Mischievous Travels: Come Fly With Me

 Mama's big birds, the DC-10

Kuwait City, Kuwait. Abu Dhabi, UAE. Manama, Bahrain. Doha, Qatar. Dubai, UAE. Oxfordshire, England. Bosnia, Herzegovina. Djibouti, Africa. Alexandria, Egypt. Larnaca, Cyprus. Aviano, Italy. Ramstein-Miesenbach, Germany. Frankfurt, Germany. Bingen, Germany. Bernkastel-Kues, Germany. Mainz, Germany. Koln, Germany. Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Gander, Canada. Edmonton, Canada. Anchorage, Alaska. Akasaka, Japan. Sendai, Japan. Daegu, Korea. Shannon, Ireland. Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. Oranjestad, Aruba. Liberia, Costa Rica.

And then there are the hundreds of North American cities and Military bases.

I am so lucky. I have been SO lucky.

I fell into my short lived career by sheer luck. I was literally flying by the seat of my pants for 4 years.

Did I mention I'm afraid of flying? Well, just the whole takeoff and landing part.

 Living in a dream, it's still seems like a dream at times.

I was the introvert of both my Flight Attendant classes. I kept to myself. My hotel rooms became makeshift homes. When you spend 3 weeks at a time away from your own home, you make home where you can. I learned street names and made friends with the hotel employees. I took as many pictures as I could, when I wasn't just experiencing my location... attempting to blend in to the crowd and the natives. Practicing the words and phrases I heard on local television stations. Letting dialects roll off my tongue and past my lips like silk, sand paper and sometimes wool. I ingrained the textures of the cities into the soles of my feet, the smells deep into the recesses of my brain.

There are so many moments I can remember, and just as equally moments that can't be conjured. I find myself doing mundane tasks around the house and a smell or sound sparks something inside and memories burst through the floodgates. Gelato from the Venice airport, my high heels scuffing against the cobblestone walkway in Mainz, musty back alley bookstores in Daegu mingled with the perfume of exhaust and body odor. I remember aching to come home from so many places, completely spoiled from being so lucky. Instead of exploring farther out into the cities, I would become familiar with the hotel's surrounding areas. I was always ready to come home.

Before I became so jaded to the luxuries life had handed me, I did manage to collect some stories and photos. Enjoy them as they filter through in the upcoming days and weeks!