well, the plane in Dallas arrived to us late. It left me sitting in the airport for 6 hours, and landed in Amsterdam at 10:55. my flight to Delhi left at 11:20.....
without me.
by the way, this is all Amsterdam time. that's 3 and 4 in the morning your time.
although i cried a little [and screamed quite a lot inside my head] when i was rescheduled for the next flight out on the SIXTEENTH, (good call on the change of clothes thing, Josh) i've found a specific purpose for my layover.
his name is Asheesh.
he is a chatty Indian friend of mine from the plane... actually, he was sitting my seat when i walked up - my kicking him out was a recipe for instant conversation. add to that the fact that we are going to miss the same flight out to Delhi, and that his sister's name is Julie, and you've got a plane ride full of the what-else-do-we-have-in-common game. (i also filled the time watching Sherlock Holmes and an episode of the Big Bang Theory... winning television right there.)
anyway, Asheesh and i kind of stuck together when we got re-routed. He has an interview on Monday and is not too happy about the delay. we're waiting to be checked into the (separate rooms of our) hotel here in the airport because he can't leave as a result of passport issues and i don't want to leave as a result of sheer terror, and have begun to talk over coffee (so that we don't die of exhaustion). i asked him some of what to expect in India, and the conversation has turned out to be thoroughly, and i hope mutually, beneficial. after dress, weather, and accommodations, the conversation turned to religion. I don't believe anyone has ever asked Asheesh the questions i just asked him about Hinduism - he admitted not to having thought about why he worships the gods he does or what he gets out of it. he admits it is just a ritual, and he feels no answers. He asked me about my faith - "you just pray in church, right? and you go home?"
....
twelve hours into my trip.
after this scintillating opportunity for me to share, i asked more questions about why Asheesh believes what he does, and he told me he wanted to look more into it, since he didn't have the answers he would like to have to my questions.
then he turned back to me and said "it's wonderful, what you're doing. I would have never thought to do such a thing - going abroad the way you are doing. It's intentional, and you really want to help people. It's wonderful. I mean, you're so active in your faith and beliefs. I'm more of a passive follower, you know, because of my parents."
we talked a little more and then moved on to other subjects, but he seems to keep coming back to religion. i hope to challenge him to try exploring religion a little more - and to look where the Answers Truly Are.
my trip has just sucked so far,
and it's awesome!
wow, Julie, that's awesome! rough circumstances may seem like curve balls to us, but I have a feeling that the One who threw them knew exactly what He was doing all along! ;)
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