Home sweet home!

But not so for my luggage.

First let me back track a bit. Dinner had been plentiful for the past few days: Tuesday, we treated Ms Yu and Tian to dinner (we being Pin and I) at the restaurant 江南廚子 (Kitchen from South of Yantze). The food was okay, and the price is acceptable. I was almost tempted into buying some spring Dragon Well, but decided not to in the end. Wednesday, Prof. Wang Bao Xiang and his students invited Pin and I out to dinner, sort of as a going away meal. We again went to South Beauty (俏江南) on the third floor. The food was great, and our Chinese host naturally ordered more than enough. (Some pictures were taken, maybe I'll upload them later.)

Funny how that I went to Beijing, and all the restaurants I went to are for south China cuisine (even Thursday for lunch, when Pin, Sergiu, some of the students, and I went out, we went to 城隍廟 for Shanghai Dimsum). I regret a bit for not going to 全聚德 and getting the roast duck, but I guess this gives me a great excuse to go back to visit (and the forbidden palace, and the great wall, and 天壇, and ...)

Yesterday I went to listen to Sergiu's last lecture before the May 1st holiday. I was originally planning to leave the building by 1:30pm, but Ms. Yu as well as some students all thought that I would be crazy to leave so early for a 6:30 flight. So I stayed for part of the last lecture and left at 3pm. The cab ride to the airport was fairly quick: 95 RMB and 45 minutes. Not much traffic at all.

I was surprised at the airport: it took me a while to figure out that a Beijing, one passes through customs first before checking-in at the airlines. The check-in line was a bit long, but United Airline is fairly efficient. One of the agents gave me a sticker to put on my shirt: turns out this easily allow the immigration officials etc. to identify us as US bound passengers, and so they can ferry us over to the more stringent security check area separate from that for flights going elsewhere. My bag was only 19 kilos: so I worried for nought when I thought it might be overweight.

After checking in, I had to pass the immigrations (though I think it should be properly called emigrations). The same problem happened as when I was going into the country: they couldn't type my name in the computer. In the mess of it all, the official forgot to stamp my ticket! When I got to the security check line, the official looked at me funnily and asked how I got there. I said, I came through the immigrations and I am here. And she looked at me and called over her supervisor, who then took me aside and asked for my passport. So I handed him my US passport and he then proceeded to look for the entry visa. I then stopped him and handed him my Hong Kong ID and entry permit, so he then nodded and asked me to wait a while, taking my entry permit and the ticket with him. He came back five minutes later apologizing profusely: he found the person who let me through and gave her a stern talking to so such a mistake won't happen again in the future. Then I passed security.

All was rather uneventful: I waited for about an hour at the gate and then we boarded. I refrained from buying airport souvenirs.

After we all boarded, and the door closed, for some reason or another, we sat at the gate for a while, and I fell asleep...

...I jerked awake a bit later, and now the sky has visibly darkened, and I was still on the plane, and the plane was still on the tarmac. Due to unforeseen circumstances (not explained), we were delayed for an hour on the runway. I started getting nervous, as I don't know whether I can make my connection to EWR. I planned it perfectly: I gave myself two hours at Dulles to pass immigration, customs, recheck my bag, pass security, and reboard. Perhaps even get some dinner. Now it seems I have less than 1 hour left.

The flight was, well, normal. 4 movies were shown (I think the last was based on the Eragon books, about a dragon rider/knight or something. I wasn't paying attention to any of the films). And with two meals, two snacks, and some beverage service, we landed at Dulles 5 minutes after the "transfer customs hall" closed down.

Dulles airport has two Customs/immigrations hall. There is a main one that stays open as long as the airport is open, that is in the main terminal building, and there is another one in the international arrivals building which is especially for travelers with connecting flights. Unfortunately, the latter only opens 10:45am to 8:30pm. We got in an hour later than expected, at 8:35pm. And the US officials wait for no one.

Now everyone needs to head over to the main terminal to pass customs, for which we need to take a shuttlebus (they call it a moving lounge or something like that). I get even more nervous.

Before landing, the captain/crew broadcasted a message explaining that they require the cooperation of the passengers, that since we are going to be late at arriving and that there are many passengers on the plane who now have really tight connections, that the passengers who have Dulles as their final destination should let the others deplane first. I laughed at their Naivité knowing that I was on a full plane of Chinese people. Just as I expected, only a few Caucasian faces followed the instruction at landing.

I was laughing sarcastically inside when I deplaned, now knowing that there would be a long line ahead of me at customs at immigrations. My heart sank further when I saw that they are ferrying all passengers onto shuttles to the main terminal, so I paid no attention when they tried their hardest cramming all travelers on connecting flights onto one particular shuttlebus.

On the bus I stood next to a woman. She had a clipboard and a walky-talky. evidently she was a member of the ground crew. Once we all boarded and left the terminal, I stopped laughing inside. Turns out they knew all along that the suggestion made by the pilot would not be followed, and so they crammed all passengers on connecting flights onto a particular bus packed like sardines. The woman next to me announced that they are deliberately stalling the other shuttle buses so that we, the connecting passengers who now suddenly have priority, can be the first one to get to customs hall.

I was really impressed.

At Dulles was one of my easiest times through immigrations. The guy behind the counter was probably fully aware that most of the people coming through right then were passengers on a tight schedule for connecting flights, so he made no small talk, ran my passport through the computer, and in 30 seconds I was standing at the carousel waiting for my luggage, which came out in a mere two minutes.

So far, all went well, perhaps too well. I zipped through customs, handed my bag to be re-checked, and ran to security. I removed all metal objects from my person, went through security with no problems, Then I boarded another shuttlebus back to the terminal from which I deplaned, and made it (after a quick restroom stop) to the gate five minutes before scheduled takeoff.

We were delayed again. By weather. A thunderstorm system in the area is directly on our flight path. I fell asleep again. This time, when I woke up, we were already on our descent to EWR.

S met me at the airport. There were rather few passengers on that last flight, and so the carousel stopped running rather quickly. My heart sank. I knew there was only a small chance that my bag also made it to the plane.

At least now they finally found it (I checked earlier in the morning, even though they promised "first thing in the morning", by 11am, they did not know where my bag was): they updated the bagtrak status (United has a system set up online where one can track where the bag is once a claim has been filed after landing) just 5 minutes ago and now it says to expect delivery between 11:15 am and 9:15pm. I hope they make it in reasonable time.