Airports and endorphins. Who would have thought these two things go together. But there is really much synergy between the two.  And here’s why.  Well at least here’s why according to EndorphinGirl™.  For a variety of reasons EndorphinGirl™ has spent significant time at airports or on planes.  In fact yesterday she was at JFK Airport again.  This was probably about the 10^th time she frequented JFK since January.  Mostly these trips to JFK are to do NOT with her going somewhere.  Often she is there to drop-off or pick-up one of the EndorpinKids.  

Yesterday in particular she dashed out of work, trekked up to Penn Station, jumped on the LIRR, got off the train at Jamaica Station, hopped on the Air Train and arrived at JFK smack on time for the arrival of FinnAir AY005.  The flight, yes that particular flight, she and they (i.e., the EndorphinKids) have travelled on at least 100 times in the past decade+.  (This is not exaggeration!.)  She was there to pick up EndorphinSon who returned from a summer visit with Finnish relatives.  This however was the first time ever that she can recall the flight being delayed.  This was partially okay, the delay that is, because frankly she had become endorphin-induced simply by all the activity she encountered through her getting to the airport experience.  So a little waiting (i.e., down) time was appreciated! 

Now the time at the airport needless to say was well spent. In fact she had an extra 90 minutes to keep herself  occupied; this of course was after she setted down from the endorphin-induced 'getting to the airport activity' state. During this 'waiting time' she encountered a few things.  There was certainly the people-watching component, which is often very fun.  Watching travelers exit “the door” – you know the mysterious door that you can never re-enter.  Upon their exit, the travelers who are lucky enough to have someone waiting for them at the other side of “the door”, walk through with that initial look, often that very tired. That 'look' is partially due to the travels and partially due to the experience of collecting luggage and 'checking-in with immigration'.  However once a traveller recognizes her 'welcomer' who is waiting on the other side of "the door", she becomes very animated and exited when she sees ‘her person’.  It is heart-warming to watch and heart-warming to have 'your person' there waiting for you. 



So there was certainly a bit of the people watching going on yesterday by EndorphinGirl™.  At the same time, she was reminded of all the time she has spent at airports and on planes over the past 20+ years.  Much of it has had to do with business travel but much of it has also had to do with fun travel.  There really is a connection to endorphins.  Because travelling is exciting and being at airports is exciting.  While yes of course the adrenalin may be flowing quite a bit for many reasons so are the endorphins during travel time.  Travel equals happy.  Happy equals endorphins.

EndorphinGirl™ can remember many an air-related travel experience.  Perhaps there are a few that have been rather significant, even very memorable and have produced an overabundance of endorphins.  So she’ll go ahead and blog-share but three or four.

Trip one, which really was her first airplane trip did not take place until she was 20 years old.  Yes that was her first time on an airplane.  This plane was not a typical airplane either. In fact on her first plane ride, she parachuted out of the plane.  This was a no-seater plane.  She and the brother of her good friend Atir had somehow been engaged in a multi-year conversation about parachuting.  Finally one day they drove the two hour drive to Lakewood, NJ; attended the 7ish hour ‘jump’ training and before sunset parachuted from the no-seater plane.  Yes there was a reason for the no-seater in the plane.  There was only one way down from the plane and it was not going to be safely seat-belted to a chair.

Trip two, which really was trip two was a transatlantic flight to Madrid, Spain.  Age early twenties.  EndorphinGirl™ was en route to go Eurail/backpacking with KaAb.  The gals were headed to Spain adventure only to work their way up North for ongoing eurail adventure along the way.  This transatlantic flight on Iberian Airlines was quite the adventure.  What was probably most memorable, and not necessarily in the best way was sitting in the smoking section.  Yes, this is proving to be ‘dated blogging material’ because back then smoking was still in vogue on planes. While EndorphinGirl™ is not, never was nor will be a smoker, KaAb was and so they sat in the smoking section.  But frankly most of the planes in those days were smoking planes because you really couldn’t shake the
smell no matter where you sat on the plane.

Trip # stopped counting, which really was when she stopped counting is a focus on when she lived in Europe.  During a period of about 18 months she probably travelled 2 or 3 times a month internationally within Northern and Eastern Europe.  This was uber exciting.  The planes were small, large, medium and in-between.  Occasionally there was a trip back home as well.  The airlines most frequented were SAS, Finnair, Aeroflot, CSA, Lot and Malev, which in and of themselves are indicators of where EndorphinGirl™ was travelling.  She had so many air miles during that period and in fact which extended over a 5-year period that she and the peeps often travelled business class on their vacations.  She does recall at one point one of the peeps at the very young age saying ‘this is the only way to travel.’  Agreed . . . out of the mouths of babes! 

Probably one of the most notable trips during that period was a flight with one of her colleagues who was the partner in charge of the company she was working with in Moscow.  He was also a pilot.  He also flew he own plane.  Once a month a group from the 'team' got together for a unifying meeting (aka growth strategy), in one of the Eastern European locations.  And often the 'said colleague' would offer his plane services as a means of transportation for colleagues participating in the meeting who were from the Moscow Office.  On occasion EndorphinGirl™ flew this route to the meetings instead of dealing with all of the hassles at Sheremetyevo (which included a scrutiny of passport and visa, overly-interest in her personal computer, a frequent visit to ‘special questions’ room about computer and just stuff, etc.).  

One particular notable flight was upon the return to Moscow from Budapest.  It was a late Friday evening.  The 'team' was quite tired after two days of meetings.  They (i.e., the pilot) were about to land in the smaller airport near Sheremetyevo (she can't recall the airport name).  But there was some prolonged negotiating going on between her pilot friend and the ‘tower’ regarding where precisely to land.  Now it was dark, the landing strip was well in view, and in fact there was only one landing strip.  And there was way too much conversation going on between pilot (who was not fluent in Russian) and the tower.  In fact on that particular ride, in hindsight thinking, no one was fluent in Russian!  Ultimately, though the plane landed, and landed safely, but it was momentarily endorphing and adrenalin-enhancing for one and all.  On that note, it should be mentioned that the plane could only accomodate four passengers, plus the pilot and the co-pilot (who really wasn’t a co-pilot, he was a co-worker, who thought he was a co-pilot –well in so many ways if you get the idea).  The other thing to note about that plane was there was no standing room (literally).  And the oxygen level was certainly not sub-par.  EndorphinGirl™ remembers from that particular flight feeling a bit out of sorts that following weekend, perhaps due to the cabin pressure affect.  [At that time if memory serves her correctly she had not yet blossomed into her EndorphinGirl™  self, but clearly could have benefited from some endorphin-enhancing activity following that trip].

The most recent notable endorphin-enhancing flight was upon flight entry into St. Barths from St. Martin - which was a flight squared (i.e., done twice) experience.  Now the plane was a puddle jumper, it accommodated no more than 10 people, and took less than 15 minutes of flying time.  Upon entry to St. Barth's, the plane landed on a very narrow landing strip but not before entering a very narrow passage way with cliffs on either side.  What produced the endorphins and excitement and adrenalin on that particular 'ride', was not only what you may have surmised from the past few sentences but also the beauty of the pure turquouise waters of the Caribbean.  Simply breath-taking, if in fact you do keep breathing given the otherwise fear-factor of that puddle jumper ride.  [By the way, EndorphinGirl™ realized during blog time today that in an earlier blog when she blogged briefly about this flight she may have called the plane a peddle jumper not a puddle jumper - if that is the case, it is duly noted that she made a mistake, and she has no idea what a peddle jumper is.]   

The above sentences highlight some situations that have provided some good endorphin-related flight and airport connections for EndorphinGirl™. [No pun(s) intended.]  And if you go back to the origin of this story, i.e., her recent airport visit, she would re-emphasize again that there is some true excitement to being at airports, even before the plane experience.  Now it may not always feel that way to the business traveler who travels frequently.  And in fact sometimes can’t remember, upon entering an airport what city s/he is in (it does start to blend together), but the flip side is there is much excitement about airports and planes and the whole travel thing.  And there really is much endorphin opportunity too! 

Oh and a little bit of coincidence to this is that EndorphinGirl™ learned today that she must travel on international business in the next month.  Now this is exciting because yesterday while waiting in the airport for EndorphinSon she clearly was reminiscing about the frequent work travels she used to do and had some sense of ‘missing it’.  So needless to say, now don’t share this broadly, but she has some endorphin-excitement feelings going on about some upcoming travels to international-land!

Meanwhile, guest comments always welcome in guestbook and keep on endorphin’.

EndorphinGirl™