Skates and Popcorn

Today the subway smelled just like a skating rink---like sweaty bodies, popcorn, and jolly ranchers. I can account for the sweaty bodies, but I'm not sure where the popcorn and candy smells originated. I'm sure it would be a janitor's worst nightmare, but being able to buy popcorn in the subway would be fantastic! Especially if it tasted like what you get at the movie theaters. I have to admit that I'm the kind of person who will splurge and go see a movie, just so I can sit in the theater and munch on warm, tasty, salty, buttery magnificence. At most HK theaters, they sell salty and sweet popcorn (the sweet is kind of like a mix between kettle corn and carmel corn), and they even let you order a mixed bag of both. Oh, it's delightful. Who knew Asians were such popcorn practitioners? On a related note, I don't think I've eaten a jolly rancher in several years. How can that be?

And I digress. Sorry it's been 11 days since I last wrote. I'm back and more full of nonsense than ever.

Back in the HKSAR

Matt and I made it safe and sound back to Hong Kong yesterday. We were meant to arrive on Tuesday night, but ended up spending the night in Tokyo after missing our connecting flight. Six hours into our Detroit-Tokyo flight, the captain announced we would be making a short stop in Anchorage, Alaska. Within minutes of landing, two armed police men boarded the plane to arrest a man sitting one row behind us. It was weird. My instant reaction was to internally curse Homeland Security--I just can't help myself. Matt suggested the man might have snuck 4 oz. of liquid on board, blatantly ignoring the 3 oz. liquid/gel/toothpaste/deoderant/complete nonsense rule. Regardless of his supposed crime, I felt pretty sorry for the guy. Who knows how long he'll be stuck in Alaska.

Rumors circulated later that he'd had some sort of altercation with one of the female flight attendants, but who knows. Matt and I got some flight vouchers, a 1 night stay at the Raddison, and a couple of trips to the buffet out the deal. Not bad, all in all. I'm a total sucker for free food.

For those of you we saw during our trip, we miss you already. And for those of you we didn't see this time around, we still miss you.

On the Road Again

The biddy old lady at the gas station register in Boonville, Missouri did not like the looks of us. I don't know if it was my new white plastic superhero glasses and matt's black skinny jeans ("girl jeans" as his little sister calls them), or perhaps it was because we kept buying $1 lottery tickets and losing, or maybe she was peeved that Matt used the women's restroom because the line for the men's room was under siege by a group of geriatrics---Regardless, to her we were "out-off-towners" and she wasn't having it. She had an utter look of disdain strewn on her face from the moment we walked into her little slice of heaven to the moment we waltzed out of her life forever. I'm usually good at charming the locals, but I think maybe I've been gone too long--the big city has gotten in my blood, I suppose. Didn't stop us from heading half a mile down the road to get ourselves a couple of corndogs at Sonic. Now that's what I call a little slice of heaven in Boonville, Mo.

Super-Sized

Matt and I are having a fantastic time on our tour of the Mid-West. I've been enjoying the unseasonably cold weather and the wide open spaces. Oh, and the fresh air is nice, too. And boy have we eaten ALOT of tasty food. We're calling it our "Fat American Food Tour." We're indulging every ridiculous food craving we encounter, knowing that soon enough we'll be back in the land of chopsticks and rice. I'm very happy to report that I got my very own Chili's Chicken Fried Steak within hours of landing on American soil. Mmmmmm.....so tasty. And breakfast. We've eaten ALOT of breakfast food. Eating all this food should be illegal. Those teeny-tiny airplane seats will seem even more daunting now that we've been super-sized, but it's all been worth it.

Breezy Business

There's nothing quite so awkward as climbing over someone in those itty bitty airplane seats only to hear a large ripping noise and to suddenly realize that the breeze you're feeling isn't coming from the fan above, but rather from the fresh hole in the seat of your pants, my pants specifically. Somehow I'd manage to catch the pocket of my favorite pair of green cargo pants (which had admittedly seen better days prior to this most unfortunate incident) on the corner of the arm rest as I clambered back to my seat. Fortunately for me it was Matt I was climbing over, not a stranger. Of course I thought of packing an extra pair of socks and undies should retrieving our luggage fail to coincide with our arrival in Kansas City, but an extra pair of pants was not something I had planned for. But after some quick maneuvering and the assistance of the nearest flight attendant (who most certainly was from the Dallas area based on the number of times she called me "hon"), I patched up my new breezy bits with a bit of masking tape and a whole lot of finesse. Glad I have a proper reason to do some serious shopping now.

Happy Easter!

Meet and Greet

To anyone who might have been missed on the email invite, I'm sorry you got skipped. One of our friends is hosting a "howdy-do" for Matt and I this weekend, so if you want details, shoot us an email and we'll send them out to you pronto. I would just publish all the info right here on this blog but I thought I'd best not do that just in case any of you internet crazies out there get the idea into your hair-brained heads to crash our little shindig. Don't mind the Kansas twang in my voice--I'm just gearing up to be with my people again. Less than 36 hours 'til we depart the Far East...