Our flight

We got to the airport and tried to arrange seats beside eachother but
there appeared to be only 6 free places. We chose the 2 closest seats
hoping that we could convince people to switch with us. Clare ended up
between two Texan missionaries headed to Ethiopia, and I ended up in
the middle between two teenagers, one who was very sad. The other girl
changed seats to be with a friend, so we arranged a switch so Clare
could sit with me.

The girl beside me, Zara, got off her phone, calmed down a bit, and
started talking to us a bit. Within 10 minutes she was offering us
candy, and gave some to the Americans too, who boldly asked for
seconds. We took off with Zara firmly grabbing my arm. She explained
that she always flew with her mom, and was leaving her family in
England for 9 months to stay with her grandparents in Ethiopia.

When the plane took off the Americans said "aaaah". I think that they
are not used to flying. It was a definite contrast from the usual
silent takeoff.

Zara fell asleep really quickly, and Clare and I were chatting, and
listening to the Americans. One of them was very excited about having
a new toothbrush for his trip. He was chatting with all the
stewardesses. He called them all by name, and asked Deepa where she
was from, and was astonisfed that she was from London.

There was a bit of turbulance during the meal service and the American
kept pushing the call button. Finally a stewardess came and was irate.
She was not charmed by his small talk or requests for seconds of
cheesecake.

The rest of the flight was pretty good. Zara slept so soundly that we
had to fasten her seatbelt in preparation for landing. She woke up
once speaking some foreign language to me and slept again. She
grabbed my arm in her sleep, and woke up in time to say goodbye. We
wished her well, and as we left we saw the American sneak into first
class. Wonder how long Deepa let him stay there.

Sent from my iPod