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Communicating Abroad

hellas

I think I might go back to Greece this summer.

I also think I might be losing my mind.

~RLM 

flying

I am a weird fly-er. 

I don't hate flying--it is too convenient to hate--but I don't necessarily like it.

This not liking has led me to become rather picky about flying.

I always check my luggage-I only carry on what I will need on the plane and maybe enough to survive for a day or two if my luggage is lost.  I am not one of those people who enjoy wheeling a suitcase on board and then having to find room to stow it.  Plus, you have to drag it around the airport.  Thus, I carry my laptop bag and small carry on bag with toiletries and other things I don't trust to checked luggage (since TSA isn't responsible for the loss of electronic equipment).  

I only fly USAir.  I hate Delta and my Thanksgiving flight experience with NWA left me scarred for life---and really nervous about flying back to Raleigh three days later. 

My favorite seat is 4F (or 4A).  I really only like to sit in the bulk head row, but if it is full I will settle for the row behind.  I hate sitting in the middle or back and will check seat availability when buying tickets and pick different flights to accommodate my finickiness.

Since I always check my luggage, when I go home for an extended period of time, my suitcase is large enough to stow me and a weeks worth of clothes.  Today, my combined luggage weighed more than I do.  Seriously.

I also prefer to connect in Charlotte, because I know the US Air terminal like the back of my hand.  No matter where my plane landed or where my next flight departs, I always walk over to Concourse C to get a slice of pizza at S'barro's and passion tea lemonade at the Starbucks across the hall.  And I usually stop in the Body Shop kiosk in the middle of the terminal to do a little shopping.

My flight this morning was awesome.  Almost no turbulence, both flights were barely full and I got my favorite seat both times.  Short layover, we arrived at C16 and left from c18, and I got Starbucks.  It's so good to be back.

~RLM 

Items to buy in bulk when in Greece

Organics brand hair mousse-the blue bottle

Apple Orbit-it's a travesty that we don't yet have this in the US

Pita Bakes-original flavor-the Whole Foods kind just don't cut it

tiny evil eye charms-you never know when you might need one, and they are just too cute to pass up

Custom made sandals by the Sandal-Man -my favorite are the Minoan

olive oil body butter-so much better than The Body Shop

Happy Meal toys, they are much cooler than the American versions and the food is better

Milko-the best chocolate milk-although it won't survive a plane ride

Amita Cherry Juice-its like candy, but in juice form

Papadopoulos  Cream Crackers-the perfect snack for an island day trip

Chocolate Covered Baklava or Kataifi-they can survive a plane ride & three days of luggage being lost

evil eye beaded key chains-in case your former roommate's breaks the night before you leave Athens

Greek Key jewelry-they do sell it in the states but it is much cooler to have bought it in Greece

Gyros-preferably from a street vendor, eat as many as possible as they are not the same back home

tacky souvenir photo frames-even better when accompanied by cheesy roomie photos

A really good Greek cook book

lava rocks on Santorini-you don't actually have to buy these, they are free & better than sand---which is superstitiously bad luck

Items with the Greek flag emblazoned on them 

favorite travel quotes

"Don't ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive, and go do that, because what the world needs is people who have come alive."
~Gil Bailie

“For every traveler who has any taste of his own, the only useful guidebook will be the one which he himself has written.” ~Aldous Huxley

"Your journey never ends. Life has a way of changing things in incredible ways."

"The use of traveling is to regulate imagination by reality, and instead of thinking how things may be, to see them as they are." -Samuel Johnson

"I sought trains; I found passengers."
- Paul Theroux

The world is a great book...they who never stir from home read only a page. - St. Augustine

"I have wandered all my life..."
~Hilaire Belloc

The sea that calls all thing unto her calls me, and I must embark. - Kahlil Gibran

"Traveling is not just seeing the new: it is also leaving behind. Not just opening door: also closing them behind you, never to return. But the place you have left forever is always there for you to see whenever you shut your eyes."
~Jan Myrdal

There is only one journey. Going inside yourself. - Rainer Maria Rilke

"We don't receive wisdom; we must discover it for ourselves after a journey that no one can take for us or spare us."
~Marcel Proust

I don't care if it's a sad good-by or a bad good-by, but when I leave a place I like to know I'm leaving it. If you don't, you feel even worse.
-Holden Caulfield Catcher in the Rye, by JD Salinger

"To be a catalyst is the ambition most appropriate for those who see the world as being in constant change, and who, without thinking that they can control it, wish to influence its direction."
~Theodore Zeldin