Well, as you know, I arrived at the airport early on Thursday morning, around 7:15 for my 10:15 flight. As we ascended up the escalator we were met by a sea of red shirts and jeans, the recommended wear for the journey. Slowly but surely we made it through the lines up to the Delta Airlines counter to check our bags and receive our boarding passes. Of course, I had to make the entire process a little bit more complicated by requesting that I receive credit for the miles that I will be traveling.
However, with some quickness and hardly any time to spare we made it through the check-in process as well as security, and rolled up to our gate at just about the perfect time as they began to board. We boarded the plane and tightly squeezed onto the aircraft as the entire craft was overtaken by a sheen of red. As we began to taxi and take off a few minutes later to head to the Atlanta airport, I peered into my backpack to see what I had packed for the trip. I was very glad to learn that the Delta touchscreen panels with which each seat is equipped cost money to operate on domestic flights, so I didn’t have that as a distraction. On the top in my backpack was the book The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown, which I had started a few weeks earlier. Soon enough as the beverage cart rolled down the aisle, I was sucked back into the world of Robert Langdon and the series of mysteries and suspense that seem to follow him. Without even realizing it, the seatbelt sign beeped on as the plane reached its descent and I put down my book with only about 30 pages left.
As our group trudged off the plane, we schlepped all the way across the Atlanta airport to the entire other end of it where the international flights leave from. As we set up camp at our gate, we were there so early (seven hours about), so early in fact that the plane that was leaving before us had already arrived, a plane headed for Johannesburg, South Africa. In our time at the airport we found some lunch (a panini and salad for me), played multiple card games, and I took up a long time reading. I finished The Lost Symbol and picked up the book I have to read for Whitman in the fall, which is surprisingly interesting! Again, without even realizing it, the seven hours seemed to have flown by and we were about to board the plane for London. Once boarded, I whipped out the Blackberry I will be using on the trip and set out to activate it. However, to my horror, it needed some numbers that were on the box that it shipped in. However, after a panicked call to Mom and some nail biting, the phone figured it all out and I was ready to go just in time for them to announce that we were going to begin to taxi and that we should turn off all electronic devices. As I settled in for the long flight ahead, I picked up again the book to read for Whitman. After about 40 pages they began to pass out dinners, which was pasta, salad, a roll, and cheese and crackers. Other than it being airplane food, it passed for meal and filled me up for the time being and I settled in with the movie “Thor” to watch as I ate and fell asleep, focusing greatly on the fact that I did not actually fit between my seat and the seat in front of me.
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