Getting Here

8/15/2007 Getting Here



So…I can’t get access to my blog over here, but that is ok. I have some contacts back home that are more than happy to post things for me (thank you Abby). But I am a ways behind in sharing my experiences and I want to make sure that I share them b/c there have been some great ones and I am learning a lot. Something to be Thinking about is that I can’t check my friend’s blogs either and it is really important to me to be connected with them, so I hope to find a way to do that still.



Well, how about my first story… I arrived to SeaTac only to find long lines and disgruntled travelers. I finally made it to the security checkpoint only to be told that my Nalgene full of water couldn't go through (I am a fool, should have known). The security lady said I could poor it out outside and wait in line again/drink it/toss it. I decided there was no way I was standing in the Hades line again and then I debated about drinking it, but it was full and I felt like the guy behind me was sympathetic and I could have asked him, but didn't want to, so I just tossed it. I then made my way to the N gates where I get in line for a bagel only to be standing next to the same guy again. Not that weird, but I board my plane an hour later...he is on it. I get to San Francisco and have to leave the security gate to deliver mail I forgot to take care of earlier and then go back in and as I am on a moving walkway to my gate someone hits my bag, same guy. I am like "Where are you going?" of course...Shanghai. I tell him I am going there as well and I ask him what he is doing and he tells me he has been studying there for 8 years and he has a lot of the same Passions I do about living here. We got a chance to talk some more and then I met some more people on the same flight from his company and we all talked for a while and sat in the same area of the plane (which was only half full...great deal). On the plane we exchange information and he tells me that he wanted to help me drink my water...too bad I didn't ask. But I get to Shanghai and one of my bags doesn't come through. I am like, what in the world do I do. I don't know where I am staying, what Jen's cell # is (she is my teaching teammate in Guiyang that I would be traveling with and she was on the other side of customs), or how to even tell them my bag is missing. But this guy just comes in, has them send it to his place gives him his # and takes care of it all. The next day he has them drop it off at my hostel and bam, everything is just fine.



Quite the story, I think. Just a reminder of how I am Taken care of.