Wow, Ow, Ow, Where Am I Going?!

OK, I missed the flights to come home. But, it is not a big deal to miss domestic flights. So, I just calmly went to the checking counter at the Charlotte airport to ask rescheduling. The Continental Airlines kindly rescheduled my flights between Charlotte and Portland and told me that I needed to reschedule with the Alaska Airlines (from Portland to the hippie town) myself. As I was told, I called the Alaska Airlines to make sure if my original flight boarding pass is valid. See, my brain was confused that time already. I saw my new boarding passes with the Continental Airlines and thought that I would arrive in Portland around 5:30 pm. The customer service asked me what time I would arrive in Portland. Seeing my boarding pass, I said 5:30. Then, the customer service said, of course, that my original boarding pass was still valid because my flight was scheduled to leave Portland 7:30ish. 5:30, which made me confused, was actually the time of boarding for the flight from Houston to Portland. Bomber!

I was calm in the flight between Charlotte and Houston. And I was still calm in the beginning of the flight from Houston to Portland. But, suddenly, I realized, watching my watch, "Wait a minute. It's 8 already, which means 6 in the West Coast! Damn, I cannot make it!" For the rest of the flight, I was in a panic status. And, when the flight finally arrived in Portland 8:30ish local time, I called my friend who was supposed to pick me up at the airport of the hippie town around 8:15 by saying, "Don't come and get me. I missed the flights and I've just arrived in Portland!"

In the Portland airport, I rushed to the Alaska Airlines concourse to reschedule my flight. The ground staff of the Alaska Airlines was nice (much nicer than other airlines ground staff) and willingly rescheduled my flight. But the funniest thing was, they put me in a flight to Seattle first and another flight from Seattle to the hippie town to finally get me in the hippie town today. It is ridiculous because the hippie town is 40-minute south of Portland. You know, Seattle is 40-minute north of Portland. Actually before the ground staff gave me this itinerary, he told me it was ridiculous, but there's no other ways to get in the hippie town in this day. Otherwise, I would have waited until tomorrow. Jeez, I never understand airline tricks.

Anyway, with the help of the Alaska ground staff, I finally arrived in the hippie town around midnight. And DS and her boyfriend came to get me. Phew, I'm home.

Playmates

These girls provide good distractions for me. Basically, what I'm doing here in the empty town is job search and application, sitting in front of the computer, browsing websites, filling application forms, writing cover letters and stuff, which tires my brain and eyes. So, once I get fed up with doing those, I go outside and play with these girls. But today, it is really hot outside, and they don't bother to come out of the shade :P

Nothing But ...

Since I came to visit DM and CM on August 18, it has been almost ten days. But in the last ten days, nothing special has happened. This is a very rural, empty town in the South. What do you expect?


But today, we went to take some photos of a run-down tobacco shed and horses. Well, nothing but a shed and horses. What else can I expect?


Well, there's one positive aspect of this kind of empty town. You can concentrate on what you have to do, in my case job applications. Yes, I'm working on applications almost everyday!

CNN

Yay, CNN! The first thing that I wanted to do in Atlanta is to visit CNN! Atlanta is the birthplace of CNN!


Though I had heard that the Inside CNN tour is not worth taking, I did anyway because I was a fan of CNN (I still am of Anderson Cooper, not Anderson Cooper 360, mind you). Yes, when I was a college kid, watching CNN International, I longed for being a part of CNN International (not CNN). I was naive :)

OK, so, the tour ... is not worth paying $15 or something (I paid $12, exploiting my student status). You may see some anchors actually on air and the newsroom, but so what?

During the tour, I thought I could not work in this environment. I can't stand being surrounded by flickering monitors. I would go crazy, ahhhhhh! Also, I can't stand huge wage gaps between superstar journalists (if you call them journalists) and newsroom workers. News organizations are totally hypocritical.

Coca-Cola Propaganda

Atlanta is also the birthplace of Coca-Cola. Ha, globalization started from Atlanta! Coca-Cola, CNN ...


Inside the World of Coca-Cola is totally about Coca-Cola propaganda! I had a bottle of water, and at the security check, a staffer peeled off the lebel of the bottle. I asked why, and she said, "It's Pepsi. Nothing but Coca-Cola is allowed." Wow!


And, they call the World of Coca-Cola the happiness factory or something like that. Wow again! They never refer to negative aspects of the Coca-Cola production such as environmenttal issues, cultural imperialism, and health issues (of course not!). Everything inside is propaganda. It was really interesting. I almost felt like I was in Disneyland, which is another total propaganda place of Corporate America and globalization.

MLK

Atlanta is the birthplace of Martin Luther King Jr., which I didn't know until today (I thought he was from Alabama). So, I visited the area where he was born and grew up. It is a little away from downtown, but you can walk down there from downtown. It is kind of a worn-out (black) area so that you may feel uncomfortable walking down the street. You don't see anyone other than African-Americans on the way, but you see lots of tourists in various colors including white (if you say white is a color) around the MLK historic site, which is interesting to me. I assume those tourists drove there and would drive back to their comfortable area as soon as they finish taking photos of the historic stuff there. Interesting, and sadly, very much American.


Americans love eternal flame stuff? This eternal flame is for MLK. And, I remember I saw the eternal flame for JFK in the Arlington National Cemetery long time ago :P


Again, I was wrong. I thought MLK was from a poor family, but he was actually from a middle class family. This is the house where he was born.

Conference is Secondary?!

Well, I presented my papers before I visited the MLK historic site. I should have mentioned earlier because it should be the primary reason of my visit in Atlanta. But obviously it was not :P