I went on my first transcontinental flight this week. I am on a study abroad to Tanzania with my university, and it is a surreal experience. I have flown before, but this being my first experience leaving the country I wanted to make sure I took note of everything.
1. This plane is actually a lot more roomy than I thought it would be.
There are more seats than I expected there to be and a good amount of legroom. Well I’m 5”2’, so I usually have a good amount of legroom anyway.
2. I wonder how soon into the flight they start to do drinks, I’m getting thirsty.
Thankfully about five minutes after the thought came in my mind, the very nice flight attendant brought me a glass of water.
3. Okay now I have my drink, how much longer is the flight?
I thought that the flight would never end. A little after I had this thought, I had about eight more hours of a 12-hour flight left.
4. I have six more hours until we land, do I nap or do I read a book?
I chose to start reading Me Before You by Jojo Moyes. I got about three chapters in before I couldn’t hold my eyes open anymore.
5. The guy sitting next to me is responding in one-word answers so I guess I’ll shut up now.
After my 30-minute nap, I tried to talk to the guy next to me. At first he answered like he was fine with my blabbering, then soon his answers got shorter so I just stopped talking. Honestly he could have just told me to stop talking and I wouldn’t have been offended.
6. The ocean sure is blue from up here.
I having only flown around the country, I’ve never really seen the ocean from the sky. It truly is beautiful to be able to see all that mysterious water from up there. It made me ponder the amount we even know about the world’s oceans.
7. I wonder how high in the sky we really are right now.
I was on a plane once that had a little TV on it that told everyone our altitude. This plane didn’t have that little TV, so I just kept pondering the altitude while we cut through the clouds.
8. Yay food, I’m starving.
At that point I didn’t even care what the food was, I would have eaten anything. Luckily they came by and nicely bestowed me with warm food.
9. I wonder what its like to be a pilot.
It made me wonder if it’s like driving a car but with more buttons and no ground under the tires. Imagine how amazing mountains look that close and what it would be like to drive through a cloud.
10. I think we should be landing soon.
I mainly just am tired of random body parts falling asleep. In all actuality we weren’t going to land for another hour or so.
11. WE MADE IT! Can I kiss the ground when I walk off the plane?
After we landed, we ended up taxiing waiting for a place to de-plane for 45 minutes. After that, I was near the back of the plane so it took quite a while for us to get off. I didn’t kiss the ground, cause that would be really weird and I’m already a tourist.
Overall my first flight to another continent was a successful one and I can’t wait to be on my next flight to another country or continent.
