Today started off with an earlier run through breakfast and then checkout of the hotel. I was downstairs and in the taxi by about 7:45am. I realize this is extremely early for my scheduled 11:25am flight but I figured it would be better to be in the airport before traffic rather than get myself stuck in traffic trying to get there. It was a fairly easy ride to the airport . The cabby was nice and of course today there is sun where there hadn’t been in the past several days. You should always expect the weather to be at its best when you are leaving a location to go back home to winter. After checking into the flight in the business class line which was basically empty I was told to go to gate 60 for the lounge and the flight would be somewhere near there. I did some shopping in the immediate area before taking the tram across to the gate 60 area. I was very early of course for the flight and by the time it was posted it was showing as half an hour late. I did some shopping in the gate 60 area then found the lounge and checked in. They again informed me my flight would be late. In the lounge I was able to get on the internet and play around for a while on the computer and check over emails. The lounge provides snacks and drinks and so that is also nice to have. I could definitely get used to business class travel.
The flight out of Hong Kong was on a 747 and I sat in the upper section which was fairly isolated from any noise and had plenty of bag storage space. The odd thing was being in a seat that was rear facing instead of front facing. Overall it didn’t do anything different for the flight but for takeoff and landing it was harder to see out the windows even though I was on a window seat. The flight was mostly uneventful with a little bit of turbulence. Unfortunately I only got about 3 hours sleep on it. Which meant I was awake from the majority of the 14+ hour flight. I watched several movies to pass the time away including Faster, with Dwayne Johnson (the Rock from WWE) and that was a fairly bad movie that made very little sense. I then followed up with Hereafter, directed by Clint Eastwood and starring Matt Damon mainly. I liked it but it was definitely on the odd side. After those two movies was the point where I slept. During the first two I had the dinner which was a filet mignon and potatoes and root vegetables. I didn’t eat the root veggies because they were not good. I skipped the dessert. After my short bit of sleeping I was awaken by the teenage Chinese girl next door turning on the seating light and couldn’t get back to sleep. First up for after sleep movies was a Hong Kong film called Frozen. It was not martial arts or anything like that and was the strange story of a woman who was cryogenically frozen in the 80s meeting her daughter and the boyfriend who got her pregnant in the modern day. It had an odd sense of humor by far. I liked it but it would not be for everyone, I can promise that. After that I ended up watching the third of the Narnia films. I was never nuts about the first couple but it was there and I hadn’t seen it . It was about the same as the others so just sort of there. Finally, I watched Inception mainly out of not knowing what else to choose. I think it was an ok movie with Leonardo Di Caprio and a few other people I recognized, including a really old and fat looking Tom Berenger, but the idea and plot were definitely more complex than I was expecting. I think it surprised me because most dream concept movies are too convoluted to be enjoyable. It was a little on the convoluted end but in some strange way it made sense. After the movie was over there was less than an hour to go in the flight and I played a bit of trivia on the entertainment console and basically did really poorly.
After I landed passport control had no line and was really quick. My bag was out of the carousel quickly and I got through customs with no issue. Onto the tram it wasn’t a bad ride from terminal 5 to terminal 1. I had 3 hours for the next flight so of course it was going to be quick. Entering terminal 1 is where the snag came in. I was sent through a full body scanner where I was told there was a “groin anomaly” during the scan. I refrained from any jokes and ended up getting the full pat down search which was a pain of course but I didn’t complain or anything like that. It is easier just to deal with it and be nice or they’ll do it to you every time I suspect. After that treat I found out where my gate was and ate a quick lunch at McDonald’s because I was sort of hungry and it was technically lunch time in Chicago or at least in Boston. Since Boston time was 12 hours off of Hong Kong time I opted to just leave the watch alone completely.
Of course since I was in Chicago and had 3 hours to kill already the plane needed to be delayed an hour before we started to board then another hour on the tarmac. The flight itself was fine. It was an Airbus 320 and I was seat 1A, front row first class. The red wine was not amongst the best I've tasted and the lasagna was too dry to eat so I skipped and ate the salad, roll and cookie. Entertainment was TV shows on the small overhead screens so I just slept what I could. It was a short flight at least, but it was in 2 hours later than I was originally scheduled to land so I didn't get home until 10:30pm. The blamed the delays on air traffic control issues in Boston due to earlier weather. Well, I made it home anyway.
I really liked Hong Kong a lot. Thinking back on it, I had something to do my entire second week there. I can say that I would have liked to get home on Saturday to be used to home time again before starting work. I am at work now and though I wrote most of this on the trip yesterday I can say that I am very tired. Still I cannot complain for the accidental 2 extra days. I got to see a little bit more. I am looking forward to the next trip there already. I liked the office a lot. The people were very nice and helpful. The class was definitely a challenge to deal with the lack of classroom feedback. I realize the reasons for it but it definitely makes things more difficult to do. It sort of makes you feel like you're doing a bad job even if you know you are presenting things correctly. Still I chalk it all up to a learning experience and I will be better prepared for the next class.
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