En-Route

I wasn't going to update this until I arrived in London but it's been an eventful day already.

First of all, I am already struggling from lack of sleep. I didn't get in bed last night until around 11:30 and then I woke up around 3:15 and couldn't go back to sleep. John gave me a lift to the airport and I was there around 5:30 to check in for my 6:30 flight. I took a couple of awkward naps on the plane to Newark but didn't really get much more than a crick in my neck.

I've been at Newark airport since around 9:30 and I'll board my connection to London around 7:30. It is an insane layover. This is by far the worst part of the trip and the only thing I've dreaded. Having said that it has been interesting.

This morning on my way through security my bag was pulled off the line for a "BAG CHECK!" Of course, everyone's looking when the security lady follows up her "BAG CHECK!" with a "Who Bag is This?!" To which, I slowly raise my hand and say "me." I was racking my brain to think what could have triggered the alert. Between the lack of sleep and her barrage of questions such as "Is there anything in your bag that's going to poke me" and "Is there anything in your bag that's going to hurt me," I was about to crack. It was about that time that she opened my bag, instructing me not to touch anything, and went straight for my toiletry kit. Ah yes, 10 seconds later I was less a can of shaving gel and a bottle of shampoo and informed of the airlines restrictions on liquids and aerosols. I guess I'll be truly European- greasy and unshaven.

Not too much later, I decided to grab some sushi for lunch- to offset the 'hungry traveler' breakfast I had this morning, which consisted of about four different kinds of meat, hashbrown-like potatoes, and toast (Delicious). I took a seat at an empty table and it wasn't long before someone asked if they could grab a seat. I mean, of course, there's three extra seats, the food court is crowded, of course I can spare a seat... And then come the questions; "Where you traveling?" "How long?" "For what?" "Where you from?"...etc. You get the picture. I just wasn't in the mood to strike up conversation. Lucky for me about 10 minutes later the guys' dad shows up with a buddy of his- who is Hispanic and firmly believes that the US should be bilingual. They are both airline employees and for the next hour I was immersed in another world- The Airport World. 2/3 of the conversation had to be about all the different female airport employees and basically their hot-or-not rating. Of particular interest was 'Big Butt' who works at the Ice Cream place in the food court and has apparently lost a substantial amount of weight and is looooking gooood. Another topic of substantial time was Baseball and how the nobody Netherlands crushed their dream team and ultimately their souls. I eventually excused myself to get coffee and said goodbye to my new friends Alexis, Eduardo, and Andy, wished them well and thanked them for keeping me entertained. And on my way out I gave 'Big Butt' a wink and a grin. I felt just like Tom Hanks in that movie the Terminal.

This is going to be an awesome trip!