Well, as if I wasn't excited to be home enough, there was a large earthquake in Taiwan this week and it severed the underwater cables that carry the internet to Hong Kong.
Glad I missed the rollin' n' tumblin.
Connected. It's a good thing.
This will be my shuttle home for the second leg, Seoul to Dallas.
HL7531, a Boeing 777
Sorry...that was pretty lame.
Well, we arrived at 4.55am local time and I headed for whatever was open. They have a Transfer Lounge for those making...well, transfers. They rent out rooms for 6 hours at a time, and I have 7...I could see this working.
But all the cheap rooms were sold out so I sold out. Headed to the gate. Slept for three hours on the seats here until the Filipino Rudeness Tour Group showed up. Having loud music in your car is one thing...thumping down the road as you drive, trying to make a statement (which usually is HEY EVERYONE I AM AN ASS!). But, in an airport terminal playing the dang MP3's at high volume on speakerphone while 10 people around you are sleeping at 5am is just wrong. And, you deserve to be shot.
Ok. Maybe a little extreme,...but,only just a little. Back me up here Chad.
After my rude awakening, I went to the restaurant that Clayton, Frankenfield, Sean Kerr, Leah, Scott and I ate at on my first trip to Korea. I had an American Breakfast with some poor excuse for bacon, two fried eggs (no choice to how they were cooked...almost well done, my least favorite) and a cup of coffee. But, there were three other things on my plate that weren't so "American" that I would pair them with the title "American Breakfast." Kimchee, which I love...pickled cabbage with hot pepper paste, a root of some kind-probably a palate cleanser, and...New England Clam Chowder.
Weird. Not right or wrong but, just different.
Never in my life would I imagine myself enjoying a meal pairing coffee and clam chowder.
I digress.
This airport rocks...free wi-fi.
I just got off the phone with Cheryl, and Dad, and Jo Anna. I am sitting at the gate and this is the very beast about to bring me to Seoul for a super early in the morning arrival.
Mayhaps they'll have free wi-fi too...and I can update again.
Cheers!
The 24 hour trip home begins at almost 1am my time, and concludes 10am Dallas time.
Here goes the longest December 21st I've ever had!
Hong Kong to Seoul, Seoul to Dallas. If you want to track the flight, click on the leg you want to see, after 12.40pm EST
I can be pretty emotional sometimes.
Earlier this year, I was kicked in the face by how many weddings I was honored to be a part of. There were plenty of others who deserved the humbling honor of standing with these men as they made their vows. Supporting these men, as they take on the most privileged and sobering reality of leading and nurturing a family as a husband. And, being up there, I was also making a commitment to their wives. I was stating with my participation that I would ask these men the tough questions about their husbandry for the rest of my life and theirs, to make sure these guys are doing their jobs.
The weddings were all in a span of a few weeks, and they all were just as I was trying to figure things out for this little adventure I am on right now. Sorry to say I didn't give them the 'once in a lifetime' attention that they deserved...I was a little preoccupied and selfish. Sorry to those guys if I came across distracted.
BUT...the reasons I am telling you this is not that I suck...we know I do! But, I am getting to the point. Being the Best Man signs you up to pick these newlyweds up from the airport after the honeymoon too! I had this opportunity twice.
While sitting and waiting at the International Arrivals terminal at DFW, I noticed something. I was getting emotional. I was choking up at the people meeting people. Homecomings, reunions, first time to see baby, funerals, vacations...all in one place.
Maybe that's why I like aviation so much. The romance of it. I think of my grandfather who was stationed in England during WWII. I think of him coming home...and basically moving into my Great Grandmother's house, taking over my grandmother's room and basically kicking her out of her own room! (his house was only 15 minutes away). But, I think he did it because he loved my grandmother. Maybe in a way that we as onlookers may never comprehend. His way.
I think of a time when people actually dressed up to fly. When flying was an adventure, something unfamiliar. Something...that was...well...exciting!
Tomorrow I leave to come home for the holidays. For the first time, there is someone other than my family who longs to see me. For the first time I am anxious to see those International Arrival doors open and I have no idea how I will react. But, I like to think this holiday movie says all of the above and then some...
Tonight I will go home and do my last load of laundry before heading home. Tomorrow after school, I will pack, grab my things and have them ready by the door for Wednesday morning.
Christmas parties at school, trip to the bank, and I am on my way.
Been waiting to post this...
It's cold. And it's wet.
And I live and work in a solid concrete building. It's only 63 outside...might be 58 inside. There are so few cold days here that none of the homes have heating. At best you get an electric heater on wheels.
Oh...and all my cold weather clothes are...in Dallas.
Four more days and I'll be heading home to be with them.
(editor's note): in response to Jo Anna's posted comment...here are my guesses:
1. those crazy good saltine cracker candy deals
2. hummus
Yesterday I had a great day.
I left school and decided to take out my frustrations by walking through the wet market. A wet market is where they have meat, veggies, live chickens, live fish...stuff like that...oh and tons of people trying to get the best price and the best quality usually in high volume yelling.
Imagine the floor of the stock exchange, add in the 80's craze of mothers buying Cabbage Patch Kids, and throw them both into a kind of a farmers market but with live stuff too. And...anything you want is butchered (prepared) to order and usually every estate (bunch of buildings built by one developer) has one.
So there is this one stall that has chickens that I walk by a lot. I always take a peek every time I go there. I have been really wanting to see what I assume happens to those chickens.
I have never seen the actual process of chicken harvesting. Between seeing all those overstuffed Pilgrim's Pride Chicken trucks heading down the Interstate in Texas, and only ever seeing chicken come in plastic wrapped Styrofoam trays...I was very curious.
My mother told me once of her mother...or maybe grandmother, cutting the head off of the chickens and throwing them out the back door to, well, run around like a chicken with it's head cut off, until they were expired. Then, a little de-feathering and cooking up some tasty vittles.
This seems to gross us out these days. This is how it is done around the world and yet we are so squeemish about it.
I finally got my chance! And it was interesting. If you want to know how it happens, just email me, I will be glad to share.
From there I headed out to get some sushi...thought of my sister a lot! Had a great meal. By the time the day was over I saw little octopus...octopi if you will, a chicken get whacked, fish gutted, pig faces and other parts.
It was neat.
Tis the best time o the year!
And this made me laugh even more...
"Tis the season to be Merry." "Mary? That's my name!" "No..."
All these years I thought she was just trying to promote ease of life...turns out she has been trying to kill you with Diabetes.
This city…
this city…unfurls. I guess it’s like a flower. But it’s not…you don’t have to catch it at the right time…you know…during the right elements to see it’s real beauty. It just is.
At each turn rests what seems to be like a picture…ripped out of some magazine by a reader who decides someday…someday, he will see that in person. It’s Asia…It’s the Orient…it’s the Far East. It’s Hong Kong.
It’s my home right now. And though it lacks the people I love, it is home to me. Routines are developed. Daily rituals take place, and I wave at the same neighbors each morning. I smile at the Patriarch of the family (there are 10 children and grandchildren with him) and we smile nervously at the bus stop hoping the other doesn’t start talking because we don’t understand each other. But we smile. And…we laugh at each other…together. These are people I call my friends. These are the little things that make my day feel grounded.
Almost 15 years ago I had a similar entry that I wrote to my grandmother in a letter. Another different far country…but, still yet the same description. If I remember it right, it said something like this, “Grandma, it’s like a picture out of TIME magazine here. Just so vivid…and surreal.”
While I was remembering this, it dawned on me that as one of the students was saying my name from down the hallway at school, that it is very likely that the only time my family’s name has ever been used in this part of the world...has been with the arrival of these two feet.
Dad did some business in Japan…so I can’t take that away from him…he gets Japan. Probably the only time the words, “Biggey Al” were ever said over there. So, while he and I walked the same halls of the same airport ten years apart, I’ll take China, South Korea, and Hong Kong…and if all goes well, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, and maybe The Philippines. At least I am not competitive. (and I’m about to get to a Lawry’s he hadn’t gotten to yet….YES!)
But the idea of the feet are something I cannot get past. There is a passage of Scripture that says, “How beautiful are the feet that bring good news.” Well, the downside of that is that they also bring Mad Cow disease and others, so…wash your shoes people! But the idea that when I land in Dallas on the 21st, the dirt on the edges will be from Hong Kong. Half-way around the world from you, dear reader.
Where was I…ahh yes, the beauty that is my current home. I decided to walk to the grocery store today and these are the things that inspired me as I walked. Mountains, Valleys, Trees, Sailboats, it was a long walk. But, I also saw tons of butterflies and one lizard. By the way…they look too much like snakes…they should all die…just for that reason.
What just happened?
