Home sweet Home

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23 hours after entering the Quito Airport, I'm finally home! There was a lot of uncertainty regarding the situation with Houston and Hurricane Rita, so I went super early (4 AM), and had to wait for the Continental counters to open so I could check in. It wasn't busy at all and getting to the gate took less than an hour. Then, I got to watch the sunrise over the tarmac.

A few lucky passengers who were scheduled to fly out during the hurricane had rescheduled and ended up getting upgraded to first class. Lucky so-and-so's. The flight was full, but on time. Unfortunately, my intestines seem to be complaining rather more than usual and solid food was not agreeing with me today. So, I drank a few litres of water to keep my stomach occupied and ate a few peanut M&Ms. Whatever is down there, I'm hoping to starve it out and sleep it off tonight.

Houston airport wasn't crazy busy, but I got to see a lot of action with flights getting rescheduled or moved to different gates. Mine was late enough that by then, things seemed to have smoothed out, and my flight was on time (even early arriving in Vancouver). I was tempted to try to get on the flight to Victoria, which was 7 hours earlier than mine, but figured they'd probably charge me for the change, so I waited for mine, which was the only Continental flight to Vancouver that day. Probably why it was so cheap and I got to spend so long in the airport. I looked for an internet cafe, but no luck. I did, however finally find the big bronze statue of George Bush Sr. during my wanderings. I tried to spend most of the time sleeping, which helped pass the time when I wasn't reading or sipping water.

Arriving in Houston was a bit of a shock after spending a month in a developing country. At one point, I passed an older woman dressed in fancy shawls who was mad at her husband for putting a sandwich in the same bag as her jacket and didn't want it to get dirty. The triviality of the thing stuck in my mind, compared to coming from a city where most streets are dirty (compared to the immaculate floors of the airport, swepped every 20 minutes and scuff marks removed with tennis balls on a stick), people are dirty and hungry, and poverty is much more commonplace. It seems that once food and shelter are assured, we still manage to worry about something. I just hope I don't take such things for granted. It is comforting that some days my biggest concern is what to have for breakfast :-P

I'm going to bed now. G'night and buenos noches.

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Photos

Shrine to George Sr.
I found the bronze statue of George Bush Sr. I wonder if Jr. is going to get an airport named after him...