Back in Taiwan
I realized that ironically in my last post "Thanksgiving Review", I completely neglected talking about my Thanksgiving itself. I knew there was something odd.
This year was a bit special, and I enjoyed Thanksgiving even more than usual. As I mentioned in my last post, I've been living in the dorms for the past two years - and while you can still stay over Thanksgiving break, it's quite a lonely experience, as nearly everybody returns home, and only the 3 larger cafeterias are open. I have personally been blessed with good family and friends - freshmen year I had dinner with a family friend still living in Ann Arbor, and sophomore year Jack and Boomer took me home with them up in East Lansing, and that was really sweet as well. So I haven't personally experienced a crap Thanksgiving, though it's not exactly the same as being home.
At any rate, this year Melpan (another international student from Taiwan) suggested that people in AIV who weren't planning on returning home (or weren't able to, like me) should hold a Thanksgiving dinner for international students or other kids who would be around Ann Arbor at the time. I liked this idea as soon as I heard of it - it just seems like the perfect thing to do, from various different perspectives and rationales. Pragmatically, food is almost *always* an awesome thing, but emotionally, I feel community is one of the best things that AIV has to offer - the pulpit isn't always the best way to share faith - in fact, I'd argue that for most people, it's one of the least effective ways. Rather, it's through the testimony of your life as a Christian that compels others to learn about what motivates you to do what you do. If you're not a compassionate and hospitable person in your everyday life, then nothing you *say* will convince people that you are genuine.
Plus, any reason to hang out with friends is a good one.
On a related note, that's the interesting thing about Thanksgiving on a college campus in a fellowship. Basically, everyone wants to celebrate it before they go home with their friends or whatever, and the University feels the same way. So effectively, I think I had like 3 Thanksgiving dinners: the dorm dinner where they have better food than usual, our small group dinner, and the international student one actually held on Thanksgiving day.
Now here's the cool part of being a multicultural kid around multicultural friends - you get all kinds of different food. Sure, you have the staple Turkey with cranberry sauce (and that horrendous excuse-for-food "Turducken"), green bean casserole, mashed potatoes with gravy and all that good stuff, but depending on who you're friends with (or what kind of awesome parents your friends have), you can also get stuff like Asian-style duck or vegetables. Diversity is almost always a good thing, but particularly when it comes to food... All in all, I had a good Thanksgiving with friends, in a home away from home sort of setting and I would definitely do it again next year.
There's something to be said for tradition and consistency. No, I'm not a social conservative yet. But I have to say, there is a point to retaining familiar things if only so you don't feel confused and disorientated all the time. I am referring specifically to the process of flying back to Taiwan - it was *really* confusing. So the context is this: Northwest and Delta merged. I don't really understand the whole airline industry deal, so suffice to say, what this means for me practically is that I essentially have the option of flying Delta Airlines instead, which gives me more options in terms of choosing flights and prices.
It also means that I was practically using a new airline for the very first time, and apparently airlines don't all operate in the same way. In the past, my standard method of returning to Taiwan was to fly from Detroit to Japan, and then Japan to Taiwan, all on Northwest planes. This time though, it was from Detroit to Cincinnati, then from Cincinnati to LA, then from LA straight to Taiwan. The first leg was operated by Chautauqua Airlines (yeah, I know, it even sounds shady), and the last one was operated by China Airlines. So how did it begin...
I don't think I remember flying in the winter before - and now I have much more respect for the weather. It permeates EVERYTHING. I remember in my Political Science class this semester - Society and War, as we were going over World War I, there were several major breaks in the fighting and killing, specifically winter. In the past I would think, "What's the big deal, so there's snow on the ground." Then, while waiting for my delayed plane at the airport, I realize that winter IS a big deal, particularly in the Northern Hemisphere. Planes arrived late because there was cloud cover or bad weather, or because the runways had to be cleared by trucks so planes could land safely, and before taking off we had to de-ice our wings with two trucks that would spray some sort of unknown substance... and only then would we take off. In short, logistics are a nightmare when it's too cold or it's too hot.
Delta's planes are apparently housed at a different part of the Detroit Metro airport - so I took this underground walkway to get there which was AWESOME. Flashing lights, techno music going on... I felt like I was high. Unfortunately, no photos, but you'll have to take my word for it.
So my flight was delayed in Detroit, and I got to Cincinnati nearly an hour late - but embarrassingly enough, the flight from Cincinnati to LA was *not* delayed, which meant that I had to run to the other boarding gate, which felt like it was on the other side of the airport, and get onto the plane as the airport workers were like, "Mr. Chen? Please hurry, the plane is waiting for you." I swear, that's got to be one of the most awkward things ever, entering a plane, walking down the aisles as everyone is sitting there with their eyes fixed on you, and you know that they know that it was because of you that the plane is still docked at the boarding gate. Thankfully, I didn't have any luggage to store in the overhead bins so the amount of awkward-time was minimized. As it turns out we spent a long time on the ground in Cincinnati after I got on the plane anyway - more de-icing and clearing the runway. So we get to LA a bit late, but that's no big deal since according to my schedule I have a nearly 4 hour layover there anyway.
As it turns out, I needed every single one of those hours. I hadn't known this before, but the Delta connection to LA was purely domestic, and in order to fly to Taiwan, I would have to exit from the terminal that I'd arrived, and go to the Tom Bradley Terminal, which is the one for international flights. Maybe this seems commonplace for people used to traveling, but I've never had to do this before. It just seemed so strange, walking out into the fresh air (well not exactly fresh, since there were LOTS of cars and stuff), and getting onto an airport shuttle. There, I had to basically check in again, but even though I was technically flying under Delta which was with Northwest, I was realistically on a China Airlines flight, which influenced which terminal I had to go to in order to check in and what not.
So this whole time I'm worrying about whether or not I was actually supposed to pick up my luggage and check that in, or if it would automatically transfer over for me. After all, I personally had to check-in again, so it wasn't a stretch to imagine that I should do it with my large bag. So this whole time I'm worrying about whether or not there's this one unclaimed bag somewhere back in Terminal 6, and if that was the case and I find out, if I would have time to take a shuttle back there, pick it up, and then go to Gate 101 for my China Airlines flight. (Which was actually also Delta 8953 and Vietnam 119 or something. Reminds me of cross-listed courses in college. In this age of merging airlines, this is growing increasingly common.)
Anyway, by the time I arrived at the correct terminal, there was only one hour left. So much for a long and boring layover. I'm never complaining about long layovers again - at least you're not worrying about getting from place to place.
Here I would also like to officially say, China Airlines definitely has Northwest beat hands-down for flight experience. Sure, the planes have probably crashed 50% more frequently than Northwest, but the food is quite good (well actually I always enjoy airline food regardless of who it is, so that's a moot point) and even in economy class each passenger has their own mini TV where you can choose your *own* entertainment. Now that is pure awesome, and something I would like to see other airlines implement as well, and here's why. It's not just so passengers won't get bored, because if that were the case, it's a relatively minor thing - it's getting from A to B that people care about first and foremost. However, in international travel, one of the things that separates badass travelers from the average ones is that the badass ones know how to adjust their internal body clocks to the place where they will be landing gradually while on the plane, so by the time they get there, they're ready to go right away. Now, this oftentimes involves intentional effort on the plane, and airlines take this account when scheduling meals on planes - the human body is strongly affected by mealtime in terms of setting your internal body clock. It also involves intentionally staying awake (since it's a lot harder to actually force yourself to fall asleep, especially in uncomfortable seats), and it's a lot easier to do so when you are watching interesting movies.
So from a pragmatic standpoint, for maximum customer satisfaction not only on the plane but for the sake of adjusting body clock to avoid jet lag, please provide miniature TVs for all. I watched the Clone Wars, the Mummy III, and the Dark Knight. Now I have to say, all of them were thoroughly entertaining - which surprised me, especially when it came to the Mummy III - The Dragon Emperor (or something like that), because I fully expected it to suck. Now, there were definitely parts that I groaned at, like the romance aspect, the "exoticism" of China, Chinese characters speaking in ENGLISH when it would have made perfect sense for them to speak in Chinese (this was a pet peeve of mine particularly because for the most part the movie was very good about using the local languages when possible). Maybe it's just because Jet Li is so much hotter than Imhotep as a mummy. Skeletons fighting Terra Cotta warriors is awesome too.
Man, this was totally me throwing up onto paper. Technically not paper. Thoughts on Taiwan to come.
This year was a bit special, and I enjoyed Thanksgiving even more than usual. As I mentioned in my last post, I've been living in the dorms for the past two years - and while you can still stay over Thanksgiving break, it's quite a lonely experience, as nearly everybody returns home, and only the 3 larger cafeterias are open. I have personally been blessed with good family and friends - freshmen year I had dinner with a family friend still living in Ann Arbor, and sophomore year Jack and Boomer took me home with them up in East Lansing, and that was really sweet as well. So I haven't personally experienced a crap Thanksgiving, though it's not exactly the same as being home.
At any rate, this year Melpan (another international student from Taiwan) suggested that people in AIV who weren't planning on returning home (or weren't able to, like me) should hold a Thanksgiving dinner for international students or other kids who would be around Ann Arbor at the time. I liked this idea as soon as I heard of it - it just seems like the perfect thing to do, from various different perspectives and rationales. Pragmatically, food is almost *always* an awesome thing, but emotionally, I feel community is one of the best things that AIV has to offer - the pulpit isn't always the best way to share faith - in fact, I'd argue that for most people, it's one of the least effective ways. Rather, it's through the testimony of your life as a Christian that compels others to learn about what motivates you to do what you do. If you're not a compassionate and hospitable person in your everyday life, then nothing you *say* will convince people that you are genuine.
Plus, any reason to hang out with friends is a good one.
On a related note, that's the interesting thing about Thanksgiving on a college campus in a fellowship. Basically, everyone wants to celebrate it before they go home with their friends or whatever, and the University feels the same way. So effectively, I think I had like 3 Thanksgiving dinners: the dorm dinner where they have better food than usual, our small group dinner, and the international student one actually held on Thanksgiving day.
Now here's the cool part of being a multicultural kid around multicultural friends - you get all kinds of different food. Sure, you have the staple Turkey with cranberry sauce (and that horrendous excuse-for-food "Turducken"), green bean casserole, mashed potatoes with gravy and all that good stuff, but depending on who you're friends with (or what kind of awesome parents your friends have), you can also get stuff like Asian-style duck or vegetables. Diversity is almost always a good thing, but particularly when it comes to food... All in all, I had a good Thanksgiving with friends, in a home away from home sort of setting and I would definitely do it again next year.
There's something to be said for tradition and consistency. No, I'm not a social conservative yet. But I have to say, there is a point to retaining familiar things if only so you don't feel confused and disorientated all the time. I am referring specifically to the process of flying back to Taiwan - it was *really* confusing. So the context is this: Northwest and Delta merged. I don't really understand the whole airline industry deal, so suffice to say, what this means for me practically is that I essentially have the option of flying Delta Airlines instead, which gives me more options in terms of choosing flights and prices.
It also means that I was practically using a new airline for the very first time, and apparently airlines don't all operate in the same way. In the past, my standard method of returning to Taiwan was to fly from Detroit to Japan, and then Japan to Taiwan, all on Northwest planes. This time though, it was from Detroit to Cincinnati, then from Cincinnati to LA, then from LA straight to Taiwan. The first leg was operated by Chautauqua Airlines (yeah, I know, it even sounds shady), and the last one was operated by China Airlines. So how did it begin...
I don't think I remember flying in the winter before - and now I have much more respect for the weather. It permeates EVERYTHING. I remember in my Political Science class this semester - Society and War, as we were going over World War I, there were several major breaks in the fighting and killing, specifically winter. In the past I would think, "What's the big deal, so there's snow on the ground." Then, while waiting for my delayed plane at the airport, I realize that winter IS a big deal, particularly in the Northern Hemisphere. Planes arrived late because there was cloud cover or bad weather, or because the runways had to be cleared by trucks so planes could land safely, and before taking off we had to de-ice our wings with two trucks that would spray some sort of unknown substance... and only then would we take off. In short, logistics are a nightmare when it's too cold or it's too hot.
Delta's planes are apparently housed at a different part of the Detroit Metro airport - so I took this underground walkway to get there which was AWESOME. Flashing lights, techno music going on... I felt like I was high. Unfortunately, no photos, but you'll have to take my word for it.
So my flight was delayed in Detroit, and I got to Cincinnati nearly an hour late - but embarrassingly enough, the flight from Cincinnati to LA was *not* delayed, which meant that I had to run to the other boarding gate, which felt like it was on the other side of the airport, and get onto the plane as the airport workers were like, "Mr. Chen? Please hurry, the plane is waiting for you." I swear, that's got to be one of the most awkward things ever, entering a plane, walking down the aisles as everyone is sitting there with their eyes fixed on you, and you know that they know that it was because of you that the plane is still docked at the boarding gate. Thankfully, I didn't have any luggage to store in the overhead bins so the amount of awkward-time was minimized. As it turns out we spent a long time on the ground in Cincinnati after I got on the plane anyway - more de-icing and clearing the runway. So we get to LA a bit late, but that's no big deal since according to my schedule I have a nearly 4 hour layover there anyway.
As it turns out, I needed every single one of those hours. I hadn't known this before, but the Delta connection to LA was purely domestic, and in order to fly to Taiwan, I would have to exit from the terminal that I'd arrived, and go to the Tom Bradley Terminal, which is the one for international flights. Maybe this seems commonplace for people used to traveling, but I've never had to do this before. It just seemed so strange, walking out into the fresh air (well not exactly fresh, since there were LOTS of cars and stuff), and getting onto an airport shuttle. There, I had to basically check in again, but even though I was technically flying under Delta which was with Northwest, I was realistically on a China Airlines flight, which influenced which terminal I had to go to in order to check in and what not.
So this whole time I'm worrying about whether or not I was actually supposed to pick up my luggage and check that in, or if it would automatically transfer over for me. After all, I personally had to check-in again, so it wasn't a stretch to imagine that I should do it with my large bag. So this whole time I'm worrying about whether or not there's this one unclaimed bag somewhere back in Terminal 6, and if that was the case and I find out, if I would have time to take a shuttle back there, pick it up, and then go to Gate 101 for my China Airlines flight. (Which was actually also Delta 8953 and Vietnam 119 or something. Reminds me of cross-listed courses in college. In this age of merging airlines, this is growing increasingly common.)
Anyway, by the time I arrived at the correct terminal, there was only one hour left. So much for a long and boring layover. I'm never complaining about long layovers again - at least you're not worrying about getting from place to place.
Here I would also like to officially say, China Airlines definitely has Northwest beat hands-down for flight experience. Sure, the planes have probably crashed 50% more frequently than Northwest, but the food is quite good (well actually I always enjoy airline food regardless of who it is, so that's a moot point) and even in economy class each passenger has their own mini TV where you can choose your *own* entertainment. Now that is pure awesome, and something I would like to see other airlines implement as well, and here's why. It's not just so passengers won't get bored, because if that were the case, it's a relatively minor thing - it's getting from A to B that people care about first and foremost. However, in international travel, one of the things that separates badass travelers from the average ones is that the badass ones know how to adjust their internal body clocks to the place where they will be landing gradually while on the plane, so by the time they get there, they're ready to go right away. Now, this oftentimes involves intentional effort on the plane, and airlines take this account when scheduling meals on planes - the human body is strongly affected by mealtime in terms of setting your internal body clock. It also involves intentionally staying awake (since it's a lot harder to actually force yourself to fall asleep, especially in uncomfortable seats), and it's a lot easier to do so when you are watching interesting movies.
So from a pragmatic standpoint, for maximum customer satisfaction not only on the plane but for the sake of adjusting body clock to avoid jet lag, please provide miniature TVs for all. I watched the Clone Wars, the Mummy III, and the Dark Knight. Now I have to say, all of them were thoroughly entertaining - which surprised me, especially when it came to the Mummy III - The Dragon Emperor (or something like that), because I fully expected it to suck. Now, there were definitely parts that I groaned at, like the romance aspect, the "exoticism" of China, Chinese characters speaking in ENGLISH when it would have made perfect sense for them to speak in Chinese (this was a pet peeve of mine particularly because for the most part the movie was very good about using the local languages when possible). Maybe it's just because Jet Li is so much hotter than Imhotep as a mummy. Skeletons fighting Terra Cotta warriors is awesome too.
Man, this was totally me throwing up onto paper. Technically not paper. Thoughts on Taiwan to come.
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