…and I’m still reeling from the time difference that is threatening to cause discomfiture in my sleeping routine.
Lagos – London Heathrow (by air) = Six hours
Dull time spent at the London Heathrow Airport terminal killing boredom, and scheming how (if only mentally, spiritually or metap
hysically) to beat up, mug, harass, embarrass, curse, challenge, cajole, discomfit or at least mentally ignore the two UK border patrol officers who both (without speaking to one another) repeated the same painful and insulting words that we (my female co-passenger from Lagos and I) could never be given the permission to enter the UK like we had pleaded, to shop or sight-see, or even just to stretch our tired legs for the very few hours that we would otherwise spend lazing around the lounge of the airport while we wait for the boarding time of our next flight out of their town, even when we showed them our American visas and boarding passes = five hours
London – Logan International Airport, Boston (by air) = Seven hours
Time spent waiting for bags to appear from the underground tunnel = One hour
Boston – Brown University, Rhode Island (by road) = One and a half hours.
Time spent checking in, meeting my fellow scholars, having smalltalk, and drooling over this superfast campus broadband/WiFi, and checking out the great old songs by Sonny Okosuns and other matters on the fastest loading YouTube I’ve ever seen, while forgetting that a delicious Pizza (eating for the first time) left cold is not always so delicious anymore, even in America, and discovering that I am indeed lucky to have been chosen to go on this trip, which I won’t trade for anything in the world right now as my phone buzzes to tell me that I have received two more text messages from Nigeria without having to change my phone or MTN line, and that the last call I received was also on this same line, charged to the caller like a local call to no liability to me = Four hours
Yea, I know, that makes it all more than 24hours if you add them all up. It’s 12.33am here at the moment, and I assume by what I see on my Naija-set wristwatch that it’s 6.33am at home. I have indeed spent more than 24 hours traveling, and due to the interesting explanation of geography that I’ve been flying in the same direction as the sun, I have cheated myself and got into a big debt of about six hours on non-sleep. I’ve got to sleep now. Debt must be paid. This is America, after all. America the beautiful.
hysically)
1
Yemi
Interesting journey, especially the pizza part :). didn’t know you never had a taste of it in Naija. Debonairs used to make delicious pizza on Opebi, “Something meaty” was their best.
I could kill for fast internet now…..
Posted at August 13, 2009 on 1:49pm.
2
Kingsley Ogbuji at http://twitter.com/Lordkings
Welcome to America, the land of the free and the home of the brave, where there is some modicum of order and orderliness, where traffics lights are obeyed no matter how much in a hurry one is, where governments at all levels are responsible; a place where the basic amenities that aid life are available, a place where opportunities abound, a system (America) that works for all not just for the rich; finally, a place where your fart and feces are heavily TAXED. Relax and enjoy the beautiful scenery of Uncle Sam’s environment.
Posted at August 13, 2009 on 2:50pm.