my 38-hour Thursday

Time travel IS possible. Particularly if you're time zone hopping and heading east over the International date line. It's makes for an odd day though... with one morning, but two nights.

This morning, from my taxi on the way to the airport, I saw bare-bottomed Filipino kiddos all soaped up and getting their morning bath on the sidewalk... several yards further along, sparks flew as a young man welded an iron fence together... a just a little after that, an older man leaned against a truck, shirt rolled up to his chest, his belly shamelessly greeting the day. My Filipino taxi driver was quite upset over the current protests surrounding the Scarborough shoals. I continually tried to steer the conversation to less political topics, but he was not easily distracted. Hah! :-)

Made it to ICN international airport and found a large "etiquette bell" button mounted on the wall of each bathroom stall. Hmmmmmm... I was curious enough to take a picture, but not enough to actually push it. ;-) Turns out, it makes a loud toilet flushing sound to help muffle out any other unpleasant sounds one might hear in a bathroom. Definitely "a 'hearing people' thing." When I mentioned it, a colleague pointed out that the walls were for the sake of us "visual people." ;-)

Arrived in LAX and back on U.S. soil to some very friendly customs ladies who told me all about the things people have tried to bring through from Southeast Asia: "You don't have any elephant toenails in your bag, do you?" Ha ha! No, Ma'am!
Shocked to see prices of food at the airport!! And $4 for water... whaaaaat!? Oh, and another fun US shock... did you know that you can have your e-ticket ON your iPhone and just scan your ticket barcode on your phone screen when you go through security and board the plane??? First time I've ever seen that! Also a bit surprised that all the announcements came over the loudspeakers FIRST in Spanish, and THEN in English. Wow.

Finally... I got on the plane in Manila this morning in 34*C/93*F weather. I'll be deplaning in Oregon tonight in 4*C/39*F weather. Brrrrr!! And it's May!