Leavin' On A Jet Plane...

I'm leavin on a jet plane… 13.78 hours ‘til I hit ground again… All of these adventures come exclusively from the plane ride... But now that I am in my host home in Jinhua and have regular, easy internet service, posts should come regularly. :)

Using our phones for the last time.

Alright. We're going to do this BULLETED style :)

--NEWS BULLETIN: I SAW JITKA WITHOUT HER SCARF! That so never happens.But, you get on a different level with a person when you see them go through a full body scan. So Beth and Jitka may have worked for 10 years together, but I THINK the scarf thing made me about even, right?

Jitka trying out her neck pillow pre-boarding.

 --There comes a point in the morning where Myers NEEDS COFFEE. I will bulldoze through people so Beth has coffee. Seriously. Blood, pain, crying, carnage everywhere… But get that woman a good cup of Joe and BAM.  She perks RIGHT UP. But before, look out.

--I am fully convinced that there is no way on earth to feel more like Voldemort than when you walk on a moving walkway in an airport. It’s like you have the power of flight, and the mere mortals walking on the side are poor sad little people (who most likely think the lady who the gleam in her eye, practically dancing on the moving sidewalk is about to lose it).

--I like Beth Myers, but do I 14 straight hours like Beth Myers?! I asked myself these deep philosophical questions today... (Note: The answer is yes. We actually flew very well together. She encouraged me in my grad work, we completed two crossword puzzles together, and woman thought we were a couple. Like I said, whole new level.)

--Asian babies are adorable and super well behaved. They weren’t silent, but for being so young on such a long flight, they did remarkably well. The one seated behind me was precious.  “Li Shing!” (point, point)  “And I am Melanie”.But that was about it that I could get out of a conversation with his mom. I have failed Yi Chen… But also, don’t know if it’s really appropriate to ask a random person where they are from or personal questions, so I didn’t. Every hour and a half or so, I would feel a tiny, one-year-old hand on my shoulder and we would play. We were bffs. Also, there was another tiny, about the same age, beautiful Asian child and they became friends and played with each other in the back of the plane. And suddenly, I was sucked into watching the most adorable thing I have ever seen, and I couldn’t look away. It was like when golden retriever puppies or kittens play: so much adorable the world couldn’t handle it, and that’s why it had to happen in a plane, ladies and gentlemen.

The tent his parents rigged up for him because of window-man.

--When I was a kid in LCC, I used to be able to sleep on airplanes. I think I probably could if I had a window seat or if Beth and I cuddled. Buuuuut I think we’ll pass. It made me miss my mom, though! Love you, mom. Thanks for letting me droll on you.

Our first Chinese experience. Coke. Which is mercifully the same in China.

--Beth got up to go to the bathroom and suddenly, almost on cue, the plane starts shaking and moving up and down and side to side, very turbulent. She’s in the bathroom, she sits down right away to attempt to keep her balance, just like on a seat because it’s so crazy turbulent, and getting shaken like she’s in a snow globe. Well, she’s being thrown all over the place, and her elbow hits the “I need  help sign” so she yells “I DON’T NEED HELP! I DON’T NEED HELP, MY ELBOW HIT THE BUTTON.” Yeah, there was no one outside the door. Just me, rolling on the ground laughing.

--But as long as I’m teasing Beth, it’s only fair that I admit my fault on this plane ride: the buttons on the baby tv. Each seat has a baby TV in front of your seat, and you can listen to music, watch movies or television or play games, and it’s touch screen. I realized about ¾ of the way through the flight you DON’T have to punch the baby tv for it to work. Sorry about punching you in the head repeatedly patient Chinese woman in front of me and miming that you can just lightly tap it when we both got up for a stretch break. Uhm, oops.  :/

--Beth and Jitka got up and had a pow-wow in the back of the plane for well over an hour discussing everything from curriculum to window-movers.

--Asian man beside me watched HGTV in English, which he did not know, for several hours. He must have found House Hunters interesting.  He also chose March of the Penguins twice. Then, to Myers and I’s dismay, he watched Honey Boo Boo. Noooooo. Please, spare yourself! *face palm* Airplanes are fascinating. I could totally do a study where I rode airplanes all the time and watched how people, especially of different cultures, interacted. Because before and after you get off the plane, you don’t know each other, but when you’re on the flight together, you’re this intense kind of neighbor, the kind you can’t escape if they’re mister puts up the window 20 times or you share their joy when you get their baby to laugh heartily and then it’s like you never met each other the second you leave.

 Further, some of the TV/Movie options on these little screens are straight up uncomfortable. Like I have a seat pretty close to the restroom, so if I watched Game of Thrones, things might be a little awkward for the people standing in line…

-- I finally watched “Safe Haven,” it was terrible. Chelsea Haskett you lied. Do not watch that movie. Julianne Hough should stick to dancing.

--Thank you, Lord, for providing an outlet for my laptop so I could complete my second grad project.

--IT SHOULD BE ILLEGAL FOR PEOPLE IN WINDOW SEATS TO OPEN THE WINDOW. I feel very strongly about this. Complete darkness and then BAM! A whole two rows get hit in the face with sunlight. This one person feels like light, so the whole back of the plane is illuminated. I think it must have been how God felt on the first day of darkness… Dark… Dark… LIGHT! I wore my sunglasses to get away from it, in fact. This was literally my only legitimate complaint about the plane. It was shorter than I thought it would be, it wasn’t painful in terms of my seat, I didn’t feel like a sardine. I only slept 15 minutes, but I had expected that as I remembered it from my LCC trips and Becca Gloyeske, one of my soul mates, had warned me. But seriously, locks on the window shades, especially on the man who sat two over from Jitka. J

TOO MUCH LIGHT COMING IN.

--It’s like I exist in a time standstill. It’s four in the afternoon where we’re coming from, but 4 in the morning where we’re going, and we’re flying over the Pacific. So, what the heck time zone are we in. We’re floating, floating… Chasing sunlight as we jump forward, literally, into the future. How cool is that?! And when we come home, we GO BACK IN TIME. We could make a million mistakes and then RE-LIVE AN ENTIRE DAY ala Groundhog's Day style. If you think about that long enough, it’ll baffle you.

Made it!