The Flight June 1.

I flew out of KCI @ 10:34 am and reached Newark @ 2:29. You can call me dim, but YES I knew Newark was close to NYC, but I didn't realize HOW close. As we lowered, I thought "Hmm, what a bunch of large buildings and sky scrapers, I wonder what city that is. Hmm, it's nearly an island amidst all that water. Hmm, that could almost be the Empire State Building! There's no way! Then where is the Statue of Liberty? Wait, actually... that other little island has a big green thing on it." (Be fair, we were still rather far away so the statue was a little green speck.) Then I thought, if that's NYC where's another building I'd recognize? Then... wah-lah! There in the center was a building with a very shiny top. Chrysler! and thus: NYC! Ha! What a brainiac I am...

Left for Hamburg at 5:30 pm and I sat over the wing. The plane was smaller than the one I took in 2005 with only 3 seats on either side. It also seemed like just about everyone was a native German speaker, which was good, because I want to be as exposed to the language as possible. So yes, nearly everyone is native except me..... and the two Spanish women next to me... :( figures.

Late in the flight, as it turned from late night to early morning, I opened the window to see a glowing, violently red, motionless streak in the ocean. I watched it. I was tired and a bit out of it and for lack of reasoning, unsure of what it was. Where were we? Was that a city glowing like fire through the clouds? After a few minutes the sun rose farther, separating cloud from sea with now red, orange and yellow streaks of light. (see pictures!)

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