25 Hours!

I am writing this first post inside my floormate's room at Hong Kong University in the Simon K.Y. Lee Hall (a.k.a. SKY [Lee] Hall). I think his name is Melvin, but I can't remember. Walking through the 6'-wide floor with my two ginormous bags and the Buddy who picked me up from the airport created a lot of commotion and attention, so I got about 6 different people running up to me introducing themselves. I met a KenKen, Michael, Ben, Ivan (maybe that's whose computer I'm typing on right now?!?).

Anyways, total time travel - from when I boarded the plane in IAD to when I physically got off the plane in Hong Kong - took a total of 25 hours (7 am departure on Jan. 7, 8 pm arrival on Jan. 8). Pretty incredible. The actual flight from LAX to HKG was I think exactly 16 and a half hours, but due to complications and delayed boarding, the total trip took longer than expected.

Interesting stories already before I go to bed: after boarding the plane in LAX, a lady on the PA system says 5 people need to get off due to weight regulations. However, the first 5 people to get off would be guaranteed a seat in the business class from San Francisco to Hong Kong and would receive $400 travel credit. This was soooo tempting. After all, I was not sure who I was meeting at the airport (if I had a buddy at all) and so an extra half day would not be that bad, especially in business class, and that extra travel money is a plane ticket to Thailand. For the next 10 minutes I sat in my seat, debating both sides. I thought it would be a great way to start the trip, but at the end of the day I decided to stay where I was. First, I guess I didn't want to take another flight to San Francisco. But the real factor was that the extra leg room in business class would not have made that much a difference because in my row of 3 (where I was on the window seat), the middle seat was empty, so I had extra leg room for sleeping anyways. Granted the seat, service, and extra perks in business would have been just lovely, I figured I should just get there and stick with what I got than make all the changes. So once the 5 people volunteered and got off the plane, we had to wait even longer for the baggage handlers to go through and pick out those 5 peoples' bags to take off the plane. Eventually, the plane took off and I spent the time reading and sleeping, mostly in 4 hour shifts.

Story #2: At immigration, the officer gave me a regular visitors visa stamp instead of a student visa. After informing the officer of her mistake, she called over her superior, who then took me into a back room so that they could not only change my visa on my passport but erase the visitors visa they gave me and correct the computers. I felt like I was going to be taken into a Chinese prison camp, with the waiting and all the officers walking around staring at me. Finally, they returned my passport with the correct visa on it and now I have an extra visitors visa from Hong Kong with a big CANCELLED stamp over it. Whatever, it's all good and fixed now.

It is a quarter after 12 on Jan. 9, 2008. Crossing the Int'l Date Line was pretty crazy, watching the littel airplane fly over it on the little map they have on the tv screens on the airplane. Tomorrow, I will do more exploring, and register my computer and get a HKID, and whatever else I need to do for school.

Laters.

P.S. THE STUPID ROOMS ARE FRIGGIN SMALL! Pictures will come but I can't believe how small my room is, it's ridiculous. It's gonna be a real stretch for me to keep clean in this tiny space.