International Flight

Here I am on Song, Delta’s new airline branch. So far, I’m favorably impressed. The seats are colorful and comfortable, with TV screens on every seatback, and I absolutely love the flight attendant uniforms. My first thought when I saw them was, “I want to be a Song flight attendant so I can wear that outfit!”

I got to the airport and through security and made a beeline for the Starbucks, where the slowest family in the world was in front of me ordering milk and breakfasts for themselves and all four of their kids. (A lot of eye-rolling went through the ever-growing line. It’s a coffee stand, not a Waffle House, for pete’s sake.) The woman next to me in line glared at them for 10 straight minutes (without them even noticing) then muttered darkly to her daughter: “Looks like there’s gonna be a smackdown at Starbucks.”

My first adventure of the day was at check-in. The orientation documents I received said that the suitcase had a maximum weight of 75 pounds. This may be, but apparently anything over 50 gets an automatic $25 fee, and mine weighed in around 55. The joys of travel…

The best thing about the Song flight from Tampa to JFK (NYC) was that I was unbeatable for several rounds of the Trivia game. (Yeah baby! The winner is: Erica in 15A!) That is, until Mike in 6B beat me by just a few points. Geek. But I am still listed as #3 overall in my particular airplane’s all-time top 10! (Song is so new that this probably doesn’t mean much, but let me have a moment of pride.)

My second adventure was when I arrived at the JFK airport. I had a massive 4 1/2 hour layover, so I wandered around the tiny terminal about 75 times before I caved and checked out the massage parlor. (Yes, there’s a massage parlor in the airport. I don’t know either.) My massage therapist was a tiny woman from Malasia. I have never had an asian massage before this day, and since I just signed up for what sounded like an ordinary back massage, I was in for a surprise.

My first surprise was that the concept of privacy was utterly foreign to her. As I was undressing, she came in and out of the room multiple times, the last of which I was stark naked. Then, I lay face down on the massage table and the next thing I know, she jumps on my back! At first I had my misgivings about her crawling around on my back, kneading my muscles with her elbows and knees. But from the first swirl of her knee, my spinal column loudly clicked into place, right up the line. (Kinda makes you wonder – who was the first person to dream up this kind of massage?)

Then she ran out of the room. I had no idea why this was – maybe I have a frightening back? The next thing I know, she bursts back into the room and tosses a scalding hot wet towel on my bare back, then leaps back on top of me for more knee-kneading.

To say I was a bit surprised would be a big understatement.

She followed up the massage with random hand gestures, which I completley misunderstood until she spontaneously french-braided my hair. (Apparently, I was a wreck.)

I left a good tip–she totally deserved it. After all, I was just walking past and she used her powers of persuasion (albeit in broken English) to hustle me in to the most bizarre yet entertaining massage of my life. (Oh, and relaxing too. Really.)

Tags: airplanes, airports, lost in translation

Mata de Caña, Costa Rica

Hurrah! This morning began with Lidieth and another fabulous breakfast. This time, french toast and fresh fruit. Yum. While we were eating, Lidieth said she heard about our hot tub issues, and thought she figured out the problem. Apparently, some numbskull had shut off all the breakers. (What?? The breakers were off?? Who could have done such a thing?) She said she flipped the breakers back on and now the tub was refilling. Cool, we’d finally get to use it tonight.

Bri and I finished breakfast and went horseback riding with Alex. We rode around for a couple hours (this time *I* rode Bonita and let Bri take the butt-bouncing Casper) and took a completely different trail than before. Once again, we heard monkeys in the trees but couldn’t actually see any. We did see lots of other animals – baby cows, horses, roosters, baby chicks, and even a toucan!

When we got back, I called Michelle because she invited us to go to the school to watch the women making tamales for tomorrow’s fiesta. I got her answering machine, and decided to change out of jeans into shorts. Bri had the same idea, so we headed to the bedroom. On the way, we passed Lidieth, who said she was almost ready to leave, if we didn’t need anything else. No, no, we said, we don’t need anything, feel free to cut out whenever. Bri washed his face, we threw on some shorts, and were discussing whether or not we should keep ringing Michelle until she answered or if we should just walk over, when I suddenly realized I was hearing a steady watery sound.

Thinking that Bri had not completely shut off the sink faucet, I slid off the bed to check it out. Imagine my surprise when instead of tile, my sock touched down on an inch of cold water.

A sneaking suspicion snaked through my stomach as I made my squishy way into the bathroom. The jacuzzi was steadily overflowing and water was flowing everywhere.

Oops.

“Lidieth!” I screamed, not knowing how to shut it off. “Lidieth!” I ran out of the bathroom, through the bedroom, and into the hall, where Lidieth paused with her hand literally on the door, ready to leave.

“Yes?” she answered.

“We have a problem,” I confessed. “The tub is… too full.”

She came running, took one look at the ever-flowing disaster, and ran outside to shut off the water. The three of us spent the next hour or two draining, towelling, and mopping on our hands and knees. Lemme tell ya, you haven’t had fun times until you try flooding someone else’s house.

I have no idea what caused it, whether it was us flipping the breakers, Lidieth forgetting the tub was refilling, or some combination of both, but with a good team effort, she managed to escape two hours later than planned. Bri and I felt awful.

Michelle called back, we told her we’d grab some lunch and head over to the school grounds. We heated up food and drove over, where a kids’ soccer game was in full speed. Michelle met us there a few minutes later. We grabbed a couple cervezas and she showed us the kitchen where the women had been since 7 am (it was now 4:30 pm) making tamales. First, they tear the leaves from banana trees and smoke them. Next, they prepare all the ingredients. Then, they spread the leaves out on a long table and each woman takes an ingredient bowl and puts a scoopful in the center. Lastly, each leaf gets folded into a shape somewhat like an Uno deck and tied closed. Lastly, the tamales are boiled before they’re ready to be eaten.

Brian meant to try a spoonful of Michelle’s but he ended up eating the whole thing, so she ended up getting a new one for herself.

As we were pulling out around 7:30, the truck arrived with the music (and something about a disco ball) for tomorrow. We plan to head over around 2 – should be lots of fun!

Tags: animals, food, lost in translation