redux

we are home!
home sweet lovely home. sleeping in my bed was amazing, i tell you.

jetlag is sort of lingering - i think it hit us really hard yesterday, particularly due to the 40ish hours of travel... but more on that later.

let us just say that the trip home was highly eventful.

beginning at the beginning: the church van we had chartered for 5:00 am was unavailable due to the driver's last-minute family emergency at 4 -- we had to scramble to Changi Airport in two smaller cars, courtesy of Pastor Wei and Chee Chiew our police friend. this was but the first in a series of "unfortunate" events...

after a breakfast at an airport Burger King, we caught our flight to Hong Kong smoothly. upon arrival, halfway out the airplane-exit-tunnel (if there's a real name for it I am ignorant of it), I noticed I had lost a camera battery and ran all the way back into the plane to search for it. the stewards and stewardesses were extremely helpful, and about five minutes into the frantic search one entered the plane and said that my friend had it (Andrew)...turns out Jeremy had seen it drop when entering the plane, and forgot to tell me. disaster averted, I thanked everyone profusely and embarrassedly before dashing back outside.

our HK-LA gate was crowded when we got there, a mix of Asians and an enormous crowd of South African teens in yellow-and-red outfits. we chatted and found out they were headed to LA for the Performing Arts World Championships. (pretty brilliant!)

in a few minutes we were bussed to the plane in crowded shuttles. upon boarding we were then greeted with a pleasant announcement from our (American!) pilot: due to volcanic activity in Alaska our flight had to be rerouted and thus extended, for approximately one hour...

...which turned out to be just long enough to make us miss our LA-Philly connection, as we discovered upon landing in Cali. fortunately, we were awarded $15 food vouchers from Cathay Pacific, our airline.

we had to claim our baggage, then cart it across several terminals -- outdoors, since LAX is hugetastic -- to be re-registered under US Airways. after this, we bussed back and forth until we reached a terminal that would accept our vouchers. we had a delicious meal of burgers, beef dips, quesadillas, and grilled cheese. :)

between this point and our final flight we all found ourselves dropping off at random points. (you know, when you're sitting down and decide to close your eyes, and then decide to keep them closed, and it feels good and slightly restful...and then you suddenly jerk a few seconds later and hope nobody saw that?)

finally. we boarded our 8:30 plane (8:30 LA time, that is) and took off for Philly, with a Las Vegas stop in between. Las Vegas looks really pretty from the air, lemme tell ya. we slept most of the trip.

and then we got to Philadelphia at long last, around 5-6 am EST.... and from there all was glorious!

Mr. McMullin picked us up in the van and we trekked down to McDonald's for a True American Breakfast...the capper to an amazing and unforgettable trip. Praise God we and all our luggage stayed safe even despite the bizarre "mishaps"...and the 30-40 nonstop travelling hours!

it is so great to be home, and we look forward to seeing all of you our faithful blogfollowers soon. to those in Singapore: we miss you guys already and demand you come to visit someday! :)

signing off to take care of some jetlag now. take care folks!

cheers,
Dan

time to say goodbye

it is 10 pm of our final evening here in Singapore. we are packing, in much less of a frenzy than last time, and spending a few last moments with our family. I am writing this post to an album of Chinese techno dance music. it is very energizing.




bittersweet is a good word. it describes how I feel about a few things.

For instance: I am going to miss this flat, but I am looking forward to sleeping in my own bed.

I am going to miss Singlish, but I am looking forward to Ameriglish.


I am going to miss the convenience of the MRT, but I am looking forward to driving on the right side of the road. (And actually driving, for that matter)

I am going to miss inexpensive, walking-distance hawker centers with authentic Asian food, but I am looking forward to orange juice in the fridge.


I am going to miss palm trees, but I am looking forward to pines.

I am going to miss the cool cousins and relatives (badly!), but I am looking forward to reuniting with awesome friends :)


I am going to miss mango milkshakes and chocolate waffles, but I am looking forward to breakfast cereal and pop toasters.

I am going to miss being the majority race, but I am looking forward to white bread country! (he he he)


I am going to miss exotic fruits, but I am looking forward to no durians (!!!)

I am going to miss experiencing God at work in awesome ways halfway across the world, but I am looking forward to experiencing God at work in awesome ways back in the States.


so in a nutshell: I am gonna miss this country like crazy, but I can't wait to be home :D

it has been a real blessing knowing we are in all your thoughts and prayers. please pray for continued safety as we embark on another day-long journey. and with that I bid you all good night, though it be but morning for many of you. stay cool and rested! and try to get your hands on some Chinese disco-techno-dance-electronica, it is lovely.

cheers,
Dan

keep keeping tabs on the Picasa albums -- I will soon be stocking them quite well with the remainder of our photographs once I have more time on these hands. (promise!!)

what i miss

I have been asked to inform you on some of the things I have missed about the States:
family
friends
western food
gum (its illegal here)
driving fast

Tonight we had a family reunion in which we ate chinese food with all the Lees except family number one and family number three. Family number three is a mysterious bachelor who lives in Papua New Guinea and looks like Mr Lee.

- andrew