Spain/Morocco: The Pre-Departure Post
By Saritha Ramakrishna
When I was little, I hated flying, and I hated airports. I thought of them as an in between place, some kind of kid version of purgatory, which now that I think about it, is stupidly dramatic. I remember sitting on the floor of an airport gate distracting myself with my Game Boy Color, dread building in the pit of my stomach, not wanting to board the flight with my parents when the time came. Though things are different now, I can’t help but be a little nervous for our upcoming journey. Sky Harbor might be understood by its own kitschy Southwestern aesthetic, giving a sense of meaning to Phoenix, Arizona. But we know that this place is much more than overpriced cowboy dolls and grow your own cactus gardens placed in a store window. It’s easy to define a place when you have a narrative, symbolism, objects that make it easier to swallow the complexity of what makes a location what it is. This is what I’m thinking about a few days before flying out. I have worried about my own ability to navigate our destinations. I worry that I don’t know enough about the places I’ll be visiting, and I wonder if in my head I’m reducing them to these surreal images, and a few choice phrases I’ve picked up from our readings here and there.
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