I was done packing at 10pm, much to the surprise and delight of my parents, who expected me to be up until 3am deciding what to take. My suitcase weigned 40lbs without bathroom stuff added, but by the time I zipped it up in the morning it had maxed out at 50.8 lbs according to the bathroom scale. (At the last minute I had added a suit jacket and pants and another pair of flip-flops, both of which I will probably never wear.) I cursed under my breath and ditched a couple of small things I hoped were heavy into the air pockets left in my duffel carry-on and prayed for the best. On the airport scale it came in solidly at 49 lbs.
I am normally a magazine airplane reader, but for long flights I do agree that books pass the time better, but it has to be a page turner. I forgot to grab one from home (ironic since my parents' house is a veritable library in itself - at last estimation I think we had around 1000 books, and that's probably half of what we had the peak of my childhood when i was consuming two or three books a week), so I decided to browse for one in the airport bookstore. I ruled out mysteries, romances, sports, sappy novels, and religion, and so ended up with a choice between "My Life in France" (seemed appropriate) about Julia Child's life learning to cook French cuisine in Paris, or "Ahead of the Curve" about student life at Harvard Business School, written by a recent graduate. In the end I chose the HBS book, and I'm still not sure which emotion was the deciding factor. Was it because I applied to HBS but didn't get in? Was it that I'm about to start my own MBA program at another highly competitive school? Or was it because my ex-boyfriend starts there in less than 3 weeks and I'm curious to know a little more about what he'll experience . . . I did make a few interesting comparisons already though. For example, HBS accepts 900 students per year but then divides them into "Sections" of 90 students each, and those are the people you spend all of your time in class and on projects with. There are 810 other students but I guess there isn't much interaction with them at all. I have been concerned that IMD is too small because they only accept 90 students total per year, but since all the classes are taken with those 90 I guess it's really about the same. Another similarity was that HBS students arrive in the tiered classroom and slide their pre-made name placard into the designated holder on their desks so the professors know who they are. IMD does the same thing, except their name placards also list the student's country of nationality, so the room ends up quite comically resembling the UN.
We boarded the plane right on time but as we waited on the tarmac the captain came on and said there would be a slight delay because they were fixing a problem with the fuel system, but that it shouldn't be more than 10 or 15 minutes. I immediately called up my Navy airplane mechanic friend to ask what that meant and how bad it was. He said not too bad, until the captain came back on to say they were still "troubleshooting" the fuel system, to which my friend replied, "Ohhh, yeah, that's worse, that means they don't know what the problem is so they don't know what to fix yet." The next message said they were going to turn off the left engine and restart it to fix the problem, but that didn't work. The last solution was to shut off the entire jet, and eerie and disheartening notion, which the captain soothingly assured us was "just like rebooting a computer." A nice gesture for sure and intended to be calming, but I did feel a little queasy imagining my Boeing 777 giving me the blue screen of death somewhere over the Atlantic.
The flight eventually took off without incident, after the successful reboot, and only about a half hour behind schedule. The plane was only 2/3rds full, and even though I'd booked my ticket barely three weeks earlier I had two seats to myself in Economy Plus next to the window, but over the wing. I once read an article that promoted interest in amateur photos taken from commercial airplane windows, pointing out that from taht high up you get a rare view of some of earth's most amazing natural formations, and that the pictures can be real gems, as long as you don't sit over the wing. I apprecaited the article because I have always been a fan of snapping photos out my window but am routinely disappointed when I show them off to friends and the response I get is a knowing and slightly bored/bemused/exasperated/tired affirmation of "Oh, yes, a photo from the plane, of course." The trick, the author said, is to know what it is you're looking at, which can involve flagging down a flight attendant, who will probably not know but who will ask the captain for you, who will confirm that it is indeed Massive Crater Valley or Death Trap Peak, or some other equally impressive-sounding natural wonder you've been hearing about for years.
As dinner was being served the flight attendants asked that if we were not enjoying the view out our windows to kindly lower the shade to create a more appropriate dinnertime ambiance. Really? We're going for mood lighting at 39,000 feet? After dinner I checked out the movie selection but was quite disappointed with the outdated television technology. I watched "I Love You, Man" (in English) on the note-card sized television with scratchy sound and found it to be slow and dull. I actually read Financial Times articles during the movie and found them to be more stimulating.
After the movie I cleared off my extra seat and tried to lie down, or rather curl up, to sleep, but it didn't work. I was close but then a screaming baby ruined the chance. Instead I passed the time by watching the map on the TV monitor slowly chart our progress into Europe. Eventually I started watching "Monsters vs Aliens" (in French) but didn't finish before we began our descent into Paris.
I am normally a magazine airplane reader, but for long flights I do agree that books pass the time better, but it has to be a page turner. I forgot to grab one from home (ironic since my parents' house is a veritable library in itself - at last estimation I think we had around 1000 books, and that's probably half of what we had the peak of my childhood when i was consuming two or three books a week), so I decided to browse for one in the airport bookstore. I ruled out mysteries, romances, sports, sappy novels, and religion, and so ended up with a choice between "My Life in France" (seemed appropriate) about Julia Child's life learning to cook French cuisine in Paris, or "Ahead of the Curve" about student life at Harvard Business School, written by a recent graduate. In the end I chose the HBS book, and I'm still not sure which emotion was the deciding factor. Was it because I applied to HBS but didn't get in? Was it that I'm about to start my own MBA program at another highly competitive school? Or was it because my ex-boyfriend starts there in less than 3 weeks and I'm curious to know a little more about what he'll experience . . . I did make a few interesting comparisons already though. For example, HBS accepts 900 students per year but then divides them into "Sections" of 90 students each, and those are the people you spend all of your time in class and on projects with. There are 810 other students but I guess there isn't much interaction with them at all. I have been concerned that IMD is too small because they only accept 90 students total per year, but since all the classes are taken with those 90 I guess it's really about the same. Another similarity was that HBS students arrive in the tiered classroom and slide their pre-made name placard into the designated holder on their desks so the professors know who they are. IMD does the same thing, except their name placards also list the student's country of nationality, so the room ends up quite comically resembling the UN.
We boarded the plane right on time but as we waited on the tarmac the captain came on and said there would be a slight delay because they were fixing a problem with the fuel system, but that it shouldn't be more than 10 or 15 minutes. I immediately called up my Navy airplane mechanic friend to ask what that meant and how bad it was. He said not too bad, until the captain came back on to say they were still "troubleshooting" the fuel system, to which my friend replied, "Ohhh, yeah, that's worse, that means they don't know what the problem is so they don't know what to fix yet." The next message said they were going to turn off the left engine and restart it to fix the problem, but that didn't work. The last solution was to shut off the entire jet, and eerie and disheartening notion, which the captain soothingly assured us was "just like rebooting a computer." A nice gesture for sure and intended to be calming, but I did feel a little queasy imagining my Boeing 777 giving me the blue screen of death somewhere over the Atlantic.
The flight eventually took off without incident, after the successful reboot, and only about a half hour behind schedule. The plane was only 2/3rds full, and even though I'd booked my ticket barely three weeks earlier I had two seats to myself in Economy Plus next to the window, but over the wing. I once read an article that promoted interest in amateur photos taken from commercial airplane windows, pointing out that from taht high up you get a rare view of some of earth's most amazing natural formations, and that the pictures can be real gems, as long as you don't sit over the wing. I apprecaited the article because I have always been a fan of snapping photos out my window but am routinely disappointed when I show them off to friends and the response I get is a knowing and slightly bored/bemused/exasperated/tired affirmation of "Oh, yes, a photo from the plane, of course." The trick, the author said, is to know what it is you're looking at, which can involve flagging down a flight attendant, who will probably not know but who will ask the captain for you, who will confirm that it is indeed Massive Crater Valley or Death Trap Peak, or some other equally impressive-sounding natural wonder you've been hearing about for years.
As dinner was being served the flight attendants asked that if we were not enjoying the view out our windows to kindly lower the shade to create a more appropriate dinnertime ambiance. Really? We're going for mood lighting at 39,000 feet? After dinner I checked out the movie selection but was quite disappointed with the outdated television technology. I watched "I Love You, Man" (in English) on the note-card sized television with scratchy sound and found it to be slow and dull. I actually read Financial Times articles during the movie and found them to be more stimulating.
After the movie I cleared off my extra seat and tried to lie down, or rather curl up, to sleep, but it didn't work. I was close but then a screaming baby ruined the chance. Instead I passed the time by watching the map on the TV monitor slowly chart our progress into Europe. Eventually I started watching "Monsters vs Aliens" (in French) but didn't finish before we began our descent into Paris.
(The ridiculous Dune-esque people movers at Dulles airport. Instead of investing in a light rail system they use these "shuttles" to move people a few hundred feet between terminals)
(Stretching out into the empty seat next to me.)
(Flight path!)
(Ice crystals that formed on the outside of the window because it was so cold.)
(I did say I love airplane window shots, even with the wing in the picture!)
(About to land in Paris. Love the countryside.)
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