Travelogue #1: Airport Chaos - Part 1

So, this is my first travel post. Thank you for reading this far.

I began my travels on January 12th, when I left home for the Cleveland Hopkins airport. It was raining hard that day,  and it seemed to reflect my mood.

Rain, far from being depressing, always scared me a bit. Rain put me on edge, because where there was rain there were often storms. A storm was happening on that night too. I was put on the edge. It didn't help that my mother was beside herself when I left. She was trying not to cry, but I could tell that she was breaking down. That was really the moment that it hit me. I was leaving.

When I got inside, my hands were shaking so much that I couldn't  give the counter woman my passport, so my sister did it for me. I bought her food, she finally got me on Snapchat and then she left. It was mundane, and didn't have the 'gravitas' I was thinking it would have. I didn't feel like I was changing my life, or doing anything special. (I still don't really.)

The first plane ride passed by in a blur. I remember being in a fever-like state, staring out of the window so hard that I through my eyes were going to pop. This is where I had my first taste of a german caramel waffle cake. It was pretty good! Very sweet, but cold.

Once I got to Newark, it was chaos. A harried agent helped me onto a large cart, and I went off to my resumed gate. Except, it wasn't my gate. I found that out about a half an hour before my plane was going to leave. So, I was rushed headlong to the new flight by a really nice South African woman, who stayed with me until I got to the international gate. She made my trip so much easier, and with her help I was ready to face the next leg of my journey.

In my next post, I will describe my experience going through customs, my exchanging of international money, and my first flight out to Beijing. Thanks for going on this trip with me!

-TRR

Introduction

Welcome to my review homepage! I have a few older posts on here, and I’ll leave them up for posterity’s sake, but from this moment on this blog will be exclusively book reviews and travelogues. Have a seat, and I hope that you’ll be able to find a new book or two.