An hour before my flight to London

me and my sweetie, saarinen, twa

Originally uploaded by maximolly.

Enrique and I found that the BA terminal at JFK left a lot to be desired, but was just one AirTrain stop from Eero Saarinen’s TWA Terminal. It looks much smaller than you’d imagine, and it’s kind of sad. Are they remodeling it for jetBlue’s use?

A little later, I cried quite a bit and held Enrique close, and then waved him off to the parking lot. I went through security, waited for a delayed plane, boarded my flight to London.

The flight? Uneventful ranging toward annoying. The portly woman sitting on the aisle would not stand up when I or the young woman in the middle needed to use the restroom. This made it very precarious when I needed to get out before I went to sleep. I perched and then leapt over.

Now I’m at Heathrow in that floaty, jet-lagged, slept a couple hours state. I get on my flight to Bangalore in 45 minutes. Seven hours later, I land in India. People have told me that I’ll be greeted by a lack of infrastructure and by chaos at the airport. It will be 4:30 a.m. when I land. Someone will have a sign with my name on it. I hope to be able to change some money to tip accordingly. Then a bit more sleep and off to Microsoft Research at some point during the day.

I can’t even imagine what it’s going to be like. I have tried not to try but am also surprised by the photographs. Where I’m staying looks clean and comfortable. Where I’m working looks beautiful. Where I’m researching (out and about in the city), I can’t even fathom what it looks like.

So here’s to jumping off the diving board into something I can’t yet see. Wish me luck.