Wednesday 1.19.11

My flight today was at 6am to JFK. I got to the airport at 4 and there were a shit ton of Vietnamese people with tons of boxes to send over, I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to check in on time but was relieved when one of the airline reps called for everyone whose flight was at 6am. My friend that I met yesterday was also in the line with me. After we checked in, he discovered that he was not on the JFK flight, but on standby. Now the whole situation got a little more ridiculous because changed his flight before me and checked in before me too. He opted to fly to La Guardia and take a taxi to JFK while obtaining a sweet 200 USD travel voucher (on AA, so not as sweet…). I more or less just passed out once I got on the first plane, not really excited that I had to wait in JFK from 7am until 2pm, when my flight left. What felt like seconds passed and we were already landed at JFK. I disembarked and began the journey from terminal 8 to terminal 7. JFK is a huge airport, and they have this pretty awesome sky rail that goes by all of the different terminals, so finding the one I had to be at was not difficult at all. After passing through security I got the usual at mcdonalds, sausage egg and cheese mcgriddle with a hash brown and orange juice. Pretty sweet breakfast, things were looking up again. I found the gate that I was to board my next flight on and passed out on the seats. A few hours later I wake up and find that there is no one at the gate I sit stunned and a little worried until I hear an announcement saying that my flight’s gate had been moved. I got up, found a seat and passed out again. And for that day, I woke up a third time curious where my travel buddy was, I sent him a text and found that he had found another place to sit and that he was going to get a cig. I left the terminal and went out to smoke with him. I was enlightened that I needed to check in again because I was switching airlines and I asked the attendant if my bags had to be rechecked (the attendant in boston said that I was set all the way through Manila), she said that there had been 4 bags checked under my name. I explained that they had printed out too many stickers and that the two on my boarding passes should be the correct one. Everything was set again. later we passed through the security checkpoint again and decided to get lunch before boarding. As we took a seat at the bar, the bartender said that we couldn’t and later found out that he thought I was 16 and it was against the rules for a minor to be at the bar (lol…). We joked with the waiter while we were eating and had a pretty good time. It was time to board, but we opted to sit in the restaurant, for Asians may be the most frustrating travelers ever, despite only a few rows being called, they all decide to line up to board. Complete anarachy. As I got into my seat I check out what cool things are there and to my surprise they had power outlets!

I could go through the whole flight while charging my laptop. God I love the 777-300ER. After a while, the old couple sitting next to me begins to talk to me in Cantonese, I give them a quizzical look and desperately try to explain that I only speak English and after a while they understand. After taking off, my travel friend, sitting in the row in front of me, asks if I had gotten a beer yet, (it was one of our topics of discussion while smoking), and I replied that I had. In my right hand was a green can of Carlsberg beer, brewed in Hong Kong, and 5% alcohol by volume. It was now or never, my first beer in a few months ( those who know me know that I am not a big drinker). The first sip: not so bad. I take out my leftover food from lunch and eat it with the beer, I can now understand why people enjoy drinking beer with somewhat greasy food. I was having chicken fingers with hot sauce. Damn good. I hate to admit, but it took me about 2 hours to finish that one beer. I guess I just need to start off slow. 2 hours down, 14 to go, I spent the remaining time listening to music, sleeping, watching Skins, and reading. Mid-way through the flight, the old man sitting next to me handed me crackers that were not offered by the attendants, very nice gesture. And by the last hour of the flight, the old man and I were pointing out random things outside of my window.

But all in all, this was probably one of the more relaxing long flights that I can remember.