Airports

I love people watching.  People go out of their way to buy books, magazines, newspapers when they get on planes but I just like to watch the people.

I have a ritual.  I try to be one of the first people on the plane.  Then I watch all the people stream in.  They all do the same thing--look up to see what row they are passing as they look for their seats.

On my last trip, I saw some sights in the airports!  In Taiwan, I saw a sea of men with small hats -- looks like they were from Mongolia or some far away place, a type of ethnic Chinese or Russians.  I felt like taking a picture but instead I have the image in  my head.  Maybe 100+ people filling up the airport rotunda.  On the way home, a bunch of young adults (looked like college students on a trip) walked towards me.  Only as I tried to get around them did I realize they were all hand-cuffed together.  Creepy. Were they prisoners?  Murderers?  Immigrants being deported?
Last but not least, on line to board the plane I saw a couple who were midgets with a midget child. To be politically correct, they are now called little people, not midgets.  The adults were Caucasian and the child was Asian.  The most heart-warming part was watching the mother carry the sleeping child, who was just about as big as her.  His big body flopping over hers as she struggled to carry him.  He fell asleep on line but the mom kept saying, "Are you faking it, are you sleeping"?  But the kid started snoring and the parents had trouble waking him up & everybody smiled as they watched the snoring child.  The stewardess finally came to let them pre-board.  Everyone stared at them, both because they were a little people family and because the sight of a mother carrying a sleeping child is always heart-warming.