John was at the airport two hours before the flight left. His father had paid for his flights, like everything else, and he had managed to persuade him to buy him business class tickets. His first two nights he was also planning to spend in a hotel in Los Angeles. After that he wanted to get to the level of the people, move to a hostel and meet the youth of America. Probably blow their minds, because even though they had the Ivy League and such, those people would never end up to hostels, right? They studied and then they worked. They weren't forced to take gap years.

John ordered a latte and looked at the people. He liked the airport feeling, the important business people travelling from one country to another, the youth on the move, everywhere expensive watches, cosmetics and other items with class printed all over them. The only thing he was annoyed by were the families. The parents looked so tired and the kids were loud. He was sure he was never that loud, besides, since he was the only child his parents had had time to sleep and still attend to his wishes. Why did someone want more kids, anyway? One child and the job of passing your genes is done, and that's it. Maybe a second one for security, but more than that seemed ridiculous.

After strolling around for half an hour resisting the urge to buy he headed for the gate. It was full of people and he was happy he was in the business class. It was going to be a long flight and if he would've had to sit in front of some screaming children, it would've been a living hell.

John took The Daily News and The Economist from the stand when he had passed the final passport-check. Due to his business class tickets, he was among the first to board. After checking his ticket once more he found out he was on the third row on a window seat. Pretty perfect. He tucked his laptop-case under the seat in front of him and sat down, prepared to enjoy nine hours of movies, music and a new book from one of his professors about the state of the European Union. He checked the latest news from his phone before putting it to the plane-proof setting. He knew air travel companies were overly careful about the shutting down phones thing. He took The Economist and started to read.

   The announcements of take-off woke him up from his deep concentration. Not that he would’ve really cared – he had seen so many take-offs and landings on their family travels that it didn’t amaze him anymore. He noticed that a boy a couple of years younger than himself had sat next to him. A slight amount of curiosity crossed his mind: why would a young boy buy himself business class tickets? The boy was also looking eagerly through the window, while the plane speeded and rose into the air. John took up his paper again.

   After a while of flying and the first set of drinks John decided it was time to concentrate on the book he was going to read. He took it out of his bag but before having time to put it on the table the boy next to him suddenly started talking to him.

   “Hey, is that the new book of Stuart MacGregor? Looks so cool”

   “Yes, it is”, John answered and was about to start reading, but the boy apparently hadn’t stopped yet.

   “I read the previous one when I was studying to my high school finals, it was so interesting, one of the reasons why I want to study politics so bad. Do you study politics?”

   “I did. I graduated this spring”

   “Wow, cool. And you’re taking a year off then? I’m taking a gap year between high school and university. I thought it would be good to see how the politics are really like all over, meet people, do stuff, learn”

   “You don’t really need to do such things. I mean, the politics and the people are pretty far from each other. What do you think an average American knows about politics and the decisions that are made about them? Not much. If you have read MacGregor’s last book, you know probably better than they do”

   “But I thought it would be interesting to see the real effects of the politic decisions. I mean, American policies are a lot different than ours in Europe, right?”

   “Yes. But you can get a pretty good view on that from lectures and your studies. American people don’t know what they could have, so there’s nothing new they can tell you about their policies. I mean, this book can tell you a lot more about the world than months and months of travelling”

   “Wow. Can I look at it? Where did you get it from?”

   “MacGregor was one of my professors, we had that sold in our university bookstore”

   “You’ve met him? That is so cool”

   “Yeah…” John was getting double feelings from this over enthusiastic boy. On one hand he annoyed him with his stupid, wrong questions. On the other hand, he felt like this was someone he could teach, let him understand the world and politics a bit more. He could be his project. Teaching some understanding to a school boy – that could be his task for these nine hours in the plane. He smiled at him. “So… What’s your name?”

John and the boy, whose name was Thomas, talked through the first half of the flight. John explained him some of the basic theories a politics student would need to know, and corrected some of his old misunderstandings. Thomas was in awe. He asked questions and commented and a couple of times he even made some remark that John found exciting. The discussion was fun to both of them and they had gone far beyond the air meal before John thought he should probably sleep a bit to be energetic enough when arriving to Los Angeles, where the plane was heading. He asked Thomas what his plan was.

   “Oh, umm, I don’t know. I have a hostel in Los Angeles, I want to see the sights, Hollywood and such… Then I think I’ll head either to San Francisco or to San Diego, north or south, get some beach before heading east”

   “Okay. Well, I have a hotel in Los Angeles for two nights. During that time I’m trying to figure out which would be an ideal place to go get to know people, Americans and internationals”

   “I’d suggest San Diego, the hostel scene is pretty cool and everybody just spends time on the beach, so it’s easy to meet new people”

   “I’ll check that out, then. Have you been there?”

   “Yeah, once. I was travelling two summers ago, went to see my uncle who lives in Washington State and after that spent a week with my cousin in San Diego. It’s fun”

   John felt a bit strange on realising this kid had a lot more independent travel experience than he. But, he reminded himself, he had done a lot more important things. What was travelling, when you had a degree in politics from Oxford, or such valuable friends as his classmates? He told Thomas he would sleep for a bit, pulled his travel pillow out of his bag and fell asleep almost instantly.

John didn’t wake up until the plane started landing to Los Angeles International Airport. This time also John looked out of the window to see the huge city spreading all around him. He felt almost excited – Los Angeles was a lot bigger than he had thought. There must be so many people, so many opinions, so much to do! At the airport he said his good byes to Thomas after they exchanged e-mail addresses and promised to stay in touch. John knew they would, and he was happy for it. Thomas was fun to talk with, or to talk to to be more exact, but anyway. His trip had started way better he had anticipated.

The good start did not continue forever. After he managed to get to his hotel and take a shower, he did not know what to do. What was it that you were supposed to do, when you went travelling? See the sights, eat well, enjoy the company. But if you were alone? John decided he’d go for a walk, only to find out there was nothing within a walking distance from the hotel but office blocks. What then? Hire a car, told the friendly people at the reception. They could arrange it for him tomorrow, if he just told them how long he was going to need it for. Two days, he answered, he was sure he’d be done in two days, if these would only consist of driving around all by himself. He was already bored by this whole travelling thing, and he had only arrived. This was bad.

He went back to his room and opened his laptop. Thank god there was a Wi-Fi in the hotel. He logged onto facebook and scrolled down everything that had happened within the past day. Nothing really, to be honest. After that he opened his e-mail and found a short e-mail from Thomas, who asked what he was going to do tomorrow and whether he would mind company. John was relieved, at least he wouldn’t be driving around Los Angeles all alone. He told Thomas to come over in the morning. He considered sending an e-mail to his parents telling them he was all right, but he decided against it. Let them worry, they had forced him to go on this trip and as he had to suffer, they would have to suffer as well.

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