Shanghai, Day 1

IAH to PVG

We'll, we're off on our adventure. Very early Friday morning, we headed off to the Houston airport. It was actually pretty busy, considering that we got there before 5 a.m. We survived check-in and security, grabbed some snacks, and got on our first plane.

Pleasant surprise #1 -- Our baggage was free. And certainly not because we didn't check any. (3 large bags and one filled with chips and salsa for our Shanghai colleagues.)

First flight was pretty uneventful -- we got a little bit of sleep and read some -- and then we were in Chicago.

Pleasant surprise #2 -- We arrived at Gate K4 and were leaving from Gate K12. This was very good news considering that we had about a 30 minute layover. We got off the first plane, walked down the hall, and waited for the next one.

While we waited, we decided to take the American Airlines Platinum Challenge. This is basically a short-cut to "elite" frequent flyer status, where you pay a fee and then have 90 days to accrue 10,000 points, which on our cheapo fares, is about 20,000 miles. We figured that between this flight and the flight in January, we'll come in right at 10,000. And then we'll have to fly American for the rest of our lives to maintain it.

So then we got on the big plane. Really big. Boeing 777. There's a first class section, a business class section, coach, and then there's where we're sitting. But it's not all bad. We have a 2-seat section on the side of the plane, a power outlet for our seats, personal TV/movie screens, and pillows and blankets! (Totally makes my last-minute dash to the store to find travel pillows and blankets seem a little foolish.)

So we waited for take-off, which was scheduled for 10:35. And we waited. And waited. And found out that the auxiliary battery was dead and needed to be replaced. And waited and waited while they repaired it. And then found out that the little airplane tugboat car thing was broken down and we would have to wait for a new one. Oh, and there were other planes in front of us for take off. We finally got off the ground at 1:15. Hey, when we're going to be stuck here for 15 or so hours, what's a couple more?

Pleasant surprise #3 -- My little personal tv has episodes of Friday Night Lights on it! It's only two episodes (S1, ep 2 and 3 -- the ones with VooDoo, to be exact) and I did start to cry a little at the opening credits, thinking of how I won't be able to watch the new season, and then I cried some more when Tami goes to HEB, but it was still a very happy way to spend 2 hours.

When you spend the better part of a day on an airplane, they feed you well. We had drinks and snacks right away, with hot towels. We also had comic relief, in the way of a flight attendant who just seems a little ... off. The flight crew is American (nationality, not employer ;-)) and I'd say 75% of the passengers are Chinese nationals. The most notable exception to that is the engineer from Austin sitting right behind us, with his chatty seatmate, a grad student from Missouri "but just that little part of Missouri that kinda sticks down in to Arkansas and that's why I sound a little bit country". Anyway, back to the flight attendant. She's maybe in her late 60s and kinda ... out of it. In a confused, disheveled sort of way. Just before lunch, she was passing out warm washcloths. She handed one to Tommy right as we hit a rough patch of turbulence. She then immediately dumped the tray of towels into an empty seat, sat down, and put on her seat belt -- even as the rest of the flight attendants kept right on handing out towels, and "encouraging" her to get up. After about 5 minutes, she did.

Later on, while manning the in-flight duty free shop (seriously, when did this start? They bring the liquor and Clinique right to your seat?), she was ringing up an order for the woman sitting in front of us, and stopped to peruse the catalog. Think about the Target lady from Saturday Night Live, just at 35,000 feet and with no way to change the channel.

I don't mean to disparage this lady -- I certainly couldn't do what she does day in and day out, because just doing this flight a few times in the next 18 months may make me crazy. But it was funny.

Which leads me to pleasant surprise #4 -- the Aggie Network really is everywhere. When we got on the plane, a flight attendant at the door stopped Tommy (wearing an A&M shirt) and mentioned that her son goes to A&M. Later on (I think while we were waiting for the battery) she came over to our seats to talk to us. Turns out her son is in the maritime program at TAMU-Galveston, but the school was closed after Ike so he's finishing his senior year in College Station. OK, sure, a classic Aggie Network moment. But it really paid off when she was serving us lunch, because she had the cocktail cart, and totally hooked us up with free wine and scotch. Like, extra bottles to stash away. Gig 'em. (Don't worry, Mom -- we're drinking lots of water and walking around every hour.)

That's about it for now. According to our real-time video map thingy, We're currently right over the Arctic Circle, where the temperature outside is a chilly -78 degrees, and headed for Siberia. Tommy and I are about to watch The Dark Knight before dinner and maybe a little more sleep before we get ready to see our new home.

More later!