China Airlines Flight 11.

The journey began. It was terribly hard to leave Nick. For two days I had to keep myself not thinking of the subject of being away from him for four months. But I knew that the only hard part was saying goodbye and then we would both be fine.

So as I went up the escalator I was looking forward to a short wait and then a nice solid night of sleep on the plane.

But God had other plans. The flight was delayed from the start. I was to board an hour later than the original booking had indicated: instead of 2:45 boarding was to begin at 3:55. Not too bad. So at around that time I got up and wandered around to the line entrance and waited. At 4:00 I was antsy. Meanwhile, I was looking at the time differences and wondering how I was going to make my connecting flight to Osaka. The check-in lady assured me I would make it.

There was a burst of hope and excitement as an employee opened up the line. I rushed in and got very close to the front! We waited for a few minutes. My bags were really heavy but I wanted to stand for as long as possible before sitting on a plane for 11 hours.

A sound came over the speakers, first in Chinese, then in accented English. It said that we would be boarding at 4:50. That was going to make it really difficult to make my connection. Maybe they would make up lots of time in the air.

At the time of the announcement it was 4:25 so the wait did not seem too unbearable, although I was starting to fall asleep standing up with my head resting against my bag.

Then, a little past 4:50 when nothing had happened, another announcement rang out saying that we wouldn’t board until 5:30! This was terrible. I definitely was going to miss my connection and I had been waiting in that airport for five hours.

Finally we boarded. I got out my neck pillow, blanket, eye mask, and ear plugs and fell quickly asleep as the hundreds of people were boarding the huge plane. I woke up when the plane was moving on the jet way: it was 7:00.

The flight was loud. Kids, I imagined, had slept on the previous leg from LA and were full of energy. There was a baby that sounded like a dental drill when it screamed. I got a comfy window seat and slept for a bit but it was so early that my body’s Circadian rhythm told me it was ready to be awake again. But I guess I slept more than I thought because the 10 or so hours felt like nothing.

After the plane landed I had to get a new flight, since mine had long gone. I felt very comfortable as English-speaking employees guided me to where I needed to be. I was greeted by name and told that I was reassigned to another airlines and that I would get to Osaka within about four hours. Such great news! Even better, I was upgraded to business class with an aisle seat and lounge privileges!

Accepted!

After many bumps in the road and brick walls in my way I finally received the email declaring my acceptance in to the Kansai Gaidai program for Spring 2008. I have already made flight arrangements! I am going to Japan!