Le Arrival

Robert and I arrived safely in Paris this afternoon, delighted to see our uncle Johnny smiling back at us as we stepped off the airport bus downtown! The flights went smoothly, including the fun surprise of sharing our Houston--London flight with a fellow classmate Nick, who is heading to Nairobi this month to work in a hospital there. Conversation with a friend heading out on a similar journey felt incredibly appropriate and exciting. It seemed like everyone on the plane was heading to Africa for medical or mission work - one group from Austin were even coordinated in snazzy green scrubs - and the atmosphere on the plane was fairly festive as we left from Houston. Around midnight, we were crossing over the St. Lawrence River area of Canada heading out towards the black of the Atlantic when I noticed a small cluster of lights on the horizon south of us ... after a few moments of geographic guessing, I finally realized I was seeing part of New Foundland, looking really remote surrounded by dark water. Throughout the night I kept checking our position on the flight map to see what landmasses were passing underneath, until we fell asleep for a short uncomfortable nap over the Atlantic.

We woke up to the sun rising far too early, just off the coast of Ireland and Scotland. The UK was rather stereotypically covered with clouds as we passed over, but the occasional breach in the clouds revealed green patchwork fields separated by darker green hedges. As we descended, London seemed to stretch out forever, with the curve of the Thames winding through the city. We started taking pictures of the often useless variety out the tiny window of the plane, most details obliterated with window smears and atmospheric smudge. One blind attempt of a large Ferris wheel on the river resulted in a fairly nice photo though. It was neat to see a city for the first time - somehow so familiar from films and books - from the air, where a city looks like a neat Busy Town package of bustle and contented business-as-usual. London's streets seemed inconsistently orderly, with streets fanning out like rays from large roundabouts, and scattered green blobs of parks in between neighborhoods. For a brief moment, I spotted a picturesque bridge over the Thames with a classic red doubledecker bus at its midpoint and couldn't move the camera quickly enough. I probably wouldn't have been able to pick out the key blot of red on the final picture anyhow!

When we arrived at Johnny and Claudia's apartment, we were thrilled to see family and fall immediately into busy conversation. Tonight Robert and I are sipping Johnny's exquisite cappucino trying to stay up to bedtime to outwit the jetlag as best as we can, and waiting for a poor non-English speaking airlines guy to drop off our temporarily lost luggage. Our phone communication with him consisted of a "Fronch" attempt to pronounce le baggage, with intermittant Spanish to see if that might work instead ... we'll keep our fingers crossed. If nothing else, we have our passports and some nifty travel toothbrushes from British Airways!