China - coming home

August 14th:

Early morning again! There's absolutely no reason why, but this time I stayed in bed until 7 or so.

I went to eat breakfast after a while (times are omitted, because I didn't write a journal entry for this day) and joined a table of Husky Band students. All quite quiet and somber at the beginning of a very long day. Even after we were all done, many of us stayed at the table and talked. The person next to me left, and then Natalie showed up. I went back to the buffet for some croissants after seeing others with them.

Afterwords, we went back upstairs and I finished my packing. I must have lay down for a while as well, but soon I went out to the lobby to wait. There wasn't enough time to really do anything, so I just played myself a game of solitaire.

People started arriving in the lobby at about 10:30. We were scheduled to depart at 11:15, and everyone wanted to avoid long lines for checking out. Natalie, Kaitlyn and I, along with some others, like Rebecca from Oregon, all got on the last bus. It was the only one without a long line to get on. The ride from the hotel to the Shanghai airport took a little over an hour, and we went though another downpour on our way.

It took forever to get in the door at the airport, because they were wiping down bags before a person could get in. We then had to wait for some mix up with the instruments, and then got in a really long line for the checkout counter. I decided to check my mellophone this time, so I wouldn't have to drag it around. I wasn't willing on the way over here because I worried that someone would damage it.

When we finally made it to our gate, it was well past lunch time, so Dan and I went to go find the Burger King that someone had been talking about. I got a Whopper and a small fry, and that pretty much cleaned out my Chinese money, except for what I was bringing home for my collection. Clarinet Matt from Oregon was at Burger King, so we ate with him.

It wasn't too much longer before the plane started to board at 3 pm. I sat and waited with Ben and Natalie and Dan until most people were on board before we got in line. My seat ended up being with Emily, the piccolo, but she asked me if I would switch with Monique, who had a window seat on the opposite side of the plane. And I said I would. I'd take a window seat any day, so we switched. The new seat was next to a Chinese-American, who traveled to Shanghai all the time for work. He lived in Oregon. And he had quite a few questions about the band and our trip; which is pretty typical when you're traveling as a band.

We were flying Air Canada, flight 026, and therefore had to hear all of the safety features in three languages... English, French, and Chinese, since we were leaving China. Once we were airborne by 4 pm or so, I started up the movies. First I watched 'Smart People', about a professor and his daughter who live in Pittsburgh (Carnegie-Mellon U.) . It was interesting, full of meaningful dialogue, and well performed.

To be different, I watched a couple of the Canadian shorts that they had, one called 'Toy Soldier', because it had a picture of one of my toy knights as the cover for it, and another called 'Salad Days' :) It was not about a beautiful, young actress, though. It was about a kid remembering fishing trips with his dad. The phrase 'salad days', is a reference to Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra, (1:5), "My salad days, when I was green in judgment, cold in blood." It's described as a time of youth, innocence and inexperience.

I then started 'Horton Hears a Who', with Carol Burnett... she was great! I was totally unfamiliar with the story because my mom never liked Dr. Seuss stories, and I, therefore never got around to hearing them. The tale was very strange, (the sort of thing my mom doesn't like), but I enjoyed it well enough. I think I might read the book sometime.

Well, 4 hours into the flight... so I started another movie, this one called 'Charlie Bartlett'. It was a fun movie, but one of those impossible high school movies where the star becomes popular with everyone. He's ridiculously rich, and loves to help people, which always happens in real life, right? I did like the movie though, it wasn't as silly as 'Farris Bueller's Day Off' or anything, and it was really touching a few times.

Well, 6 hours into the flight... and my eyes are almost bugging out. So I decided to try and sleep for a while, and partially succeeded, with that wake up every so often, uncomfortable, airplane sleep. That lasted a few hours. But soon, I really couldn't stand it any more, so I decided to watch the epic Chinese movie, 'The Empress and the Warriors', which was not as badly done as most foreign films you see. It was a cool story, and there were up to date special effects, since it was brand new, made this year.

Gosh, so, it was exciting to see North America again... even if it was only Canada. There were the Rockies, impressive and imposing, especially after being in flat-as-a-pancake China. No wonder everyone can ride a bike there. Try doing what they do in Seattle, for instance, and you'd have stuff falling off of bikes everywhere. LOL.

So, the customs inspector was not the friendliest person I've met. He asked me if I had any food items in my bags and I thought for a moment, and then said no. He then replied, "You had to think about that... Do you have any food items in your bag?" What a jerk! As if I wouldn't have a clearer answer after I thought about it! The mind works slowly after 11 hour plane flights and being up for... ugg, 20 hours already. Being a customs inspector for international flights, he should probably recognize that.

So we all made it onto the buses and settled in for a nice, long drive back to Seattle. Once we got to the boarder crossing by Blaine, WA, the USA made us wait for a half-hour, and then had us all get out of our buses and answer a couple questions while they searched them for illegal plants or bodies, which took another half-hour. It was now 5 pm, and we were on our way home. I made myself happy by singing the Star-Spangled Banner to myself, only two of the verses.

Forgive me a little song:

O, thus be it ever when free men shall stand,
Between their loved home, and the war's desolation.
Blest with victory and peace, may our heaven-rescued land
Praise the power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, when our cause, it is just,
And this be our motto: In God is our trust.
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave,
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

(This is verse 4, sung and written from memory, as it is printed in our family's hymnal. Verse 2 is also printed, but it is not as memorable to me for some reason.)
Written in 1814, Francis Scott Key

America, sweet America! Land of lovely traffic rules and bathrooms with toilet paper!

We arrived at the Graves building on lower campus around 7:30 or so. I'm a little fuzzy on the exact time. Meggan and Mom came presently, and took me to a nice cafe where I had a delightful chicken sandwich. (big smile) Oh, it's good to be home.

Thanks for reading with me!

Jp