Day one！
It is hard to say goodbye to the family you love, the ones you feel most comfortable with. The freedom, necessary and exciting, spans an entire month.
Though this is technically “day two,” it is the first few consecutive hours where I feel like a human being again.
First impressions: necessary freedoms
Our kindly cab driver, Gitesh, arrived at the airport this morning with a sign that said “UC DAVIS.” I was struck by the novelty of an airport which allows friends and family to so casually stroll up up the terminal hall. Couples embraced, friends laughed and ate lunch. While we waited in traffic, a small car idled in front of us, packed with three punk kids who lit cigarettes and tossed their butts out the window. A girl with two toned blue hair carrying a tote bag that said ANTI FASCIST shopped at the grocery store. Though this dates me in age (I’m an Old™️) I am reminded of a world pre 9-11 - things that no longer exist in the America I’ve become comfortable with. The airport terminals of the USA are cold and unfriendly, discouraging friends and family from seeing you depart. It’s been years since I’ve seen this many people smoking out in the open, and many more since I remember waiters asking “smoking or nonsmoking?” (Side note: a friend reminded me a few days ago that Carl’s Jr. once had designated smoking sections, and this fact has been rattling around in my brain for the last few hours.) And, sad to say, I rarely see a spikey haired punk out shopping for her groceries (not even at Trader Joe’s.) America is the land of the free, and yet many things seem clinical and forced. That isn’t to say I think everyone should pick up a cigarette or that airport safety isn’t of the utmost importance, but there is a certain independence here in Vienna that I have not witnessed in the US in many years.
Though this is technically “day two,” it is the first few consecutive hours where I feel like a human being again.
First impressions: necessary freedoms
Our kindly cab driver, Gitesh, arrived at the airport this morning with a sign that said “UC DAVIS.” I was struck by the novelty of an airport which allows friends and family to so casually stroll up up the terminal hall. Couples embraced, friends laughed and ate lunch. While we waited in traffic, a small car idled in front of us, packed with three punk kids who lit cigarettes and tossed their butts out the window. A girl with two toned blue hair carrying a tote bag that said ANTI FASCIST shopped at the grocery store. Though this dates me in age (I’m an Old™️) I am reminded of a world pre 9-11 - things that no longer exist in the America I’ve become comfortable with. The airport terminals of the USA are cold and unfriendly, discouraging friends and family from seeing you depart. It’s been years since I’ve seen this many people smoking out in the open, and many more since I remember waiters asking “smoking or nonsmoking?” (Side note: a friend reminded me a few days ago that Carl’s Jr. once had designated smoking sections, and this fact has been rattling around in my brain for the last few hours.) And, sad to say, I rarely see a spikey haired punk out shopping for her groceries (not even at Trader Joe’s.) America is the land of the free, and yet many things seem clinical and forced. That isn’t to say I think everyone should pick up a cigarette or that airport safety isn’t of the utmost importance, but there is a certain independence here in Vienna that I have not witnessed in the US in many years.
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