Coming Home

I'm watching guys in blue sweaters getting their asses kicked on a sheet of ice, against white guys from Atlanta. I'm watching the Leaf game, in my living room, my friend Mitchell playing Playstation 3 and I'm home.

Tuesday night at 9pm I tried to get to sleep, waking up Wednesday at 2am, finish packing the last stuff and called a cab at 3:30am. I thanked the mamasan for being so good with me over the two months and headed to the airport. I know the route to Tan Son Nhut Airport as I walked the route one long day, so having a cabby drive down dark allies in wrong directions, taking weird roads, etc kept me alert but I made it to the airport and cheaper than I paid going from the airport to the hotel. I caught my flight to Hong Kong and took off at 6am. 

We hit HK around 8:30am and I had a few hours to kill. I looked for an Aussie restaurant I found last time but it must have shut down. Now last time I was in HK I had a hard time finding a place to eat. This time I didn't as the McDonalds was finished being build. It's kinda sad to see, before hand all the Asian places were busy, but with McDonalds they were all dead and everyone was in line for the Western fast food place. I had the best tasting Big Mac in my life! Tasted like home! I found my gate and got ready for my long flight, HK to San Francisco.

On paper it looks long, but honestly with all the time changing, the entertainment and starring out the window it seems to go pretty fast. Half way through my flight I spilt a can of apple juice on my lap. DON'T FALL ASLEEP WITH AN OPEN DRINK! After flying over Japan we flew into international darkness and followed it until we were off the coast of California. 

My pants were dry and I went through San Fran security. I talk to immigration and was grilled. The guard wanted to know why I went to Vietnam. Your job is to make sure I'm not brining in drugs, dirt, tainted meat, etc into your country? I study the Vietnam War. What did I do there? How did I get the money to go? What do I do for a living? etc. It was just annoying as I knew it went beyond his job's purpose but as I wanted to get home without a problem and not taken into deal with homeland security just because the guard was a jerk haha. 

I got up to the new scanner, the full body X-ray that has a guard see you naked from another room in the area. They wanted my belt, and without my belt on my shorts would fall off. I'm ushered into the machine and you have to spread your legs and put both arms in the air. I told the girl that if I let go of my shorts they will fall and I'll be naked in front of two hundred strangers. As she was so nice and sensitive to my fears, she told me to let that happen or be dismissed from the machine and get patted down. In retrospect I should have let my shorts fall and show everything off to the security bitch and a room full of strangers. I should have bent over and exposed every inch of my body to security so they're sure that I have nothing on me. Instead I took the pat down haha. It took ten minutes for them to come and he had to fill out paper as to why I didn't want the scan. I told him I have no problem with airline security or the machine, I just didn't want my pants to fall haha. 

I got the pat down and it was thorough but still professional but made me late for my flight to Chicago. It was boarding and I had to run from Gate 501 to Gate 83. I honestly have never ran so fast in my life! I was ducking and weaving through families and thanks to the walking escalator sprinting on it brought me to around 25km/h. I made my flight but I was one of the last four people on. I had to make that flight so I was beat after almost 24 hours being awake but I wanted to go home! Since I was last on my flight all the carry on compartments were taken and I was too tired to throw people's shit out of my space. I took some awesome pictures over Nevada, Utah and Colorado but cloud cover took over near the Great Lakes and we landed in Chicago.

I watch American Dad on TV, and Roger the Alien says "Confusing? You know what's confusing? Changing planes at O'Hare Airport!" That alien is correct! My flight going to Vietnam we landed at Terminal One (T1) but as it was a domestic flight we landed at Terminal Five (T5). Hong Kong has five-hundred gates, but it's all one building. Sure it's a long walk but you only have to go past security once. O'Hare has five terminals, an outdoor subway system and five different sets of security which doesn't make sense. I got off my flight around 5pm at T5, walked a long walk to the luggage section and was in T1 and couldn't turn around to go back down to T5 and not go through all the security all over again. I had to figure out what terminal I was in, what terminal my gate was in and what terminal I can find food in. You can't find any maps or any information to help you out but I remember from my first time there I found a map on the monorail, and I did find a picture of the route, that I was now in front of T1 and needed to be in T2. I headed that way and went through security, but it was the two metal detectors and my pants were allowed to stay up so I was happy. I found a different Chili's location and ate. I waited an hour for my flight and there were about twenty people going to London which I was somewhat surprised about. Sure there's no problem filling a flight from London to Chicago, but why were people coming to London? Haha. O'Hare was busy with aircraft landing every thirty seconds and take-offs in between. We had trouble finding a clear runway and taxied for twenty minutes around the airport and we were part of a convoy of waiting aircraft driving around waiting for 4,500' of runway free for two minutes. The pilot came on and put us at ease saying he plans to fly, not drive to London haha. We were airborne and thirty minutes later we were in London.

We landed which was somewhat scary as London was overcast and you couldn't see out your window until you were 100' above the ground. We un-assed the aircraft and got in line to speak to the one customs agent working. Eventually another one came out and the line started moving. It's my turn and I get the normal questions with no problem. He knew I was a tourist and asked if I had a laptop and camera which I did. They asked me to take them both out and turn them on, puzzled I complied and for ten to fifteen minutes he searched all my pictures, videos, documents and anything else he could find on my computer and I'm shocked and puzzled. He asked if I knew what he was looking for and laughing I admitted I was curious. He explained that people go to SE Asia to produce, buy, sell child porn, graphic violence and computers could be used to launder money. He asked me about my picture of the one million dong and about other pictures. I had nothing to hide but I was shocked to think I was to be searched for child porn. The thought just makes my skin crawl. I got customs paperwork to claim my purchases that I made and shipped home, and I have about $750 of it that's tax free. Honestly I figure buying US Army equipment from a country that doesn't have a purchase tax and buying one collector to another informally I figured the whole damn thing would be tax free haha. I had everything shipped as gifts as they were gifts, one person to another and I'll be pissed if customs wants their slice of the pie. Business to business like Moore's Militaria in Texas I know I'm getting taxed for that. From one eBay seller to myself though, I get mad if it's taxed as I see it as if it's like a garage sale instead of a business, same with the Army kit I bought at the markets.

Forty minutes after I landed I walked out a free man and my family was waiting and worried, asked me why I took so long and I didn't want to get into it. I was beat and wanted to get home. We went to my sister's who lives near by and I answered questions for about an hour and had my first glass of chocolate milk in over two months, which was good! I got home, showered, got somewhat organized and unpacked and started adjusting back to life at home. My mom talked to me for a few hours and I dismissed her at 2am as it was late haha. My family was happy to see me and I was happy to be home. My bathroom and room were straightened out and I found Raspberry Viva Puffs and Nelson Macroons as I had been craving them haha. I started opening my shipments from Vietnam and getting stuff organized and fell asleep around 4am. I'll do a blog in the next few days filling you in on the details of me being at home, which isn't all that news worthy haha. I gotta post this before my computer dies so I'll see ya later!