travel thoughts

moments after i got my key to the hotel, the alarm on my cellie went off reminding me to WAKE UP RIGHT NOW to prepare and leave for the airport. 24 hours later, I'm just getting here. Recap of the last 24 hours...

----------- 11:42 p.m. Friday, (texas), 12:42 p.m., Saturday (china) 1092 km away -----------

So according to my inflight flight map I think we’ll be landing in about an hour and fifteen minutes… But it’s cycling through the Chinese version so I can’t be sure. My language skills aren’t quite up to par…

Fun cities of note on my map: Ulan Bator, Seoul, Beijing/Shanghai (finally) and Dalian, which keeps making me think of the Dali Lama for one reason or another. Anyway. Here’s also a shout out to the Phillippines…since it’s so close…

Notes from the 14 hour flight to Shanghai and over all 22 hour travel day that has been today…and apparently tomorrow:
– Follicle mistakes. Piloting our first plane this morning was a young man with hair plugs. And while I have to thank him tremendously for his safe flight from DFW to Chicago, I have to just mention, gentlemen, that hairplugs are not really ever a good idea. Bald is better.
– DFW International Terminal D is really one of the neatest places I’ve ever flown out of. With all the hype and the grandness of international flights and particularly this flight…direct from Chicago to Shanghai I wondered why Chicago and not DFW. I’m still figuring it out…by process of elimination, but I can tell you it’s not because their airport is cooler. Yes thank you for the admiral’s club, but have you seen DFW’s new terminal? It’s amazing. My opinion…this flight should originate there…even if just for aesthetic reasons…and I’m bias I know, I know.
– Subtitles. In-flight flicks are cool, and the “tv” channels have definitely improved since my last 777 adventure, as CSI and I Love Lucy are now choices, but subtitles are even better. Not that I have any idea what it’s saying or I’m learning anything, but I’m starting to familiarize myself with the look of the language.
– Turbulance. At this very moment…like right now…there’s turbulance. Like crazy turbulance that’s like…and I won’t bring it up by name as I pray that we won’t meet their end..but turbulance like one of my favorite Wednesday night tv shows…you know what I’m talking about. I know you do…
– Food. So far there’s always been an Asian flare to the food. Two options…none vegetarian…but pork always seems to be present. Interestingly enough…three meals on an airplane in one day, in one sitting, is too many. I’m getting ready for some real something or other that’s not airplane food. My plastic knife just doesn’t cut it. I wonder what they get in first class…I see the multiple bottles of wine that’s being offered and I wonder why international flights no longer offer free alcohol. Tragic.

Okay. 42 minutes remain. I start looking for a place to stow my luggage as I’ve changed seats and inevitably have to pee…again. (*:) to mom*)

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----------- 4:56 p.m. Friday, 19 May, somewhere in the Northern Hemi -----------

According to my internal computer clock it’s five ‘til five in the afternoon. They’ve shut up the airplane and served us dinner about 4 hours ago and are trying to make us sleep. Gotta love it when the flight attendant comes around and requests that you not open the window… okay, but seriously, it’s brighter than the dickens outside. And the guy sitting to my left keeps peeking.

JJJ, my original seat is next to a very nice gentleman, I forget his name, but he reminds me of your dad….and for more than just the obvious reasons of being Asian. He’s so respectful. And he’s friendly and he smiles and wipes everything down with a disinfecting wipe first. It makes me chuckle. And then he neatly packages away the used wipe and goes on about his business. He also has a special pair of footie socks that he put on just minutes after we took off….you can tell he’s done this before.

So, trying to divide my time among all my onboard activities, I have:
– taken pictures out the window…although I’m sitting over the wing so they’re kinda boring and I had to stop as I got a little freaked out when we started flying through clouds that were moving so fast and were soooooo close.
– Slept (through Heath Ledger nonetheless)
– Compiled my master schedule for the week
– Had dinner (but seriously at like 1:30 p.m. realworldtime)
– 36 ounces of water already on this flight alone and not a lick of alcohol mom J and walked around the plane a couple times…confined to my class of course because they’ve blocked off the business class with a towel….so, yes, we’re little children back here in economy I guess…
– Checked out the duty-free onboard, which…eh…doesn’t do much for me…
– Also, there’s a big article on China in the American Way magazine this month. Probably initiated by the new service to Shanghai, but still. I haven’t read the whole thing, but did you know that since the liberalization of China’s economy in 1978, more than half a trillion dollars of foreign investment alone has poured in… “Just in Shanghai, the hub of the country’s economic activity, there were 14,000 wholly foreign-owned companies at the end of 2003, as well as 13,000 more underwritten by foreign money. Crazy. I’m sitting next to one of our guys who would like to be one of those companies and give some of his money. I wonder why he’s not in first class…

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