As most of you know, I spent yesterday flying from Indianapolis to Amsterdam, by way of Atlanta. Remarkably uneventful.
On the Indy-to-Atlanta leg of my journey, I sat next to a woman who boarded at the last possible moment, set her cell phone to display a Bible verse that began "Be not afraid ..." and meditated on that briefly. As soon as the plane began to taxi, she squeezed her eyes shut as tight as they'd go, and didn't open them until we got to Atlanta, when she bolted off the plane as soon as the captain turned off the "Fasten Seatbelts" sign.
She didn't seem to be much in the mood for conversation, so I left her alone.
But on the much longer Atlanta-to-Amsterdam leg, I was fortunate to be seated by Raj, who currently lives in Atlanta, but grew up in Germany, and may or may not have been born in India. Obviously, Raj was in a chattier mood than my first seatmate. He owns a realty company in Atlanta and runs a not-for-profit children's charity in New Delhi. He was on his way to Germany to visit old friends and relatives, and then on to India to check on his charity (and maybe oversee making a movie--that part was a little confusing). He might cut his time in India short, however, because "it's really hot there." Raj and I exchanged cards, and if I am ever in Atlanta, I am to look him up so we can go out for coffee.
When we first introduced ourselves, Raj assumed that I was from Amsterdam because I "look Dutch." My mother's family did hail from the Netherlands, mostly (a few stray Irishmen in that mix), so that wasn't a surprise. I had to laugh, however, when we (my plane-mates and I) were walking though the Amsterdam airport and one of the employees was apparently in charge of making sure travelers got to their proper destinations. "Do you know where you are going?" he would ask, over and over, in English as people passed by him. As I approached, he took a quick glance at me and asked the exact same question (I assume) in Dutch.
So ... the Netherlands is the place to go if you'd like to hang out with a couple million people who all look vaguely like me.
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