In our last episode of WanderChic Carry-On Mystery Theatre, Nicole was transporting a microscope in a cardboard box in a big, blue IKEA bag to her school’s Costa Rica campus. Nicole recommended carrying a microscope as a way to break the ice with travelers and airline personnel.
For the record, I don’t always mind being addressed like a giant, ungainly child. When I boarded my flight for San Jose, Costa Rica, the nearest flight attendant took one look at me and said, “You’re gonna knock everyone in the head with those bags.” I hadn’t yet readied myself to slide down the aisle, so my computer bag and the the microscope were sticking out like wings.
[adsenseyu2]
For a flash I was insulted. She thinks I’ve never flown before! That I just fell off the yucca truck! Of course I know I have to rearrange my bags so I don’t clock all the passengers. Doesn’t she recognize that I blog for Wanderlust & Lipstick?!
Then I felt relief, even gratitude. “Let me try this,” the attendant said, and slid the microscope into an empty cabinet near the cockpit. A holy hush fell over us as we marveled at her handiwork. How perfectly the scope’s box fit, just narrow enough to clear the sides but not so small that the fragile package would rattle in flight.
Sometimes if I keep my mouth shut, people solve my problems for me.
“What’s in here?” the attendant asked when she gave me back the bag. I told her. “They sell microscopes at IKEA?”
Rest assured, dear reader, that the scope arrived on campus safe and sound. Knowledge will be furthered!
And though I feel a sense of camaraderie with the scope for all the miles we traveled together, I didn’t use it in Costa Rica.
Rather, I was more of a starfruit-juice-sipping megafauna wielding her digital camera (at the top of this post, behold my attempt to be all Melinda Eliza Sabo with a shot of the white church in San Rafael de Heredia).
And, when needed, some borrowed cute red galoshes and a machete.
