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s2m no Tabi no Monogatari, Day 1
I've decided to divide the tale of my trip into several posts, one for each day, and probably one solely for Viz. So!!
Day #1: Thursday the 16th. I woke up at 9:30, which is early for vampiric me. I had packed almost everything the days before, so I only had to add my toothbrush and the like. I didn't want to worry about checking baggage, so I took my green backpack from college and the smaller suitcase with wheels. Lucky for me I didn't have to worry about parking my car at the airport, since I was able to pick up Mom at work so she could drive the car back home. And of course, the parents would pick me up when I returned, so yay. Saved me $50 or so in parking fees.
I had printed my boarding pass online before I left, and with no baggage to check, I went through security (always fun, ne??) and made my way to the terminal. My plane took off at 3:30. It was one of those giant 8-seat-wide jets. I had the window seat on the right, and a womanwho loved her makeup sat next to me. I think she was afraid of heights or flying b/c she ended up moving from her former seat to this one, she gave rather flustered apologies to the flight attendants for being difficult, and never looked out the window once. I was really tired from sleeping badly due to excitement and having to wake up early, so I slept for most of the flight. Aside from when the shriekling one row back and in the middle section of seats kept bellowing incessantly. Have I mentioned I do not like kids? >< The in-flight movie was Spidey 3, which I haven't seen, but I didn't have any headphones and didn't want to buy a pair from the flight attendants, so I slept. ZZzzzzzzzz. I woke about 30 min out of San Fran. I did see this gigantic lake with a huuuge dam. I haven't found it on the map yet, but it's west of the city that's west of San Fran. I pointed it out to Makeup Lady and she did look at that. It was exciting to see the Golden Gate from the air.
Upon landing, I kind of looked around and followed the flow of people. The terminal was the same one I was in last year, when I went to Hawaii. I followed the signs to Ground Transportation and walked out the doors. Luckily I saw a sign for "hotel courtesy shuttles" and made my way across the street. I had barely stepped out when a cab vroomed up and the cabbie asked me if I needed a ride. I pointed to the shuttle and said "Nope, I'm taking this!" He vroomed away. Heh.
A woman wearing a radio headset and clipboard asked me my hotel name, so I told her and she nodded me on the shuttle. I was one of the last inside. The car was actually a minivan, which was full. Once we were on the highway, the cabbie sent a sheet of paper and pen back and told us to write down our destinations on it. So i did. I asked the guy siting next to me how much the shuttle was--I admit it wasn't very smart of me to get on without knowing first--and he said $16.
About the drive.....I will never complain about driving in downtown Dallas or Ft. Worth again. OMG. I thought the highway from the airport to San Fran proper was bad, but it was nothing compared to actually driving in San Fran. It was beyond terrifying. Horns blasting, swerving around slower traffic, buses, construction, pedestrians, merging merging merging with mere inches to spare. Ye gods. D= I was very very glad to be sitting in the middle of the van. If we were in a wreck, I'd be the safest one of the lot. Ghaaaaa! The one highlight of our trip was when we were stopped(!) at a light, and a pedestrian strolled by. He was a rather yummy Asian teenager with great hair and awesome clothes that definitely worked for him. He distracted me quite nicely from my terror. I admit I drooled and wished that was my stop...if only so I could admire him some more. But alas, the light changed and we burned rubber away. *wistful sigh*
The driver used the paper where we wrote our hotels down to figure out his route. One or two passengers stopped at each hotel. 2nd to last was a local guy who had to help the driver find his place. I chatted with him a bit on the way, and he said he always takes the shuttle from the airport instead of a cab b/c it's so much cheaper. So yay! I made the right choice! Once he disembarked, I was last. We arrived at my hotel and I saw.... Um, in comparison to the other passenger's hotels, it was rather tattered. But it wasn't that bad, after I accepted it wasn't the Hilton or Marriott. *shrugs* I admit for the price, I was expecting something nicer, but hey. Everything is more expensive in San Fran. At least there were no roaches, fleas, or bed bugs!! (The day before I left, I caught a segment on the History Channel that mentioned bed bugs are on the rise again, particularly in cities with heavy international travel like NYC, LA, and--you guessed it--San Fran. O.o I checked my hotel bed with much paranoia. Ghaaaaa again!)
My check-in was uneventful, and I snagged a good sheet-of-paper-sized freebie map of downtown San Fran off the counter. My room was on the 2nd floor, so up I went. I flopped on the bedafter checking for bedbugs, called Shoujo Editor #1, left a message that I was in my hotel, then ate some granola and fell asleep. Shoujo Editor #1 woke me when he returned my call and we chatted a bit. Once we hung up, I kinda wanted to wander, but my hotel was in a more residential section, and I only had about half an hour of daylight left. So I prepared for bed and read over my movie ideas. It's been a good 6 months since I touched my poor neglected movie, and now some of my fabulous notions seem rather thin. Hmmm. Gotta fix that. I also sketched a bit, and managed a great head shot of my story's main character. ^^
I had turned on the TV for background noise and ran across the Cartoon Network. Silly me forgot to mute the tv before I began flipping through the channels, so I was subjected to one of the Naruto boys' English voices. The picture on the TV was only trees in the forest setting of the chuunin exam, so I don't know who was talking. I yelped in terror and hit mute before I heard more than a few words and the scene changed to include actual characters whose purity would be ruined bycrappily acted American English dialogue. Se-fu! I think it was Neji I heard anyway, and thankfuly I have no real emotional attachment to him. :P
Anyway, I went to sleep late that night. I don't remember the time, but I think it was around 11, which would be 1 AM in Texas time. So ends Day 1 of my trip! XD
Day #1: Thursday the 16th. I woke up at 9:30, which is early for vampiric me. I had packed almost everything the days before, so I only had to add my toothbrush and the like. I didn't want to worry about checking baggage, so I took my green backpack from college and the smaller suitcase with wheels. Lucky for me I didn't have to worry about parking my car at the airport, since I was able to pick up Mom at work so she could drive the car back home. And of course, the parents would pick me up when I returned, so yay. Saved me $50 or so in parking fees.
I had printed my boarding pass online before I left, and with no baggage to check, I went through security (always fun, ne??) and made my way to the terminal. My plane took off at 3:30. It was one of those giant 8-seat-wide jets. I had the window seat on the right, and a woman
Upon landing, I kind of looked around and followed the flow of people. The terminal was the same one I was in last year, when I went to Hawaii. I followed the signs to Ground Transportation and walked out the doors. Luckily I saw a sign for "hotel courtesy shuttles" and made my way across the street. I had barely stepped out when a cab vroomed up and the cabbie asked me if I needed a ride. I pointed to the shuttle and said "Nope, I'm taking this!" He vroomed away. Heh.
A woman wearing a radio headset and clipboard asked me my hotel name, so I told her and she nodded me on the shuttle. I was one of the last inside. The car was actually a minivan, which was full. Once we were on the highway, the cabbie sent a sheet of paper and pen back and told us to write down our destinations on it. So i did. I asked the guy siting next to me how much the shuttle was--I admit it wasn't very smart of me to get on without knowing first--and he said $16.
About the drive.....I will never complain about driving in downtown Dallas or Ft. Worth again. OMG. I thought the highway from the airport to San Fran proper was bad, but it was nothing compared to actually driving in San Fran. It was beyond terrifying. Horns blasting, swerving around slower traffic, buses, construction, pedestrians, merging merging merging with mere inches to spare. Ye gods. D= I was very very glad to be sitting in the middle of the van. If we were in a wreck, I'd be the safest one of the lot. Ghaaaaa! The one highlight of our trip was when we were stopped(!) at a light, and a pedestrian strolled by. He was a rather yummy Asian teenager with great hair and awesome clothes that definitely worked for him. He distracted me quite nicely from my terror. I admit I drooled and wished that was my stop...if only so I could admire him some more. But alas, the light changed and we burned rubber away. *wistful sigh*
The driver used the paper where we wrote our hotels down to figure out his route. One or two passengers stopped at each hotel. 2nd to last was a local guy who had to help the driver find his place. I chatted with him a bit on the way, and he said he always takes the shuttle from the airport instead of a cab b/c it's so much cheaper. So yay! I made the right choice! Once he disembarked, I was last. We arrived at my hotel and I saw.... Um, in comparison to the other passenger's hotels, it was rather tattered. But it wasn't that bad, after I accepted it wasn't the Hilton or Marriott. *shrugs* I admit for the price, I was expecting something nicer, but hey. Everything is more expensive in San Fran. At least there were no roaches, fleas, or bed bugs!! (The day before I left, I caught a segment on the History Channel that mentioned bed bugs are on the rise again, particularly in cities with heavy international travel like NYC, LA, and--you guessed it--San Fran. O.o I checked my hotel bed with much paranoia. Ghaaaaa again!)
My check-in was uneventful, and I snagged a good sheet-of-paper-sized freebie map of downtown San Fran off the counter. My room was on the 2nd floor, so up I went. I flopped on the bed
I had turned on the TV for background noise and ran across the Cartoon Network. Silly me forgot to mute the tv before I began flipping through the channels, so I was subjected to one of the Naruto boys' English voices. The picture on the TV was only trees in the forest setting of the chuunin exam, so I don't know who was talking. I yelped in terror and hit mute before I heard more than a few words and the scene changed to include actual characters whose purity would be ruined by
Anyway, I went to sleep late that night. I don't remember the time, but I think it was around 11, which would be 1 AM in Texas time. So ends Day 1 of my trip! XD