Hello from Amsterdam!

After a very long nine hour flight I am writing from Amsterdam.  The plane was not full at all, and I was seated in the middle row on an aisle seat with no one next to me. The man sitting one seat away from me put his red Delta blanket over his head and slept the whole flight.  I kept wondering how he was not waking up completely disoriented, but after hearing his light snores the whole flight, I am considering it for my next eight hour trek.  I watched three movies, and faded in and out of sleep with the sun going down and the sky a deep purple and woke up with the sun rising shortly after.  My feet barely fit into my sandals, because they're so swollen, and I am fighting back drowsiness while a voice overhead reminds me in eight different languages to pay close attention to my bags. There are tulips lining stretches of walkway, with green hills in the background.

This airport is teeming with people speaking many different languages and dressed in all sorts of outfits. When I first arrived I sat and people watched for a while, and was joined by an old woman wearing a complete magenta track suit with matching lipstick.  She had fantastic large gold jewelry on, and painted nails.  I desperately wanted to know where she was going and where she had been - she only carried one small white purse, which is much less than everyone else here.

 I have walked around quite a bit here, and there's numerous fine chocolate shops and even an airport library where you can learn all about Danish culture. The airport is significantly quieter than when I first arrived, and the only people around are the KLM employees who are always dressed in the same royal blue outfits. They are extremely helpful, and must be able to speak four or five languages, and switch between them constantly.

I started reading the book The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks in the airport and this quote was at the beginning 'We must not see any person as an abstraction. Instead, we must see in every person a universe with its own secrets, with its own treasures, with its own sources of anguish, and with some measure of triumph,' by Elie Wiesel.  It sums up exactly how I feel about people, and the stories I hope to collect on this trip. On a side note - if you're looking for a great book, definitely pick this one up.  I've had a hard time putting it down, which is saying something because I'm running on about 5 hours of sleep!

I am pretty nervous for this next part of the trip.  I have two hours in the Nairobi airport to get a visa, shillings, and possibly re-check my bags to the correct airline.  Nightmares on my first flight about denied visas and missed flights fill my head, and I'm hoping these don't turn into realities! I have about two more hours before I can board, and am about to take a couple more laps because the chairs are too comfortable and causing my neck to snap down to sleep. Think lots of positive travel thoughts for me!