One of my young friends is off again to China. I have a niece who also ends up flying away to China now and again, though not as much any more. This still manages to amaze me. When I was young we didn’t travel as much as young people do today, or as much as everyone seems to travel today.
I recently boarded a plane to California, and noticed that planes have become more and more like buses, except maybe not as comfortable. We were crammed in, and everyone now carries their baggage so all the bins above our heads are jam packed. People are very creative in the way they manage to have only two pieces to carry on board. No one wants to pay to check a bag. If you want something to eat you will need to pay for it. We still got something to drink, and a tiny package of those ubiquitous pretzel mix things. I miss peanuts.
Anyway, I got to thinking about the past and how wonderful it was to take a plane anywhere. Your family and friends could come to the gate with you, and you could hang out together in restaurants until your flight. The plane was roomy, your bags were checked free, and the food on board was actually pretty good.
My young friend will fly business class, and I understand that this makes the trip more endurable. Flying to China is quite an ordeal, and not for the weak. It is a very long flight. I remember when she first started doing this kind of thing, and how much fun it was for her. Now she is married and has two children, and it’s getting to be more like work. However, she is fluent in the language over there, and good at what she does, so off she goes. Once she’s there she enjoys herself, but is also very eager to get home again.
Since we are so involved with China these days, I guess it is a good thing that many of our young people are flying back and forth to China, making friends and getting to know their way around. One of these days I’ll have to start asking some questions about real estate in China. The only thing I know is that they have been on a wild building spree in the last years, and changing everything. In our area building has slowed down to less than a crawl. There are still some contractors at work, but nothing like what was happening just a few short years ago.
