The flight . . .

My flight intinerary consisted of flying from (1)San Francisco to Washington, DC, (2)Washington DC to Brussels, Beligium, and from (3)Brussels to Yaounde, Cameroon.

(1) SFO to Washington Dulles was miserable. I had the middle seat and the gentleman sitting in the window seat was rather large. So I was squeezed in from his side. Although the window seat guy wasn't middle eastern, hekept reading a lot of arabic text. I didn't want to be paranoid, but I have to admit I was concerned. He kept getting up and wanting to stand. I pondered whether I should have said something to the flight attendant, but again I didn't want to start anything. I figured he might have needed to stand for circulation. Obviously he wasn't a terrorist since I'm writing now :-)
(2) Washington DC to Brussels was decent. It had the potential to be miserable because the woman in the seat in front me was rather large. Everytime she reclined, the seats smashed against my knee. I didn't want to say anything because I feared it might cause her embarrasment. Fortunately the flight wasn't full and I was able to change seats and spread out. I worked a little on my presentation, but slept most of the way. I fascinated to look at the map and see that I was flying over the ocean. I was particularly excited to see us flying over Ireland and England enroute to Belgium. I've only traveled vicariously through others. It was nice that it was ME for a change.
(3)Brussels to Yaounde was the most interesting for me. I would say 99% of the passengers were African. I've never been on a plane where the majority of passengers were people of color! The Belgium flight staff was very nice and geniune. They didn't have that attitude I encounter in the states. They didn't act like they were stuck with a crappy assignment. They didn't have an attitude like I wish I were anywhere else but here or I'm only tolerating this because I want to keep my job. They provided genuinely great service. And I have to admit it was a challenging flight. They were lots of crying babies and few dissatified passengers because of seating arrangement problems. But the staff was courteous and professional. Too bad I had to go to Europe and experience that.