Well, lo and behold, now that I’m here in the airport with baggage safely checked in, my chest is feeling much better, thank you very much. I gotta say, as a response to stress, this chest thing sucks. There’s a wireless network here that I could probably log onto with Mike’s T-Mobile logon, but then what? I’d want to call someone with Skype, and they’re all asleep still in the US, probably. Maybe in half an hour or so, when it’s 8:30 am there. I’ll have to think of someone who will be SO happy to hear from me that they won’t mind if I wake them up.
The train arrived here right on time, which was great, giving me 2.5 hours before my flight. That’s so much time that even now, an hour and a half before I fly, there’s no gate yet for my flight. What I didn’t think about was that this first leg of the flight is really domestic, since it goes to Amsterdam—within the EU. The second leg is the only part that’s really international.
I’m glad I had a lot of time, though, because the Frankfurt airport is a little confusing. It took me a couple of minutes to figure out where to go when I got off the train—it doesn’t look the way I remember. Then I had to take a shuttle bus to get to the right terminal, and once I was there, I had to find the KLM checkin. This was confusing because there was KLM/Air France, and KLM/Northwest. My ticket was for the latter, so you’d think I’d have to go check in there (and these were not so close together). You’d be wrong. So I asked someone who told me to go to KLM/NW, and I walked all the way down there with all my stuff, then someone came and said the plane already left, which was impossible because it was 1 pm and the flight is at 3:35, but it got me all nervous anyway, and then the KLM ticket salesperson (after a good long time to stew while she was on the phone) told me no, I needed to go to KLM/Air France. Crazy. Fortunately, I have just a ton of time, which is exactly the way I like it.
Seriously, I can’t believe that my chest feels so fine right now. Maybe I need to go back into therapy or take up yoga or get some kickass drugs or something.
OK, so what’s been driving me a little nuts is feeling so out of touch with everyone. No cell phone, no internet—I’m used to being pretty hooked in with my loved ones. I feel very isolated—physically. Also, there’s almost no one around here in the airport, which is also a little weird. If I do go online now, I probably won’t have any email, because I checked it before I left and it’s been the middle of the night in the US this whole time.
Something funny just now—a guy asked if I speak English, and of course I said yes, and he asked me a question about the gates listed on the monitor. I answered, and I think we’re both going on to Amsterdam. He then goes to Scotland, and because that’s where he’s from, though he claimed to be speaking English, I could hardly understand him! It made me smile. I like the irony.
All right, so I just realized that Mike’s T-Mobile password is in my checked baggage! Dammit. I was feeling less isolated at the possibility of going online, and now I feel really isolated. Maybe I can do it with a credit card? I’ll check. Well, I can, but it’s two Euros for 15 minutes. Is it worth it? Do I want it that much? No, probably not.
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