It only occurred to me in the last few days that I have about 12 hours in the air ahead of me, plus a three-hour layover in Vancouver. As I checked my bag, I thought, "See you in 17 hours." There's always that twinge before leaving, right, where you wonder if your baggage will end up at the same place and at the same time as you do?
I will be landing in Honolulu at 10:30 PM local time, which will be 3:30 PM Eastern Standard Time.
Okay, putting aside any whining tones, I think it's time to concentrate on how amazing that is, how far I'll be from home in just a few hours and how that was virtually impossible a relatively short time ago in human history.
Less incredible, I bonded with the guy cleaning one of the washrooms here at the airport. He asked where I'm from but I knew that he meant, "Hey, do we have a language in common? Some sort of common culture?" I asked where he's from, and he said Peru. I get mistaken for some sort of Latino a lot. It usually happens more in New York City, but over the last few days in Toronto, it has happened three times.
Outside the Loblaws at Maple Leaf Gardens about four days ago, some dude started speaking Spanish to me. I told him I don't speak Spanish, and he asked me how I like this country. I said it's pretty good. Turns out he's travelling from somewhere in South America (I didn't ask from where) and that he thought I was from, in his words, "Central America." Hm. Anyway, he started saying that he's never seen so many homeless people and that in Spanish speaking countries, people help each other. Really? Whatever. I didn't want to argue, especially because he followed me into the Loblaws to continue the conversation. I wanted to tell him, "Dude, in this country, we end conversations when the other person is a stranger and is obviously trying to get away."
Walking around the city Sunday night, I was on Yonge St, and some guy yelled out, "Hey Amigo!" There were other people around, but I knew he was talking to me. I turned and said, "What's up?" He asked me, in what I assume is a Spanish speaking accent, "Do you know where the football is?" I assumed soccer, but either way, I couldn't help him out. I said, "No. Sorry." Then he said, "Do you know where the stripper club is?" I said, "Yeah, dude, right there." I pointed at The Zanzibar (TM), which was half a block north of where we were standing.
Anyway, I get that for some people, I'm "ethnically unplaceable" but the point is, I wonder how I'll be perceived in Hawaii. I guess I'll let you know.
I'll post more when I feel like I can!
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| Me at Pearson. No I don't want you seeing my face, but I look as awesome as always, though my hair is out of control. February 2, 2016 at 11:12 AM,using Apple's Photo Booth, which came pre-installed on my Mac. |
