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NYC Trip – On my way back.

11:30 AM German Time, Frankfurt Main

Well, here I am again! This time, the airport has a lot more life to it. The last time I was here, at 6:00 AM, the buildings themselves seemed to be rising from their slumber, awakening bleary-eyed to the morning. Anyways, I’ve had the chance now of actually moving around Frankfurt. Pretty nice place. Not a patch on Changi, but definitely vibrant enough to improve my opinion of it over the last time. Last time I saw Frankfurt, I thought it had less life to it than Hitler will next week.

Last evening, I spent 9 hours at JFK!! I had to check out at 1:00 PM, else there’d be a $75 late checkout fee (danm them! don’t they face this all the time?). I arrived hours before check-in, though, so, to avoid carrying all my baggage around when all I wanted was a bite to eat, I put my suitcase into Baggage Storage at the airport (highway robbery at $4 for just a few hours!). Spent most of my time reading, listening to music from my Creative MuVo (those Eveready batteries I fitted in are such goddamned low quality! They’ve discharged in a just few hours!)

Another thing I did, of course, was to watch all sorts of passengers arrive at the airport, check in, and finally board the plane. Indians – they stand out! They’re ONE of a kind! There was this gang of 10 people who arrived, noisily, spent a lot of time saying their goodbyes, each one hugging the other in turn – every permutation possible – then lots of crying and tear-dabbing, followed by a fresh round of hug-a-bye-baby, touching feet, and then, amazingly, precisely TWO people boarded the aircraft! 8 of them had come to say good-bye! Which is not too different from me boarding last Friday – I had 5 people come see me off! Of course, there were no hugging sessions, no tears, no falling at feet then. But here at JFK, NO one else apart from the Indian community came with their families! What is it about everyone else? Or what is it about us?