Our first day on the trip was a travel day. Some of us BARTed over to SFO and checked in at United's counter w/o complications. Our only minor snafu was the length of time it took for Abby to get her seats. For a brief moment, we thought, oh, Abby will have to stow away in one of our luggage pieces -and there were plenty. After the 15Gang received seat assignments, along with about 100 other passengers, we packed up our bags, cameras, IPods, sandals, and numberless anxieties and climbed into the plane. Departing from SFO at 12 noon on Saturday, we traveled for what seemed like 50 gazillion hours to arrive at Hong Kong's airport on Lantau Island on Sunday, Jan. 7th, at 7:00 p.m. What a waste of time sitting inside the plane for all those hours, you say? Well, it was rather exciting to know that we flew over Siberia -- something so utterly foreign and distant from my normal existence that I still find it difficult to believe.
Time flew very slowly even though we were speeding at several hundred miles per hour in that metal contraption. We were over-fed with airplane food, and there wasn't enough room to exercise. The Gang was dispersed throughout the plane, with Dr. Kuan and Dr. Tran seated in Business Class. (Humph. Elitists!) Most of us had to crawl over one another to get to the restrooms or to get the circulation in our legs going again. Some of us slept throughout the entire trip (Theresa?) and only got up once or twice. Others ran out of batteries on the IPods and nearly went insane. (Only later did Gary mention that we could have possibly sat in the lavatories to plug in our IPods and watch movies. It's a perfect space, really. Except for the missing flotation device under your seat and a seatbelt, you've got everything you need inside, including a button to call for an attendant. "Would you like drinks with that, sir?")
My seat mate for the trip to HK was Candis (see Candis in photo, front row) -- a lovely individual who continues to surprise me. Candis is a professional musician who very recently retired from the Air Force (She was in the band -- I was in band! Yay! But not so professional like Candis). She and her oboe have a special connection -- she carries Oboe w/ her to all the shows, and there were plenty in the twenty years dedicated to our Air Force. She is an incredible woman, with such stories (like when the band went on tour and the equipment truck caught on fire and the instruments - not Oboe - burned to a crisp. Or like when she entered a mini-triathlon and won first place in her category! )
We arrived at HK airport on Sunday night and were greeted by Undergrads at the University's Dept. of Religion. They escorted us to a bus which drove us through my very first scenes of Hong Kong. The lights, the lights! The buildings shimmering in the reflection in the Bay as we drove and drove.
We checked into the Caritas Bianchi Lodge for the duration of our Hong Kong journey. The lodge was clean, the staff very kind, and the food, oh, the glorious food. Many of us were very pleased to find scrambled eggs and ham and toast and juice and fruits of the recognizable kind. Others of us really enjoyed the Chao/porridge and the rat noodles (no, not those kinds of rats!) and the banh baos. Delicious! We really were fatigued upon our arrival, but knowing that we were standing in HK gave us extra boosts of energy, so we all went exploring Temple Street night market.
Next post, it's all about the night's outing...!
No comments:
Post a Comment