i set off for turkey just 11 days after the events of september 11th. a lot of people were worried for me. they couldn't believe i was going to turkey when i told them about my trip. i wasn't afraid of going to a muslim country. as a matter of fact, it was probably safer in turkey than it'd be in the u.s.a, where none of us knew when the next terrorist attack would be and everyone sort of lived their lives on pins and needles, not knowing what the future had in store for us. the only thing that i was afraid of was somehow there'd be another attack close to my departure time and would delay the flight and possibly screw up my whole schedule and maybe even cancelling my whole trip. i felt kind of guilty thinking like that, hoping that there wouldn't be any further terrorist attacks so my vacation wouldn't get ruined.

my parents gave me a ride to logan airport. there was a long line at the check-in counter. i don't think it was for any new security measures, but i think people were kind of skittish and when the airline told them to arrive 2 hours before the flight, everyone arrived exactly 2 hours before the flight, thereby causing a bit of a congestion in the airport. going into my gate there was a bit more security than usual, with multiple metal detectors and x-ray machines and lots of airport security standing around.

so i left boston on my way to amsterdam. one interesting thing was there were no metal utensils on the plane, but instead we all got plastic utensils and a little note apologizing for the plastic silverware due to the recent events. i sat next to this tall young man whom i didn't talk to for most of the flight until we were almost at amsterdam. his name was paul and he was visiting the u.s. for some technical conference. talking to him, we of course talked about the terrorism that had happened in the u.s. from the way he was talking about america, i could detect some of that european superiority complex. i gave him my business card as a matter of formality, but i probably will never hear from him ever again.

a mere two hours before i leave for logan airport and i am still not dressed, watching xena on television, installing software on my ibook. there are certain things i'm going to miss while i'm away, like the creature comforts of home, my coworkers (but not my work), and most of all, network television. i'm going to miss the season premieres of dark angel and gilmore girls, plus the series premiere of a whole bunch of other shows like the new star trek series. i guess i will have to wait until the rerun season.

i was watching cnn in this morning eating my burger king chicken tenders. latest news is turkey is allowing the u.s. to use turkish airbases. that's going to be exciting. it'll be like going to an airshow! i've always wanted to attend one of those. the only difference is these warplanes will be carrying live armaments.

this is my last entry for the next two weeks. if all goes well, i will in istanbul tomorrow. see you october 8th!