Thursday, August 6, 2009

The Long Strange Trip Week 1

On Saturday August 1, 2009 Daisy, Corra, and I arrived at Los Angeles International Airport bound for Hong Kong on United Airlines. The anticipation and excitement that hung thick in the air got bludgeoned when the United Airlines desk clerk informed us at 4 of our bags were each 2 pounds overweight and we needed to remove things to get underweight. Simple mathematics eluded the desk clerk who couldn’t comprehend what I meant when I explained that our other two bags were each almost 10 pounds underweight so it balanced out. We raced to the gate to catch our flight now 15 minutes from leaving, only to be informed that San Francisco was fogged in and the flight would be delayed at least an hour.

After such an inauspicious start to the voyage, the flights went swimmingly. Corra was an absolute champ on all the flights sleeping through her first two takes offs and one landing. If you ever travel with an infant, an iPod loaded up with Baby Einstein is an absolute essential. Besides the excessive amounts baby videos and replacing the milk in her bottle with Bailey’s we did nothing different with Corra and she pulled through in style.

We arrived in Hong Kong on Sunday bone tired only to discover a cheeky baggage carousel refusing to give us our last piece of luggage. After asking the same United desk clerk who told us our bags were overweight and was now miraculously in Hong Kong, they magically found our bag. If ever given the opportunity, please avoid United Airlines. (Just in case you haven’t seen it, I would highly recommend that catchy little tune “United Breaks Guitars”. Ask me sometime, and I’ll tell you about the time United Airlines lost my grandmother. No, not my grandmothers bags…my actual grandmother.).

We spent three days in Hong Kong and while I would love to tell you that we did all kinds of things. We really just recovered from jet lag and the actual high lights included a roof top pool overlooking Hong Kong, an amazing buffet, a category 8 typhoon, and being accosted by every Indian tailor in a six block radius.

We crossed into China with a large amount of bags and filling out multiple entry and exit forms while trying to avoid be trampled by the hordes of people that complete the crossing everyday. After a taxing day we settled for the closest approximation of good old American food we could find, a sushi bar.

The campus where I will be teaching is great and I was told they are going to be a building a 24 storey building for the business school.

Corra is a freaking rock star in here in China. Everywhere we go, people wave, play, and gather around Corra. The ladies in the police station were walking her around and putting or passport photos upon large computer screens just to watch her giggle.

We are adjusting well and getting over our jet lag. We are working on our Chinese and trying to find an apartment. The weather is 90 degrees and 90% humidity. Anyone from California has no idea what that means but if you have ever been there, you quickly learn that you can sweat from body parts you didn’t know existed. I really wish there was more excitement to report but for now we’re just trying to settle into life in China. Once there are pictures to post, we will be posting. Hope all is well wither everyone and don’t be a stranger on skype.

Christopher, Daisy, and the Artist Formerly Known as Corra

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