Long Flıght - Day 1 - July 1 or so!

Ok - so I've finally figures out how to get another blog going so I'm going to title each one with the days that I'm talking about. This is taken from my journal...
July 1 or so!
I'm tired but ok. The plane trip to JFK and then the transfer was stressful (to say the least!). Got to JFK and had to ask and schlep and wait in line until the Nth hour to get on my Turkish Air flight. I was in terminal 1 and no one around to direct me to where I was to go next and ah - yes forgot how friendly the local NYers are! I was finally directed to "terminal 2 - outside and take a left". I get to terminal 2 and can't find the Turkish Airline counter. Finally I see the "ticket purchasing" counter and I'm waiting and waiting. Long story short I was the last person to be "checked in" at the check in counter. They were announcing "last boarding call for Turkish Airways flight 2 to Istanbul". The guy in front of me (American married a Turkish woman) said that this was all very typical. NICE! It reminded me alittle of traveling to South America or to Mexico - these families with their 5 kids and ALL of their luggagesssss.
So there I ended up row 35 - squushed between 2 interesting characters.
To my left - large Turkish woman with prune-like face and prayer beads in right hand, with a constant habit of spreading into my space as opposed to her husband??
To my right - the woman has a ton of bags and after we ate all of a sudden all of her paper goods vanished! maybe into her big bag at her feet. ALL the paper including the aluminum wrapper that her food came in was gone. When I first sat down i noticed her placing things into her plastic bags - a large worn shoulder bag at her feet and a back pack of sorts (at her feet). Then came the hazelnuts to which she wrapped the bag of nuts with a napkin and then they disappeared too!
She began conversing with me. She has lived 29 years in NY and before that in Turkey - she's returning to Izmir to see her dying mother. She will be in Istanbul for 1 day visit with a 26yr old niece she has never met - her husband had several strokes and is in a wheelchair and she stopped teaching to take care of him. (hmm who's with him now?) She is a scientist - researcher - geology and a bunch of other stuff. The conversation veered toward the price of oil and the economy and i was done with that! - ready for my 2nd movie!! her english name is Sarah - or Serpil - meaning blossom. So now she is listening to Turkish pop tunes with an occasional sing along!
Did I mention she painted her nails while we sat on the runway - she is in dark red velour pants - pink long sleeve shirt, a vest, wearing a small hat which ties under her chin, which she only removed once to rearrange her gray hair.
On my left - she's watching "Happy Feet" in Turkish! and using my left arm rest - she just learned how to use her remote for her individual movie screen after sometime - before she would just lean on my arm rest (where the remotes are kept) pressing all the buttons that i had to restart my movie a couple of times and fast forward!!!

When we got on the plane - all the usual directives or airline directions but the interesting one was "loosen your tie, remove any sharp objects (like a pen from your chest pocket according to the graphics), take off your shoes and wait for the directions 'brace yourself'" NICE!!! at which point the animated figure on my screen leaned over his thighs and grabbed his ankles - very yoga! I wondered why we leave this out on American international flights!!!! I had to laugh a little bit!
The other online video that was fun and participatory was "AIROBICS"!!!! Just a few seated exercises, demonstrated by a blond male model sitting with a lovely non-descript female model in airline seats, to get your blood circulating and feel relaxed! Too Fun! YES there were participants! There we sat flexing our ankles, circling them, moving our head, clenching our fists. REALLY NICE!! I should have come up with it - wonder if I would be collecting royalties!