peawee dot net

Now I’m sitting here on an American Airlines 777, somewhere over Michigan. On my way to India. INDIA. I’m going to be there for a month. It’s my first time out of the country, and I’m just as terrified as I am excited. It’s not like I’m even going to Western Europe, but freaking India. The in-flight informational movies in the seat back are displaying twice: once in English, once in Hindi. It’s slightly surreal that this is all happening to begin with. CORRECTION: it’s incredibly surreal that I get to go.

I suppose I should start now at the beginning of my trip then, if I wish to blog my travels. My parents took me to O’Hare airport in Chicago today, where they treated me to a marvelous lunch at the Hilton, before seeing me off at the security checkpoint. I managed to put in a couple hours of productivity at the gate while waiting, and then boarded the aircraft. Upon boarding, I discovered I had my part of the row to myself: the isle and the window seats are both mine, all mine!. The headrests have video-on-demand services that are pretty clever; I have a pull-out remote in my armrest that is:

• An airphone
• A remote control for the audio/video system
• Controls for my reading light, flight attendant requests, etc.
• A game console controller, looking like an attempt to fake an SNES controller with the layout.

Yes, that’s right, the in-flight entertainment includes a personal video game console system. Cool.

This has all been going disturbingly well; my flight from Champaign
to Temple, TX last year was much more eventful (in the bad
way): the flight from Champaign to Chicago was plenty late enough to
make Atul and I miss our flight by seconds. However, here, everything
was… smooth. It took me as much time to go through O’Hare security
into the American Airlines terminal as it took me to go through
security at both Champaign and the Killeen, TX airfields (where I spent
more time putting my shoes back on than any other part of the
process). I’m rather impressed with everything so far.

Now I’m somewhere over Ontario. This is the first time I’ve
ever crossed an international border in my life. The map says the
Great Circle for this trip will be taking me through Russia. I’ve
always wanted to go to Russia. Perhaps sometime I’ll take a plane
that will land there, instead of keeping me 33,000 feet above it.

A while back, I blogged while taking the Amtrak from Champaign to
Chicago, the City of New Orleans. It’s one of my all-time favorite
songs, and it’s simply about his journey, real or imagined, on a
train. I’m not aware of anyone having written anything with such
feeling and romance for an airplane. Perhaps the starving artists who
are most capable of such things don’t have the money to take long-haul
international flights like the one I’m on enough to get any
feeling. The rumble of the engines and the sound of this giant
aluminum tube cutting through the air at hundreds of miles per hour
don’t feel as… “organic” as the gentle nock-nock of the train car.
Humans understand Big Strong Things pulling Heavy Stuff distances over
land. However, right now… I’m flying It’s a wonderful
thing, but it’s one of the single most unnatural things a human can
do. I’ve been thinking about making an indie rock album for some time now. I suppose a song on airline flight should be on there.

Now I’m over Quebec, after having my first in-flight meal. It’s
both exactly as and better than I expected. While the details of it are very interesting to me, I suspect you, dear reader, do not wish to read a 5-page essay on the particularities of my meal.

I’m now nearing the Arctic Circle, and I’m beginning to tire of having a laptop here, so I’m going to curl up with my movie. More updates and pictures as they come!