24 july 97

england.


well my stay in england could possibly have been *the* happiest 
xperience of my life....aside from assorted childhood joys...

on 6 july 1997, i found myself realising that the weeks and 
months of planning and hoping and wishing and fantasising had 
actually accumulated into something "solid" that was about to 
happen to me...

i woke up that morning with the sun streaming through my window 
and onto my bed...and i opened my eyes and the thought of "im 
going to be in england in a few HOURS" pounded inside my mind. 
i got up and went to my dad's room and danced around singing "im 
going to england, im going to england!". i spent the morning in a 
state of half-hugely-excited-anticipation/half-stress considering 
the fact that the task of packing still loomed in front of me...
my mom came over to the house early and only added to my stress, 
as i was fully aware that i was still washing clothes that needed 
to be packed right THEN, and  i really saw no need for my mother 
to remind me of that nagging thought. but all was well, my towels
 dried and my blanket was folded and i had 2wo bags/suitcases 
waiting to be filled with all the items lucky enough to have 
reason to come to england with me. after 1ne or 2wo hours, and 
extensive UNpacking, i was able to zip up my luggage and practise
 dragging it around the house. for the remaining hour or so, i 
tried to pull myself out of the dream-like state i had fallen 
into as a result of injecting my mind with an overdose of England
Fantasy...

and soon enough it was time to get in the car and drive to the 
airport....the preceding 2wo weeks had been filled with fears of 
the slightly unpleasant (!) mixture of airplanes and "problems" 
but i found myself quite calm on the day of my departure...and i 
probably owe this calmness to my dad, who entirely played down 
the fear of crashing in my mind, where on the other hand, my 
mother had taken my fears so seriously that it had only added 
to my anxiety.

as we neared the airport, i watched the airplanes taking off into
the sky....it was a wickedly beautiful sight...to see those huge 
pieces of metal and machine glide so gracefully into the air...
and to know that i would soon be inside one...

dad pulled the car up to the curb and my mom and i got out to 
check my baggage. we had stood in the line for maybe 5ive minutes 
before i saw sandy stadler coming up to our line. her family and 
emily justice were with her....i said hello from my spot in the 
line...and pretty soon it was my turn to hand the man my passport
and plane tickets.....they placed my bags on the scale and i 
watched with incredible nervousness, as i thought they might 
exceed the weight limit...very fortunately, they did not....and 
to my great relief, as the thought of unzipping my bags and 
deciding what underwear to unpack in front of one hundred people 
didnt exactly seem like a very enjoyable thing to do.......(!)

the man asked me if i had anything resembling a weapon in my 
bags....and i thought for a minute and then proceeded to tell 
him that i had some art supplies packed, which included a few 
fountain pens that had sharp metal tips....the man said it was 
okay and i turned around to find my mom laughing at me and saying 
i didnt need to explain my art supplies because they would know 
that they werent weapons...she kept laughing at me but i didnt 
feel stupid...id rather look silly to some security man than get 
questioned at Airport Security later on...!

so mom asked sandy's dad where they had parked and then we left 
to get back in the car outside...and of course i had to spin 
around in the revolving doors a few times...much to my mother's 
amusement...
so we parked the car and went back into the airport...with me 
skipping and jumping the whole way....


...to be continued.......

*Amanda Wild.

24 july 97

england.
part II


.......so there we were inside an airport.  it was so strange to 
see all of the people who were traveling...it made me think about 
all of the people in the world who live their lives and go about 
their business and how easy it is to be unaware of anybody else 
in the world...
mom and dad decided that i needed a magazine for the airplane...
so we went into some airport store and i couldnt find rolling 
stone so i got some other music magazine with u2 on the cover...
and of course the same magazine is now resting in my backpack, 
unread, unopened, untouched, undisturbed, etc,etc, am i getting 
carried away?

while dad and i waited for my mom to get some food..or maybe it 
was just a drink..for herself, i noted with amusement that there 
was not one telephone in sight...after my mom had told me of the 
supposed glorious abundance of telephones at airports and how i 
was supposed to use one to call her at 1am american east coast 
time after arriving in england......*ahhhhh...england!*...sorry...
my mind started to wander...

after finding the entrance to where i would walk to board the 
plane, we sadly realised with frustration that my parents would 
not be able to come to the gate area with me...and so this 
realisation led us on a trek back through the airport in search 
of where we checked in, in order to plead for 2wo guest passes 
that would allow my parents to go through the passengers-only 
area with me. dad and i stood there while my mother talked to 
somebody, and at that moment all of the flight attendants and 
pilots for our flight were checking in...i listened to their 
accents with delight...and eyed them closely..trying to somehow 
telepathically let them know that little old me standing there 
would soon be on their plane...with my life virtually in their 
hands....but that may have been a bit too melodramatic...although
i did suddenly feel a tremour of nervousness wash over me as i 
viewed how calm they were and realised that their job was to be 
on airplanes..and i felt almost angry toward them, as if they 
should all have been on the plane inspecting it 5ive hundred 
times just for me...!
but the nervousness came and went and soon my mom was back...bad 
news, no guest passes...or we could wait for the manager if it 
was really necessary....but alack and alas, the guest passes 
would have to remain in separation from my parents' wanting hands
...smoking a cigarette outside suddenly took precedence over 
waiting for the manager!

and so i was stranded in the little check-in area while i watched 
with dismay as my parents inhaled nicotine outside like drugged 
dragons..to put it mildly...(!)

we went back into the main hustle and bustle of the airport and 
loitered around the little gate/tunnel entrance...sandy and emily 
came over to talk to me and that was when i received my very own 
surgical mask courtesy of emily justice...now i could creep 
around the public properly hidden in complete michael jackson 
style!

i hadnt eaten all day and so then my parents panicked for me and 
scurried off to buy me food...i remained and talked with emily 
and sandy and then my parents suddenly came at me from all 
directions, shoving bags of food into my hands!  unfortunately 
the 2wo muffins my mother got me were destined for a crumbled 
death inside a sheffield trash can...i think the crackers my dad 
got me are still in my bag somewhere....but all was well, the bag 
of nuts was actually somewhat eaten during my many hours of 
misery in a sheffield youth hostel hallway...the nuts i mean, not 
the bag...

well apparently the image of sandy, emily, and i sitting on the 
airport floor was some signal for my mother to start taking 
pictures of us....and so we posed with embarrassment..but it was 
over soon enough.
sometime between 5ive and 5:30 pm, we decided to go and board the 
plane...the flight was at 6:30.  all of a sudden, i was hugging 
my parents and actually saying goodbye...it was very surreal...
tears suddenly came to my eyes; tears that i hadnt been 
expecting...i think it was because it was the first time my dad 
had hugged me in a long, long time...years, i think...
the woman at the entrance looked at our passports and tickets and 
we were through....it was a long, plain tunnel, and i kept 
turning back to wave to my parents...they looked happy for me and 
i felt happy for me...and it was all very exciting.
we came into the gate area and all of a sudden a huge buzzing 
alarm erupted in our ears...everybody in the area looked around 
with confusion and alarm...
i was a bit annoyed and worried, but perhaps more amused than 
angry...it was just so typically NOT what you want to happen 
minutes before you board a plane that i found the situation 
highly humourous...
it turned out that somebody had just opened some forbidden door 
or something like that...(i think)...
we came to the entrance to actually board the plane, and once 
again our passports and tickets were checked....i could have 
suddenly freaked out and started talking about the bomb in my 
luggage for a good laugh....but of course i suppose that wouldnt 
have been very appropriate considering the fact that i probably 
would have been arrested by security with a slightly weaker sense 
of humour than me...

we walked onto the actual plane and found our row...59...the 
plane was semi-empty since we were boarding a bit 
early....everything seemed very quiet and calm and eerie..
people were just sitting in their seats flipping through 
magazines or reading books or twiddling their thumbs or whatever 
tickled their fancy..and i just wanted to jump up and down and 
wave my arms in their face and say "HELLO! you are on an 
AiRPLANE!! this thing is going to be in the air soon! human 
beings are supposedly not supposed to be able to fly!!"
but i did no such thing and calmly went to my seat...
we had blankets and pillows and bags with assorted things in 
them waiting on our seats...which provided a few minutes' 
amusement.
i sat down and opened the card my mother had handed to me right 
before i left them..and then settled down to wait for takeoff.  
some sort of new age, "om-feeling" music was playing along to the 
slow-motion nature video playing on the screens on the backs of 
the seats in front of us. i assumed it was there to relax 
people...?

the sun was streaming in my window and it got very hot but i 
didnt really pay much attention...i was too busy blabbering to 
sandy about how lucky we were to be going on this trip and how 
it was such a major special thing for us to be doing at our age 
and how exciting it was to be going to england...and she was 
busy reminding me of the fact that we were going to see michael 
jackson...i was having a tendency of forgetting the whole michael 
jackson part in the midst of my sheer excitement just to be going 
to england.

the pilot/captain, or whatever you call him, came on some 
loudspeaker system and spoke to us about the weather and the 
time, and he mentioned something about arriving at 
heathrow....and at that all of the passengers looked around and 
began grumbling worriedly to themselves....we were supposedly 
arriving at gatwick...not heathrow...a flight attendant came 
around and when asked about the arrival destination, replied 
that the captain had said heathrow by force of habit...and that 
yes, we were indeed arriving at gatwick...
i thought it was perfectly lovely that our captain was so in tune 
with our itinerary...

we had to wait maybe 45 minutes or so for all of the planes 
scheduled in front of us to take off....
then finally, it was our turn....we slowly pulled into the runway 
and then the airplane started to really move...and it got faster 
and faster...and all of a sudden we were going into the air and 
in less than 2wo minutes you could see all of the buildings in 
the whole city....and i had my face pressed against the window, 
taking in everything about the fact that we were in the air...
i must have whispered "oh my god oh my god oh my god" a few 
hundred times...
cities and land look very funny from the sky...they seem so 
insignificant and so peculiarly arranged..
soon we were so high into the sky that it was difficult to see 
much detail on the land...and so i watched the clouds...which 
are beautiful when they are only a few feet away...it was very 
mystical and fascinating.

to my great joy, our nighttime flight enabled us to be in the sky 
during a sunset AND a sunrise...
these were 2wo of the most beautiful sights i have ever 
xperienced...
and it was interesting to see how the light changed further ahead 
of us...it was like xperiencing the time zone warp to the 
fullest.

i was amazed at the fact that we had a choice of about 5ive 
movies and television channels and radio stations on the 
plane...and even nintendo games! unfortunately sandy's system was 
broken, but i didnt mind sharing...although i was subjected to 
the annoying appearance of beavis and butthead on my screen for a 
little while...but i survived the torture..!
sandy and i played tetris and filled in michael jackson-related 
names on the high scores list...which psyched me up into the 
michael spirit.

dinner was soon served...and i sighed with relief over the fact 
that i would not be forced to have a steaming, stinking smush of 
mushroom pie on my tray....they had some cajun chicken left and i 
could live with that...although the dressing they gave us for the 
salad was ranch...which slightly disgusted me, but it was ok! we 
had some kind of chocolate pudding/cake for dessert...i couldnt 
eat mine..it was too rich and strong...

i cant remember if we were served anything else to eat...like 
breakfast or something...oh wait! i think we got 
croissants..!...but i remember drinking tea..and i remember not 
knowing what to do when the flight attendant came around to give 
us drinks...i wanted tea so i was supposed to put my teacup on 
the tray...but when she poured it i didnt know that i was only 
supposed to take the cup and not the whole tray...so i had a 
5ive-second tug-of-war with the flight attendant for the 
tray...she informed me that i was just to take the cup and so 
she won...!

i tried watching some of the movie 'scream' for a little bit, but 
couldnt concentrate..so i doodled in the virgin-atlantic notepad 
for a bit..but grew bored of that as well....and so i spent most 
of the 7even hour plane ride staring out the window into the 
sky...which inspired some very deep thoughts in my mind but of 
course i couldnt be bothered to dig out my notebook to write them 
down...
the rest of the flight was spent pledging my love for england to 
sandy....where upon each mention of love for england she would 
add in, "and michael!"...oh yes...michael jackson..i remember him!

the flight didnt go by very fast...sandy and i were up in the 
early hours of morning wondering how much longer we had until we 
would land...but of course the man sitting next to emily provided 
a distraction for a while...he must have been in his late 20's or 
early 30's but he was so adorable curled up in his blanket like a 
little boy...i kept making sandy and emily look at him and share 
my enthusiasm over his adorableness...emily told me to ask him 
for his phone number or something..but it wasnt like THAT..he was 
just a pleasant sight to look at...!..especially with the orange 
and gray striped socks on, courtesy of virgin-atlantic airlines.

when sandy left her seat next to me to go to the bathroom, a 
flash of hyperness came over me and i cried tears of laughter as 
i put on my surgical mask and the eye blind-fold provided by the 
airline and stuck the orange and gray socks over my ears and 
waited for sandy to come back and look at my foolish sight...
i stood up to face the other passengers on the plane with the 
mask and blindfold and socks all on my face and hoped i was 
scaring them....i couldnt breathe i was laughing so hard!  i 
contemplated going for a leisurely stroll around the plane with 
my bizarre accoutrements on my face...but for the sake of the 
passengers, and my own right to stay in the sane section of the 
airplane, i decided against it.

some more time passed, and i still cannot figure out what all of 
the things i saw in the ocean were...they looked like big metal 
platforms floating in the water...like battle stations or 
something....
but soon the sun rose...and the entire sky was pink and i felt 
like i was floating through a sea of cotton candy...so if any of 
you happened to be on an airplane destined for london on 6 july, 
and there was some nutter exclaiming over the beauty of the 
clouds..that was me..!

the moment when we reached land again was one of the most amazing 
of my life....i knew that below me was the place i had dreamed 
about for so long...and the place where so many things that i 
knew of had happened and changed over hundreds and hundreds of 
years....

i went into a slightly insane spasm of england joy during our 
descent to gatwick airport...randomly rattling off exclamations 
about history and feudal lords and kings and queens and art and 
people and culture and land, off the top of my head...
i was happy to provide the passengers sitting behind me with 
countless memories of an over-emotional american girl 
though...they were clearly amused by my enthusiasm.

during landing, i noticed that all of the cars below us were red 
white and blue....but maybe that was just the way it looked from 
the sky...because obviously england has a more assorted selection 
of car colours..
but it did look strange...
and i remember noticing a swimming pool...which for some reason 
fascinated me...!
but the thing that really caught my attention was the huge 
expanses of land surrounding the little houses...and the way 
everything was arranged...it was all very different from the land 
i had seen in america....

i fell in love with the fact that gatwick airport was surrounded 
by grass, while newark airport had been surrounded by buildings 
and roads.

...

...and then there was the arrival...