Arrived!

OK, the short version is: I'm safe in Kunming and my group is nice and things are all good. Lucky for you guys, I kept a little journal throughout my entire flight(s). So you get to read the unedited saga of my journey, beginning on August 30, 6:30 PM NY time:

6:30 pm
After not checking for liquids at all (why didn't I fill my water bottle?) we board for the 7 PM flight to LA.

7:30 pm Eastern
We've been on the runway for half an hour when the pilot announces that there are 30 planes ahead of us and bad weather to our southwest, so he's shutting off the engines and we'll be waiting for at least another half hour. No panic yet: we scheduled to get into LA at 10:30 pm (LA time), but the flight to Hong Kong doesn't leave til 2 AM. There's time.

In other news, A.J. Jacobs' "The Know-It-All," a book about how he tries to read the Encyclopaedia Britannica cover-to-cover is really amusing, and I'm about to eat a really delicious turkey-tomato-avocado sandwich.

8:00 Eastern
Damn that sandwich was good. As was the episode of Frasier I just watched. Still no news on flight status, though - I'm a bit concerned.

8:30 pm Eastern
We're cruising in the air, I won't be too late to meet my group, and I've got a quote from "The Know-It-All" that pretty much sums up this semester. It's by, of all people, Ian Fleming: "Never say 'no' to adventures. Always say 'yes,' otherwise
you'll lead a very dull life."

Also, if my life were organized alphabetically, it would be so convenient. The M for midlife crisis is even in the right spot!

9:30 pm in NY, 6:30 in LA
I got up to I for identity and realized I'd been reading too long to be very excited about wrapping my mind around such a vast subject, especially when the entry immediately following it is "illusion."

So I took a break to read the letters my parents wrote with the express instructions not to open them at leass than 30,000 feet. I was kind of hoping for deep dark family secrets but I wasn't getting my hopes up; what I really expected was more like the fairly ridiculous but not very surprising (or annoying) cheesiness of the way they stood outside security and waves their arms until I was all the way through the checkpoint and out of sight (they could be still waving their arms as I write, but I suspect they got tired.)

Well I can't say I was totally wrong about the letters - no dark secrets, your fairly artery-clogging dose of cheese - but they also made me happy in the way that only parents can really pull off, in the realization that after 20 years, they still haven't run out of new ways to say they love me.

So, thanks, guys - love you, too.

(Now if only that love really COULD sure jetlag or travellers' diarrhea...)

9:45 NY time
The first moment of boredom/neck soreness from reading on the plane has set in. Maybe I'll plow through the I's after all.

10:45 NY / 7:45 LA
Apparently Horace Mann's last speech included the following quote: "Be ashamed to die until you have won some victory for humanity." Too bad my lovely high school of the same name operated more along the lines of, "be proud of your rich private education because the few of you who have gleaned some sense of social consciousness from this mess of Ivy-league college prep might eventually win a victory for humanity by donating some of your hard-earned corporate lawyer wages to Planned
Parenthood and spending Sunday mornings reading NY Times articles about genocide in Sudan."
Nah, no bitterness there.

P.S. The entry on Madonna? Way less fun than I had hoped.

10:55 NY
When Jacobs starts talking about monkey poop in the "manure" section and I'm totally unamused, I decide it's time to take a break from sitting in the same posture and watch some of the inflight movie.

11:00 NY
We pass over a brightly-lit metropolis. I pretend it's Minneapolis even though it probably isn't. Also, the woman next to me is watching the movie with no headphones. At first I want to offer to lend her mine, but then I remember the broken English she used to ask me the time, and I realize she's not listening because she can't understand anything they're saying anyway. I feel bad for her. Then I think: welcome to the next 4 months of my life.

1:00 NY / 10:00 LA
Hopefully not too much longer. I'm getting sleepy. Hopefully by the time we get onto the plane to Hong Kong this will translate into complete fatigue and I can get some sleep. My back hurts from this chair. Maybe they have free massages in the LA airport... well a girl can dream.

1:35 AM NY
Going down! I really hope the misty haze over LA is a cloud, but it really looks like a second atmosphere of smog.

4:55 AM NY / 1:55 AM LA / 4:55 PM Hong Kong
Aborad the plane and ready to go! The rest of the group seems nice and the seat next to mine is empty, so (fingers crossed) there may be sleep!

11:15 AM . 8:15 AM / 11:15 PM
I took a Lunesta and officially got 5 hours of sleep on a plane! It was glorious. Maybe I can squeeze in a few more after some reading. I feel like the world of sleeping on planes has been unlocked to me. (cue cheesy: "Thanks, Lunesta!")
Also, I got a cookie from the all-night snack stand and then I looked at the little screen and saw where the plane was. Through some strategic pacing of bites, I now have another statistically improbable thing:
- have eaten same cookie on both sides of the International Date Line.
Good cookie, too.

9:45 AM Hong Kong
Well, we're here - we've been sitting around for a while. Here are some trip highlights so far:
- sleeping on the plane. A definite first.
- Really tasty noodle soup in the airport.
- impressing views of a starry night sky, the mountains around Taiwan, and even the surroundings of Hong Kong: I'm excited to be back in December and be able to explore.

12:00 PM HK
Dragonair planes have multi-colored seats and you can see the mist from the air conditioning as it pours into the cabin.
In other news: I feel very non-Asian.

1:25 PM
Some more observations:
I knew what the man in front of me said when he asked for red wine. So at least I can get by in a bar... :)
There seems to be very little inhibiton about slurping noodles. This is good, 'cause the ones they gave us were damn slippery.
I'm almost done with my book. This seems suitable, since in my mind 32 volumes of encyclopedia is almost equal to 30+ hours of travel.
Maybe it's because I know I'm almost there, but this flight is awesome.

1:55 PM
Finished the book. Beginning our descent into Kunming.

Finally, I think, ready to be here.

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Now: Not too much to add except that Chinese food is amazing and they served us the hugest feast I have ever witnessed. Lazy Susan filled with plates. Overlapping each other in stacks.

More in a few days - we leave tomorrow for orientation in Tonghai, a nearby city.

cheers!
s.