The Day of Travel

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Finally I can go to sleep!... or not. Because of the big time gap (12 hours), mom won't let me sleep yet. Sigh... It is difficult to keep my eyes open.

The first flight I had to take was 15 hrs and 3 mins. I just had to add the 3 mins... after all, the flight attendant speaking added those 3 mins when mentioning the flight time.

I was worried that I wouldn't be able to survive the long grueling hours, but amazingly I did... but for the fact it was that time of the month for me (I was hoping it wouldn't start until after I arrived. Sadly it started the day before we even left for the airport. Our flight was 1 am Tuesday) and the fact I got sick for a little while at one point.

In the beginning, I familiarized myself with the entertainment. I originally thought I was going to play with my gameboy (old one I got from Hong Kong way back when I was a kid) the whole time, but it ended up I was going to watch movies, tv shows, listen to music, and play the games the whole time. Except when I was sleeping of course...

My favourite entertainment item was the game that you could choose to learn basics in 4 categories of a number of languages. A few problems were; that the pronounciation spellings were weird, some of the words were incorrect (either that, or there was some alternative word. How would I know if I don't know the language? Well, I know enough Spanish to know that (whatever it was) isn't Good Morning. Maybe it's Spaniard Spanish?) and that sometimes the speaker (they had voice along with it) spoke so fast that it seemed to me that the second section of whatever was being said got cut off. Tian what?

Now like I said, I did get the bad case of nausea, and as usual, I broke into tears when I returned to my spot, meeting my mom when I got there (she had been out of her seat too, and we just so happened to return at the same time). As usual, she asked what was wrong and chided me over feeling sick. Come on... where's the caring? I may be an adult, but I am still a child when it comes to feeling really sick...

However, she did go approach a flight attendent for a couple of bags for me to use in case I had to, which thankfully I didn't. I was also given a cup of ho water, but that was switched out for a peppermint tea (it was suggested by a passenger behind us to give it a try). Now whether that helped (or the dried orange peel that mom gave me to suck on), I won't really ever know, but I'm just thankful I didn't get... sick...

After we landed in Hong Kong, mom and I got separated by mistake. Before we exited the plane, mom asked me to check if we forgot anything. Apparently we did, as I thought mom had taken my coat with me but she hadn't. I stopped a row too late and couldn't backtrack because other passengers had stopped behind me. So, I got into the row and tried to grab my coat from over the seat. Didn't work... ended up that a girl who had stopped by on the other side of the row picked it up and handed it to me. Thank-you!

Continuing on down the aisle, I noticed

As for the second flight, though it was only 3 hours, we got option for breakfast again. Yay! Dim sum! Yes, that was one of the options... sadly, the sticky rice wasn't quite as sticky and stuck together as I'm used to. It also was just some mixed frozen vegetables inside D: if I knew it was like that, I would have saved the few dumplings (there was one of 4 different kinds. mom took one since she wasn't hungry). Of course, it probably wasn't the brightest idea. Two dinners and two breakfasts? Whew...

Arrived at our final destination in one piece 😊 Met up with mom's friend and a co-worker of his. Had a brief break since it was lunch time and they were hungry. Then we headed off to Langfang.

Got there in one piece and we were first deposited at the cafe... ah can't really remember. I only remember that I was really tired as I didn't get much sleep during the long travel. Mom told me not to go to sleep too early, to avoid making the jet lag last longer. Well... I was doing well until late evening... after dinner..

I had been on the computer, but then I wasn't really focused on what was going on so I just logged and sat at a table, wondering when we can go to our apartment and sleep. Then it happened.

Yes folks, I passed out at the table. Not sure how long I was out until I was woken by mom's friend who helped me to my feet. I really needed the help... I was so out of it that I was unstable on my feet, and I stumbled a bit causing the others to chuckle at my expense. No offense taken, as I would laugh too if it was someone else.

Went back to base with one of the volunteers who happened to be staying in the same apartment as we were. ;o I passed out to sleep real quick.

- Kedi

P.S: I was introduced to some of the volunteers and the fellow big cheeses of mom's friend. Just thought I'd clarify... In all honesty, I forgot the names of those who were introduced to me by their Chinese names.

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