Hi. I’m one hour from a new continent:  South America.  It’s an exhilarating feeling.  I’m a little nervous because I can speak Spanish but not understand it so fast.

It’s a long flight but I didn’t feel like sleeping.  I even had my third glass of wine today and I didn’t feel tired.

The map on the screen on the chair in front of me says we’re over land now.  Oh boy!  I’m in Colombian air space!  1 hour and 1 minute now.

And, exactly one hour now.  It will be about 9 when I arrive.

I’ve been watching TV shows, and I wrote a blog post. I tried to listen to the Hamilton cast album, a hip choice for Delta, but it was too distracting.

I’m chugging a diet coke like it’s going to save me.  What from?  Going into the unknown?

I want to buy something meaningful to bring back home.  I’ve heard coffee and chocolate.  I don’t think shoes are a good idea for me.  A leather bag would be awesome.  Maybe jewelry?

Is visiting a new continent worth a celebratory item?  I’m so proud of how hard I’ve worked to get to this point.  It would be wonderful to have something to remember this trip, the hard work, what it took to have a job where I get to go to Colombia to train professors.

46 minutes.  I realized that somewhere a while back, I flew over Cuba.

The flight info shows other cities in the view.  Quito.  Cali.  Maracaibo and Caracas.

I’ve been to Canada so often, I’ve lost count.  I went to Mexico once with my mom.  I’ve even been to Europe twice.

But, this is a whole new continent.

They handed out headphones on this flight.  This time I took them.  I can even charge my phone on the plane.

No contact with home, though.  I didn’t buy internet access on the plane because it was only good for USA airspace.  I didn’t think Annie’s softball games would be over by the time we ran out of Florida.

I can more or less understand the announcements in Spanish and I can testify now that English is much slower.  I believe that I’ll be asking for people to repeat “mas lentamente, por favor.” I also just realized that my texting app speaks Spanish.  ¡Hola!

33 minutes.

Habia un gran tiempo  hasta que ha visitado un pais que habla español.

I think I’m learning the limitations of my texting app’s Spanish vocabulary.

29 minutes.

In order to get the map range wide enough so I can see where I am from, I have to zoom out enough to also see Lagos, Nigeria and Istanbul, Turkey. I think I’m pretty far from home.

The destination time just jumped to 12 minutes.

9 minutes now.

The flights have been roomy.  I had no seat mates from Indy to Atlanta.  On the way here, i had an aisle seat.

6 minutes.

Can I ask them to be sure to stamp my passport?

A whole new continent.

5 minutes.

What do I bring everyone at home?

We’re descending.

4 min.

I can see the lights of the city.

2 minutes!

Dos minutos.

1 minute.

The lights are closer now.

0 min and touchdown.

Bienvenidos.

Welcome to Bogotá!