Sunday, September 14, 2008

10-Sep-08

10-Sep-08
Seeing all the perfumes around the duty free shops made me nostalgic for University and my days of wearing Stila Crème Blossom and Chanel Chance. Mosquitoes love flowery scents. Instead of shopping, I entertained myself around CDG by collecting fashion magazines that other travelers had left behind. I can give them to whatever tailors I may befriend in Kitgum.
It was nice to hear all the American accents around CDG. I don’t know when the next time I’ll hear American accents will be. Siiiiiiigh. (I’m nervous.)

KLM names its airplanes after famous authors. The one that transported me from Paris to Amsterdam was named Ernest Hemingway. I’m on the airplane to Entebbe now. It’s an AirBus 330. I didn’t see its name. It began boarding in Amsterdam at 9:55 a.m. My flight from CDG didn’t land until 10:15 a.m. It was a race to get here. But! Now I don’t have a seat mate! Life is good.

Wheee! I just realized that there are exactly 10 months until my 28th birthday!

Huh. The pilot says that we have a “slight technical problem”. He says that we must start one of the engines while we are still at the gate. To make sure that it works. Humph. Maybe the missionaries on this flight (there’s a few – I hear them talking) will pray it all better.

The pilot’s just told us that the flight time will be approximately 7 hours and 40 minutes. I suppose that means that the engine started okay?

Whoops! I spoke too soon. The first test run of the engine was “unsatisfactory”, says the pilot. But “the idea is that the problem will settle itself if we have a second test run”. Um… hmm. Uh-oh. The pilot’s gonna get back to us about it. Oh. By the way. The pilot’s name is “Captain Bleak”. No joke.

Apparently the engine was (and this is a direct quote from a flight attendant) “dripping oil or something”. But. Apparently we’re leaving now, anyway. So saith Captain Bleak.

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