Philippines journal, day One

hello from hong kong!

i'm currently waiting in the hong kong airport terminal for my connecting flight to manila. thankfully, they have free wifi in the airport! isn't that awesome?!? geez, asians and their technology advancements... anyways, i thought i would take this opportunity to tune you in on how things have gone so far.

well, i only got an hour of sleep last night given my flight was at 7 AM and my parents wanted me to be at the airport at 5 because it was an "international" flight, even though my flight out of houston was to san francisco... anyways, i was just glad that they drove me and packed most of my things, i'm really thankful for them.

onto the flight, i expect to just sleep the entire way through because i'm EXHAUSTED, but lo and behold, they put on an office episode. what?!? oh, hol up girl. you diin't just put on my favorite show. anyways, it was the rabies awareness fun run episode which was hilarious. unfortunately, they followed that up with paul blart: mall cop which i understandably snoozed through. i wake up and it happens to be about 10 mins to landing, YES!!

quick side note: so, i have a window seat, right? so it's just common sense that i have power over the window, right? so i closed it to sleep and when i got up, it was still closed. however, this kid of about 14 or 15 who looks like a cross between donald duck and alfalfa from the little rascals leans over and opens it about an inch. really?! and then he has the gall and audacity to do it again, and then AGAIN! i wanted to slap his hand like bender did to brian during the lunch scene in the breakfast club.

back to the story. i arrive in san fran, grab myself a wonderful, amazing, delicious club sandwich... mmm, my stomach just grumbled thinking about that mayo, and bacon, and lettuce... wow, talk about comma splices, but who cares thinking about those turkey slices... and while in line, this older gentlemen in front of me turns around and says, oh, i've read that book. in my hand was a book given to me by my brother titled outliers: the story of success. we chit chat while in line and he turns out to be from houston as well, but he's going to osaka. anyways, i just thought that was cuuurazy. there are literally millions and billions of people out there for me to meet. also, there are millions and billions of sandwiches out there for me to try, but i'll take a good ol' club sandwich any time.

my 13 hr flight to hong kong was delayed about a half hour so that was a little disappointing, but it shortens my layover in hong kong, so no biggie. i must say, that was the LONGEST flight ever. no disrespect to amelia earhart, but wow, they had a time countdown and i swear, when i took naps, i would wake up to time being added to the countdown. oh, it didn't help that their audio and video controls weren't functioning. great, no movie or office episodes.

however, we did have food!! and it was terrible airline food, either. the first meal was some beef and potaters with carrots, a ranch salad which i didn't even touch, and a brownie. oh, and all the apple juice you could drink. and the second "meal" was half a cup of ramen and a lemon cookie. psh, you're damn right i asked for a second cup and another lemon cookie, a man's gotta eat! but at least i had a hilarious plane mate. so unfortunately, i had an aisle seat and the guy, i'll call him "neckstache" had the window seat. now look, i call him neckstache for a reason because this dude had a neckstache. he revolutionized the term "facial hair" and added the neck area. no moustache, no goatee, no side burns, just a neckstache. i will most definitely upload a pic at some time because i didn't believe it when i saw it.

anyways, that's pretty much what's happened up to this point... oh, they're boarding!!! see you in the philippines!

thanks for reading!

-jdv

p.s. - listen to eminem's new album relapse. not that i'm a fan or anything, but seriously, listen to it. if you don't want to buy it, youtube these tracks: 3 AM, insane, hello, same song & dance, and underground. sick, sick rhymes.