In-Flight Entanglement
I’m at a cruising altitude of about 40k feet, a few hours into the Atlantic Ocean. I just finished watching “Fantastic Mr. Fox” (fantastic, by the way). I switched off the movie and I realized that as normal as this plane cabin feels, all it would take is one big drop and we’d be waiting in the cold ocean for some ridiculous rescue attempt. Funny how we tend to forget about those things, and the precarious predicament we might find ourselves in, with our modern technology. But that’s not the point.
The point is this: I am on my way to study abroad. I’ve made my list and checked my luggage. I got through security, even had them swab my bags to test for bombs – in their defense, my DJing controller looks freaky as shit on an X-Ray machine. I ate some customarily terrible airport food (see top), and waited my turn to board while looking about for interesting people. I always hope that I’ll be seated next to someone interesting, and I wasn’t really expecting the sight which was waiting for me on the plane this evening:
The plane is as empty as it looks: I’m the only one in my entire row of 7 seats. There are maybe 100 people on this plane, which clearly is designed to sit more than 3x that. Makes me think about the cost of fuel (and the fact that I’m flying for free with Frequent Flyer miles – makes this a damn cheap flight).
Anyway, the plane took off and they served us our terrible dinner and charged us seven dollars for the worst Bloody Mary I’ve ever had. They turned on the movie, which happened to be some terrible family entertainment flick that looked like Spy Kids 14: Adventures In Suburbia. I can’t verify that last point sure. And now there are NBC re-runs on. Hence my laptop.
But enough about my fairly routine flying experience. I am on my way to a number of new things. I’ll be setting foot on my 3rd continent and my 5th country. Settled by the British and the Dutch (more on that once I get a little more up on my South African history), it was ruled by an infamous apartheid government until about 20 years ago. And now that it has a unified government, it’s dealing with the problems of catching up. Parts of South Africa are still racist, xenophobic, and dangerous. Petty crime is said to be a common occurrence, and though I’m told common sense will avail me of this threat, you only need to open a newspaper to see some coverage of what goes on.
The 2010 World Cup is in South Africa, and much of the affair centered around Cape Town. I’m thankful for this – the police have cracked down on crime to prepare the city, and all sorts of infrastructures are being improved to make sure the city can accommodate all of the tourists. But I wonder, am I seeing the real Cape Town? Will I just be getting some watered down version of what it once was? And what happens to the country when the businesses leave in the middle of July, when the stadiums clear and the confetti is all swept up?
That’s enough of my thoughts for now, though, it’s time to order another Bloody Mary and watch some re-runs.