Paper Planes

Touching down in Newark's Liberty airport is always an interesting feeling for me. I am back, here I am, in America. Sometimes this feeling is relief, sometimes with misgivings.

This time was reflective, but nice. Hot, but nice.

I Heart Newark, the airport at least. I have flown into Dallas, Houston, JFK, Dulles (now Reagan), Atlanta,  Chicago, and Newark for my port of entry to the US, and by far I enjoy coming into Newark the most, much to the chagrin of my sister who lives in Chicago, though it is not personal, I just like Newark the best. Something about the atmosphere in the Customs/Passport control that I just love. It is edgy with a smile.

I have never had to wait more than about 10 minutes to get through. It is efficient, with talkative and friendly agents, but with that edge that you can only get in the East Coast. There were many of us coming from various flights, being shuffled quite smoothly into about forty lanes with only a few people in line. Some of us jockeyed for a better position in a line other than the one assigned, sheepishly admitting, myself included as my daughter really had to go to the bathroom... One of the boisterous, large African American officers said to another woman next to me who had done the same jostling, and with a sardonic smile, laugh, half-mocking, half-welcome to the US, said, "oh, that line is a couple inches shorter, feels good doesn't it? Better you feel much better now." I had to smile at myself for being so impatient after having to be so patient already.

Standing there in line, I remembered M.I.A.'s "Paper Planes" for some reason. It became popular from "Slumdog Millionaire" and many of my students had it on their iPods at the International school I taught at in Antwerp, in addition to Harry Potter Puppet videos  to torture me with. M.I.A. is a Tamil native who made it big. Would love to catch her live sometime in India.

This video, though, is not from the movie, but clips of New York, with a cameo from Fulton Street if you look closely around 55 seconds in.

Enjoy!

Paper Planes