My Arrival in HK! Part 1: The Almost-Didn't-Happen Journey

I have arrived in the beautiful and endlessly-muggy Hong Kong!  

I made it all in one piece, after a surprisingly restful and pleasant flight - shout out to Cathay Pacific Airline!  However, at the journey's start, it seemed like it might end before it could begin.  When I arrived at Dallas-Fort Worth Airport Saturday evening, after a lovely day with the Holt Family, I was nearly turned away and denied a flight to Hong Kong.  According to the gate agent for American Airlines, I was not authorized to go to Hong Kong because I did not have a return ticket back the United States.  I showed him my HK visa - which allows for entrance into Hong Kong and a stay for 12 months, my proof of employment with CUHK, the Yale-China program details that outline it as a two-year program... and yet he still insisted they could not and would not allow me to go to Hong Kong.  I just stare at him and say (with perhaps not as much tact as needed) "That is just incorrect."  He then hands me (and my seething family) over to his supervisor, who proceeds to keep making the same (wrong) claims for the next hour.  I called both of my program directors to find out what was up (perhaps I had made some mistake and not applied for some important documentation), but it turns out, nope, I had done everything right, and they had never had this problem with Hong Kong before.  When my directors asked to speak to the gate agent directly, the agent just shook her head and said that she could only speak to me, as cell phones were a liability, and thus she continued to block my check-in for my flight.

Finally, after another few minutes of her being wrong, my family and I decide that it's best if I just get to LA, and re-check in with Cathay Pacific, where hopefully I'll have better luck.  The gate agent raises her eyebrows and says fine, but that I would run into the same problem there and would likely just get stuck in LA.  I had to bite my tongue to keep from replying that no, I'll just be dealing with people who know what they're doing and know the difference between Hong Kong and Mainland China.  Or I at least wanted to tell her I'd send her a postcard from Hong Kong, but I kept any snarky comments to myself since she probably would have "lost" my bags or something.  However, I managed to get on the flight to Los Angeles, though I wish I could have left Texas on a better note.  Yet, I will say, when we were coming up to the airport, I was feeling pretty nervous and kind of sad, but once the ticket agents tried to stop me, my nervousness was replaced with a "You can't stop me!" attitude and a renewed excitement to get to Hong Kong, if only just to spite them!  In a way, I'm glad that the humorous exasperation that followed the check-in overshadowed the sadness of saying goodbye to my mom and dad and sister, or else I could have been pretty mopey for the rest of the journey.   

Once in LA, I met up with Camille, my fellow Fellow, and when I went to check in with Cathay Pacific... not a word.  They checked my passport, gave me my boarding pass, smiled, and wished me a safe flight.  It was as painless as Dallas had been annoying.  In fact, painless is a good word for the rest of the flight to Hong Kong - everything ran smoothly: I slept well, ate well, enjoyed the movies, got my bags right away, sailed through Immigration, and immediately met up with Annie and Allyson, the two Second Year Yale-China Fellows, and Dr. Peter Man, who works for New Asia College at CUHK.  They packed us onto the minibus they rented for the occasion, and we were off!  I was just happy to get to Hong Kong, since my arrival had seemed in doubt for a while there, but I had much more to be excited about once I arrived...

Stay tuned!  As soon as I put away some stuff in my room and get back from dinner tonight, I will do one of the following:

1.  Write another detailed post about all of the fun adventures I've had, just in the past twelve hours!

2.  Do the above, but include pictures!

3.  Continue to unpack and put together my room

4.  Fall asleep

Which one will it be??   Check back soon!

xoxo

Jenny