bearshorty | Entries tagged with airplane

I actually woke up by myself at 6am, which usually happens if I know I need to wake up early to go somewhere. We had to leave at 7 for the airport even as our plane did not leave until 11:40 because Papa was awesome in driving us to the airport before going to work. It was out of his way too. I made bagel with cream cheese to take with us to eat at the airport and the whole flying and the logistics of the day went really smoothly.

We were at the airport by 8:05 despite some traffic, checked in one of the kiosks and dropped of our bags. We had our bagels then and went through security. By 9 we were in the airport proper where I got nice big tea at DunkinDonuts. JFK airport is one of my favorites because it has nice shops and atmosphere. And the next two hours passed really quickly. We walked around a bit to stretch our legs, I got USAToday to read and we bought some sandwiches to eat on the planes. (I got this really good turkey sandwich on wheat bread).

And I was not really nervous today until the time we actually had to board. Maybe it was because Bear was here too and because it was only a two and a half hour flight. I never flew JetBlue before but it was a nice flight, not surprising based on their reputation. There was TV in front of every seat and I could watch the “Daily Show” and “Colbert Report” in the second part of the flight. So despite some turbulence and my ears hurting as usual on descent, it was a good flight.

I passed the first half of the ride by appropriating Bear’s netbook and writing a short fanfiction story about Remus and Sirius where Sirius is nervous about flying on a plane with no magic around. I was basically using my nervousness while flying and being creative with it, which was an excellent way to pass the time.

Once we got to Orlando, the logistics went smoothly too. We got our bags really quickly and our ride met us by the baggage claim as promised. I really liked the little train that takes you from the arrivals to the main terminal. And I liked the car with soft leather seats that took us to the hotel. The check-in went pretty quickly too.

It is over 90F but since it is a very dry heat today with no humidity, it really does not feel that hot. After unpacking, Bear and I took a little walk close to the hotel to buy water and breakfast for later in the week (our hotel has a fridge and microwave). Then we went to the pool. We sat in the shade where I got Bear hooked on “Hunger Games” while I went swimming. The water was so warm it was lovely. Then I just read National Geographic although article about child brides was not congruent with a lovely hot summer day. Great article though.

For dinner we went to the hotel buffet restaurant, which was actually pretty good – lots of options, pretty cheap and desert.

Tomorrow, Harry Potter! I can’t wait.

And now a treat: Weird Al's parody video of Lady Gaga's "Born this Way"
Here is "Perform this Way"

I listened to some music on the plane, read “Time,” watched a couple of Russian cartoons. They gave us breakfast in the middle of what is a NY night – but I’m adjusting my thinking to adopt to seven hour time change and eating helps, I hope, with jetlag. Or maybe it is the opposite. The landing was a bit rough (my ears hurt), but finally we landed 1:40 local time in Moscow – one hour late. That left two hours to make our connection. The connection was in a different section of the airport about 15 minute-ride away and we had to pick up our luggage first too. So two hours was not a lot of time. And if we missed this connection we would have to wait for many, many hours. This was an adventure. We thought for sure we wouldn’t make it.

But as we got to passport control, a woman called everyone for connection to Minsk to come forward in the line. We got hope that they would wait for us since it appeared there we many people in our situation.

But then waiting for baggage took forever. There was some sort of technical difficulty and again we weren’t sure if we’d make it. The woman was waiting, anxiously, for 10 people, she said. Finally, the bags came and we made our way to a transit bus waiting for us to take us to Terminal B. By that point there were seven of us traveling together. My parents, myself, my Mom’s friend and three others,

We rushed through security five minutes before the plane was supposed to leave (and we got bit of a pat down and questions about what was in the bags to our frustration) and found that the flight was indeed held for us. The drove us on a little shuttle bus into the field and we boarded the plane. We even waited in the plane a bit before taking off around 4pm local time.

When you fly, it feels like forever. I’m so much in the present moment. It is a weird sensation. At least it was a normal one hour flight (and with one hour time difference we arrived in Minsk at the same time we left Moscow).

The grass in Moscow airports was such a Russian grass – my heart was filled with gladness about it. I’m very much American now but a piece of my soul, if I can resort to such a cliché, is still Russian.

Short customs and fast luggage collection and then we were hugging Aunt Vera and Uncle Tolya who picked us up in a van. Driving on the highway into the city I kept looking at our flat Belarusian land with many trees.

First impressions: A lot of new construction with buildings painted in bright colors. I forgot how spacious the streets are. I didn’t recognize a lot because of all new buildings.

Sasha was at home and it was great to see him. (He is Aunt Vera’s and Uncle Tolya’s younger child, and he is six month older than me. We grew up together. Aunt Vera is my Mom’s sister.) We had some food. Mama unpacked and gave everyone their presents.

Since there isn’t hot water at my Aunt’s apartment right now (periodically the city shuts down hot water for maybe two weeks to test the pipes, which threw us right into ‘nostalgia’ phase), Sasha drove us to the apartment he is staying in for the next two weeks – he lives with my Aunt and Uncle but my parents are in that room now, I’m in the living room on a new foldable couch (my relatives have nice new furniture and new renovations on their apartment, it looks really nice) – so that we could take a nice hot shower after the plane. It was a great shower.

When Sasha drove us back, he drove us to our old apartment building – no renovations there yet, they are just beginning, it looks really old and run down.

my apartment building