A & D meet up

Just some quick tidbits on what happened the past 24 hours.

I said my goodbyes to family and friends. I'm not a goodbye-sentimental kinda person, but the cards were really meaningful, guys.

Didn't manage to catch much sleep on the plane to Beijing, and I disembarked as a grumpy passenger. It didn't help that the Beijing airport officials were so much stricter on the checks on me, compared to the checks on the Caucasians. Talk about racial discrimination. I went to a cafe after negotiating through the inefficient airport customs (1 immigration officer for every 12 'h1n1 health officials'). Bought a latte, and sat down to complete the essay-writing part of my chinese placement test. Writing a Chinese essay in Beijing - nice!

It was to JFK after that, and when I witnessed some majestic scenes from the plane. Siberia was beautiful. Greenland was...green. I didn't exactly step foot on these places, but I flew above them today as I flew across the Pacific, Artic and then the Atlantic Ocean. Seeing such places with my own eyes (300 000 feet above) could be the closest I could come to stepping foot on them.

I finally understand why Changi Airport is the numero uno while JFK Airport doesn't even figure on the list. There are hundreds of visitors every hour, but only very few custom officers. It's very normal to have to wait 90mins to get your passport checked/stamped, and then wait 30-45min for your luggage. I did, and A was waiting for me all the while.

I've never been so glad to see A before. So sweet of him to come pick me up from the airport. We hopped onto the metro, and we were serenaded by a bunch of latino musicians. We walked to Intercontinental after getting off the metro, and met up with Weiqi for dinner! Great to see her in the States, though we both live in Tampines!

Gotta get used to the prices here. Bloody expensive. USD8 for a bowl of rice at the indian restaurant.