Day 7: Naps on a Plane

7:45 p.m. EST
If only we had more time. That seemed to be the common belief among all of us as we tiredly loaded the bus with our luggage and exhausted bodies and headed out to the airport, 45 minutes away. Pulling away from the terminal at the airport filled me with excitement to see those I love back at home and also with sorrow knowing that I may not see my new friends again. The mixed emotions ran high today, and stayed with me long after our jet engines woke the steel wings North to Istanbul again. The whirring sound of the engines steadily rocked me to sleep the entire flight to Turkey. Once we landed in Istanbul around 5:45 a.m. our time and 10:45 p.m. back home, we had to say goodbye to our trip leader who was headed home to his family in a different direction. I had the honor of meeting him last year on a similar trip, and now after two weeks of him in my life, both last year and this trip now, I consider him one of my best friends and one of the best men I’m lucky enough to know. I hope to see him again. Two flights to go now, and I can almost smell the American air. We depart towards Paris at 9:05 a.m. Saturday, and 2:05 a.m. at home. This flight was also spent being rocked to sleep, and chasing jet lag in my hazy dreams. The 10-hour flight to Atlanta from Paris at 1:50 p.m. local time and 7:50 a.m. EST was a neverending one. We were fortunate enough to have our own miniature screens for movie-viewing pleasure again at our seats like we did coming over here, and we all spent our time between the land of dreams and the land of the movie Dreamgirls playing in front of us. The only thing I can recall between my thoughts of coming home and the images on the screen in front of me, was just how uncomfortable it made me feel to watch the wings out my window bend so easily in the wind over the Atlantic. So I shut my window blind faster than a Mockingbird could flitter its wings, and continued to lean on the pillow next to me, trying to speed up time to when I was safely on the ground and in the arms of those I love back home. Unfortunately, I seemed to not have packed the remote control that speeds or slows time, so I was stuck in my Air France seat that had little leg room for my tall, skinny figure, and that made me wonder if a strongly worded letter was needed to the FAA.