People at the airport
So today I spend a lot of time at the airport waiting for my plane to depart. It occurred to me, that there are certain kinds of people at airports. So naturally, I started a short ethnographic study classifying people going about at an international airport. Let’s begin.
Type 1: The runners
So although everyone knows that one should be at the airport early, late trains or other circumstances force people to be late. But there are a lot that are late. They are running from gate to gate in need of more time sometimes cheering at their kids to come along. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve been there. I once totally mixed up my departure time and was called though the speakers to come to my gate at once. Naturally, my gate was on the other side of the airport. So I ran…
Type 2: The Vloggers
Damn, I feel old. I was not aware, that this really was a thing that people don’t mind doing. In my two hours here, I saw four of them, usually with some friends telling them how cool or beautiful they are and holding a smartphone with a very bright light. Some of them danced, some of them spoke. And they did so in all the languages, not only German or English.
Type 3: The party group
It doesn’t matter what time it is, somewhere it is past four. Therefore there are always groups of either only men or only women, drinking to go somewhere to probably drink some more. I regularly see them in trains, but was not aware that they also using planes. I am still waiting for my plane, but sincerely hope, they have another destination.
Type 4: Businessmen
I mean it is expected. But what I find fascinating with them is, that no matter what nationality they are, all look the same. I expect there are way more of them in the Business Lounge, but I can’t go look. In any case, they are the experienced type. They know where to go, when to be there and how to look as if they don’t care flying around the world today.
Type 5: Holiday-goers
Usually they can be identified by already wearing what they plan to wear at the beach. It doesn’t matter how cold it is here, they are prepared for THERE. Usually they are quite happy, as they are on their way to some fun times. I saw one thing today, that made me question human intelligence however: one of the holiday goers had an air mattress in form of a crab in his hands. Fully inflated…
Addendum: Mice!
I also noticed something strange: At the airport at least in Frankfurt) were lots of mice! I mean an airport doesn’t seem to be a suitable place for mice with all its shiny and slippery floors, but I saw at least three individual mice in the airport. Strange, isn’t it?
