Back in New York
The 7 hour layover passed by pretty quickly with an impromptu nap while hugging my violin and turning my backpack into a makeshift ottoman, so all went well. I slept 10 hours out of the 12 hours of my flight, which was a first and may have had something to do with getting just 40 minutes of sleep the night before. Maybe. Luggage took an entire hour to come out on top of the 40 minutes they had us wait on the plane at the JFK airport for another plane to get out of the gate, which was unpleasant, but my flight was nowhere near as bad as Nick’s, who had someone vomit on his shoes 20 minutes into the Beijing-Chicago leg of the trip in addition to the airline losing his luggage (albeit just for a day). Poor Nick.
A crazy thing happened at the airport, though — I ran into Ilene Molina, a CAPS major from the Class of 2008! She’s studying international human rights law in Egypt and was coming home for the holiday season. We didn’t get to talk too much, but the coincidence of running into her was pretty awesome.
Also, my first meal back in the States? A late night dinner at 东王朝 in Flushing, New York. Yes, my first meal in the United States after spending four months in China was Chinese food. And it was delicious.