"For I know the plans that I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope." --Jeremiah 29:11

Tuesday, June 06, 2006

In the i-States

Written while in the airport:

Having just eaten Cracker Jacks (with a "prize" as well – woot woot) from my finals week survivor kit (from a family I don’t know), I now sit in the Detroit airport at The Coffee Beanery, drinking a carmelatte (that I thought would be cold) and eating a Tootsie Roll from the end-of-the-year MuKappa treat bag. I am so healthy. Oh well – South Beach here I come! I just attempted calling random people in my phonebook, but I am being ignored.

NW has wonder bread. I guess they write the day last in Japan cuz the bun I had had the expiration date as 06-06-08. Ha! Wonder bread.

I sat next to a married couple. The man was a very friendly (and a bit mayabang and know-it-all and superior) American and his wife was a nice Visayan lady from Dipolog. They used to live in Michigan but now they live in Florida and she is studying elementary education and none of her three years of studying that in Dipolog transferred over... cuz the Philippines is woefully behind. And they’ve been married 8 years and she has been a citizen in the States for 3 years. All that without hardly any talking on my part! Such a good listening ear and excellent memory. Good thing I don’t stalk people. Hah.

On the flight from Manila to Japan, a stewardess rudely woke me up to ask if I wanted breakfast. I didn’t, but ate it anyway. On the way over, they were nice and let me sleep. The food was gross – especially breakfast. It looked like... well, use your imagination. Worse than cafeteria food. They don’t hand out ice cream sandwiches anymore.

I slept a good bit of the way and woke up when I was supposed to be waking up. I was bored and watched (mute) a stupid movie about a mermaid. Didn’t really watch it but figured out most of the (stupid) plot anyway. Too bad they weren’t playing Narnia or Cheaper by the Dozen or even the ridiculous Mary Poppins-ish spooky movie "Nanny McPhee." I was jealous of the baby that got a bassinet thingy to lie in.

So anyway, after sitting around for the longest time, I started thinking about blood clots that start in your leg (sometimes form sitting down for long periods of time) and can get into the lungs. So I got up. Last time, I never got up for 12 hours. (I thought about blood clots then too, but I was asleep for 11 of the hours.)

Some Filipina was ticked off at a Japanese woman (Japanesa?) directing US citizens and resident aliens through customs. The Japanese woman didn’t know that green cards were resident aliens and sent the Filipina down to the visitors place. She came back with a guard and was mumbling things like "How you explain you do not know?" She was mad and had bad English. Twas funny.Woot! I just talked to Kait and Sun Hee. I realized I like having a cellphone plan for random calls - cuz it’s better than using up load texting. Haha. Never thought I’d see the day.

LATER – I am on the plane which finally took off. I’ve been reading the SkyMall catalogue for an hour. It is quite interesting. The inventions are veyr clever with big fat prices. Here’s a quote: "Persnickety kitties prefer water that’s constantly filtered and aerated in this Water Fountain with bowl. Cats have to drink plenty of water to avoid urinary tract disease." Haha!!! They also sell things for small animals to be able to get up on furniture.=========Now that I am through copying that, I am sitting here just typing, waiting for the plane to get to Newark. I’m kinda hungry. For lunch I had coffee, cracker jacks, and raisins. I ended up throwing away the chicken cheese wheel that Mom packed for me cuz it smelled funny and I was afraid it wouldn’t get through customs and I was worried it was bad. I couldn’t find a trashcan in the airport before I reached customs so I threw it out in the bathroom. HAHA. I make myself laugh. Huh?! Anyway... the customs thing was stupid. I turned in the little form, the guy barely looked at it, and I just dropped everything off at the scanner and went on. So much for that. Oh yeah, at the carousel thing, there were two. I stayed at the first one for a while until I decided my boxes weren’t going to show up there and went to the next one. I had to wait for one box to go around twice before I could retrieve it. Where are strong people when you need them. I also saw a sign that said something like "We pledge to treat you with dignity and respect. We pledge to welcome you to our country..." HAHA!!! There are so many rude people in that airport. "Ma’am! Please hurry up!" Riiiight. Dignity. Respect.

Um... so I when I woke up at 7:30, I stayed awake for 3 and a half boring hours. After the stupid mermaid thing, we had breakfast and then I started a "word study" on the word "love" by using Esword. That’s the first time I used Esword. I miss Logos – the program we use at school. Oh yeah, the reason I was doing that word was cuz one of my friends and I have been discussing what true love is and what it requires of us. Stuff like, "If Christ loved His neighbor as Himself, and He is perfect, how ought we to love?" and, "What does that say about God’s love?" We have discussed how love is in word and deed also, and how we fail miserably. The world says "I love you" and really means "I love me." Also, if we are to imitate Christ in how He loved His neighbor, how much more ought we to love our brethren! So anyway, long explanation for why I was doing the word study on love.

This is quite a cute little plane. I am actually sitting beneath the wing, not above. What I thought when I sat down was about how we are under the wings of the Father. He cares for us. Isn’t that comforting. At one point during the flight to Detroit, there was a lot of turbulence so that they had to postpone the food service for 45 mins. I was thinking that if the plane crashed then, it would shoot me up to glory, but what would I say to the people next to me who were obviously not Christians? Think about that – if you were in a crashing airplane, what would you say to your unconverted seatmate?

Time to shut down the laptop. It’s been so nice chewing your ear off. Haha. Bye.

Scripture

"But now, thus says the Lord, your Creator, O Jacob, and He who formed you, O Israel, 'Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name; you are Mine! When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they will not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be scorched, Nor will the flame burn you. For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior... you are precious in My sight... Do not fear, for I am with you...'"
-- Isa 43:1-5