Arriving

     I have officially arrived in Hong Kong and am waiting to be taken to the CHES flat.

     This morning seems a world away and in a sense it almost is. It was a lot harder to walk away from my family than I thought it would be and when my Dad said “I love you” I lost it.

     It has never ceased to amaze me how smoothly everything has gone. I had no problems in Tulsa or Detroit, in fact both planes arrived to their destination early. 16 hours if far to long to be in a plane, but I did have a two college kids sitting next to me, which was nice because it gave me someone to talk to. The girl has my skype name so we will se if anything comes from it. 16 hours gives you a lot of time to think. I realized that on a plane you are stuck going forward. There is no reverse and there is no eject button. You are trapped on the plane until it touches ground one way or another. Especially when you are over the ocean, there you can’t even make an emergency landing. Its not like being in a car and if you change your mind you can turn around, it forces you to go through with your decision.

     As we were landing I had this realization that I maybe a little bit over my head. It feels like a sink or swim situation and right now I’m struggling to tread water. As I got off the airplane signs were in English, but if they weren’t I would be completely and utterly lost. When I was in Europe I never had this fear. I could always at least make out a few words regardless of the language and I knew German which gave me an upper hand. Here not so much.

“Don’t let them see you sweat”

     I do have to say that Hong Kong is a very English friendly place. I have again had no problems. I was worried about lugging three bags on wheels and it almost was a problem getting on the train. However, there are Chinese attendants to help you with your excess American luggage. Thank you random women, you will never know how much your little bit of help, helped calm my nerves ever so slightly.