It felt so comfortable to be at home the last 3 weeks that it went by very quickly. It’s hard to leave. I had days of: catching up on the ridiculous amount of TV I tivoed while gone, watching Margaret work, taking care of small errants and doctor’s appointments, and just sliding through easy days. I’m ready to go with all the packing, travel plans, and critical errants, but I have two bad feelings. One is minor. There are things left undone like TV shows unwatched, newspapers unread, and 3 days of blogs from the last trip unwritten. The other is bigger. I don’t feel like leaving. I have an amazing expenditure of energy coming up; physical, intellectual, and psychic. The sedentary lifestyle from the last 20 days has given me the rest needed from the last trip but there’s not been enough mental preparation for this trip.

That being said, probably the only way to get prepared for a trip like this is to “just do it”. (Speaking of which I bought new Nike shoes for the trip). This is a massive trip, I’m going 200 degrees of longitude out of 360 it would be to go all the way around the world. Then I go another 200 degrees to get back so ultimately I’m going further than around the world would be. I’ll be on 12 airplanes, with two 14 hour flights and four flights of 4-6 hours each. I’ll be staying overnight in 4 countries besides the US with 4 currencies, 4 languages, and 4 time zones. I should stop writing this way, it’s freaking me out a bit.

It’s feels better now that I have the scary stuff out of my system. This is a trip of the lifetime like the last trip (can you have two trips of a lifetime or do you need two lifetimes for two such trips?). I have an amazing host in Woo in Korea. In China, India, and Thailand, I’ll have a private guide, business class flights, and great hotels. I’ll be seeing things I’ve always dreamt of seeing. While I don’t have any Asian roots to match the Jewish discovery I had in Israel, I have loved Asian culture for a long time. My top types of foods in order are Indian, Thai, and Chinese. Korean is not on that list because I’ve only had it once or twice but I loved it.

Alan Enterline, who takes loving care of our flowers and shrubs, took me to the airport. He’s a great guy and knows everything about everybody in Indiana, PA. If you’re looking for someone to lovingly take care of your flowers and shrubs, I highly recommend him. He really knows his stuff. He has a degree from Penn State in the “field.” He joked about being my “concierge”. It’s nice to know he’ll be at the airport to pick me up on April 11 at the end of the trip. Margaret is very happy that I didn’t need her to take me.

Alan Enterline. plant magician and  “concierge”

Even though I have a business class ticket, the flight to Chicago on United put me in coach since there was no business class. If it had been on US Airways, they would have put me in first class since that’s my frequent flyer company. I paid the $19 extra to get “economy plus” which gives a few extra inches of leg room though. The flight got in about 20 minutes early, which is not the worst thing an airline has done. I had fun on the airline talking with a CEO of an energy disposal company and a woman going for training in Chicago. When I explained where I was going and where I had been, it sounded more amazing than it was in my mind. The CEO was amazed that I was going near and would be going near trouble spots of the world. He recommended against going to the DMZ between North and South Korea (as had Woo), but I’m going there on Thursday.

I had 6 hours to kill in the Chicago airport. When I got off the plane, there was a list of airlines under the 4 terminals. My airline, Asiana was not on the list. As I wandered around the massive airport, I realized this was my first time in an airport that did not even list my airline. The terminal I was in was almost entirely for United so I just moved on to the next one.

While I was in the Middle East, I had a tradition of having a pomegranate juice every day. I saw a Jamba Juice at the airport and they did have a pomegranate smoothie. The people working there were from Nepal so I had a good talk with them about their monarchy, the Maoist uprisings, and their 9 hour and 45 minute time change from the US.

Nepalese pomegranate smoothie sellers

Last night I realized that my set of 4 power adapters did not include the adapter for India. I looked at a small electronics store at the Pittsburgh Airport and they didn’t really know what I was talking about. They had the same 4 adapters. Without much hope, I walked into a similar store in the Chicago airport and the guy said that they were one of the few places that actually had one. He also recommended I get a case for the Mac Book Air so that people didn’t see the Apple Logo and want to steal it, in addition to protecting it from the many times I drop things (he didn’t know that). These guys were having a good time listening to music and talking about the tech products they were selling. Again, I had a good time.

It took me a while to realize I had to leave the secure zone and take a train for a mile or two to the International Terminal, then wait and hour or so until the check-in counter opened. Maybe my highlight of the day was when the check-in staff came in, the 8-10 or so of them all lined up in a row facing us, bowed together, and all said something in Korean at the same time. Unfortunately I couldn’t get my camera out in time.

At the bar, I met a guy who owns a business that makes solar lights (lakelite.com). He was going to China to take care of problems at their manufacturing plant.  He had great stories of being regaled by an Indian couple they met in China who treated them to a meal costing thousands of dollars. He told stories of drinking competitions with Chinese businessmen with rot gut liquor. He had caught some of them emptying their glasses on the floor. Apparently, there are travel agents outside of the US who sell Asian flights for several hundred dollars below the lowest US price. You just need to call them overseas. He also had an iPhone 4 knock off he bought in China. Fascinating guy.

Christian and Jeff at their Techshowcase “Technology Experience” store. my heros for having an Indian plug adapter and finding a great MacBook Air case for me (left), Jeff, the owner of lakelite.com that makes solar lights for the home with his laptop tethered to his phone (right)

I had to try a Chicago Hot Dog with everything. This was my token experience of something native to Chicago. I had considered going into Chicago but decided to save my energy. From Wikipedia, “A Chicago-style hot dog is a steamed or water-simmered, kosher-style, all-beeffrankfurter[1][3] on a poppy seed bun,[4] originating from the city of Chicago, Illinois. The hot dog is topped with yellow mustard, chopped white onions, sweet pickle relish (often a dyed neon-green variety, sometimes called piccalilli[5]), a dill pickle spear, tomato slices or wedges, pickled sport peppers, and a dash of celery salt.[1][6][7][8] The complete assembly of a Chicago hot dog is said to be “dragged through the garden” because of the unique combination of condiments.”

Chicago-Style Hot Dog

I’m now in the Business class lounge at 11 PM waiting for my 1 AM flight. I realized I had a remarkably good time for just going to Pittsburgh, flying to Chicago and getting to the International gate. Who needs to go abroad? I can just spend a month flying back and forth to the Chicago airport instead.