Look, Ma, the North Pole! or, Are We There Yet?

It's not quite four hours in, and I'm already feeling how odd and how long this 15-hour flight is going to be. I've eaten a meal, had a good spiritual conversation, met a Taiwanese student from Boston and watched a disappointingly depressing movie, and I'm already wondering what it is I'm supposed to do next. I'm currently flying somewhere over the Arctic Bay, though we've been told to keep our windows closed for now, so I'm watching the outside camera on the screen in front of me, marveling just a little at the idea that on my way to the hottest place I've ever been, I'm flying over one of the coldest in the world. If I were to jump out of the plane into these waters below, I would freeze to death. Maybe that's a little bit morbid, but it's an incredible, fascinating thought all the same.

Two weeks ago, the realization that I would soon be on the other side of the world hit me with stunning clarity. Now, mere hours away from touching down in Hong Kong, it seems little more than a vague abstraction. Oh well... It will hit me again soon enough! I suppose the first intercontinental travelers must have felt pretty surreal too. Can you imagine finally seeing the New World after months of traveling over mile after endless mile of ocean, your entire world looking exactly the same until you can't even remember what land looked like? In the meantime you would feel as if you were nowhere at all, even when you knew you were in the middle of an ocean never before traveled. The profundity of your adventure would seem overshadowed by its monotony.

Anyway, I wonder how people can do this all the time. Maybe it grows on you. Right now, I mostly just feel bored. Only 11 hours to go! I will have to wait for Wi-Fi to post this. Next stop: Hong Kong!

Update: It's 9 p.m. here, but my body tells me that it's time for breakfast, and I'm hungry. I was surprised to fly into Hong Kong in the dark, but it's closer to the equator, which means that light and dark are closer to equal. Apparently the sun will set at about 6 p.m. in Bangkok. These little things will be the things that disorient me the most, I expect.