airports

Dear Readers!

I report to you (not so) LIVE from the Lufthansa Senators’ Lounge in the Newark airport. The first leg of my journey has gone smoothly; after a last-minute change of plans, I took the ferry to Vancouver on Tuesday, soaking in an absolutely perfect 90 minutes of “Super, Natural British Columbia” (as the license plates would have it…) on the outside deck, watching all my lovely islands and mountains and ocean slide by in the golden evening sun. It was good to have a last look at my home; I’ll miss it a lot, that’s for sure. Despite all my traveling, I still love BC the best.

Flying from Vancouver to Newark was uneventful. I’m flying business class (!!!!) which means that I get access to all of these delightful lounges of the elite, where I sneak around looking out-of-place and hoard the free chocolate bars in my pockets while sipping the free drinks. Right now I’ve amassed some delicious blue cheese, a selection of olives, a mediocre pear (really, what can you expect from produce in an airport?), a glass of sparkling water with lime, and some decent sauvignon blanc. I’ll get the chocolate bars on my way out – if I ever find them. I’m not sure that this particular lounge has any. They’re all a bit different, I’m discovering. It’s a bit like Harry Potter – the doors are disguised, occasionally camouflaged with potted plants, so it’s as though I have to find the secret brick to open Diagon Alley – then, instead of waving my magic wand, I wave my business-class boarding pass – and I’m in, granted entry to a fantastic wizardly world where the drinks are plentiful and free, and the cheese is big wheels of camembert or stilton instead of pre-packaged cheddar. Aaah.

Speaking of Harry Potter… I hope it’s released on the same date in India. Or I might just have to die. I don’t even know if there’s a bookstore in Kodaikanal! There must be.

Unfortunately this lounge does not have free wireless, and I’m too cheap to pay the € 6.50 minimum fee to get it. Hopefully Frankfurt will have free wireless.

I’m starting to realize the craziness of heading off to a place where I don’t speak ONE WORD of the language. If it had been Hindi, perhaps I could have learned a bit of it before heading off. But Tamil? There’s a big blank in the “T” section of the languages shelf. Even my Indian friends in Victoria had to think hard to come up with someone they knew that spoke Tamil, and I ran out of time before I could contact anyone to arrange a lesson. So it’s off to Tamil Nadu I go, hoping that it’s true that a lot of people speak English, and REALLY hoping that the taxi meets me at the appointed time and place in Madurai.

As a side note, I feel like I’ve just started to realize exactly how many Indian immigrants there are working in North America. The guy who searched my bag in the Vancouver airport opened my little money bag, and upon seeing the rupees, became about 50 times friendlier. “Where are you going?” “Oh, it’s beautiful!” “Will you have time to go to Rajastan?” “Be careful of the trains…” It’s a lot of fun! Everyone who finds out I’m going to India is very enthusiastic and wants to make sure I visit their home… Unfortunately, most of them are from Northern India, and many have never heard of Kodaikanal. It’s a big country.

>>>> In fact, Frankfurt doesn’t have free wireless either, the cheap jerks. Oh well. At least my flight involved some very tasty lobster. That almost makes up for the lack of wireless… And the lack of North American plugs, which means that my laptop time is limited! The next time you hear from me, I’ll be in India…