:: Arizona, flying ::

Written 10.1.2007, Dallas Airport, 19:30 local time.

I woke up at 4:30. Arghhhhhh so early! I still don't believe it was THIS MORNING! It was hard and lonely, and yesterday nights blues came back.. even though I knew all the time, that once I'd get to Arizona to the Bahá'ís, I'd forget the prior loneliness and enthusiastically and happily start my service work at NABI! I was sitting at the windy bus-stop waiting for bus 615 to the airport when mom called, and her call made me feel a little bit less frightened.

The series of flights I took today started with the flight from Helsinki to Zürich, during which I mostly slept, but I got to see the most beautiful sunrise above clouds! I've never seen a sunrise like that! It helped me cheer up.

The plane was late so in Zürich I was helped out by the airport personell so that I would make it to the 11-hour flight to Dallas, Texas. I noticed immediately that American officers are stereotypically much better in customer service than those that I'm used to. They were all very polite even though I came late to the flight. I also called dad from Zürich and after that I was only excited, not anxious anymore.

I got to see Greenland! It was amazing! There were no clouds so the view was perfect... we got to see the fjords on the eastern side, then the vast, really VAST glacier and finally the western fjords. It seemed amazing that there are people living there, because there seemed to be no trees or any kind of vegetation at all. Such a shame my camera was in the checked-in luggage so I couldn't take any pictures.

I slept most of the time in the plane and nothing exciting happened. I saw a variety of American people and they seem to match my expectations pretty well :). In general they seem a bit more sociable than Nordic people, and they smile more openly at you.

Now I'm at Dallas Fort Worth airport, the size of Manhattan, it advertises itself... The queue to enter the country was 1 hour long, and during that time I sent various SMS's to Finland and called my dad and Nadja, who didn't remember I'm not in Finland anymore so I had to tell her :P. The lady at the passport control was friendly and no problems occured.. this was one of the things I was most afraid of in advance... you know, if they'd suspect I'm a terrorist or something.

I got a good overview of the airport as I took the Skyline train from Terminal D to Terminal C, and it seems huge from the outside, but in the inside there are no big lobbies, so it doesn't seem that big. My flight leaves at 21:35, so I still have time.. now that my laptop and cellphone are charged, I'll go and eat something :).

I want to send thanks to various people for being such a good support during the few moments of loneliness and insecurity... Your messages meant a lot to me :).

I'm very excited about starting my service at NABI.

Checking out at 19:45 Dallas time.