Reflections of My Travel

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What a long day! We got up early this morning and took all of our luggage down to the car and checked out. We got to the airport about an hour and a half before our departure time, which was good since the lines for screening turned out to be very long. I was actually surprised because, for all of our security consciousness since 9-11, they have much more thorough security than we do. First, we went through a screening much like what we’ve got here. Then we went through Passport Control where they gave me another stamp to check me out of the country – I love having stamps in my passport! Next, as we approached our gate, there was another screening point. There was the standard x-ray belt for our carry-ons and all shoes, but there was also a man and a woman at each line. Every person going through the line got a full body wand and patdown, women by the woman and men by the man. And even if the wand made no alarm, if they found something on you during the patdown, you were to present it to them and explain it. I had to remove my wallet and chapstick from my pockets and open them up to prove that they were what they seemed. Next, the woman had me sit down and proceeded to patdown my feet too. I felt bad for her and voiced my apologies for what a crummy job this was for her (feet are so ewww!) but she seemed of the opinion that it was just a part of her job. She rubbed my feet thoroughly and even felt between all of the toes. To me, they’d be smarter to just ask me to remove my socks and make me spread my toes apart so that they could see that there were no nefarious objects hidden rather than have to touch my feet. I feel badly for them. And they repeated this same process for every single person in line. After we got our shoes back on and grabbed our bags, we continued to our gate. They checked our boarding passes and passports before allowing us into the seating area and once we were in there, we were locked in. The entire area was roped off with security personnel watching over the gate. I was just surprised at the level of security. It didn’t bother me at all, I figure I have nothing to hide so why would I get bent all out of shape about some minor inconveniences that result in a higher level of safety for me? But that’s just my opinion. The flight was fine. It was an hour longer than the flight over there but it didn’t seem as bad since it was all daylight so there was no expectation of sleep. I can’t sleep on a plane so night flights where I feel like I should be sleeping are a bit rougher. Our seatmate was nice but must have had on about three bottles of perfume which made me sick and headachy for the first few hours. I am a firm believer that perfumes and colognes should be outlawed. Most people who wear these odors have no consideration for others when applying them. And then she turned off my air vent because she was cold (I was window, she was aisle, Randal in the middle – what did my air vent have to do with her?). Most of the flight I spent reading the Dean Koontz novel that I brought with me. When we landed, we had to go to a baggage claim, pick up our luggage, and then recheck it to be scanned again while we went through Passport Control where I received a United States stamp in my passport. Finally, we went to another baggage claim, retrieved our bags, rode the MARTA train to the north-most stop and Beth picked us up from there and took us back to her house where our car was waiting for us. Now that we’re home, the day is starting to catch up with me. It was a fun trip. It was the most cerebral trip I’ve ever taken. Just constantly trying to translate the language and figure out the signs and maps. It was much more different than I would have thought. The only negatives I can really report are the extensive smoking and rough toilet paper. Those two things aside, it was a wonderful place.