Waiting for our flight out of Philadelphia, I sat for a long time and watched people walk past endless panes of pale greenish glass. Behind the glass hung tiny birds that made up the formation of larger birds and airplane.
One of my first clues that I am now in Europe was on the airplane from Frankfurt to Vienna. I happened to glance at the newspaper that the man across the aisle from me was reading. There in the pages of the newspaper were pictures of women wearing nothing but tiny blue underwear. I had to do a double take, as seeing topless women in the daily paper is not something I am accustomed to seeing in Canada.
After literally running through the airport in Vienna (we had only a few minutes to catch our connecting flight and very nearly missed it), I felt peaceful inside as I stood at the back of a crowded shuttle bus that would take us to the plane that would fly us to Ukraine. Holding on to the bar on the glass door of the bus, I felt the sun warm me as the crowd around me spoke in Russian, a language that sounded strangely beautiful to my ears. Boarding the plane the Austrian wind blew crazily through my hair. Seeing from the tiny window the giant windmills scattered throughout the fields, their three narrow blades spinning slowly, made me feel happy, and I liked the way the fields were divided into neat rows of golds, green, and browns.
Here in Zaporozhye in the evening, people walk. People walking everywhere, also sitting on benches in the park drinking. Public drinking at any time of the day is normal here.
Looking forward, with some anxiousness, to going to my home in Melitopol tomorrow and meeting my host family. It will be so nice to have a place to unpack and settle into finally, after living out of a suitcase for almost three weeks now.