12:18Z
Just north of the Jersey Shore.
Old Jersey, not New Jersey. The zulu time and updated map in the seatback give me a bit of a Tom Clancy feel. Not much though because there is no wi-fi. I had been lead to believe that there would be wi-fi. And 110 power. Not that I would really know what to do with such things. Hootsuite probably has a filter that keeps a person from tweeting “Over Nova Scotia!” “Now Crossing Greenland! LOL!” and “I know how the the Isle of Cork floats!” So maybe we are all better off without the wireless.
This flight is not like any other transoceanic flight I have taken. Why is this flight not like any other flight? First off, I’ve only flown over one other ocean, and only going to and coming back from Thailand. The experience base is limited here. But it is striking that the crowd on Korean Air going to Seoul couldn’t get to sleep fast enough. It was as if no one could be offended if everyone was unconscious.
For the folks on this flight, the attitude seems to be, “who gives a damn?” Not that anyone has set out to be offensive, but everyone is living out loud on this plane. Somehow this 777 has been transformed to a cross between street life in Haifa and the tour bus to Nazareth. So, yes, there is plenty of Greyhound attitude up in here. Plus which one could shrivel up a blow away waiting for the flight attendant to bring a cup of water.
But one can imagine that medieval pilgrims, much less all but the most wealthy travelers on an early 20th Century ocean liner, would give their right arm to travel like this. Were it not for the privations and lack of sleep, you’d hardly know you had been travelling. If you didn’t recognize that you had been travelling, how would you know that you had gotten somewhere? If I’m going to a new place, I want to know it.