En Avion

It is 12:25am Michigan time, 11:25pm Chicago time, and 6:25am in France.

Today's theme: answers.
My day began with numerable unknowns- I have two baggages, they might be overweight, do I have to check them both? How do I check in? Do I need a printed confirmation-thing that I failed to find in my searches to prepare myself? What the hell am I going to do in Chicago for 8 hours?

The answer to that last question, by the way, is a whole lot of walking and sitting and final phone calls, falling asleep on the tile floor on top of my bag and computer while it charges, and NOT ANY ICE CREAM. There is NO ICE CREAM in the entirety of the mini-metropolis that is O'hare International Airport.

We should be landing within an hour and a half and I'll be onto more of my unknowns- including how I will get myself and two luggages to the TGV station and the long awaited meeting of my host family.

I've entertained myself trying to muster smiles out of strangers. There is a slight strategy to this. Stare too long at someone and they think you're a creeper. Some walk with determined, cemented frowns. Never the less I try- I walk with my eyes up- and when someone matches my gaze I flash a good-natured 'hi, we're both alive, now, and it's kinda cool' smile. When they smile back its a little victory against the forces of gloominess and reduces by just a little bit the cold distance between strangers felt in places like this. Its great. We're all in this together. I think a lot of people get that.

Currently I'm stretched out over the seats next to me. Its dark and people are sleeping. This plane can hold something like 130 people in coach and there's only 45 of us. Needless to say people have turned rows into couches and across from me, in the four seats that make up the space between the two aisles, a man has thrown his blankets (we all got blankets, all 130 seats- we're all using 2 or 3) over the seats to make a little tent for himself. It reminds me of long conversion-van rides when I was little, making forts in the back, coloring in coloring books underneath.

I don't think this guy brought crayons.