Onwards to New Jersey and New York!

Avast ye mateys! Arrr! :D Lol
Hello dear readers! :)

I yesterday arrived to New York after an insane chain of events that nearly prevented the whole journey. :P

(NOTE, I will update this post with photos shortly, as my phone is having issues recognizing the online drafts and thus cannot add its photos to them)

The immense amount of luggage weighed down upon us, as we trudged towards the emigration areas for Hong Kong. We wielded our Hong Kong identity cards as to exit as residents and skip the longer lines for vistiors. "Heya, Elsa and I should go first right?", I asked my elder sister Anna. Anna's thick brown curls bobbed vigorously as she confirmed, "Yup, and if they don't work we can go through the other way". She beamed, and so Elsa and I trudged on and inserted our cards. Loading... loading.. Okay!
Everything seems good..
We enter the little closed off box area to have our thumbs scanned, so you know: no big deal, we have done this many times prior.
I press my thumb firmly down, silently musing thoughts as I wait for the cue to release my thumb. Twirl, twirl, twirl... nothing.
Suddenly guards come over to our spots and this intense feeling of anxiety began to bind and lacerate my intestines.
"Hey will you two come with us", the blue-shirted man closes to me asked us, "Yeah, go wait over there". He pointed towards this little tiny square bench area connected to a podium-like thing where another guard was diligently working away.
So, the guards then proceeded to tell Elsa and me that our visa's were expired, stating that we owed 160 hong kong dollars EACH.
We didn't have 160 hong kong dollars, let alone each..
And as far as we knew Elsa just graduated from highschool, her visa expired 8 days prior, we didn't think it was that big of a deal.
As for me, Anna tried to argue with the guards and convince them that since I was visiting, or since I just came in to hong kong, my visa or whatever had a grace period of 3 months (which is normally true if you visit another country), and that since I am a visitor I should't have to pay the fees to extend my visa up to that day that I left.

Well, after a heated debate, it readily became clear that it rested upon a technicality: when I came into Hong Kong I used my hong kong ID to enter, and thus entered as a resident, not as a visitor.
Thus even though I was visiting, I was liable to the same consequences for not renewing as a resident of hong kong.

Oh, did I mention our plane was to begin boarding 40 minutes from that time?
Yes, amongst all this chaos we were a breath away from the time to begin boarding. Oh, and they wouldn't accept credit cards.

So these guards detain Elsa and me, putting us in a room while they pumped us for whatever currencies we had and trying to get us to fill out renewal paperwork.
To their credit they did try their best to speed up the process, since our flight was so close to that time.
That ended up taking a looong while, and by then we had about 5-10 or so minutes until boarding.
We paid them with our american currency, 10 of which was Elsa's special 10$ bill she received from her ex-boyfriend, 20 of which was what I had to pay the dude who was going to help us with our luggage once we landed in New York.

Not to mention the 100+ hkd that we gave the guards, which I am sure if you convert all that into hkd and then compare it to 320 will be more than enough.
They gave us 7 usd back, plus like 2 hkd in change.

Wiping the tears from our eyes, we calmed our hearts briefly before jumbling them once more as we dashed out and onwards towards our gate.
We rushed and dashed and passed as we zoomed towards the destination, our luggage careening and teetering precociously.

We finally arrived, making it just before they began boarding.
We managed to be the first people in line, so we got into the plane quite fast after then.

We then put all our luggage in the overhead compartments, and got nice and cosy for our 4 and 1/2 hour flight.
Well, we sat there waiting for like evveerrr, untl someone finally went on and broadcast the message the we would delayed for a while due to "traffic congestion".
Okay, we were delayed for over an hour!
Our stopover was supposed to only be 45 minutes!
If you do the math, you will aptly realize that we would miss our next flight, and would likely have to take the another, probably much later flight.
So we panicked a little, but, being the professional people that we were, we asked a flight attendant about our connecting flight and she asked her supervisors.
Needless to say, the attendant reassured us that our flight would be delayed, since 36 people bound for new york were on our plane, but that we should hurry.

So... we eventually land, and we are rushing out of the plane and we have to go through security. No big deal, we think, we have these "Short transfer" stickers or whatever, they will prob be quick.. Nope, they analyze everything in my bags and make me open both for inspection.
They took out all my electronics, re-scanned them, andd then found a set of pliers, the small pocket kind that you carry with you for convenience, in my carry-on suitcase. Needless to say, they didn't like me having them, since they have a little knife blade in them.
I didn't care, I told them they could have it.
They kept telling me I couldn't have it, and I kept telling them I don't care, that if they wanted it they could keep it.
Finally they say I am good, I take all my electronics and rush to stuff them back into my bag, with Elsa helping me put them away.

The lady inspecting some of my stuff took away my water and emptied it for me, but she was incapable of putting it back into my backpack so I did that myself, and then Elsa, Anna, and I rushed out and up the escalator.
There were airport people waiting at the top of the stairs to point the 'quick transfer' people in the right directions, and so we started our long sprint to the 17th gate in Korea.
Well, it turns out that the 17th gate happened to be the farthest on possible from where we were, we ran and ran and ran all the way down to the end of the building, then we quickly boarded the plane and sighed with relief: we had made it! :D

The flight had been delayed for 20 minutes to allow us time to make it there, and we had done all the rcrazy running on the moving sidewalks just in case 20 minutes wasn't long enough.
Then began our looong flight to New York!
13+ Hours of flying, it was insane!

During the flight they fed us twice, once when we took off, and once before we landed. Both times the food was awful, the first time I ate some weird beef pasta that tasted really nasty, and the second time I ate scrambled eggs with some nasty garlicky mushrooms or something in them that tasted horrible.
However, the fruit the meals came with and the side dishes like a yogurt and a croissant were both pleasantly delicious.

During the flight I watched the beginning of Pompei, but decided I didn't want to watch it and instead watched The Lego Movie.
The Lego Movie was actually pretty good, but it was also kind of ridiculous and not as exciting as it could be. Also one part of it horrified me, although I guess I am a bit more sensitive than most.
It was surprisingly good for a movie about legos, and I did find it enjoyable despite the obvious undertones that tried to make the movie like one big advertisement.
The commercial implications in the plot made me dislike it severly, but, my own cynicism aside, the movie was actually pretty great.
Bit unrealistic, but whatever it was fun to watch. :D

I only have one thing to say: Everything is awesome! Loll

Anyway, I managed to nap for four hours or so, give or take an hour I couldn't tell, despite screaming children and Elsa and Anna's being noisily.
(Sorry, using an adverb instead of an adjective is something I am beginning to do because it is part of the "Esperanto Idiom" lol. It does make sense if you think about it, it modifies the verb. Being noisily is basically like saying the verb means "to be in a noisy fashion", so basically it describes a noisy existence. It probably has a more intense meaning than the adjective alternative, implying longer duration or habitual occupation of the state of being, but that is inconsequential for now, as it is expressive and I like to use it if I wish. )
(In english I would probably say it sounds more natural, if you yiew to use adverbs as you would adjectives, to use specific verbs with which they sound acceptable. For instance, "being noisily" would sound better inverted, as "noisily being". But wit would also sound better as "existing noisily", rather than "being noisily", because being + adverb implies that they were simply there being noisy.)

Finally we landed in New York! :D
We were pretty calm, since we knew that we had arrived safely and that there wasn't much to worry about.
We exited the plane and headed on over to immigration, only to find that they had these automated personal machines that we could use to create the immigration slips that we needed.
So we go together since we are a family, and one by one we scan our passports and the machine takes our pictures.
I was last to scan my passport and take my photo, and when the machine printed our little papers with customs information mine had a giant X through it.
Underneath it said for me to go see a Passport Something or other officer.
So we got in line, and we showed the dude our information, he asked us some questions socially, stamped our passports and our custom papers, and then we were on our way to the baggage claim.

Ohhh boy, let me tell you the entire baggage claim area was jam packed!
Like, seriously! Tons of luggage coming out of everywhere, people pooling everywhere, and all of the huge trolley-like carts being claimed by people left and right.
I saw what looked like a foreign diplomat shaking his head as he had to wait for one of the carts for his luggage.
So we waited forever to get all our luggage, and then we had to go hunt for a dude to help us load our luggage and take it to where we needed to go.

Well... they put all the trolleys over to the side, and we had to go through this long line to exit the entire area, a line that luckily moved fast.
So we finally get all the way through, and no one is with our trolley.
We can't get it, so we look around and point to our luggage, asking about it.
This black-haired asian dude, with this gray jacket, a walkie talkie, and long black pants pointed towards the exit and told us to shoo.
We started to leave but then Anna and I looked at each other and we realized that he didn't understand that we were missing our luggage.
That we meant that we needed it, not that we didn't know the exit was where the signs were pointing for us to go and where everyone was going.
So we talked to him again and pointed to the trolley standing by itslef, and he then helped us get a dude to take our stuff for us. Sweet.

Okay, so we get out there and I needed to call the pick-up service that our parents had paid for and had arranged to pick us up from the airport, to figure out where they were going to pick us up.
I am the only one among the three of us who had an American phone number, since I go to college in America.
Also, since I pay the bill automatically everything month it should auto-renew and should work.
Well, it didn't. So I had to call my phone company, which has no live assistance whatsoever, to pay the bill.
So here the dude is waiting there with our luggage, while I spend like 10 minutes on the phone just to pay the bill so I can call the dude.
Well it all works out and then I find out that the guy will be there shortly.
Cool, sweet.

Well the dude calls us, and is like "Yo, I am at Terminal 1. Where are you?"
And I am all like, "I am too. Are you near the pickup area, or are you over by the other side?".
Turns out he was on the other side, by which I mean there was a crosswalk and then another little area where cars could stop to pick up people, like a little island type of thing only really long.
He asked me if we could go to him, even though he knew the three of us had 6 items of luggage!
I was like, ehh no we have too much luggage, could you come here?
And he was like, "okay".
So he drives on over and I see him, largely thanks to Elsa's suggestion that I go out where he could see me and I him.
Well, he pulls on over, and then puts the luggage in the car with ample help from me, as he was a scrawny guy like myself I couldn't even contemplate allowing him to load it alone, plus he asked me for help, and then we were off!
I was amazed by all the beautiful sights we saw as we drove around, as even though it was night I was still able to see beautiful lights and bridges and all sorts of interesting things.

We even drove through a china-town! XD
Unfortunately I began to close my eyes as the trip took longer and longer, and while I don't think I fell a sleep I did not see as much of the surrounding areas as I became more tired.

Well, eventually we arrived at our house in New Jersey.
Our Grandfather came out to greet us and pepper us with kisses and hugs, and we took all the luggage in through the garage.
Grandfather was so excited, he just took us on this huge tour of the house, even though we were all so tired and didn't really care.
Well, I didn't really care all that much, I was just so tired.
Well, anyway, somehow all the noise and and excitement culminated in me staying up real late, by choice of course, and I drifted off to sleep on a sofa.
(I didn't mention it, but I showered before bed, which is probably one of the reasons I was up for a while.)

The next morning the delivery dude arrived, and I got the food our parents had ordered for us in my pajamas.
I have been pretty jet-lagged ever since, and even took a long nap today (the day after the deliver dude stuff)

New Jersey is really quite beautiful, and there are squirrels and wildlife everywhere! :D
Also I got to see and cuddle our little doges! ^u^

Not to mention the American food, which is simply awesome! :)
(Not necessarily healthy though, mind you)

Well that was a mouthful! :D
I think I am done writing about this for now! XD
I will write more soon when I have more to write our about or more I wish to discuss :)

Thanks for reading! :>
Remember that I am jetlagged as I write this, so please forgive any weirdness you see that is abnormal for me. ;P

'Til next time! :)

~James








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Location:New Jersey