Definitely not booking with Aerofart...

wHoooOhOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Just booked my flight to London and I leave Vancouver in exactly two months from today! Okay, so it's a big deal for me...I know you're thinkin' 'people fly all the time...what's her story???' Well not only did I just solidify my plans with one click of a button, but I also just graduated to a new class of international travel by booking with British Airways. Let me explain...

Seven years ago I traveled to Russia for a missions trip one summer. I was 16 and pretty stoked to be flying overseas for the first time. As I walked down the jetway to the plane I was thinking two things: how thankful I was to God for this opportunity to serve Him abroad, and how fun it was going to be spending 11 whole hours on a 'big' plane. I should just stop now and tell you that the 3 weeks in Russia were luxury compared to that plane ride...but why stop when the story just gets better!

I'm pretty sure my face turned ashen the moment I boarded the non-stop flight from Seattle to Moscow, and no, that's not because it turned out to be a SMOKING flight, (more on that later) but because the airplane was the drabbest, most depressing piece of fuselage I'd ever layed eyes on. Not only was everything beige and yellowed from decades of use, but I'm pretty sure that duct tape (a Russian luxury) was the key structural element in this aircraft. This was the pride of Aeroflot, Russia's international airline. I closed my gaping mouth (instant lung cancer was not the life-altering experience I was hoping to acquire on this trip) and took my window seat. I proceeded to wipe the film of SOOT off the glass (not really) and settled in to the most boring ride of my life. My traveling companions were virtually silent the entire trip, the view from the window included a survey of the North Pole, (overall, very white, interspersed with large areas of white) the flight attendants spoke no English, the seats were so tightly arranged that I was seated in almost five laps at once, and here's the kicker, THERE WAS NO INFLIGHT ENTERTAINMENT. I'm serious. I would have been grateful for a Russian film with Mongolian subtitles at thas point, a troupe of dancing Russians even, but no, the most exciting part of my Aerflot experience were the two trips I took to the lavatory. All that remains in my memory from those long walks to the back of the plane are the stoic babushkas plumply overlapping into the seats of Stalin-esque men surrounded by clouds of smoke. It looked like the mafia were bringing their immigrant mothers back to Russia just so they could make borscht. "Borscht camps...the New Gulags..." Anyway, when we landed (amazingly enough the aircraft was capable enough to do so) all we heard about from the Americans who flew over that morning was how amazing British Airways had been to them. British Airways, with its sleeping masks, 31-inch seat pitch, non-stop entertainment, RECOGNISABLE in-flight meals...I mean, COME ON...

Anyway, I feel I'm moving up in the world with this flight! Can't wait! More later...