de Mr Teo » Lun Feb 23, 2004 1:47 am
ca sa nu deschid un nou topic postez tot aici.
Am un nou eseu la engleza si asta e rough draftul(prima data cand il scriu).
Astept sugestii.
Traveling on an airplane
Airplanes were invented almost two centuries ago and since their invention, they have developed into useful tools for human kind for anything going from quick delivery of packages and merchandise to passenger transportation. Back in 2001, on a warm summer morning, after saying goodbye to a relative I embarked on my first flight from Bucharest, Romania to Paris, France. Flying for the first time is an exciting and rewarding experience but as I soon found out it can also be painful.
As soon as you step onto the airplane from the airport tower you get an eerie reminder of Neil Armstrong’s first step on the moon. After getting past the initial sinking sensation caused by the plane going down an inch or two, the cabin comes in view. When you step into the cabin and see the small, bucket-shaped chairs in the economy class, that big smile from the beginning wipes right off and you prepare to strap yourself in for a cramp ride. As soon as I was in my chair, I strapped myself in to get a feeling for how things are going to be during the flight. It wasn’t a pretty site and like most other people I felt somehow trapped into the chair. Even if you have the other people around you looking like they know exactly what’s going on it just doesn’t feel completely right.
Considering that this gets through to you as being all right and you are just happy to fly, as I was you must get through a new experience called take off. In the beginning, you get a small introduction about the airplane, some safety features and some other things that only make you much more scared and wondering why you want to fly. Finally, they announce that take off has begun. This special time is when you wish you hadn’t eaten well the previous day because it tends to be stomach crunching. I felt all of a sudden as if a slingshot was propelling me into the air and the seat belt was pushing my stomach straight into my spinal cord. Take off is not over though after the few second that it takes you to leave the ground and get some altitude. It is over after several minutes, which consist of turns, rapid ascents and finally a gradual stabilization at the cruising altitude. Cruising altitude as I learned later is the approximate height where the plane stays at until the descent for landing begins.
So, say that you got through boarding and take off all right, the fun is just beginning, as the main part of the flying experience is about to take place, the flight itself. During flight all sorts of things can happen going from having a meal, catching a few winks a sleep or going through a serious storm. Soon after take off we went through some turbulence that definitely made me feel afraid of dying due to the stories I heard and the movies I saw. That, thankfully, all went away and I experienced my first, hot, in flight meal. I didn’t know at the time why several people said that in flight meals are horrible or pretty bad because I thought it was great. After the in flight meal I got a look around the airplane and saw the numerous people talking to one another and all binding their time before arrival in Paris. As soon as the people became boring due to their mindless chatter I started looking out the window of the airplane to the scenery below. The whole view that I saw just fascinated me, as it was similar to what you might see in a fairy tale. Clouds were rushing be in all sort of white, fluffy shapes and sizes while leaving occasionally a spot or two to see the ground below. Even the wonderful view couldn’t keep me awake though as I just had a sleepless night before flying so, off to sleep I went. When I woke though, there was a terrible ringing in my ears and they were popping as if I had just gotten out of the water. I found out only later that I woke up right when we started descending and the pain in my ears was due to a loss of pressure, which I wasn’t accustomed to. At that time I was just feeling lucky that we were about to land safely and no one and nothing had blown up the plane as I was scared of it happening before flying.
Landing can be a stressful time to some people, even more so than take off or the flight itself due to the danger of the airplane crashing on the landing strip. The plane, started slowly loosing altitude and I saw the tip of the airplane go lower than the tail of it as we were heading toward the landing strip. As I have never been to Paris I looked again outside the window and the multitude of houses, cars, and people in motion shocked me with their innate beauty. Right before landing, the entire area you are flying over can be seen easily at a comfortable pace. It’s all like you are in the 19th century and you are moving in a fast sky chariot. Besides its antique and exciting feeling it also gives you an idea of what the surroundings are and a few stories to tell even if you will never see the area again.
After the beautiful city view I saw the airplane pass only a few hundred feet over a bridge and realized at that instant that the plane will be landing shortly. I was right as at the next instant the wheels of the plane hit the landing strip, the air brakes were engaged and everything started decelerating rapidly. Everywhere I looked around me, people had already started unbuckling seat belts without taking much notice of the warning sign not to do so. I quickly followed suit and in no time at all, the plane was at the gate. As soon as the plane got at the gate and the hatch was open people started getting off the plane. I went through my class, through business and finally out of the plane and into the airport thus ending my first flight.
The trip as a whole was not bad at all but rather an interesting experience and a step for my next flights, which have, occurred since then.
People say that airplane travel is boring, its dangerous and the food and service that you get for your money is just bad. It’s not like that, airplanes are much safer statistically than any other means of transportation, the service is acceptable and food is pretty good. If airplanes would not be around, would anybody consider taking the transatlantic for a month to go to a business meeting in Australia? No, there are just too many stories out there of people talking nonsense or overly dramatized tales of people having a bad experience on this or that particular flight.
Would you like it if you hit Del for your whole life to go away?