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land of the free, my foot
I’m finally in New York. For a while I actually thought I wouldn’t be able to get here, what with the extremely annoying mix of paranoia and lack of common sense that seems so prevalent here. This is probably going to be a long post, so feel free to scroll down and move on with your Friends page if you’re not interested (I might even consider making an LJ cut if I feel nice enough).
My trip didn’t start off so well, and it would only get worse. I almost missed my flight to Detroit (via Tokyo) because the airport security people wanted to be really really sure that my visa was valid. Apparently, visas issued before 9/11 aren’t always accepted or something (or maybe Singaporeans are more anal than I thought). I thought I was pretty calm about it despite the very real possibility that I wouldn’t be allowed to board, but one of the officers was trying to calm me down and kept saying that everything would work out, so I guess I looked distraught. Anyway, I was the second-to-the-last person to check in (I overheard a person at the other counter being told that he was the last) and I had to run all the way to the gate because the flight status things on TV said that the gate was closing, but when I got there it wasn’t -_- After all that stress, it shouldn’t be surprising that I was asleep for most of my flight. I regret that now, actually, because by the time I realized that Northwest Airlines had movies-on-demand even for economy-class passengers, we were practically in Tokyo already. I really wanted to watch Romeo + Juliet (the one with Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes) again :(
After 17-18 hours, most of which was spent sleeping, I finally arrived in Detroit. Once again, my stupid visa got me in trouble. The immigration officers made me wait for two and a half hours while they tried to prove that something was wrong with my visa. Apparently, I don’t look like the picture on my visa; they kept staring at me from different angles in an attempt to find some resemblance. That picture was taken in 2000 and I barely kept myself from snapping at them and saying, “Is a person not allowed to change in 7 years??” But I was mostly indifferent about the whole thing because I had a 7-hour layover at Detroit and I needed to kill some time anyway. I still ended up with 4 and a half hours left before my flight, so I decided to explore the airport. It would have been more fun if I didn’t have a really really heavy bag and if the airport wasn’t so humongous, so I eventually decided to look for a place to sit down. Luckily, one of the restaurants was showing the NBA Playoffs on TV, so I just bought a drink and sat down to watch. Stupid Tony Parker for hurting poor Steve Nash’s nose :P But that wound must have been deep for the bleeding to go on like that. And it’s funny that Parker looked more in pain than Nash did; Nash must have a really hard nose :P Anyway, segue aside, I eventually arrived in New York, took a shuttle to my brother’s apartment, and slept for about 12 hours. My brother bought me some hotdogs for lunch and then we sat around in Central Park before watching Spider-Man 3 (which sucked, by the way). James Franco is my new dream guy (hindi na si Brad Pitt) :D Well, actually I like Harry Osborn’s character (rich, handsome, caring, rich, rich, rich.. :P). Tobey Maguire got chubbier, Kirsten Dunst was still not pretty, and Topher Grace was unremarkable. The whole movie was disappointing (James Franco aside :P), but I won’t spoil it for whoever still wants to watch.
Blah, I’m hungry. I’ll blog again some other time.
My trip didn’t start off so well, and it would only get worse. I almost missed my flight to Detroit (via Tokyo) because the airport security people wanted to be really really sure that my visa was valid. Apparently, visas issued before 9/11 aren’t always accepted or something (or maybe Singaporeans are more anal than I thought). I thought I was pretty calm about it despite the very real possibility that I wouldn’t be allowed to board, but one of the officers was trying to calm me down and kept saying that everything would work out, so I guess I looked distraught. Anyway, I was the second-to-the-last person to check in (I overheard a person at the other counter being told that he was the last) and I had to run all the way to the gate because the flight status things on TV said that the gate was closing, but when I got there it wasn’t -_- After all that stress, it shouldn’t be surprising that I was asleep for most of my flight. I regret that now, actually, because by the time I realized that Northwest Airlines had movies-on-demand even for economy-class passengers, we were practically in Tokyo already. I really wanted to watch Romeo + Juliet (the one with Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes) again :(
After 17-18 hours, most of which was spent sleeping, I finally arrived in Detroit. Once again, my stupid visa got me in trouble. The immigration officers made me wait for two and a half hours while they tried to prove that something was wrong with my visa. Apparently, I don’t look like the picture on my visa; they kept staring at me from different angles in an attempt to find some resemblance. That picture was taken in 2000 and I barely kept myself from snapping at them and saying, “Is a person not allowed to change in 7 years??” But I was mostly indifferent about the whole thing because I had a 7-hour layover at Detroit and I needed to kill some time anyway. I still ended up with 4 and a half hours left before my flight, so I decided to explore the airport. It would have been more fun if I didn’t have a really really heavy bag and if the airport wasn’t so humongous, so I eventually decided to look for a place to sit down. Luckily, one of the restaurants was showing the NBA Playoffs on TV, so I just bought a drink and sat down to watch. Stupid Tony Parker for hurting poor Steve Nash’s nose :P But that wound must have been deep for the bleeding to go on like that. And it’s funny that Parker looked more in pain than Nash did; Nash must have a really hard nose :P Anyway, segue aside, I eventually arrived in New York, took a shuttle to my brother’s apartment, and slept for about 12 hours. My brother bought me some hotdogs for lunch and then we sat around in Central Park before watching Spider-Man 3 (which sucked, by the way). James Franco is my new dream guy (hindi na si Brad Pitt) :D Well, actually I like Harry Osborn’s character (rich, handsome, caring, rich, rich, rich.. :P). Tobey Maguire got chubbier, Kirsten Dunst was still not pretty, and Topher Grace was unremarkable. The whole movie was disappointing (James Franco aside :P), but I won’t spoil it for whoever still wants to watch.
Blah, I’m hungry. I’ll blog again some other time.