Straight Trippin'

I arrived at about 1 p.m. today. I wanted to get home because I was almost half-puking on the plane from my equilibrium being totally off, but now I'm having withdrawals. You can't just travel with an entourage with no less than 6 people everyday for two weeks and have the group disappear just like that, nor can you eat Chinese food at least twice a day for two weeks and not miss eating with chopsticks. It doesn't work that way.

The last days of China were quite whirlwind. Once we got in Dalian, we just spent one night at the hotel and checked out the next day. We held our technical seminar (where I did make my speech to a group of at least 80 chefs plus a couple of representatives from the U.S. government), then flew to Shanghai. I spent one night in Shanghai and flew back to Seattle the next morning. Jetsetting indeed.

But no trip is complete without a trip, like literally. Jane picked me up from the hotel and we rode the taxi together to the Maglev station. I told her that I'll be fine going to the airport alone. After hugs and thank yous, I grabbed my two luggages from the x-ray machine and dragged them onto the escalator. Granted that this was the first time that I've done this since throughout the entire trip, I had two Asian men who knew what it means to be gentlemen. Anyway, I probably didn't drag the wheels of both luggages far enough to catch the very end of the escalator "step" that I was on, so both luggages horribly fell backwards. One caught my shoe, so my right shoe came off as well. This went on as the escalator was climbing mind you. I swear, I thought we were all going to go tumbling backwards. Anyway, thank God that we didn't. I managed to get a hold of my shoe and put it on, then get my two luggages standing upright by the time I reached the top. When I got there, the two security guards were on deck to grab my luggages from me and set them on the platform safely. I didn't bother to look back at Jane because I didn't want to see her horrified face. HaHa! No one else was on the escalator at the time so I didn't hurt anyone else, but myself. I don't think those on the platform already saw what happened, but I'm sure those watching the security cameras got a kick out of seeing that unfold before their eyes. I dare anyone to top that embarrasssing moment! LoL.