Travel Musings

The past few months have left me feeling like quite the jettsetter with two trips to the states, a national flight, and multiple cross state travels. (In the past WEEK, I have been on planes, trains, buses, cars, motorcycles, and bicycles as forms of transportation!!) All of this traveling has made for lots of great visits with friends and family, a greater appreciation for the US´public transportation system, and some of the best people watching to be had!

While cameras are usually frowned upon in airport security, and really taking pictures of random US residents in general- I constantly found myself wanting to take a picture to capture odd moments throughout my travels:

1. After standing in line over 30 minutes in what turned into over an hour wait just to leave baggage claim in the Maimi airport (read: avoid this airport at ALL costs!) The woman behind me kept knocking my ankles with her luggage cart. On the 5th dig, I lost my patience and turned around with an oooh so comically stereotypical Latino ¨oooouuuy! porfa!¨ We both appologized profusely for our loss of patience and she began to pray outloud as the man infront of me ignored his wife to play his portable playstation.

2. After learning to ¨stretch the truth¨ and downplay my ¨farm time¨ on my immigration forms, my bags have not been checked coming or going in ANY country. Regardless of my ever dwindling savings, I have yet to take interest in the effervescent drug trade... but I´m just saying... (even got passed up on the invasive metal detector!)

3. I´m pretty sure I witnessed a Milwaukee man bringing his mail order bride home. As our Coachline O´hare to Milwaukee bus came over the bridge into Milwaukee, the Bulgaria native said, ¨I don´t think I like it here,¨ to which her actually very sweet travel companion took her hand and said, ¨you´ll learn to like it.¨ Oh boy...

There have also been many sweet moments:

1. Meeting a San Pedro dental student who spoke AMAZING English and helped me haggled down some nasty Teguc taxi drivers.

2. Talking about renewable energy and sustainable building practices with a Spaniard in Spanglish while flying to Phoenix.

3. Getting upgraded to the exponential legroom of emergency exit row seats for helping the American Airlines rep learn how to pronounce German last names. :)

The best thing is that I know that these adventures won´t end. While I have a limited number of travels left awaiting me here in Honduras, I know that I don´t have to be outside of the states to connect with amazing people from all over the world- I just have to say hello to the person sitting next to me! :)