First published 6/10/2010 during Elizabeth’s first trip to Chengdu for a two-month study abroad program. Unfortunately that blog site folded a long time ago so I am reposting it here.
Well, it took me a while to get my computer set up, so this is rather delayed, and will most likely be delayed further still since my internet connection is extremely touchy. In the past twenty seconds it has logged me in and out at least three times, not that it matters since no websites are loading at the time that I’m writing this. But I will do my best, and at least write entries in word as often as possible and then upload them as the internet permits.
Day 1: The longest day of my life (literally, and possibly figuratively)
I’m pretty sure that at this very beginning point of my journey, I was already awake thanks to adrenaline alone. The previous night I had gotten very little sleep because I was studying for finals, and then I had to get up at about 3:30 to leave for the airport. Not that that means I was sleepy, just sleep deprived.
Check in at SeaTac went well, although we failed to notice the passport scanner next to us and an assistant had to come over to check us in manually. Well, actually, it didn’t go quite as well as it seemed at the time, as you will soon see. But at the moment everything was fine, they took the baggage, and I made my way through security and to the gate without incident.
I was rather surprised to discover that we were flying a commuter jet. I don’t think I’d ever been on one before, or had to walk out on the tarmac. I was worried that they wouldn’t let me take both of my carry-ons onboard and have to put one in the pile on the tarmac, but nobody said anything so I took them both with me. While we were boarding, the captain announced the destination of the plane, and jokingly added that it would be a good idea to get off if LA was not your destination. As people were chuckling, a businessman sitting in first class jumped up (just as I was passing). He had indeed been booked on the wrong flight! Haha, good thing it was mentioned before we were loaded.
The flight to LA was really smooth. I sat next to a friendly guy about dad’s age who made a couple of jokes, but for the most part my sleep-deprivedness caught up with me and I slept.
We arrived really early at LA, at least twenty minutes early, which was a very good thing because it took a while for me to figure the airport out. I was told to go down to baggage claims, then out to arrivals, where I had to walk down the street until I found the “A” line shuttle bus. It was packed to the brink, and I had to stand in the very front and move aside whenever somebody needed to get off. The good thing was that I could see all of the airlines as we passed the signs, so I had no trouble finding where to get off for Asiana. But wow, I never realized that so many airlines existed! That was pretty amazing.
When I got of the shuttle, an elderly Chinese lady got off with me. I was double checking with the driver that this was the right stop for Asiana and I think she overheard me, because then she asked me if I was flying to China too. I checked her ticket and she was flying a different airline, but I figured the desks were probably close to each other, so we started to look for where we were supposed to go together. Her English was limited and my brain was too tired to think in Chinese, but we basically managed to communicate. We wandered lost for a while because there was a bunch of construction going on and it was very difficult to figure out what was where, but eventually we managed to find an elevator that took us up to the correct floor. Asiana was the first set of desks there, and hers was nearby, so it worked out quite well.
There was hardly any line for Asiana at all. I had a confused moment when I couldn’t remember where I’d put my luggage claim tags, but they were in my neck pouch where they were supposed to be. So anyway, remember how check in seemed to go so well in Seattle? Well the guy at the counter takes a look at the stubs, and then asks me if Chengdu is my final destination, because right now, my bags are only tagged to go to Seoul. Fortunately, he was able to radio down to baggage and they fixed everything. They had a really inefficient system for security, with only two people checking IDs at a time (for a while it was only one person) but I still got through with plenty of time to spare.
While I was waiting in the LAX terminal, a Qantas jet came REALLY close by… sure made me realize just how big those planes are. Actually, my plane was not as big. It didn’t have the upper set of windows. I got a chicken salad sandwich there, which, even though it was a ridiculous $9 for a sandwich I would have bought for $5 at school (same brand and all), turned out to be a good idea since it was the last time I was really hungry for the rest of my travel. I sat across from a guy who was doing some magic tricks with a deck of cards while I ate, which was entertaining.
The flight itself was fine, though long. It annoyed me that they didn’t seem to care about the relative time at either end of the journey, but I can understand why it was structured the way that it was too. They fed us dinner after about an hour in flight. I got the western food, which was steak and potatoes with a roll, a salad, and some cake. I tried to eat it (the lemon cake was quite amazing, actually), but since I’d just eaten lunch I wasn’t all that hungry. Then they turned off the lights for eight hours. I slept for a while, then read and listened to random Chinese music on the headset until I realized it was repeating. I watched an older Chinese movie that I only half followed about a Chinese martial artist during WWII… I think Jet Li might have done a movie about the same story. They brought us a ham and cheese sandwich at about the seventh hour of the flight, which I ate all of. Then after they woke us up about two hours out of South Korea and fed us another dinner of seafood pasta or chicken and rice. I got the chicken and rice and just ate the rice and the roll.
It was really, really foggy when we arrived in Seoul, and I couldn’t see anything except for the airport. I got off the plane and they checked all of our temperatures and took our health forms to make sure that we didn’t have the flu. Then we went up to the main level, where fortunately it was really easy to find the Asiana counter, and the attendant spoke English. She gave me the gate number and directed me through a security station, where they searched my purse because of some mysterious metal object… the retractable chopsticks. That gave the security guard a good laugh when she found them.
The main floor of Incheon felt more like a mall than a concourse. It was lined with all sorts of brightly colored duty-free shops, but I was way too tired by then to feel like looking around much. The gate was right across from an internet café, so I had no problem picking up a signal for my laptop. It did drain my battery quite a bit though, because my battery doesn’t have that great of life.
I had less than an hour to wait before the plane boarded, which was probably good because I was pretty much falling asleep. I slept through most of the flight to Chengdu. It had actually gotten dark by that time, so I only saw some lights. I prayed that my lethargic brain had filled out the customs paperwork right, nearly gagged when they brought dinner and just got a glass of water, and leaned my seat back and slept. The plane was empty, and I had no neighbors in my seats or anyone behind me, so I stuck my carry on under the seat next to me and put my seat all the way back.
The sky was actually clear when we landed in Chengdu, and I got a pretty decent look at the lights down below. When we reached the gate they actually came onto the plane to check our temperatures, which was just as well because that way we didn’t need to wait in a line like we did in Seoul. With so few people on the plane, it didn’t take long at all. Then we walked what seemed like forever down a pretty much un-air-conditioned hallway that couldn’t have been much cooler than it was outside. There were those flat escalator things to ride, but I wanted to walk after sitting so long.
Customs was really straight forward and easy. First they checked our health paper work and questioned us a little bit about our health the past couple of days, then checked our visa’s and entry information, and then we picked up our baggage from the wheel (I didn’t have to wait long for that at all), and took it over to customs where they ran it through an x-ray machine. Right beyond that Stephanie and Wendy (UW and ASU students) were waiting for me, and we loaded everything into a van they hired and they took me to the campus. We had to wait a couple of minutes for someone to come to check us in, and then there was no elevator so a security guard helped me haul my suitcases up to the fourth floor. By the time I was alone in my room I was so tired I didn’t even want to try to figure out what bags the things I needed were in, but somehow I managed, and fell asleep really quickly after that.