IgloONotes

May 14th, 2008
13:27
Location: Windsor Airport, Air Canada Jazz terminal.

Wow! I'm going to be heading to my fifth country in two days! That's if you include airports of course. But still, its been a pretty exciting time for me. One, leaving Windsor, family and friends for a whole year. Two, packing for one whole year and living on my own in a foreign country. I had experienced living on my own for a few months before, but this is quite different.

I am sitting in the terminal of a little Windsor airport. First time here and wow, it is so much esier to check in from a little airport rather than the usual international check in. And guess what? I see the Mayor of Windsor, Eddie Francis! I'm gonna try to get a picture with him. I'll be right back!

14:16
Location: Just past London, ON.

Tiny planes make for interesting rides. For one, you can see the tires and the whole landing gear going up and down so youll know if there's a problem. The ride, as I speak is quite a bit bumpier than what I'm used to on a 747. Although overall, its pretty cool! I've got leather seats.

I didn't quite manage to get a picture with Mr. Eddie Francis because he was very busy on his phone, surrounded by men in black suits. In a word, I chickened out. No matter though, I got a picture of him sleeping in the plane.

As I sat down, I greeted my fellow passenger sitting beside me. She's a nurse and she travels to and from Toronto every other week, so she's quite familiar of this plane I also met an older guy in the terminal who, of all places, is also transferring from Toronto to go to Germany.

And another interesting thing that I noticed about this plane... on the wall of the cabin, there's a very large piece of duct tape seeming like its holding the cabin interior together. I'd rather not think much of it because hey, it's duct tape!

In about 30 minutes I'll be touching down in Toronto Pearson airport, getting ready to fly on Air Canada's Boeing 777-300ER. Its got a TV in every seat and its an 8 hour flight! I wonder how many movies I can fit in before I all asleep. Well, the breeze is starting the toss this little propeller plane around like a ping pong ball. I totally wish I could show you the motion sensor readings from my Macbook! It's going haywire! Gotta land!

15:31
Location: Toronto Pearson airport
Tiny propeller planes...yea. They're not very comfortable. It was THE most bumpy flight of my life and I walked off feeling rather dizzy. I'm so glad I asked for apple juice instead of sprite, or else...

My flight leaves at 17:30 from Pearson Terminal 1. It's quite a nice terminal if you ask me. Free wireless internet and easily accessible power plugs. Its also a pleasant view of the Toronto skyline.

One thing I noticed while walking in is the large amount of chinese-canadians working here. Most interesting...

16:35
We're just about to board the airplane and you know what's really amateur? Air Canada announced to all of us, "This is a Boeing 777 aircraft and it is completely full. Please pay attention to your seat numbers so we can board you quickly" I've been on 747's that are usually full and they never have these announcements.

But I guess if it helps us board quicker and more smoothly then I can't complain. Haha...and I just got into a picture by a mom taking a picture of her daughter sitting next to me. I should have smiled at the camera but...I don't think I was the focus.

18:10
Delayed. Yup. Apparently this state of the art plane has run into technical difficulties. And you know what's worse? There's this potty mouthed woman sitting behind me.
" I'm sitting in this F***ing plane waiting for this F***ing thing to take off. This is just plain Bull S***. Just let off so I can get a smoke"
I'm thinking to myself, Lady...just sit there, catch some sleep and try to be a nice passenger. Worst of all, she's got her seemingly-teenage daughter sitting right beside her. Like Mother like Daughter as they say. I just took a quick glance at them and uh, they fit the words coming out of the mom's mouth.

To be honest, I've had a few delayed flights but its not usually the airline that I place fault at. Its annoying but the irate passengers can surely make it a whole lot worse. Sure, they have a reason to be upset but sometimes things just happen. Be happy they find the problem on the ground!

LADY...STOP ASKING FOR A SMOKE BREAK!!! I pity the guy sitting next to her, he's the coach of the swim team.

00:24
Location: Over Europe or the Atlantic ocean.
You know, I totally thought that a flight lasting 7 hours with personal video screens would be a lot more entertaining. But I have to tell you, Northwest Airlines International flights to asia have a MUCH better selection. The only movie that I watched on here was 'The Golden Compass' which, as far as I can remember was pretty good. I fell asleep somewhere near the end then woke up in time to watch the credits roll.

For some reason I was really tired on this flight. I wouldn't at all be surprised if it had everything to do with the little propeller plane I rode earlier. Maybe its the fact that I am so tired that I'm not quite enjoying this flight as much as I can.

Inside, there's mood lighting that reflects the time of day. As of now, which is 5:31 AM Germany time, the lights are a light blue. When I stepped on the plane around 5:00 PM, the lights were a scarlet red. Its a very nice touch.

The seats are also quite comfortable and the TV screen is really nice. It's a high resolution touch screen. Cool for the first few seconds, but it quickly turns into just anther everyday appliance.

The selection of videos and movies is not only dismal, but if I want to watch some news or sports on their respective channels, I have to watch a set of commercials!! Commercials!! Hello, I'm not on this flight to watch commercials.

There is another movie which I actually do want to watch but for some reason...I'm just not in the mood. 'I am Legend' starring Will Smith. After a plague turns all of mankind into nocturnal zombies, a lone survivor struggles to find a cure. Oooo...Zombies

The dinner was decent. I asked for Chicken and got a boneless Chicken breast with a side of Red Beets, beans, and mashed potatoes. I say decent because it filled me halfway and didn't sour my tastes buds too bad.

You know what's weird about this flight? I'm actually not sure how much I slept because I think I was just half-sleeping. You know that sleep when you're aware of things around you...yet you have no idea what's going on? I'm really regretting not bringing along the eye-covers my Dad got for me.

05:41 Germany Local time
Location: still above Europe somewhere
For some reason my row of seats always gets served after the row in front and behind. I call it staggered serving.

I've just been served breakfast. In a very nice container. It contains fresh apples. And a Muffin. And some 'Immunity +' yogurt. That's a new one for me, I guess they want to make sure all of us on the plane don't catch a cold.

Oh look, the lights are now a light purple!

06:22
I'm going to be landing soon enough so now I'm gonna forget blogging an fall asleep again. Wow...talk about sleepy! See you in Germany ^_^

09:47
Location: Frankfurt Airport, Germany.
The German language is not as rough as I expected. From everything I heard in Canada, I've always know that Germans seem to yell at each other when they talk . That's just not the case! When they talk rather slow, its not that bad on the ears.

They're pretty friendly too. Though, the security check was interesting. I was passed through the magnetic scanner, setting it off. I was waved into a booth and the burly security guard waved his magical magnetic scanning wand around all parts of me. He Checked my belt 'Beep!' Checked my Watch "Beep!" Checked my shoes "Beep!' Checked my legs "beep beep" Um...I promise you I do not have metal imbedded in my legs.

Germans like their sandwiches. Yup, its fact. There's booths filled with nothing but expensive sandwiches. I'm just hoping the pattern of overpriced airport food applies here.

Germans like their cars. That's also fact. There's rows and rows of German car magazines, tuner magazines, all written in nothing but German.*sigh* At least they've got a few english mags.

Overall Germany seems promising. There's lots of things to like and a couple to loath, everything is in German. Oh well, that just makes me want to learn the language even more! I sure hope that I don't have to work tomorrow because at the moment, I have no idea what is going to wake me up. No alarm clock!]]>

Tags: canada, eddie francis, flying, food, Germany, travelling, windsor mayor