I got to see the Forsythes (minus Kim and Gloria) again, after seven months, and they were still the same. Travis returned from grocery shopping after I arrived at their house, then entertained me with stories of gorillas and exploding breasts (yes, you read that right) during the ride to the airport. Nate greeted me with, "What are you doing here?" and tried, unsuccessfully, to get away with a side hug. In contrast, Mel hug-attacked me, then subtly chided her father for not offering me a seat. Ethan lovingly described root beer refills and pretended to be asleep until I poked him in the forehead to assure him I knew he existed.
I'm going to have an excellent time with them at the end of the month.
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It's weird to feel like a minority in a Chicago airport terminal, but probably only 5% of people on my Asiana flight are Caucasion. This only furthers my belief that airports are portals to other worlds, separate from the countries in which they are built. Time stops, culture stops.
As I sit here in the Emergency Exit row (leg room! You have spoiled me forever!), surrounded by, near as I can tell, all Koreans, I wonder if I am already learning what it would be like to live in Asia. Though our skin colors are not as obviously different as in Senegal, I still feel like a toubab. I tower over men just as often as women. And there is nothing to make you feel like a beast as much as being around hundreds of petite Asian women. But I learned to deal with standing out before. I will do it again.
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I'm not nervous about this trip. Obviously I've gotten used to traveling, and this is my second solo journey, but surey I am not so old hat? I hope it's not because I'm underprepared. I desperately want my flexibility to be an asset, not a liability.
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Nine more hours. My word. Thank goodness for heavenly slippers and plastic packages of mouth wash in the bathrooms.
Ooo, turbulence. If Lost taught me anything, it is to scope out your fellow passengers for potential allies and/or crazy freaks. So far I have befriended my right-side seat mate, but this is far more beneficial for me than for her. She's already had to explain where the hidden Emergency Exit row trays and TVs are kept.
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I've been reading Relevent magazine, and every article seems to be written for me.
Yes, I have abandoned the importance of evangelizing in my pusuit of social justice. When will my extremist nature learn to accept both/and instead of either/or?
I want to change the world, to bring peace and comfort and joy to the oppressed. I want to right wrongs and save people from a lifetime of poverty or slavery. But I want to do it from a love of Jesus, to bring his Kingdom to earth, to bring all people to worship him, because he really is amazing.
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Haha, just kidding. I switched to reading Christlike (just a couple months late, sorry, Joel), and it directly contradicted me and changed my mind. Check it.
"I've decided to stop trying to change the world on my own. I've even stopped trying to change the church. I have decided to focus on changing me...I just want people to be attracted to Christ because of who I am, what I have to say, and how I say it."
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When I first saw those u-shaped traveling pillows, I thought they were for tools. Soon after, when my wanderlust became official, I realized they were the coolest things ever, marking their wearers as travelers too awesome to remove them from around their necks while speed-walking to their next airport destination.
I got one of those pillows for my birthday this year, and my opinion has changed once again. I now know that they are, in fact, for people who have no control over their neck muscles, similar in function to special needs helmets or pillows on the butt when it's icy outside. I know this because my own head lolling while asleep has been significantly reduced during this 13 hour flight to South Korea.
No matter your opinion of these traveling pillows, I will wear mine with pride as the Special Ed, hipster cool, douchebag tourist that I am.
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