June 18: The Trip Begins! Continued, continued

Our flight is currently delay in O'Hare so I am just waiting it out right now. The chances for me to catch my next flight are growing slimmer and slimmer by the second. Lisa, the all-wonderful Lisa, is currently checking out some alternatives in case I do miss my flight. (Lisa is the director of Youth and Education Programs with the World Food Prize Foundation.) . . . (A couple of fitful attempts to sleep after we have boarded our plane) . . . Alrighty, I have some news to report. I have been stuck inside this airplane for 3.5 hours. I know what you are thinking, "You do have to go across the Atlantic, right?" Yes, no doubt about it, I do need to go across the Atlantic, however, we ahve not been moving! This may be slightly difficult to comprehend, but let me spell it out for you, WE ARE STILL IN CHICAGO!!! This must have been the crisis I foresaw back in a previous journal entry. I have thoroughly enjoyed some aspects of this long wait, and of course, thoroughly disliked many aspects as well, but that is to be expected. What has most impressed me is the kindness found in humankind. I have just observed a woman holding a newborn baby on the flight for another woman so she could call her husband and inform him of the delay. A different man offered a small child an extra seat to lay down when he gets tired. What's more, these hours together, however troublesome they are for each of us, postponing many important meetings, trips, and vacations, truly have brought us together. I would have never met some of these great people. One of my seatmates has been working on these graphs on his computer the entire time, and I have been getting quite curious. I no found out that he works for a NGO based out of Denver, CO, devoted to studying climate change - exactly what I am going to be studying this summer! He travels all over the world working on different studies and projects and has visited India four times. He is a vegetarian also, and really enjoys the Southern India cuisine and culture. He says that the food is really not all that spicy in the south, at least compared to the food in the north. He also has friends (rather, friends' children) who have attended Wesleyan University, the college I will attend this fall. I am so thrilled to have bonded with him during some of our down time. Without this delay, we may have never shared this information. The man behind me is hilarious - a really entertaining guy to have around during a crisis. He is quite perturbed by the whole waiting situation. He lamented, "This is no way to run a railroad," regarding the airline. Then he wanted to get a water refill and went after one of those. His wife and he then began talking about their unbearable hunger, considering we were supposed to receive a meal on the flight. His response was, "Let's just order a pizza." For some reason, this remark was quite humorous as my mind wandered to an image of a pizza boy trying to deliver a pizza to our airplane on the runway. We are in a massive airplane - my first ever ride in a double-decker. The upper deck is where all of the business, business exec., etc. sit. The slightly funny part is that they boarded before us, so they have been on longer than all of the Economy seats. Right now, however, they are probably all lying down with their personal seat areas that fold into a horizontal bed. Not to mention, the air is probably on in their area, unlike ours. The heat is flaring up in here, as are some people's moods. I really want to get some sleep but can't get comfortabel because I keep thinking about how we will be (hopefully) taking off soon. We keep getting new times we are supposed to leave and I continue to doze off here and there. I can't believe we are still in Chicago, but I guess that is better than being in tumultuous and unsafe weather in the air! That's all for now.