Everything seems to have changed since landing in France, but my journey here demonstrated that human capacity for kindness endures across cultures.

The trip from Dayton, Ohio, to Angers, France is a long and somewhat difficult one in which I encountered the help and compassion of others in many unexpected ways. Ironically, what should have been the simplest part of the journey was actually the most convoluted.

My route was Dayton to Philadelphia with a long layover in the city and then onto Paris; but just getting out of Dayton proved to be difficult. Over the course of five hours my flight was delayed three times, first by a mechanical issue and later by snow closing the Philly airport.

After about hour four still sitting in the Dayton terminal, kind is the last word I'd use to describe the people I encountered. Everyone was upset about missing connections or just being unable to get home.

Slowly some people left for hotels or back to their homes while others, like me, continued to wait. As we entered into our fifth hour together, people began to share their destinations and stories with the now dwindling group. I learned the young man sitting in front of me was a UD grad, trying to get home to his son in Rwanda.

When we boarded the plan for the third and final time, five and a half hours after the scheduled departure time, only nine of us were on the flight. In the time we had waited and shared our stories we had brought out some of the best in each other.

The ice of the sharp tempered and sharply-dressed business woman melted as she talked to me about her time with her daughter in France. My image of the gum-smacking, cell phone chattering woman sitting behind me evolved into that of a dedicated fianc