Flying into the Night...

So my last day in the good ole US of A was frantic. Running around doing errands and freaking out about stuff not getting done in time, all made worse by the lack of sleep and lack of food leading up to it. But it was worth it. The farewell bar night and party at City Park were awesome and allowed me to see most people at least once before I left. I didn’t get to fit in everything I wanted to do (like the shooting range and filming some video shorts) but the important stuff got done and I still had time for the Hellogoodbye concert and a good amount of napping. Although, I have to say I was a bit disappointed in the HGB show – he kept forgetting lyrics and just seemed too high to perform well. Oh well, they were bound to be off one time since I’ve seen them so much.

So, last meal at IHOP and some How I Met Your Mother and it was time to go to the airport. I’ve known about going to Hong Kong since February but it didn’t really hit me until KT was driving me to the airport. I’d just said goodbye to everyone I know. The next familiar face I’d see was going to be in December, or maybe not even until I came back to the USC Campus. Well, this was what I asked for. I wanted to be thrown completely from my comfort circle. No going back now and despite the sadness, I am really excited for this semester.

The flight to Canada was pretty nice. I was next to an elderly couple who were amazed about my upcoming journey. They were very chatty and seemed nice but all I wanted to do was sleep at this point. Luckily, they decided to watch a movie so I could finally get some peace. The rest of the 3 hour flight from LA to Vancouver was dream filled bliss.

I passed the time between flights with a couple guys who were on my first flight – one heading to Shanghai and the other to Beijing. It was really nice to talk to people kind of in the same situation I’m in. (And nice to prove to myself I’m not as socially awkward as I picture myself sometimes, haha)

In not so nice news, I tried to use my USC bank card to get a meal in the Vancouver airport….it was declined because I didn’t mention Canada in my travel note. So once I land, I hope I have enough cash on me to get a phone that works and then call the USC Credit Union to fix this. I exchanged US$300 for HK$2050. Man, that seems like so much money. Also, due to the card problem, the guys bought my lunch. So there’s the silver lining to that situation!

The flight to Hong Kong was looooong. 13 hours and we actually arrived early. I spent the first 3 hours of the flight asleep. Rachel, a Canadian CUHK girl on the same flight as me, tried waking me up 3 times – poking, talking, etc – and nothing worked! I finally woke up on my own and found her and Logan (another Canadian CUHK kid) at the back of the plane enjoying the free drinks on transatlantic flights. Logan had had 4 beers, 2 rum & cokes, and glass of wine already. It was then that I knew this was going to be a fun trip. The next 9 hours were spent talking about Canada and how it’s the 51st state, the stupidity of the American South, different reasons on picking CUHK, previous travel experiences, movies and television, and more. It was weird to me when they commented on my accent. They’re the ones with the “oot and aboot” accent! Interspersed with all this was some napping and some pretty terrible airplane food (they served cup of noodles with apple slices as a meal!) They’re both really nice people. They’re both in I-House though, so I’m not sure how much we’ll actually be able to see each other once the semester starts.

Ok that's it for now. This was written on the plane when I had lots of time and nothing to do. I don't think all entries will be this long. I'll update about my first day in HK once it's done...only about half way through and I'm already tiiiired.