amazing Spider-Man (apparently that came out), and the new Batman movie (I did know about that one).

So now I’m on a plane, flying over Nova Scotia at 34,000 feet, staring at what I think is ice, and hoping that someone brings me a jacket when I get to New York.