日曜日（nichi-yobi: Sunday) 2007年6月17日１時(ichi-ji: 1:00) 午後(go-go: PM)
We had a bit of fun trying to make our connecting flight in San Francisco. Since our flight out of Portland was delayed an hour, we got to SF late too. We were scheduled to have 2 hours between arrival and departure at SFO... which would have been great had we been on time. You see, we had to go back out of the secure area, check in with United (we flew Horizon from GEG to PDX and PDX to SFO), and then we had to go through security again and board our flight. First off, we had no idea where to go. Erin asked someone for directions while I waited for my bag. (The Horizon planes are so small that they had to put my bigger carry on bag into storage for both flights.)
We got an idea of which direction to head to get to the United check-in area and we were off. Once we got there, we walked through a maze of counters. That airport (as is no surprise) is absolutely huge.
We finally found the United counters, all the way at the other end of the room from where we'd entered. From there, we had no idea where to go and all of the lines were insanely huge. It would probably take an hour and a half just to get through the lines... and our flight was scheduled to depart in only one hour. We walked around and around, trying to figure out where to go. We tried to ask people and were sent all over and around. Finally we were able to talk to a United employee who directed us to the end of the biggest line. We all knew we would miss our flight if we had to wait. So, Erin left us to hold our place in line and she went to ask questions. After 10 minutes, she was able to talk to someone and waved us over. The lady checked us in immediately, ahead of everyone. She was horribly harried and hurried, but eventually got us all set up with boarding passes. She then escorted us to almost the front of the security line. Someone in line yelled at us that the back of the line was "over there," and the airline employee told the woman that our flight was leaving in 20 minutes. Once she noticed we were being escorted by someone in a uniform, she was quiet, but I'm sure she was still rather annoyed. I suppose she hadn't noticed that security wasn't yelling at us for undoing those "rope" divider things and cutting through line right in front of them. ;-)
I am just glad we were able to be rushed through or I don't know what would have happened... and our luggage would have been very, very far away.
We got through security. The security guards were so rude. The were pissed off that people didn't automatically know to take their laptops out of the bag and to take their liquids out of their suitcases... and they loudly stated how stupid everyone who didn't know this was. Of course, that's just typical big city Americans... but even for me, not something I'm used to, and certainly not the way security acted in Spokane. The man who was getting the big-sized carry-ons when we got off of the plane at SFO was fairly rude too, but just because he was very direct... he was not making comments on people's "stupidity" in front of them like the TSA guys were.
Anyways, I was the last through and I grabbed all of my stuff and turned around and the girls were gone. I stopped long enough to put my laptop back in the bag and slip my shoes on, but I did not buckle them. So, then I went running off in the direction of our gate, with my sandals flapping all around. ;-)
I finally caught up, a bit winded, and then fastened my shoes. Then we waited around for about 20 minutes while the airline employees attempted to find us seats. I am not sure why we didn't have seats... but I heard something about how we'd been checked in without being assigned seats. There were 3-5, sometimes 6 women scurrying around on their computers, trying to find seats for us. Finally they said they would upgrade two of us to business and that they still had one seat left in economy. So, we did rock paper scissors for who got the upgrades... and then they ended up not being able to get the economy seat for Elizabeth and upgrading her to business class as well. So, that was pretty sweeet!
So we got on the plane, put our bags up, sat down, and practically took off right after. It wasn't more than 5 minutes, that's for certain.
So, it's been nice sitting here. ^_^
I have no idea how nice economy is on an international flight... I bet it's not half bad, but it's pretty snazzy here. The seats have so much legroom, and they recline way far back. But not only that, the base of the seat comes up, like a recliner chair, and there is a piece that folds down to set your feet on... so you can prop your feet up pretty well too. And, of course, all of the tasty food. I wanted to have obento for lunch (this is a typical Japanese lunch that is served in a box... the best translation is "box lunch"), but they asked what I wanted for a second choice if they ran out. They did not ask the Japanese man next to me what his second choice was, and he got obento and I did not, so I assume they gave priority to the Japanese passengers. This does make sense, and I will have plenty of chances to eat obento, and I've eaten it before at the last Buddhist convention anyways. ;-)
So, I had more of a wastern style meal. And let me tell you, I broke my no-dairy thing like mad with it. I started with a salad, which I had a vinaigrette on instead of ranch, It also began with raw salmon that was absolutely delicious... with some sort of dab of cream on top, some veggies with ranch for dipping, and a slice of asiago cheese. At this point, I said to myself, "ah, screw it, I was probably going to have some dairy in Japan anyways because I had been told it was absolutely delicious, better than anything in the states, even organic, and that it didn't give the woman who was telling me this problems like American dairy does.). So, I ate all of that, and the cheese was delicious after I got over the milky under-taste... and I put butter on my roll. ;-)
Then my meal came and it was "peas and carrots" ... hahaha, it was too, but they were snap peas.... and seasame chicken. For desert, the option was cheesecake or a cheese plate........ so I had cheesecake and THAT was yummy. ^_^
Watched some movie after dinner (and yes, I was the last person in the entire section to finish eating. They actually brought me my entree while I was still eating my appetizers, and my desert while I was still eating my entree.)
Anyways, I don't know what the movie was but it had Drew Barrymore and Hue Grant, so I watched it. ;-)
It was alright, not that great though.
Then I napped, but I think I only managed an hour or two. After that I read one of my books that they'd asked us to read before coming over. ;-)
... I'm about halfway through it now..... I read so slow... cuz that was only about 40 pages in 2 hours or something.
After that, I saw that I'd missed watching Bridge to Terabithia.... darn. Well, I went back to reading and when I saw movies popping up on everyone's screens again, I scanned through the channels and it was on again! *g*
I watched it dubbed in Japanese for a little bit. Man, it was awful. Just like when they dub movies here and get less-than-adequate voice actors to do it, they'd done the same with this dub. It was kinda funny though... and not all of the voices were bad, but the ones that were were really funny.
Anyways, then I switched it back to English and watched it. ^_^
Love that movie.
So that's where I left off. And, here I am.
We're getting close... only 2 hours left and I can see us creeping up on 日本 (Ni-hon) on the map. ;-)
Of course, it's been daylight the entire time, but I'm glad to say the sun is managing to outpace us. ;-)
So I plan to resume reading for the rest of the trip. I think I can finish the book. And after that, I'll certainly have more interesting things to write about!