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Saturday, 1 November 2003
Travels, pt. 1 ::
I could talk about how jetlagged I am (I don’t know if taking two redeyes to get from California to Europe via the East Coast is the wisest choice), but I’m too tired! So just some tidbits.
I called a friend Thursday night and asked about the Zen center he’d lived at, since it was in the city I was visiting. He gave me the address and morning schedule. It was 10:30 pm and I was sure I was going to sleep until at least 7, so I was skeptical about going, but I woke up at 5 Friday and decided to follow my rule that if I’m awake, I go to morning meditation. It was only a little over a mile away, an easy walk, and I got there well in time for 6:30 am sitting. Had fun figuring out the robe and getting to a seat properly—this was a Korean center; the one I go to regularly is Japanese Soto. Afterwards I looked at the bulletin board and the first thing I saw was a letter from their friends in Prague—funny, I’m going to Prague at the end of this trip.
Around 8:30 I hopped on a subway, found my way to Guitar Center (closed), got a haircut, went back to Guitar Center (now open), and bought a portable M-Audio Radium USB MIDI keyboard controller—now my PowerBook is a portable synthesizer, though I am no longer travelling light; as light as this controller is, it’s 49 keys, large-ish, and my suitcase is 49.5 lbs according to British Airways’ scales.
It was a beautiful late fall New England day, sunny, around 60, still some orange leaves on the trees. I walked around the campus of the university my parents attended and wondered what would look familiar to them.
At the airport, the family across from me in the waiting area was on their way to Prague too. If they hadn’t been so busy talking amongst themselves, and I helping my travel companion use my phone as a wireless modem, I might have had a chat with them about Prague.
No airline computer system glitches on checkin or at passport control like last year, though the flight was early, so there was no ground crew to move the jetway at first, and passport control was woefully understaffed for awhile too.
I wandered around London in a haze this afternoon, but it was sunny (at least for the first part of the afternoon) and there was that pleasant feeling of having nothing in particular to accomplish, just enjoying the moment. I took a few photos.
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