Got about 20 mins until the congee place at the Hong Kong airport opens so I can get my rice soup fix! I've been here for 10 hrs now, with 2 more to go until I get to board my connecting flight to Singapore! Leave it to the American to look homeless, sleeping spread out on some seats in a nice airport terminal! This place is huge but is so empty between the hours of 11 pm and 5 am...as if there are no flights coming in or out. It's about 640 am here and things are starting to come back to life. I had one hell of a time yesterday morning trying to catch my flight from Chicago O'Hare to Hong Kong. My friend Kelly was picking me up from my house to drop me off at ORD since she also needed to be in Chicago that morning. I couldn't find my wallet!!!! For the life of me, I tore up the house, my coat pockets, my backpack, everything! I started panicking, especially since I was relying on someone else for a ride and she had an appt time she needed to make in Chicago! Luckily, my passport is usually kept on my dresser so I at least still had a way to get out of the country! But I didn't have my bank card, credit card, or anything! So Kelly drove me into lab and I tore up my desk there too, and nothing! So I sent Kelly on her way, said I'd make it to Chicago by bus in an hr or so, I needed to find my wallet! First thing I did was online check in to my flights because I knew taking the bus was gonna cut it pretty close, especially for an international flight. Then I walked to the bank with my passport ID and pulled out cash --as least I would have some traveling money! Cancelled my debit card at the bank and got a new one for my trip. This left me with 30 mins to get to the Union and buy my bus ticket and get on the bus! A good friend got his car and helped me out. Finally I got to Chicago and boarded my flight with just about 20 mins to spare! Damn, I cut shit so damn close. Luckiest son of a gun you will ever meet.
My flight was amazing, Cathay Pacific Airlines was great! The seat is a great design where you don't lean back your seat and impose on your neighbor's space, in fact, you pull the seat forward so it leans at an angle! Very comfortable flight, awesome individual outlets to charge your electronic devices, individual TVs with your own remote control. I chatted with a really cool woman sitting next to me for a while and became friends with her. We had a very insightful conversation about life, love, and science funding and science policies. The latter subject deserves its own blog post, but I will say that my conversation with her really affirms my belief that we as scientists do not do a good job at all at teaching the public about the scientific process! They have no idea where their monetary contributions go and are under the impression that there isn't enough scientific research being done to create cures to diseases. Again, I can go on for days about this, and will, at a later date. Congee in 5 mins, better type faster!!
When I was hanging out at the airport, I ran into a professor from my alma mater, the University of the Pacific! It was absolutely random and was so cool! Dr. Richard Tenaza was never my professor but UOP was a small school do I knew who he was. He recognized that I looked familiar and my name rang a bell (I was very active in the dept as an undergrad researcher). Lets be honest, he probably had no idea who I was. We hung out for almost 4 hrs! He was on his way back to CA from Bali and I was on my way from the Midwest to Singapore! We had a really nice time.
Congee place is opening in one minute! Gotta go! Oh, BTW, I defended 2 days ago...I'm officially a doctor (of philosophy)!!!
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