The Flight and Arrival
Feb 7th, 2013 – Not much sleep that night, I was completely geared up to go see Rachel in China! It was so many first things for me… First time in a foreign country, first time I would be somewhere totally foreign (including the language), and the excitement of seeing the woman I love who I hadn’t seen in months, and meeting her family for the first time.
Needless to say, I was really pumped!!! I would be there for Chinese New Year and Valentines day!
With so much at stake, I was also extremely worried that something would go wrong. Car breaking down on the way, or a flight delay, something that would keep me from going… but all was going well. I got to the airport, checked in, handed the security my passport and ticket….
The security officer looked at my passport and looked at me with a serious face and said, “I’m sorry, you can’t use this.”
My heart dropped, and everything started running in slow motion. What could be wrong??? What am I going to do???
She paused a moment, smiled, and said, “You haven’t signed it yet. Here’s a pen.”
I guess security has to get their kicks too. She got me good. If I did her job, I’d do the same.
from there, things went smooth. got to LAX, had a 3 hour layover, then realized 45 minutes before my flight left that I was in the wrong building, but still made it to the gate in time.
I was talking to Rachel during that time…She was becoming convinced I wasn’t capable of making it there.
The 16 hour overseas flight was on Cathay Pacific, and even for economy class, it was pretty comfortable, and the food was decent. plus the personal TVs rocked!
As I don’t fly a lot, I was a little nervous, more turbulence than I was used to. but I would look around at the other people. I figured if they weren’t panicking, I didn’t need to.
Landed in Hong Kong around 7pm (it was now the 8th), got off the plane, and just started following everyone else, as I had no idea where to go. I texted Rachel, who was waiting in the airport to let her know I’d arrived. I got my luggage and started looking around for a giant “B”. She said she would be nearby it.
Well, there were a lot of giant “B’s” but eventually I went through to an area where a ton of people were waiting, so I figured she was in the crowd somewhere. once I saw her, I couldn’t wait to get around the barrier, and hugged her right away. I had made it!
After our hello’s, I started following her around. This was her turf, and I had no idea what to do. We went and booked a cab to take us to Shenzhen. It was a long drive, and eventually we went through the border without a problem. When we got to the stop in Shenzhen, her father was waiting there to take us back to her place.
I was pretty wide eyed during the whole drive, I wanted to see all the sites, and everything was so different, the way everything was laid out, and it’s an odd feeling to see shops, and have no idea what they were selling. Every once in awhile, I’d see a brand name in English that I recognized, but there weren’t a lot of them.
On one hand, I couldn’t believe I was there, and on the other, it was no denying I really was there. I just held on to Rachel tightly, while I was there, with all the amazing things to see, she was the real reason I was there. I had some surprises for her as well…
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