Parked and Tuning Up

Flights to and back from America are horrendous. I'd like to say that we had nice service on this 23 hour journey, but the fact is nowadays if you travel with the cheapest flights available you end up paying for it on the flight itself. Take United for instance. I used to have a high opinion of them when I traveled between Amsterdam and Washington D.C. or Chicago, but that was 10 years ago. Now the flights between Bangkok and Narita and Narita and Chicago are a shame on airlines everywhere. A single screen for the sardines in economy (if it's working in the first place) counts for entertainment if you can stand the censorship they commit. Not that Alex could even see anything potentially traumatizing: he sits too low in his seat to see anything past the seat in front of him. Luckily they fling enough drinks at you during the flights, but maybe that's because you otherwise can't swallow the poor excuse for food they serve (Seriously? Instant noodles? What are we, students?)

So that's the flying part. Next up: customs and immigration. If you're lucky you get to the humiliating cattle-prodding before you leave foreign soil as America now has official territory to call its own in many foreign countries at airports worldwide. Can you imagine if Germany, Canada or even Saudi Arabia demanded a piece of O'Hare airport to call their own if you wanted to fly to their countries? There would be an outrage, a revolt. Anyway, never my favorite excuse for ego-boosting exercises in police state paranoia, immigration gracefully left me alone this time (and the computers weren't even down). I bet blogs like these don't help the cause, but even before that the simple fact that I came from Holland and had visited Egypt, Eritrea and other suspect countries always made me a red flag suspect. When I got my Green Card it only became worse as I didn't fit the cookie-cut mold of a immigrant willing to please Uncle Sam at it's every whim. But there is light at the end of the tunnel or should I say an Obama at the end of a Bush. They seem to be a tad more relaxed since 2009.

Now, I get to enjoy the truly beautiful of America. No, no, not the shameless buying at Walmart and eating warmed up frozen dishes at Applebees. I used to do that, but I enjoy a more global education now and tend to avoid the pitfalls of FalseTrade products and health endangering foods. No, I mean that on which the corporatocracy cannot put a price. Fresh air. Wide spaces. Sidewalks. Green springtime lawns and blossom heavy trees. Silence. Nancy's mom lives in the suburbs of Chicago, but even there it is a blissful paradise of quiet, green, clean greenery with silent monoliths of houses, driveways and the occasional car lazily cruising along the wide street. Compared to noisy, stinky, crowded Bangkok (which is not doing so well this week) where you're always fighting with cars, street vendors and rat covered garbage for a place to walk, being able to open your door to cool crisp clean air and a silence that makes your ears ring is pure....bliss.

Sure we'll have to fly back in two weeks. It doesn't last, but that's the beauty. A change of pace, setting and culture is exactly what the Muses need to replenish. So now a week in Chicagoland, another week in Florida and yet another up north in Wisconsin. That's vacation. It costs a lot, but it's worth it.