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June 03, 2024 - Frankfurt Airport
images from travel.
I’m writing this sitting in the Frankfurt Airport - the date is technically June 4th, but I lost a day traveling. Just 12 hours ago it was Monday morning. Travel has been going well so far. I was surprised by how pleasant the flight from DTW to FRA was on Lufthansa. I was in the middle row of an Airbus A340, right hand side of a four seat arrangement. By some incredible chance, both middle seats were empty for the entirety of the flight. I hadn’t expected a number of things - the blanket and pillow I received were the first of many. I sat down hungry on the flight and assumed I’d just have to wait it out until I got to Germany. Imagine my surprise when we were served not only dinner, but breakfast as well. The stewardess serving refreshments after dinner even gave me two cups of coffee - I asked for it black and she told me I’d better take another because the plane’s brew is so weak. Complimentary meals and drinks were not something I expected, but it does admittedly make sense when considering the flight was an overnight. I’m a bit tired right now, but wanted to get something on paper while it was fresh on my mind. The german airport workers are helpful (I needed to be directed to an updated gate) though amusingly short of patience; several times now they’ve mimicked expressions of exasperation at a lost traveler not quite understanding the well organized system being run in the Frankfurt airport. The terminals here are extremely nice, perhaps the nicest I’ve seen. Attendants ride back and forth to the gates on bicycles, which somehow both seems out of place while making plenty of sense. I couldn’t sleep on the flight over from Detroit - I tried, but it was still too early according to Eastern time. I mainly sat reclined with my eyes closed for the better part of four hours after I’d reviewed every page in my B6 sketchbook for miscellaneous notes made for this trip regarding objects of intrigue, subjects for study, and map making methods. I still feel wholly unprepared to be traveling right now - part of me wishes I had several more months to prep, though the other portion of me knows that given that extra time I’d just scale up the stress and scope of my project and its undertakings.
A couple of months ago I was listening to an architecture fellowship candidate present her job talk for the Taubman 2024 - 2026 fellows cohort; she said something about there being a discomfort in not knowing what the end result of a project will look like, and in that process of creation there exists much of the work that is critical to architectural knowledge. This idea seems obvious to me though it still needs to be repeated regularly; it is both comforting and disturbing. I need to trust that this travel will be informative, and serves to enrich the basis of research I’ve conducted thus far. In the end, once I return home, I’ll have plenty of time to analyze, dissect, ruminate and reorganize my thoughts - plenty of time to make maps and try to say something worthwhile with my writing. Until then, you’ll have a collection of my thoughts loosely organized around subject matter critical to my larger interests in this work.
This entry is less exciting, but mostly done to get into the habit of doing them.
location: frankfurt, germany
ext air temp: 59 F
int temp: 74 F
relative humidity: 43.7%
dew point: 50 F
wet bulb: 60 F
ground temp: n/a