Soooo.... I'm back in California. After the last post I spent 4 hours around the airport in Istanbul before getting on my flight for JFK. Arrived there relieved and excited to be surrounded by fellow Americans with their endearing habits like speaking English with slang I could understand. The flight was odd and wonderful as a result of the full day delay. As a result of seeing folks in the lines the day before, while waiting for the flight, while in our seats, on route to the hotel, at the hotel, in the elevators, over dinner and then again at breakfast and in the airport and then once again on the plane - faces were familiar. And passengers were talking, enjoying each others' company and so forth. While waiting for restrooms people would allow others who needed it more urgently to jump the que, when going to get snacks from the back of the plane folks would offer to pick up an extra for the passenger next to them and when I went to the back to stretch my legs I ended up joining a woman for a glass of wine to celebrate her recent wedding. It was like the entire plane's mood had changed from one of annoyance to acceptance of the situation and then into a celebration of the temporary community we'd created. Definitely an enjoyable experience.
Waiting in JFK was a bit odd as the family feeling spread out but was still present in clumps around various gates. But unlike on our flight where Delta staff had been apologetic and friendly to make up for it - we now had the business as usual poor service that is usual for airlines in America. Though Delta as a company was rather nice as they gave me an upgrade to make up for the delay so the NY to SF flight was amazing in that they asked me if I wanted a drink - and the chair was so comfortable after so many hours in transit that by the time they brought the drink I had passed out. Definitely a relief.
Anyways. I arrived back to California. A quick rest but not enough time to get over my jet lag before I left for my next destinations: Houston and Galveston. I had an amazing time in both locations, and I came back last night from Galveston where I spent the majority of the time. But as I found via a series of emails while on my way back - that will be the last of my travels in the near future due to some visa trouble with the Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan. The rest of the crew all have EU or CIS country passports and can reapply for transit visas whereas as an American I sadly cannot. So for the next unknown amount of time I shall be out here in California. Slash where ever I wander off to. (Not going to lie, already started looking to see if a DC trip would be possible for the Rally to Restore Sanity)
Regardless the last few days have been incredibly restorative thanks to the good company I was surrounded by. Though the jet lag has been bizarre to say the least. Within a little over a week I flew west (Almaty to Oral), east (back to Almaty), west (To Turkey), far west (To NY), farther west (To SF), rest then east again (Texas) and yesterday west again (Back to Cali). Also the climate changes from Bishkek to Oral, Turkey to California, the humidity of Texas and back to the dry heat and cold nights of the bay... well it's a bit odd. My body and mind have ceased to go into culture shock, climate shock and jet lag seems to be habitual enough that I'm almost normalizing on this crazy routine. Which might make a normal schedule odd. Whenever I find one of those.
I'll probably post more at a more normal hour later this week once I have a better idea of what I'm doing. Discovering that I'm not flying out tomorrow morning means I'm not leaving for the airport in an hour, I haven't repacked, and I might be in one place long enough to normalize a sleep schedule (obviously not tonight though... far too late for that. I blame my computer's overheating during the day and not at night for this problem as it's easier to work on photos now... ) But yes. My life is about to resume a much more boring track for the short term. Consider it a commercial break between now and the more interesting times I hope to be ahead.
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