Home Sweet Home

Almost exactly 2 weeks after the start of this journey I was back on a plane heading stateside.

Bangkok --> Tokyo (5 hours, 45 minutes)
Tokyo --> Chicago (11 hours, 40 minutes)
Chicago --> Austin (2 hours, 45 minutes)

I was able to switch seats with a nice Japanese man so that I could sit next to BO for both the BKK and NRT flights. Always nice to have someone to talk to on long hauls especially when you discover that they are offering up the EXACT SAME entertainment lineup. Disappointing! I mean really, how many times can you watch Madagascar 2?

Yes, more griping...So I ask you, if you're an airline and you know that all international flights will require U.S. passengers to pass through customs and recheck bags on transfers, why in the world would you schedule 1 hour layovers? Our plane landed at 3:50pm and the line at passport control was ridiculous. I did make the customs officer laugh and he said I "made his day" so that is always a good feeling.

Once through customs I had to wait for my bags, of course mine was one of the last ones off! Then rush over to recheck said bag before hoofing it to Terminal 3 for my 5:10pm flight. What a mess. On the tram heading to Terminal 3 I felt confident I would just squeak onto my flight, but alas, forgot I still had to go through the very long security line. Yes, security. Again. Luckily some people took pity on me and let me cut the 1st class line and I managed to get through fairly quickly. I was the last one on the plane with about 2 minutes to spare. Phew! Well at least I made it because my bag didn't. Oh well, it was just full of dirty, sweaty clothes that all needed to be boiled!

What's the first thing a Texan does upon returning home? TEX MEX! RR came to pick me up and we went straight to Chuy's for dinner. YUM. Margaritas and queso really hit the spot. Got home to a clean apartment that seemed to be in fine order. Chatted with B for a bit -- it had been a few days since we had Skyped so again, really nice to see his face.

Since then, it's just been jetlag and school mostly. My bag did appear the next day so I've spent some time doing laundry, organizing, etc...It'll take a while to get everything back to normal, but with this jet lag, it seems like I'm awake a lot more than I am asleep, so plenty of time to get everything done! Also I've had a nagging sore throat for about 5 days now so I decided to go ahead and see a doc to check it out. Hopefully it's nothing...