in the liminal space

in a little over 24 hours, this will be the view! despite all of the traveling i've done over the years, i still get the good kind of butterflies when on the verge of a trip - i love the energy of an airport, filled with people who are going somewhere. people are generally in a good mood, either happy to be heading off on a trip or happy to be home again. there's an excitement in the air. sabin and i are headed for the US tomorrow afternoon. first, we have the sad occasion of my mother's funeral and then we have a long road trip to phoenix with a couple of stops to see friends along the way. although the funeral is somber event, i am looking forward to the closure i'm sure it will bring. we are planning music that mom would love and going to give her a good send-off. our bags are packed and we're ready to go. husband is taking us to the airport tomorrow, but before that, he's going to a job interview for an exciting position he really wants. i just did a video interview for a position that i'd really like to have. so, here on the verge of all this travel, it feels like so many great possibilities are opening up. it really feels like the beginning of a new chapter, even as we close the chapter on my mother's life. it's that liminal space - where everything feels fairly quivering with possibility - and the feeling is heightened by impending travel. it's been too long since i felt this way. it's nice.

overheard at the airport

waiting at the baggage carrousel. mid-twenties, very casually-dressed american girl speaking loudly to her asian-looking, yet equally american colleague, as if everyone around them couldn't understand english, just because it was norway.

loudly talking about how they would conduct an investigation the next day, playing a tape and trying to get the witnesses to identify an unnamed perpetrator.

"we've got to get the ID, but if they can't make the ID, it's not the right guy," she declared loudly in her flat, nasal r's. "the pic on the news is way more influencing than our 6-pack."

i pondered briefly what a 6-pack might be. and mused on why she seemed to be speaking of such a potentially confidential thing in such a loud voice. did she really think no one standing there understood english? or was it just more innocent than it seemed.

then, her bag came. a really giant duffel which she could barely lift off the carrousel. her colleague asked what i was thinking, "you got a body in there?"

"government buys me one size bag, i'm gonna use it." she responds, struggling to lift it onto a cart.

and then they left. i'm still wondering what a 6-pack is in this context. and if this has anything to do with those planes transporting terror suspects that have been spotted all over poland, macedonia and other places. i thought that business was over under the new and improved administration. hmmm...you never know what you're going to hear while waiting for your bags.

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originally published april 27, 2009 on the julie project

lounging around

i'm lounging in the KLM lounge in amsterdam, experiencing the jarring transition of air travel. i left my hotel in manila 18 hours ago and i'm not home yet. the flight time was extended due to the chinese air space of the regular route being closed due to the earthquake. air traffic control in that area is out of comission at the moment. so, the flight was 13+ hours. that's plenty.

i was, once again, seated next to a seafarer. interesting that chevron flies their chief engineers in business class. we didn't talk during the flight until the very end. that was a shame. i guess i didn't really learn from my good experience with the italian captain and already reverted to my danish mode of behavior. when will i ever learn?

i'm sitting here in the lounge in amsterdam in a grouping of four wanna-be egg chairs. the other three people are german, french and dutch respectively. this is something i love--being in a truly international milieu. the french woman is on the phone, speaking rapid french. the german and dutch guys are reading newspapers in their respective languages. i'm sitting here reading my lastest haruki murakami acquisition (the wind-up bird chronicle) in english translation, of course. or at least i was until i realized there was wi-fi and so i turned to my norwegian computer. :-) and my norwegian phone just rang at the same moment a text came in on my danish phone. i am a confusion of nationalities. but somehow, it suits me.

serenity now

i'm only on the first leg of my long journey to singapore. and so far, it's been a chain of frustrations:

1. typical righteous danish woman woman from the much longer Economy class/Non-Gold /Platinum line in CPH tries to butt into the Business/Gold/Platinum line because her line was taking too long. consider going postal for brief moment. luckily, the guy behind the counter turns her away.
2. pick security line inhabited by elderly people who are clearly traveling for the first time and have all of their gallon bottles of shampoo with and are bewildered as to why they're being taken away. again with the thoughts of going postal.
3. CPH airport, to my great sorrow, no longer has Hendrick's (best gin ever, loved by a small handful of people, all over the world).
4. queue at starbucks in kastrup airport far too long to obtain much needed grande chai latte before flight to amsterdam.
5. nose and sinuses totally and completely stuffed up during entire flight, severely restricting ability to breathe! brain clearly in need of all the oxygen it can get.
6. singularly unhelpful woman at the counter in KLM lounge near F gates causes me to want to scream, but instead i lower voice an octave and go into patronizing mode [strangely this does not help]- understand for a brief moment why people totally go postal.
7. old woman offloaded from wheelchair and deposited in seat next to me is wearing what can only be an entire bottle of truly offensive perfume. stuffed up nose chooses THIS moment to clear.

on the bright side, things can only get better from here, right?

i love airports

i know it sounds strange, but i love airports. i love the energy they have. here in the nordic countries, it has to do with their architecture--high to the ceilings, light, airy, use of beautiful natural woods together with steel and glass constructions. the architecture of the airport lends to the atmosphere. when it's high to the ceiling and light and bright, it feels like anything is possible. an energetic, happy expectation fills the air.

people are either headed out on a holiday or a business trip that's full of possibility. or they're arriving home after a trip, happy to be home. so, generally, people in airports exude a positive, expectant energy. it has also to do with liminality (that favorite topic of mine which i haven't visited in awhile). an airport is a purely liminal space--on the border between what was and what is yet to come. everyone is full of the potential for change--to be changed by the sights seen on a holiday, to be changed by the next business deal, to be changed by the new people they encounter and the experiences they will have. they are on the threshold, in transition. maybe that's what i love about an airport. its liminality.

it's lucky i love them, because i seem to spend quite a lot of time there.

random thoughts in an airport

sitting in the airport, waiting to fly home and these are the things crossing my mind:

1. my flight is in 30 minutes and there's still no gate
2. why is SAS not obsessively texting me about this?
3. hearing danish spoken near me and feeling the comforting feeling of home(!) (?)
4. laughing to myself as i remember husband's struggle to think of the name of this airport (gardermoen)...something like "kæmpe lufthavn lavet ude af træ" or something to that effect
5. how strikingly different company cultures can be
6. what a pleasure it is to work with people who want to share what they're working on and talk about it and discuss it, because they assume that those around them have something to offer that's of value to their work
7. how many flights to stockholm does one need per hour?
8. what a pleasure it is to work for someone who is truly a visionary person as well as a good leader
9. how happy it makes me to see my travel calendar filling up
10. how much i adore bookbinder's design's beautiful binders and journals
11. it's time for a new blog header
12. i'm looking forward to being home

well, it seems there's suddenly a gate and i should proceed to it.