2010

There are many great things about traveling on New Year's. Cheap tickets. Short airport lines. Generally happy people. Positive attitudes. And most of all, starting out a new year with a new adventure. Plus: not only did I get to enjoy the New Year once, but 9 times as I flew across different time zones!

I had a non-stop Air France flight from Seattle to Paris and from there on to Nantes. I made it without any problems and any stress. I thought that this would be the first challenge being away from home, but it turned out to be really easy.

I love airports. I know so many people who complain about the whole process, but I think the good outweighs the bad when it comes to l'aeroport. The airport is full of so many different people from all over the world, speaking different languages, with different faces, styles, emotions, and destinations. All these contrasting lives and dreams and ambitions and destinations are mixed up into one relatively small space. In a way, its a recipe for disaster, with emtions running so high and so varied from one person to the next--joy, fear, excitement, anxiety all take over and clash as everyone goes about their business. From one person to the next, the traveling experience is completely different. But it's in places like this where I feel completely connected. I am sharing an experience with all of the people around me. Despite our many differences, we are all here, we all know where we have been--and although we all have a destination in mind, no one really knows where they are going, in the end. I guess that's life. Our humanity--our identity as people--connects us more than any differences divide, and thats a really cool realization you can't always see every day.

Despite the easy traveling experience, once I arrived and met Capucine's family I realized one petite probleme....I have no clue how to speak French! :)