My Slightly Crazy Long but Blessed Flight Home

My day began at 4:40 am May 14. Jeff calls and arrives 15 minutes later to pick me up and take me to the C'ville airport. And for those of you that know, he basically guilt-tripped me into letting him drive me. He is waayyy too nice. The night before I was busy packing with Dave busy moving my stuff into his apt (I still feel kinda bad because I dumped the Himalayas in his room) and I eventually finished the day by watching Ratatouille with Twobelle, Huuuster, and the Honorary Asian. Since I got back to my empty prison cell around 1:40 and then needed to be up in 3 hours, I decided to not go to bed at all. Thus, I basically slept the entire way on my flights.

I hate flying with a passion because I get sick. I absolutely hate any non-aisle seats because I either get stuck next to a person that refuses to let me go to the bathroom or I don't have leg space at all (and yes, even though my legs aren't crazy long, they aren't short either). But I felt as if God was covering me the entire way. On the way from C'ville to DC, the seat next to was empty, so I completely took advantage of the empty area below the seat and stashed my huge-non-stow away-cabinet fitting luggage there. Then from DC to San Francisco I was giving an aisle seat on the huge 767 and had the most non-existent seating neighboring. He slept the entire way and not once asked me to get out of my seat. Praise the Lord that even though I got lost in the SanFran airport I still made it to the gate on time and boarded without any problems. Unfortunately economy class was not overbooked and I was not upgraded to business or first class. I entered the 747 to discover that I wasn't given an aisle seat, but a seat smack-dab in the middle. Thus, I was keeping my fingers crossed, hoping it would between two nice people that wouldn't be constantly walking out and taking over parts of my seat. I walked over to aisle 38 and realized it was mother and two babies. Just before the complaining mind-set of mine kicks in, the mother points to the grandmother and asks me, "Would you mind switching seats with her?" I look over and discover that the switch they are offering is the AISLE SEAT (and at this moment you can picture me frantically nodding my head with that huge grin on my face).

I happily sit down in the aisle seat (hehehehehe) and then snooze away. The guy next to me was the only part of my trip that annoyed me. He put his stuff in my area and I wonder why I didn't bother calling him out on it... He slept most of way, with his arms on the armrest, taking some of my space... but since he didn't seem like he was purposely doing it, I didn't mind that much. It was when he was awake that made me want to punch him.

So he wakes up and then towards the end of the trip we started chatting. He found out that I was a college student and then asks me my major. After hearing that I was an English major he laughs and goes, "Why? Why would you major in English in America"? To be honest, that is the dumbest question I've ever heard in my life. I wanted to punch him right in the nose. I told him that it's because I grew up in America (I don't really understand why I answered this way. Probably because it was to tell him that I was capable of handling English lit. pressure) and then he goes, "Oh, I thought you came here to major in ESL". I was just about to faint out of my chair. So then the conversation continues on and then he goes, "You know, because of my background I know 6 different languages". I was impressed by this, thinking he knew English, French, Spanish, German etc. but his definition of 6 languages turns out to be 6 dialects. I was dis-impressed. At this point the beverage cart rolls by and I order an Cranberry Apple with ice.  He then has two responses to this. 1) Ice isn't good for you. 2) American orange juice is disgusting. This is when my American pride kicks in and I go, "No, it's the best". Except his answers that there is a difference between being the best and being disgusting. I wanted to say that his taste-buds have issues, but decided not too.

Then the guys decides to challenge my Chinese ability and kept trying to make it seem as if my Chinese sucked. He first goes, I guess you can't read pinyin. I was like I soooo can and it's really easy. He then looks at his watch (it was 1:30pm) and goes it's 晚上 (night) and I go yeah. But at the moment I was thinking CVille and not SanFran time, which meant it was 凌晨 (basically anytime between 12:01 am and 6am). He goes, "You know, there is a difference between the two". And I go, "Yes, I know. It's 凌晨at my school". He doesn't say anything (yes, one point for me). That was basically the end of our conversation.

I guess I wasn't very nice during the flight but was rather arrogant myself. But how could I fly 18 hours and not be cranky? And the babies around me wouldn't stop crying.

But nonetheless, I got my aisle seats and the plane didn't crash, so I'm thankful.

I also apologize for any grammar mistakes. It's almost 4 am and I'm toooooo lazy to go back and edit.

Top 5 Most Seen People During Finals

1. Dave

2. Krysteeene

3. Yun

4. Xiaoxiao

5. Melissa

When Words Refuse to Communicate

I'm sitting my ENGL 382 final and I'm looking at the ID's that I have to do. I stare at the passages, they stare back at me. They recognize me, but I do not recognize them. I've seen them before and can mentally picture them on the page, except they are title-less. "Talk to me," I think. "Tell me your name". They refused to.

Study Break

I've been sitting in the same cornered desk for almost 8 hours now. Thought I might blog as a break before I dive back into work. The notes on the desk are quite amusing.

- Favorite animal? camel, donkey, monkey, hokie

- Which class are you studying for? ECON 201, PLCP, PHYS 142E, CHEM 141, PSYC 240, Culinary School, Plant Bio 3180: Don't take it!, ENLT

- Hours, Clemons: 12 (Dec. 6)

-You can do it! Go for it!     Some other person: yes!!!

and then they are just some random illustrations of chemical compounds.

4th Year Send-Off

As of right now I'm supposed to be working on my English essay, compiling my Chinese portfolio, and  catching up with history reading. But I feel like I need to blog this while it's still fresh in my memory.

The 4th year send-off yesterday was a lot less emotional than I had predicted. It's not a bad thing because we created more memorable memories for all of us, especially Vicky in her video recording. Her "guns" were quite impressive.

Even though it was bitter-sweet, the see-saw between these two adjectives tilted slighted towards sweet. Laughter filled the room and it's laughter that you can pull out of a file cabinet whenever needed and listen to again.

The advice the 4th years passed on was great, despite the fact they contradicted each other. I really do wish each and every one of them the best and I know God will be watching over and guiding them. Just hope they'd visit.

*I was privileged to taste the smores-bars.