It has been a week since I returned to the USA. Although I was sad in the days leading up to my departure from Prague, I was so happy when the plane touched down in Newark. Perhaps it was from the long and trying day of traveling. I've done long days of traveling with trips to Taiwan, but what I experienced this time around never happened on my trips to Asia, which now seem so much smoother in comparison to my trip to Europe. So, my flight from Prague to London was delayed two hours, thanks to the snowstorm in Western Europe that Thursday/Friday. The Czech Airlines plane arrived in Heathrow around 4:05pm, and my scheduled flight to Newark from London departed at 4:00pm. My fellow travelers and I went to the Virgin Atlantic transfer desk and found out that there was a flight out at 8:00pm, however it was fully booked, and we would be on standby. For about 2hours, I tried in a crowded Terminal 3, to find the best way to contact my parents. I tried buying internet, but my laptop failed to work properly and efficiently. I tried using the payphones, but that didn't seem to quite work. Then I opted for the quick internet kiosk, and sent an email. But I later realized that I could have just used my Czech phone to call home, since I still had some crowns on it. Sigh... wasted a bit of money.
Anyways, went to the gate and waited, waited, for all the passengers to board the plane. It looked like there were a lot of people, and I had to keep reminding myself that it was a big plane. Tried reading, but I just kept thinking about the possibility of spending an extra night in London. Which I guess, wouldn't be too bad. But at that point, I was ready to get into my own bed in NJ. Then the crowded winded down, and the rest of standbys gathered around the desk. A steward called out one name, and then said that everyone was getting on the flight... yaaay I jumped and exclaimed "I'm going home!" There were many extra seats too.
On this flight, I learned from watching "Revolutionary Road" on the way to Europe, and watched a lighter movie. "500(days) of Summer" was a better choice, and I discovered how cute Joseph Gordan-Levitt is. I attempted at "Julie&Julia" but dozed off halfway through, not because it was bad movie, but because I was just so tired from not sleeping that much the night before, and being on the move.
The next day, I had lunch at Mitsuwa, and went grocery shopping with my parents at Han Ah Reum. Even though these are Japanese and Korean markets respectively, it was slightly shocking to be among people that looked like me, and to have some of them speak a language that I could understand. I think I blinked several times to just adjust myself to this environment. I was also just HAPPY to be eating real and delicious Asian food. It also started snowing on Saturday, so it was a good thing that I got on that 8pm flight out of Heathrow on Friday, otherwise I would have been stuck in London for sure.
Today, I went shopping at Jersey Garden's, a local outlet shopping mall. Its huge, and always jam packed around this time of year. Sitting in the food court, I sat there thinking, if I were an alien and landed in this particular food court, I would not think that I was in the USA. Most of the people were Hispanic or Indian American, and not a Caucasian American in sight. This would not be the case in the Midwest, I'm sure. If an alien had landed in Kansas, for instance, it would have thought it was a completely different country. Ahhh, diversity. How I've missed you.
This is an interesting article.. "Taiwan's Santa bus drivers." Its about bus drivers in Taiwan, dressing up as Santa and decorating their buses, and the Taiwanese "superficial" approach to the holiday. They've really commercialized it, but so has the USA. I see it as new way of bringing Christmas spirit. Must be an interesting sight to see Asian Santa Clauses, and all lined up waiting by their buses.
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