Departure Day
Trip Start
Jun 27, 2010
1
2
11
Trip End
Aug 08, 2010
Where I stayed
Home
Minneapolis/Saint Paul Airport
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Sunday, June 27, 2010
Well, it’s around 1:30 P.M. and we’re on our way! Ok, so I didn’t manage to get my shit together by one, but 1:00 P.M. was a bit conservative. I did forget to do one thing though. I intended on reviewing the Oxford Overview Booklet one more time to make sure I didn’t forget anything. I was going to do this before we left, but I forgot. Fortunately, it was already loaded on my computer. Turns out, I forgot a tie. I already needed to stop to get a pair of dress pants so that was just another thing added to the list. I believe it was Redwing where we stopped to pick up the remaining gear. From there it was off to find a Bank of America in the cities. It was going to be best for me to deposit my money into my Bank of America account and there’s none in south eastern Minnesota. Turns out, there’s none in the entire state of Minnesota. Can we call it Bank of Some States of America? Please? It would make me happy if we could do that. Oh well, guess we should have just done a bank transfer in the first place (so much for trying to find the more direct solution).
We arrived at the airport with time to spare and dropped off my checked baggage. Of course mom wanted a picture of me with my orange travel gear. See, for People to People my parents purchased a nice orange suitcase. It definitely sticks out and I like the color. Well this year, since I had plenty of stuff to move via one flight back home [now that I am finished taking courses at Florida Tech.] I decided to purchase an actual hiking back pack. I purchased an orange (actually titled Chili) Talon 44 by Osprey and it goes quite nicely with my suitcase. After completing check in we returned to the van for a snack. I didn’t have to go through security for another hour anyway. I was in the Humphrey terminal, a terminal I am very familiar with having traveled via Airtran every trip between Orlando and Minneapolis. We worked our way up to the top of the parking garage and watched the planes land and take off. At least until it was time for me to part ways.
I was flying with Iceland Air and had a planned layover of 9 hours and 50 minutes in Keflavik, Iceland. This is the only flight booked thus far that I do not have a window seat. Or so I thought. As I boarded the plane I noticed next to the doorway they had a name for it. This one was named after the volcano Askja (as-kya). That area was used during training for the Apollo program to prepare astronauts for the lunar missions - according to what the plane says (verified by the 'always’ reliable http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Askja). Shortly after I worked my way onto the plane and into my seat I had a flight attendant come up to me and ask if I would be willing to switch seats with someone. A father and his young daughter were stuck in two different seats and wanted to sit together. While I had probably more leg space than I have ever had on a flight, I still had no problem with a switch. Besides, most of the seats have plenty of leg room anyway (at least those of which I was going to be switching to). Although one gentleman did not wish to give up his seat, another couple were willing. This allowed me to get my window seat and the father and daughter to sit together.
The first part of this flight I spent goofing around with the monitor sitting in front of me (yay international flights). Updated myself on the flight route, learned a little bit about the company and Iceland (not that I can recall those details this second), and then taught myself a little Icelandic. I learned the number system all in one sitting. I can remember that, however, knowing German and Spanish on top of English provides multiple reference points for Icelandic. Null, tveir, prir, fjorir, fimm, sex, sjo, atta, niu, tiu. After learning my 1-2-3’s I had a nice Icelandic in flight meal while I watched the new Sherlock Holmes. The meal was interesting, and tasty. I have the description of what I ate, but I don’t have it right with me at this moment. I’ll be sure to update you on that later. By now I’m sure I’ve worked my way into the next day. The full moon was high in the sky, and the crew was passing out blankets – a treat I did not expect. I wrapped up in a blanket and did some reading for Oxford.
Extras:
I told ya I would provide the details of my in flight meal so here they are...
Smurbrauostvenna
-Roast Beef, Sauce (eggs, vegetable oil, vinegar & flavourings), Onion, Arctic Char, Tomatoes, Fresh Green Vegetable, Bread, Margerine. Basically it was sliced Roast Beef on a slice of bread with everything else listed above on top. Again, it was tasty and interesting.
