No plane should be able to stay in the air for that long....

Back by popular demand, it's this travel blog! I hope those reading this can appreciate the lengths I went to to remember my ancient username and then create a google account just so I could post here.

I woke up at 5:30 on Thursday to finish cleaning the place and left Nimue under the bed and hiding. I'm sure by now she has figured out that I'm not around. Whose ankles will you attack now? Huh?

I took a taxi and was at the gate two and a half hours before boarding. How was I supposed to know that the traffic would be light, customs would have no line and security would be a breeze. They made me take my shoes off and all I could think of was "D'oh. I have holes in my socks."

The flight to New Jersey was in a tiny plane with almost no overhead storage or leg room, and tiny yet very cushy leather seats. It felt like one of those old boat cars from the 70s only in airplane form. It roared and swayed and hiccuped as it made its approach into New Jersey.

We then had a couple of hours before boarding our flight to Hong Kong. We had to take a shuttle bus to terminal C and then find gate number C123. As we walked along the little concourse, I had to stop in the Body Shop and was happy to take advantage of the sale on body butters. I had actually been sad that I would be going to Hong Kong without taking advantage of that sale so I was very pleased with myself. We wandered through duty free and I decided that the new Burberry scent is a good one. We had to check in with the desk at our gate because the Boeing 777 was oversold. It was one of those giant double aisles things. I had been dreading it because the thought of flying over the Pacific on Continental Airlines really didn't appeal to me at all.

In the end we were on that plane for over 18 hours. The lights were off most of the time. It was one of those new planes with individual televisions on the seat in front of you with a choice of over 350 movies and various tv shows and games. After watching 27 dresses, princess bride, step up 2 - the streets (and yes, it sucked), and pirates of the caribbean, and then playing solitaire over and over again until I won, and trying to play galaxy quest, I just could not stand to look at anything anymore. I do not want to talk about the food. Just let me say that a hot cheeseburger in a vacuum-sealed bag thrown onto your tray mid-flight is a crazy, crazy idea and who ever came up with it should have to eat one.

We passed over the polar ice caps and since it's midnight sun season, a lot of us had a look out of the back window. Sheets of broken ice as far as they eye could see. And so bright that my entire vision was in a purple haze for a minute or so afterwards.

We took a shuttle from the airport to our residence and for some reason the shuttle did not have a storage compartment under the bus so we had to lift all of the luggage onto the bus with us. It was hilarious. My first views of Hong Kong were lit up bridges and skyscrapers with lights. I didn't really see the mountains until this morning.

We are staying at the Baptist University in a ghetto area in the New Territory. The university is all concrete brick that smacks of iron curtain slovakia. The skyline of the city is very promising and I hope to do some exploring of that tomorrow. When I walked into the room they assigned me, it was like being hit in the face with a blast of mildew shot out of a blow hole of a whale. I kid you not. Even after turning on the air conditioner, the room was really really bad so I actually complained, and asked for another room, and, after being told that there were no rooms, to they didn't know, to they had to check, to come back to an hour, to "oh yes here you go", I moved into my current room at midnight. At this point I had been up for 32 hours. Anyway, the new room is fine and I write to you looking out some of the city. Check the video.


So far I've learned that people drives like maniacs and it's hard to orient yourself because there are beautiful steep mountains and water all around. It's rainy season and there are fingers of clouds that have been hovering over the mountains all day. It's very beautiful.

We visited our school today and all of the hallways are outside and everything is open concept. Very hard to describe. A very different place. I hope to arrange a field trip to the Wet Lands for my class and the other science class. They look breathtaking.

That's all for now. Thanks for visiting.
Leslie