reasons i hate flying

The main reason I hate flying is because every time I board a plane I'm afraid I'm going to die. To combat this pretty irrational fear, I've developed several "don't freak out" flying techniques, including (in order of importance): 1. xanax 2. soothing mantras such as "the pilot doesn't want to die today, so he'll get us to our destination safe and sound" 3. sleeping 4. more xanax. If I'm awake during a flight, chances are I'm highly medicated or I'm quietly freaking out inside my head, trying to convince myself that everything will be alright.

For someone that travels as much as I do, you'd think I would have gotten used to the whole flying experience by now. But no, it doesn't work like that I guess.

The OTHER reason I hate flying is because airlines today totally suck and flights are always late and/or canceled.

Rod was supposed to be here two hours ago, but he's not because his flight was delayed leaving LAX and he missed his connection in SFO and they couldn't get him on another flight until tomorrow. I literally had a minute-by-minute countdown going on until his arrival, so I was very sad when I opened my Gmail inbox today and saw a message from his brother explaining that Rod wouldn't be arriving in Shanghai until Saturday.

Current countdown: 22 hours. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that nothing goes wrong tomorrow. I'm also going to be buying a direct flight home so I don't have to go through the hassle of being stuck in a connection city. Can you imagine how horrible that would be after 10 months in China and just wanting to finally be home? It gives me goosebumps just thinking about it.

ni hao from china!

I made it to Shanghai safe and sound, despite my initial mishaps at the airport. My flight from Vancouver to China didn't seem as long as it really was (nearly 13 hours), probably because I was asleep most of the time. I managed to watch two movies, which was pretty awesome and they had a huge selection to choose from. Foreign carriers are so much better than any American airline out there, if you ask me. Everyone got their own touch screen video monitor and there were about 25 movies, 30 or so different TV shows, a bunch of video games, and an endless selection of music to choose from. Go Air Canada!

The food was very strange, sort of a mixture of Chinese and American food, but they had these cute mini-soy sauces that were in plastic fish containers. I don't know why anyone would want soy sauce for mashed potatoes, but when in Rome, I guess. We got two meals and then right before we landed everyone got a Cup O' Noodles which made me laugh. It seems a little dangerous to serve soup right before landing, doesn't it?

I'm still jet-lagged and have been waking up at 5AM every morning. I wouldn't mind if that side effect of jet-lagginess continued because I've been getting a ton of stuff done in the mornings when everyone else is sleeping.

Overall, China is nothing like what I was expecting. People tell you all these things about a country before you go, and then when you actually get there it seems like everything is different than what you've heard. There are pretty much NO white people here, which is totally fine by me because I want (and need) to make Chinese friends, but I was told there was a huge ex-pat population in Shanghai, specifically in the area of town where I am living (Pudong).

Me and some friends took the metro last night and we were the only white people in a sea of Asians. I tend to stand out because of my hair, which is a good and bad thing. Good because people always come up to me and want to talk, bad because people always come up to me and want to talk. It's a double-edged sword. Maybe in a few days when I'm not so tired all the time I'll feel more comfortable experimenting with my Chinese, but at this point I don't even remember any of the 2 months of instruction I had and have been surviving off of "ni hao" and "xie xie" and a lot of pointing to things.

plenty of misadventures already

My flight left San Francisco at 6 o'clock this morning which meant I needed to be there at 4 AM which meant I needed to leave my house by 2:30. Well, I personally hate SFO because when compared to other huge international airports, the layout is a total mess. Of course we got semi-lost just trying to find the departure area since there was no "Air Canada" in the international area. And this was before we even got out of the car.

We ended up finding where we thought we were supposed to be, but after 45 minutes of waiting and the clock ticking closer to 5 AM, I called Air Canada customer service and asked what time the check-in area at SFO is supposed to open. Long, boring story short, we were in the wrong area, and had to go to some area of the airport I had no idea even existed and of course the lines were HUGE and my flight was scheduled to leave in under an hour. Keep in mind they close check-in 45 minutes prior to take off.

We start off in one line but then we're told we can't be there so they send us to another line. That line was gigantic so I went and pleaded with some lady who sent us to another line. And this whole time me, Mom, and Dad are lugging my two 50 pound bags around and my carry-on across the airport.

At last, some wonderful little man in a knit sweater checks me in and I think I'm in the clear as I skip off to security...then the security guy tells me my carry-on is too big and I need to empty some of the bulk. Um, that's nice, but at this point it's 5:30, I have NO WHERE to empty "the bulk" AND I still have to go through security. Mom ran off and got this huge plastic bag that they wrap around some strangely shaped luggage (my hiking back pack, for example) and I dump all my school books into it and show Mr. Security High-and-Mighty that my carry-on is smaller and lug the suitcase, my purse, and a giant plastic bag through security.

I made it to the gate right before it closed (think Home Alone frantic running through the airport shenanigans), then proceeded to sleep the entire 2 hour trip to Vancouver. I have an hour and a half before I board my plane to Shanghai. Is it possible to back out at this point?

everything's up to date in kansas city

So Noelle and I FINALLY arrived in Kansas City, Missouri after 10 hours of traveling. Noelle is moving to KC for her job as a restaurant manager for Hillstone (owners of an upper-scale quasi-chain, including Houston's, Gulfstream, and Bandera) and she has two cats she needed to bring with her. Her ticket was first class, and American Airlines accepts pets, so she didn't think it would be a problem to bring them both with her...until she checked the size limit for pet carriers and realized she couldn't fit both cats in one carrier. She wanted to buy an extra ticket for her cat, but the airline wouldn't let her. She should have just told them she was a fatty and needed two seats, since that's an acceptable reason to buy an extra ticket. Long story short, I got suckered into coming along so I could bring one of her cats. I feel so bad for them, they were stuck in those carriers all day with no food or drink. Surprisingly, they barely meowed on the flight, at least not loud enough to wake me from my Xanax-induced slumber.

First, I should mention that I am terribly afraid of flying (see Xanax passage above...never leave the ground without it!), which sucks since I fly so often. Intense fear in combination with the common delays of flying make airports and airplanes pretty negative spaces for me (totally not Zen). That being said, it's often difficult for me to find an enjoyable aspect to flying, especially since I do my best to stay asleep the whole time. Today, though, I was totally psyched to unveil my super cute new luggage tags from fluffshop.com. If you're my friend, you probably received one of these for Christmas because they are SO EFFING CUTE that I couldn't help but share the love.

At just $14 each, these little guys are the perfect way to add some pizazz to your luggage. Even though luggage comes in SO many different styles now (I have anchor print, myself) most people still use the same generic blue and black, and these luggage tags are an inexpensive and adorable way to make your luggage easier to spot in the sea of Samsonite. With so many different styles it's difficult to choose just one, so hopefully you have several pieces of luggage in need of tags. My favorites are the cupcake, high heel, and dog tags---all of which come in different colors and styles. I'm sad they don't have a pomeranian dog tag, but they have over a dozen different breeds to choose from, including pug, terrier, and scottie dogs! Do you love it? I do!