Back In the Bad-Lands

I'm at the Novotel in Hi-Tech City which is part of Hyderabad, the capital of Andhra Pradesh. After two 8 hour flights and a 3 hour layover, I am not as elated about this trip as I was yesterday. Flying Business definitely made things easier, but no matter how horizontal I get, I still find it uncomfortable to sleep. Also, when you sleep you don't get to fully enjoy the comforts of Business Class - a paradox if ever I've experienced one.

On the flight to Frankfurt I sat next to Dave. Dave is a pilot for North American Airlines which does most of its business as the US Military's shuttle service, carrying our men from their bases in the US to Germany, and onwards to Kuwait where they get their orientation training before being deployed to neighboring Iraq. Dave is a classic conservative Bushy, but I found myself enjoying some of our conversation despite of (or thanks to) my not being honest about my libertarian and liberal beliefs. Dave showed me pictures of him and his wife trophy-hunting in New Zealand's South Island, and in southern Victoria, Australia. We chatted about the experience, the terrible rules and laws regulating the sport in different regions (for instance, Victoria's laws prevented his bringing back two Kangaroo trophies), the costs involved. I also shared information about the Middle East and my heritage with him - for instance, confirming that Jewish men are not allowed to have seven wives as he had thought... He may have confused Israel with Judaism. He was confused about a lot of things. The only thing I didn't like about Dave, really, was that he insisted on reading the newspaper while everyone else (including me) was trying to sleep, making that distinct paper ruffling sound that uniquely accompanies reading a broadsheet newspaper.

At Frankfurt, I headed straight to Lufthansa's Business Class Lounge, which was bigger and more crowded than JFK's. I found a workstation and banged on my laptop for ~3 hours, made a call to my grandparents in Israel to see how their holiday preparations were going, and made use of the facilities (self-sanitizing toilets). Here again was a well-stocked bar, except this time with cereals and fruits for breakfast. By my internal watch it was ~2am and I was not ready for breakfast yet, so I drank more water - German, mineral water with that European mineral taste bordering on club soda.

The second leg of the trip went a bit smoother - less delays, and no Dave (or anyone else for that matter) sitting next to me. I slept more on this flight, which is why I'm wide awake in my room at 2:20am (local time), writing this and chatting with Connie online. We remarked to each other that it felt like any other day (we chat online during work on a normal day). Ironic how at the JFK lounge I felt far, far away, and here in my room in Hyderabad I feel closer because of the online chatting...