The Flight, And My First Night in Belfast

          It took three separate flights to get from VA to NI. Norfolk to Philadelphia, Philadelphia to London, and London to Belfast. Including shuttle time, and the front end of Orientation Week at QUB, and I didn’t sleep for thirty hours.

I’m more coherent now. I hope.

          Norfolk-Philadelphia

Norfolk International was nice and calm. They have a new system where a traveller can scan their passport and have their own passes printed. Still, the most distinctive thing about the place is the mermaid-patterned carpet, in case you forget which city you’re in.

          I spent most of the flight - the first, short one - looking down out the window. We were flying by night over land, so I had a perfect view of the lights underneath us. Norfolk is brilliant: like someone threw down handfuls of bright gold glass beads and swirled them. It was darker after that. But there were lights like fluorescent nervous systems, and like structures of glowing Legos or the insides of alien electronics, and like minnows and eels.

          Philadelphia-London Heathrow

          The airport at Philadelphia is so large that you have to take a shuttle to get to different gates. Airports make me nervous. On the shuttle, I kept myself focused by describing, in knitting terms, the sweater of the woman standing next to me.*

          The transatlantic airplane was much bigger, of course, than the one from Norfolk. I was next to a businesswoman who watched the romantic comedy, drank white wine, and busily reviewed paperwork in the morning.

          I kind of hate romantic comedies, so I kept my cd player running through that one as we were flying over the Atlantic. It was some story about skinny, disgustingly rich people, a scruffy guy, a stylish woman, and a baby, and it looked awful. But after that, they put on a movie called “Nim’s Island,” which was fun – firstly, one of the characters is a writer whose mc follows her around and talks to her, and secondly, there is a scene where Nim flings lizards at unsuspecting tourists which, coming from a tourist town, I appreciated.

          But afterwards I couldn’t sleep.

          Have you ever flown into a sunrise? Most people throw the phrase “Oh my God” around like litter, but this is one of those times where it’s truly the only thing I could think. I don’t think I’ve ever been consciously aware that the Earth is round, but I saw the light roll in a way you wouldn’t see it do from the ground. It was glorious. The clouds separated into different layers, some wispy, some dark and flat, and some in huge fields, thick and yellow and flubby, exactly like badly-washed wool roving. Everything went pale violet and dark yellow, until we were flying through full daylight.

          Then the steward came by doling out pastries and caffiene. The businesswoman woke up and gulped down coffee, and I had tea with cream and sugar. I was extremely excited, because we were landing in London, at the Heathrow airport. I was grinning like an idiot and bouncing up and down, and I hope the airline employees appreciated someone so obviously happy to be there, because anyone else would’ve been embarrassed to be near me.

          I changed my money to British pounds in the airport: $100 made about £65. British money is prettier than USD. There’s such a variety of coins, in different metals, shapes, and sizes, and the banknotes are different colours. I bought a plug adapter, an egg-and-cress sandwich, and a Mars Bar. That was my exciting time in London! I met Maureen Vaughan, the other student from Wilson, in the airport right before her flight left. We were on our way, finally, to Belfast.

          Heathrow-Belfast City

The last flight was quick and mostly over water. Ireland is really odd from above – so much farmland, but, unlike the States, it’s spread over all these wobbly little hills. In Belfast, we were met at the airport by representatives from Queen’s and driven to Elms Village with our luggage.

          I don’t live in Elms Village, where most of the students live. That’s okay. It has internet access and is where all the student community activity takes place, but I’m lazy, so I chose to live in College Gardens. College Gardens is away from Elms, but right next to all the academic buildings, shops, etc.

          Apparently, it’s normal in Europe to get single rooms! It’s huge, too. The textured-glass window is strange – it takes up half the wall, but you can’t see through it. But other than that, it’s great.

          Mooses

          The night we arrived, we – international students – were invited to a free welcome dinner at a local church. It was hosted by Friends International, and it was chilli, rice and ice cream. I sat with two native alumni, a Nigerian alumnus, and two other study abroad students – from Sweden. The conversation was confusing, but interesting. I told everyone all about Virginia, because I was tired and couldn’t stop talking. Finally though I asked Emily, the Swedish girl, about Sweden. She said it was cold, and IKEA came from there, and she couldn’t think of anything else to say. I asked her what kind of animals lived there.

          “Mooses,” she said, without hesitation.

          “Mooses?” we said.

          “Yes, mooses, and we have signs that say ‘Caution: Moose,’ and the Germans come and they stop their cars in the road, and take the signs.”

          “Why?”

          “I don’t know. Those Germans.”

          And that was that. I once heard this phenomenon referenced in a comic on deviantART. Apparently it happens frequently. I’ve now heard it confirmed in person by an actual Swede. Cool.

        I also learned that Belfast is cool and damp, but not normally snowy, so when it does get very cold and snow they’re ill-equipped to deal with it and the city stops working. This made me feel right at home.

         
        Here are a few airplane pictures:

    
* Off-white, worked flat in reverse stockinette and seamed, with k2p2 ribbed waistband, cuffs, and cowl neck, relaxed fit. Probably a cotton blend. And it actually looked good on her.