Monday, September 10, 2012

first post, written during the flight


Okay finally starting my first blog entry. Note to self, cut my nails because it hurts to type XP. While writing this I’m actually still on the plane, there isn't internet up here as you can imagine and I’m writing on a word document on my laptop. Later I’ll copy and paste this on the blog.
            Right now it would be 5:56pm in Canada, but since I have no idea where we are right now (although we see land for the first time in hours) and we’re chasing the sun and at the moment I’m to lazy to do the math, I have no clue what time it is where I am…. TURBULENCE!...........anyway, so far the trip has been fantastic. We showed up an hour later than ….TURBULENCE!.... We planned to and only managed to get through the first line up to check our bags because our flight was leaving soon and we got to skip the last of the line. Security screening was extremely fast and everyone was very pleasant. One lady started joking that she thought my shiny flip-flops would set off the alarms lol.
            I was really choked up saying goodbye to everyone and it took all of my self-control not to cry, (although I think I failed a bit. Gramma may have gotten some tears in that last picture she took.) I tried to say bye and that I love you all, but I was so choked up that I couldn’t talk. Thank you so much for the letters and text, the clothes and care packages and all the love and help that everyone has given us. We have the best family and friends in the world J

Ok either we’re landing or we’re going through so much turbulence that we need our seatbelts on 0.o

The flight from Edmonton to Vancouver made me laugh because you always hear about how flights tend to be delayed and all the bad weather. When we took off the pilot told us the weather was perfect and we were leaving right on time. We arrived in Vancouver on time as well, and the weather wasn’t that bad there either, although it was way more cloudy.
            I realized on that flight that that Alberta looks like a giant quilt, with all the fields and yards in perfect squares. It also looks like a poorly made diagram of the countryside lol. The closer we came to Vancouver the cloudier it got. Pretty soon you couldn’t even see the sky. But mountains would poke up from the huge white carpet. It was sooo cool. I really think dad would love to see the mountains from above.
            When we were flying in Alberta still, the cars looked smaller than ants, they were like fruit flys or mites. I could barely see them.
            We met up with the rest of the group. Kelly we ran in to just before we got on the plane. He was wearing a white button up shirt, black pants and dark sunglasses so from the corner of my eye I thought he was a pilot lol. In Vancouver we met up with two more girls, one’s named Tomi and I think the other is named Allie (its definitely an A name) that last guy who was supposed to come never showed up so we assume he missed his flight. So now I’m even happier that we have horseshoes up our asses with this flight thing lol. Tomi does a lot of traveling and has only heard about CIEO for a few weeks, and Allie is the youngest one here (although Tomi was in the bathroom when we had that conversation so I don't know how old she is). We all walked through the Vancouver airport to find our gate and when we found it we ran into a girl who did this last year and is back now (and it turns out that Kelly was sitting beside her for the whole flight). She told us a whole bunch of stuff about the school and how it works and everything. Unfortunately I only heard half of it because the announcements kept drowning out her voice. But I did manage to hear that the school charges you tuition money for the first 6 months I think, which they didn't mention.
            On and the other girls had the same problems with communicating with Steve as we did, so at least we’re not the only ones.
            The plane flying to Hong Kong is freaking enormous. The first flight had two sections of seats with two rows on each side. This one has three sections on seats, each with three rows of seats and the rows go well past 60 sets. During the first flight we were in seats 22 I think, and were right behind the wing. Now we’re in seats 54 I think, and are in the butt of the plane lol. I think its sleep time right now. Everyone shut their windows and have blankets and stuff, and I think kenzies ticking them off because she keeps opening her window and blinding people. Its pretty funny actually. And she got some pictures of land.
            One thing I would like to clear up. The in flight movie. You sit, there’s a screen in front of you, you plug your headphones into the armrest, and pick a movie or tv show or radio station, or documentary or news, etc. and to the extent of my knowledge so far I haven’t had to pay anything for them. I just wanted to clear that up.
            Wow I have to get used to the fact that me moving around and leaning over is not going to off balance the plane and send us all hurtling to a fiery death. Funny how when you're a few thousand feet above sea level, you suddenly feel like you weigh a ton lol.
            They fed me and kenzie, it was yummy, I got some strange cold salad that always shows up at get-togethers, a bun, a piece of cake and some chicken and potatoes with veggies. I watched the second episode of season 1 of Grimm (it was the only episode they had and coincidentally one of the ones I hadn’t seen.) then on the second flight I watched dark shadows (funny). And I’m planning on watching the claymation pirate movie.
            Turns out we weren’t landing, it was just more turbulence.
            My favorite part of the flight was the take off. It was so cool, going super fast, changing direction and going up and having gravity go haywire. My ears popped before the back of the plane left the ground lol. One time I actually heard it pop, not just swallow and clear my hearing. I couldn’t help but feel oddly concerned when the plane kept tilting back and forward drastically before landing lol; and before Landing in Vancouver, we flew right over it onto the water, pulled a youie and landed lol. Some of those turns are concerning. It freaks we out when I look out one side of the plane and see sky, and on the other I see land.

            Well that’s all that’s happened so far. I’ll talk to you guys later. Love you all. <3
-Brodie


Mak here J

Wow this has been a very busy and emotional day.
 First  off, last night my little sisters had a sleep over in my room and took most of my bed and all of my blanket it was hot for the first part of the night so I didn’t mind (not like we live in Canada and the nights actually get cold), I was starting to grasp the thought of leaving for a year, and we watched the beginning of a horror movie so I was not sleeping at all. I finally went to bed at 12am and since my bed was full I took brodie]s before she came (she decided cleaning the living room at midnight was The-thing-to-do before leaving I guess). I had probably three or four good hours of sleep and then two hours of half-asleep tossing and turning because it did in fact cooled off in the night and I was now frozen and wishing the little girls and brodie hadn’t been sleeping on top of my only blanket. I didn't really notice till I got up this morning but brodie ended up squishing on to the bottom of my bed where the little girls left room (like a third of the bed) so she was probably sore this morning.
            So I woke up, had a shower, doubled checked I was packed and then set out to the Leduc. I woke up at 6 and somehow managed to get to the air port at like 9:40 (sorry everyone) we are always so late for thing, but not arriving on time for things is almost therapeutic, I think, you learn to relax because your not going to get their exactly at 3 oclock so you quit worrying and get there when you get there. I’m not explaining this very well but my point is to not worry about the clock, just be happy you made it there at all. lots of things happen in life that are unexpected and can put a clearer perspective on what’s really important. So yeah.. anyway.

We ran into the airport, darted towards the check-in counter machines, said hi on our way passed everyone and tried to get the tickets for the checked luggage. After failing numerous times Brodie and I just went into the line up to talk with the people instead. Then after our bags were sent off we headed for costumes (or whatever its called) but not before saying good-bye to everyone. That was hard. I don’t cry very often but the thing that puts me over the edge is seeing others upset, especially if I know them. mom was tearing up, dad could barely talk, papa was upset and jory was too. I was choked up when I was walking towards the next line up, then gramma wanted a picture. In my head I was like “NO! Everyone will know I’m crying!!” but It was for gramma so I smiled for the camera then headed towards the line up.
            I discovered that the security people assume that you know what your doing so she sent us towards those conveyer belts and we just stared. After asking what to do she told us to do what everyone else was doing, duh. They have plastic bins to put your stuff into for the x-ray machine. We needed five bins to fit all of out stuff… its like we over packed or something =P  
            I was so sure that the metal detector was going to go off and I was trying to decide if getting patted down was faster than the huge spiny metal detecting machine, but we went through without any issues, but who knows, we’re still on the 13 our flight to Hong Kong and I heard you go through customs when you leave a plane to, so the night is young.  It was really cool to see my family watching us until we were on the plane and flying away, they were easy to spot because there was about twelve of them standing there in the observation deck J. I think it took about forty minutes to go from hugging everyone goodbye to flying away, efficient system.
            I was freaking out about the plane, because it was my first time on one, and I wanted to turn around and go home when I was the tiny door to actually enter the plane. We ran into Kelly (another person whose in our group to go to china, there was suppose to be six of us but one kid didn’t show). So He was chatting with us as we got to our seats. The engine of a plane sounds exactly like an automatic car was. and you are pulled into your seats when the plain picks up momentum and gets ready to fly. I was scared until the wheels actually left the ground, then I thought “this kinda feels like a roller coaster” and calmed right down. Brodie and I saw the farm land from far away and I wish I was able to get pictures of it but the only camera I had was either a cell phone, which we were told to put away and an ipod which I was worried they’d get mad and take it away.
            Being above the cloudbank was so cool! We even saw a mountain sticking out about the clouds.
            It is 7:53 home time and outside looks like high noon. We’re following the sun, as my dad put it, and I keep thinking “Dang it, sun, don’t you know what time it is?!”  jet lag o.0
            I think I’m ticking off the other passengers though, at around five oclock everyone started closing the blinds on the windows so it would be dark and allow people to sleep, I think I might have been the first to close the blinds on my window because I wanted to watch a movie and the glare was really bad. Probably every 30 minute I get the urge to look outside and see if I can see anything interesting, or see if we happen to be nose diving towards the ocean or something. So I keep sliding the blind up and letting in a blinding light around the cab of the plane. There/s a guy across the walkway from me on the other side of the plane that's started do it too. I feel bad for the guy in between us on the middle row of seats, he keeps getting blasted with light and I didn’t notice for a while. Now I’m holding up a pillow to attempt at blocking some of the sun but I don’t know how well its working.

Turbulence feels like the plane is going over speed bumps and playing bumper cars at the same time =P

So I have been watching movies for a while and brodies trying to sleep; I’m sorta getting tired but I don’t want to miss seeing China from high up. And the map app on the air plane TVs aren’t working so I have no idea where we’re at yet. Oh well.

Talk to you later
Makenzie

2 comments:

  1. We were told that possibly they would not be allowed to post to a blog from China. They are not able to Facebook or Twitter from there, so I guess it makes sense that blogs might be restricted/controled as well. If that is the case, then we will let you all know of the demise of this blog. Until we hear from them though, keep your eyes peeled for more.
    Chris

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  2. Hi Makenzie and Brodie its Tayah,I heard about your flight and I hope you still have a great time In China. I miss you already and its only bin a few days and ps. I love sparkly flip flops. Tell me about china, oh oh and i hope you have I great time teaching people. How do you like you lip gloss, it was a sad time when you had to leave but I bet you will have a great time. There is nothing very exciting here, only BORING school where everyone is only excited for recess and home time at the end of the day.It has been only like one week and I already wish we cold have another summer. I also we could skip school and go on a trip [ Perferably mexico or Hawaii.] When Kale or Keegan turn 18 they want to go to china to. Right now I'm sleeping in the living room because my room is in CONSTRUCTION. And if you are wondering if why I spelt construction in big letters its because I felt like it, lol. I wish you were here but in a year ill see you again and you will have china clothes and maybe a rotwiler named caution, you will be old with grey hair and wrinkles and i'll be young with makeup [just kidden]. I lllllllllllllllllllooooooooooovvvvvvvvvvvveeeeeeeeeeee YOU!! Well I better go now love yah, and have a great time in china!!!!!!!!!!
    Hi it's Kale how are you gals doing? I know you just left almost a week ago, but I already miss you and I went in the wrong luggage and ended up going back to the edmonton airport, i thought I threw out the clothes in your luggage to make room for me so someone isn't going to be happy to find that half of all there clothes are gone, so if I get in trouble it on you!!!!;) although I don't think that they can punish you in china so your scot free. I knew you thought you saw me in the observation room but you really saw my triplet, I was really sneaking into the luggage to go with you. Good luck for the students in your class, they'll need it it more then you lol :] Blog you if I can Kale. oh and just for you to remember, sharks with lazers attached to there heads, whahah whaha whahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahhh ouch stupid lazers, why did the sharks shoot me. this is the last also i have , if you can get video games for your ipod or phone get tank fury and go to the last room on my friday [ figure it out] and we will be able to text each other from the game.
    Keegan here i have 17 diamonds on mine craft and an whole new base i hope you guys still have mine craft in china so if you do play and we'll see who's better when you get lol lot's of luv lol. bye.........!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!******************* see you next year suckers.

    love yah from the Fiveland family


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