sleeps on a plane!

i have arrived. ahhhh....
am currently sequestered in my air-conditioned hotel room so that i can live out my jet-lag in peace. actually, i've got a three hour internet card and am putting it to good use. just remembered that i need to print out a map of the university... how did i think it was a good idea to get on the plane with no contact info/maps for anything...?
so, the last 30 hours or so were fairly eventful...
hit up oakridge centre one last time before leaving vancouver. have heard reports that erin went out and bought leggings as soon as i left the country. oh jeez.
learned tuesday night at the bar that rodrigo and i would be sharing a plane to shanghai - yay! arrived at the airport on wednesday (three hours early!) to find ahuge lineup. thankfully, my fantastic chilean friend arrived even earlier and was about two people away from checking in. i scooped the lineup and we even managed to get seats together... enjoy the scary pic! that flight awas about 12 hours but didn't feel like it...chatted, slept, read... of course, i had an old guy in front of me who reclined his seat right into my knees - and i'm not exactly known for my long legs. couldn't decide whether to be mad, or to feel sorry for an old guy on such a long flight. was mostly mad.
looked out my window as we flew over japan - we flew right over gifu! not that i recognized the mountains (i bet matt would have) but the little flight tracker said so.
the next flight was delayed an hour and a half, and fatigue hit me hard. i was doing the head-bobbing, fighting-to-stay-awake dance at the gate. there was the greatest guy though - wish i had a cell phone cam. he was rocking a fierce mullet with a fancy suit and cufflinks. also saw the best sign about separating garbage... the categories were organic, inorganic and pernicious. pernicious garbage sounds frightening! sitting in the airport brought back a lot of memories of being confused and illiterate in asia and i almost immediately started tuning out any announcements that weren't in english... unless people around seemed to find them important. i also started asking questions instead of trying to figure anything out! i really got used to understanding everything while i was home.
anyways - as soon as i boarded the flight from shanghai to hong kong (and let me tell you that people DO NOT line up nicely here) i fell asleep. woke myself up by snoring (awesome!) and realized that i was leaning into the aisle and that the flight attendant was performing the safety demo.... it was not subtle. i was right up front!!!
landed in a thunderstorm, got out of the airport in 20 minutes and was in the shower by 1am. felt like i had a second wind, but was determined to sleep. got up at 7, watched some tv, drank some instant coffee and now am playing on the information superhighway.
more adventures to come as i head out to the university today and have a reception at the intercontinental hotel downtown tonight. i'm gonna have to meet new people! ah!