A Little Decoration on the Wall

The walls of my living room are white, or blank. To be honest, I'm not an interior coordinator type of person, that is, I don't have a sense of decorating house. But, I found candle racks in the storage a couple of days ago, and today, I hung them on the wall. Ta-da ~~~, they changed the atmosphere of the room. Nice. They are hung on the wall next to the door to the balcony. And there are other different candle racks on the wall next to the entrance. Now, I want to decorate the room more!

High Heels

Yeah, I kind of missed wearing high heels. Here, you know, there's no opportunity to do so. But today, in Seattle, for my friend's wedding, I was given an opportunity to do so. Nice.

Cottage in Seattle

After 7 hours and half, or 8 hours of drice, we finally arrived in Seattle. I didn't drive so that I don't have any complaints about the long drive. But, I came back from Mexico City yesterday, and today, I had 7, 8 hours of drive. Phew, give me a break.

But, this is OK because we came here to attend our friend's wedding. And we, all girls, will enjoy girls nights, yea! So, we, wedding attendants, are staying this cottage today and tomorrow. This is a little, nice, clean cottage, and we like it.

Well, United is Not So Good Again

Again, I needed to wake up terribly early to catch a flight. The front desk person threatened me that I had to be in the airport three hours before my flight. Someone else told me that the Mexico City Airport is quite chaotic. Because my flight was 7:04 am, I had to be there by 4:00 am. I woke up at 3:00 am, and got on the taxi which the hotel called for me at 3:20 am. The front desk person told me that it would take 30 minutes to get to the airport, but it was not true. It took only 10 minutes. So, I was in the airport at 3:30 am. After I got to the airport, I found that the check-in counter open at 4:00 am. Damn!

The airport was not chaotic or crowded at all. It was too early to be chaotic or crowded. So, I smoothly reached the gate by 4:30 am. Man, I have two hours and half to kill.

OK, forget the tranquil Mexico City Airport. The trouble came up in San Francisco. My connecting flight delayed 40 minutes in San Francisco, which made me miss another connecting flight in Portland. When I realized that I would miss my next flight, I talked with a ground staff in Portland to reschedule my flights. He simply said, “The next flight after that is 9:00 pm.” “I have to kill a lot of time in Portland. Why don’t you switch my flight to a direct flight to my final destination from here?” “No, they are all full.” “Then, put me in standby.” “Then, you will lose your seat to Portland. If you cannot get on the direct flight, you cannot go anywhere.” OK, this is the normal attitude of United.

Here’s what happened in Portland. My flight from San Francisco finally stopped moving at 4:30, which was just 7 minutes before my next flight would leave the gate. I asked the flight attendant, to who I told my situation when I got on board, if I missed the flight when I got off the plane. He said, “I don’t know. Ask the representative there.” Geez, this is the normal attitude of United. I came to the nearest gate podium, and a ground staff checked my status. Yes, I missed my flight. I was sent to the ticketing counter to reschedule it. Unfortunately, terribly unfortunately, there was no flight until 9:35 pm. So, I ended up killing five hours around the gate, drinking expensive airport beer. Then, I remembered, this happened before, in the last Christmas break. I missed the flight (because of United’s fault), and United put me in a red eye to get to Chicago and finally to Austin. That was worse. This is better. Better?!

Jugo de Naranja es Muy Bien

Mosquitoes got me, a lot last night while sleeping! Damn, I hate mosquitoes even though mosquitoes love me. In Japan, in the summer, I’d never keep myself away from pesticides to protect myself from mosquitoes. But in Mexico City ... I didn’t expect that I would be attacked by mosquitoes!

... And my roommate snored hard. Plus, because of jet lag from consecutive international flights, I could not sleep very much.

Also, my ears were little weird, feeling kind of stuffed, blurred. I assume it’s because of the high altitude of this city.

I walked around in the historic area this morning. A huge cathedral, colonial buildings, stoned walkways, etc. Everything that I saw was cool. And people were nice (though again, they don’t understand English). But I’m kind of enjoying this miscommunication.

For example, looking for a place to have dinner, I entered a very local bar restaurant where local guys were hanging around, watching a soccer game on TV. “Can I take a look at the menu?,” I said to a waiting person, pointing the sigh on the wall. But it was the menu of alcohol. “No beber. Comer, comer,” I said. Finally, the waiting person understood me, “El menu!,” and gave me a menu. But of course, I cannot understand the menu in Spanish. So, I went to the kitchen with the menu. “I want to eat vegetables. Not meat. Do you have any vegetable dishes?” They didn’t understand me. I pointed chopped lettuce on the kitchen table, “Vegetable, vegetable!” They didn’t understand me. I found vegetable soup in the huge pot. “What is this? Vegetable soup? I want to have this.” Then a waiting person pointed a lady who was cooking steak in the kitchen, and said in Spanish something like, “The soup comes with the beef. Lettuce and tomatoes are also on the side” (this is my understanding—or imagination—and, therefore, it is not exact translation of what he said). “OK, I will have it, but the steak is huge. Will you make it half? Media? Pequeno? Chico? Un poco?” “Si, si.” The waiting person looked relieved that I finally decided what to eat, ha ha ha.

Anyway, people were very nice. They don’t try to cheat you.

Dancing in Mexico

I was wrong again (in terms of camera). The conference was OK, or to be honest, I don’t care about the conference. I finished my presentation this evening, and I’m free already! So, if I wanted, I could have escaped from everything related to the conference. But I went to the welcome party tonight anyway. It turned out to be something! I’m glad that I went there, but I’m blaming myself of forgetting my camera. The party was very much fun, which was beyond my expectation. AS from my school was, haha, hilarious.

I decided to share the room with someone (to save money) who I met yesterday in the hotel. She is also attending the conference. Through conversation, we found that we have some friends in common. So, I thought I could trust her to share the room. We will see.

In the Air Again

Man! It’s too early! I woke up 4:00 am to catch the 6:10 flight though I’m still struggling with jet lag (of course, I just came back from Japan yesterday evening).

On the flight, the first thing that came to my mind is, “Oops, I forgot my camera.” Well, that’d be no problem. I’m going to Mexico City to attend the conference, and I probably won’t have time to hang around the city.

The Mexico City Airport is conveniently located to the city center. There is a subway station close to the airport, urgh, like the Fukuoka Airport. Anyway, in 20, 30 minutes, you arrive downtown.

People were kind and nice though most of them do not understand English. Yes, I know I should speak Spanish. But I realized I have lost my Spanish terribly. I’m bad.

Because of media images of Mexico, in my poor imagination, people are killing each other in Mexico City, wearing a mask to avoid swine flu. As educated people do, I say that it was not true.

Urgh, I'm home ...

After 40 days without stress, anxiety, or study, I don’t blame myself of whining, “I don’t want to go home. I don’t want to go to the United States!” So, I whined a lot. But, I have a flight to catch, and the flight leaves on time. Damn, this modern society.

I left Osaka around 5:00 pm, and arrived in San Francisco around 11:00 am. It’s still 19. A long day.

My connecting flight was scheduled to leave around 8:00 pm. Nine hours to kill. OK, let’s think about what to do after a beer. I had an expensive airport beer lunch.

On the way to the gate, I found an airlines ground staff at the counter, who seemed to do nothing. So, I spoke to her, “Hi. My flight leaves at 8:00, but I wonder if there’re any available earlier flights.” The lady typed the keyboard for a second, and said, “Well, the next flight is all full.” “OK, then, I give up. I will wait until 8:00.” “The flight is full, but I can put you in standby. It’s worth trying.” Isn’t she nice? I was moved to know that kind of customer-friendly staff is working for United.

She is great. I could catch the earlier flight, and arrive in the final destination around the time when I left Osaka. Today is a long day.

Fake New York Times

If this is true, the world would be very happy and peaceful!