Departure 1/30/09

So I’m sitting in the San Fransisco airport. It’s 1:12pm and I’ve been here since 8:45am local time. My flight is supposed to take off sometime slightly before 2:00pm . I’ve been up for 10 hours so far and I haven’t even left the U.S.

 

Things I’ve learned so far:

1)    I know no practical Chinese.

2)    When in doubt, do what others do.

3)    Dyson make the best hand dryers ever.

 

This wing of the airport is (no surprise) the Asian International section. All announcements are either in Japanese, Chinese, or English  (in descending order of frequency). This is going to be really tough. Signs have still all been in English, so I easily found my gate. Plus it was written on my ticket.

 

The lady behind the desk made an announcement, in Chinese, a few minutes ago and slowly people started making their way to the desk to talk to her. I followed. I pretended to listen to her  as if I understood a single word she said. It was just to let me know our flight had been delayed 2 hours. Sweet….

 

The hand dryers in the bathrooms are by far the most fun and effective hand dryers I have ever used. I think they’re called Dyson Air Blades…or something equally sexy sounding. You basically put your hands down into the machine and then slowly lift them out. It blows a really thin stream of air across your hand, effectively squeegee-ing your hands. If this machine was paired with the hand washers at Rudy’s BBQ you’d have the ultimate hand sanitizing experience.

 

That’s how exciting this airport is…..

 

My favorite Chinese word of the day:

Hamburger – Hanbaobao - 汉堡包