Jet Airliner

     I actually started writing this post on Thursday. But due to reasons that will become apparent, I couldn't post it the same day. And as a look into the creation of the post, I started writing it sitting in front of gate B1 in Detroit while fighting some serious motion hallucinations. Kind of like how sailors get "sea legs" and then feel wobbly on dry land, except I was sitting still and felt like I was in a turbulence-shaken plane. I was glad to finally get to my bed in a hotel in Iowa.
     A couple of weeks ago, my brother contacted me by email. That in itself is unusual. But the more interesting part was his offer. Every year, my parents try to fly out to Iowa to see him for his birthday. In his email, he offered to fly me out to Iowa as a birthday present for me and as a surprise for my parents.
     After a little back-and-forth, that I don't want to share over the internet, I agreed and he bought the ticket. I am really grateful for the offer. It was a great chance to have a mini-vacation and also see my family all in one place. It was the first time since 2014 that we were all together.
     The next step was doing all the flying. The first flight was out of Borispil airport, the same one my mom and dad flew in to. Fortunately, my flight wasn't until 9:45 AM on March 17th. That meant I could take the metro and bus to get there. Like always, that went smoothly. Check-in and security were no problem. And without any trouble at all, I was through. My plane left on time and landed in Paris with enough time for me to get to my next gate with about thirty minutes to spare. From there, the plane took me to Detroit and then on to Iowa. That's a severely condensed version of a day that, for me, lasted about 24 hours.
     I woke up at 5AM in Kiev and didn't go to bed until 10PM in Cedar Rapids. Like my brother said, "Time zones are weird." It makes it tricky for my sleep-deprived mind to nail down exactly how long I was awake. I did sleep a few hours on the planes. But not as much as I should have. The movie selection on the Paris-Detroit flight was pretty good.
     Throughout it all, I tried taking short video clips of the trip. It's what the young, hip people these days call "a vlog." Short for video-log, it's just a quick look at a lot of the things I saw and did along the way. I tried uploading it three different times. Apparently the file was too large for the hotel and airport WiFi. So I waited until I got back to Ukraine to upload it. Here is that video.

Now for some notes on the airports.
Paris:
     Simply put, Paris is awful. In-bound international flights need to go through security just to get into the terminal. Then the shuttle bus system. Ughh. It's a criss-crossing maze of roads and tunnels and ramps. Plus the announcements on the PA aren't completely clear for which part of terminal 2E you're arriving at.
Detroit:
     I like Detroit a lot more than Paris. Easy to navigate. Familiar surroundings. The customs agents were actually helpful and not sullen or brooding. And I didn't need to go through the cancer machine to go through security. The metal detector worked just fine. The only problem is everything is so expensive, even by American standards. But by Ukrainian standards, it's food priced for oligarchs and sultans. I'll be glad to go back (home?) to Ukraine.
Cedar Rapids:
     The Eastern Iowa Airport (which services the Cedar Rapids area) is awesome. One security checkpoint and only a handful of gates. It's easy to figure out exactly where you need to go.

Here are a few observations on the traveling.

1. I hate vlogging. It makes me feel pretentious and conspicuous. I tried taking video while I was walking through the airports and in the planes. But most of the time, it was just too weird or uncomfortable. I was glad to finally be done flying so I could stop. The video will mostly be a travel montage of the trip.
2. Air France is amazing (compared to Ukrainian International Airlines). Their food was excellent (see picture). I was also able to watch three relatively new films (Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation, The Force Awakens, and Spectre).
   
3. The stereotype of Americans being fat is totally true. Not everyone, mind you. But stereotypes become stereotypes for a reason. Compared to the average Ukrainian, the average American is obviously carrying a few extra kilos. I'm no picture of thinness but I'm definitely smaller than the average American now. I have a seven-month Ukrainian lifestyle to thank for that.
4. I think I'm becoming more Ukrainian. Despite the long hair, that is. Whenever I see a foreigner, I have to force myself to not stare. 
5. This will go into a future post but I definitely do not miss expensive and unhealthy fast-food (looking at you Wendy's, McDonalds, Burger King, etc). Give me Puzatta Hatta any day. Better food at about a quarter the price.
6. Also a note on foods, I'm adding to my list of fast-food places that I don't want to eat at ever again. Count Wendy's among that list.
7. Also a note on foods, living in Ukraine has made me a lot less picky about what I eat. I barely flinched at the mushrooms in the sauce on the Air France meal. I only thought once about the lettuce/tomato on my Wendy's sandwich before plowing through it. Although, I did regret eating it afterwards. Mostly for the amount of grease that dripped out of it and how food there much there was to eat. I'm used to smaller portions now.

      After all that, my body is still on a Ukrainian schedule. I went to bed early because I thought I'd need the sleep. But it turns out, that just meant my wake-up time was shifted forward about four hours. I woke up at 4:45 and couldn't go back to sleep. So I figured I'd get up and do some work on the blog/vlog before the days activities.
     Speaking of activities, after my parents arrived, the activities were going to be up in the air (but no more flying until Sunday/Monday). Bill (my brother) said that once they see that I'm here, they may want to change the plans.
     That's all for now. I'll try to post some more on Saturday about the activities of Friday. It was a lot of fun.