Leaving Chicago

We got hotel and one meal vouchers from United Airline and we stayed at the Wyndham hotel for the night. For everything we went through yesterday, both Spencer and I felt that we've been away from home for a long time, and we were kind of ready to go home this morning. But instead, we headed toward O'Hare international airport and continued our journey to Paris. Chicago was still very cold when we left; the Ariel photo I took from the plane shows lots of snow on the ground.

The flight to Frankfurt was fully booked. I am sure there were some passengers, like us, who couldn't make it to their flights last night and had to fly to Frankfurt for other connecting flights to their destinations. We sat by the exit roll which gave us great leg room. It's also right next to the restrooms. With people in and out of restrooms and stretching in the open space, Spencer and I didn't get much sleep on the plane. I was listening to my iPod (So grateful for this great Apple invention!!!) and reading some Bible. Spencer was reading the Bible and then playing with his new MacBook. I guess he figured out how to take photos with his MacBook, and here we are saying hi to all of you on board!

The flight arrived in Frankfurt, Germany at 5am, and our connecting flight was at 9am. Frankfurt airport looked modern, new and hi tech to me. As we were checking in and getting our boarding pass to Paris, we realized that Spencer's co-worker, Shea, wasn't on the same flight as ours, as we were told would be the case the night before in Chicago. So there we were looking for information desk with no German language capacity. After all, Shea had to leave immediately for the flight to Paris at 7am. And he would have to wait for us in Paris for about 2 hours.

As you could see that both of us looked tired by now from US to Chicago to Frankfurt. We were sitting and waiting for Shea to get his boarding pass to Paris and send him off to his plane. I was so tired and stressed in the past couple of days and my permed hair turned straight. LOL. As Shea took off, we now had a couple of hours to kill, so we again walked around the airport. I was amazed to see the colorful and super yummy-looking breakfast that German have. Look at those big sandwich they have; it's only 6am and people started grabbing them and enjoying them. But they are definitely too early for us to have a full sandwich. Where is the dim sum place that we could sit and rest?

Departure Day

Our dear friend Kathy was very kind to get up early and volunteer to give us a ride to the airport this morning.

Right before we arrived at the airport, we were discussing if we would depart from domestic or international terminal since we would stop over Chicago first. Thinking about our destination was Paris, three of us agreed that we were going to international terminal. Kathy dropped us off, wished us a great trip, she took off, and we headed to the check in counter.

As we were very excited to check in at the international counter, we were told that we would have checked in at the domestic terminal. Both Spencer and I carried our 3 pieces of luggage and 2 carry on bags and walked toward domestic.

Just as we were so relieved and ready to hand over our luggage at the domestic check in counter, the ticketing agent told us that our luggage were over-weight and they would charge $120 per luggage. Man, that would be $360 for 3 pieces. We decided to pull out a duffle bag we brought and stored in one of the luggage and “redistribute” the weight of all of our belongings. So here you see 2 people knee down on the floor with 3 pieces of open luggage, look through all the stuff they have packed. After a few trials, we were able to void that $360 charge.

By now, we sweated and stressed out a little, but we were ready to go through security and headed to the gate. We got onto the plane and were ready for that “take off” announcement. Instead of “take off”, we heard that there’s some problems with the plane and the mechanics would be working on it. We waited for about an hour, and there seemed no progress on the repair. As passengers started getting anxious, some of them got out of their seats and started walking around, others turning on their cell phone calling their friends and family. Spencer and I also turned on our cell phone checking emails and texting friends.

Amazingly, my cell phone rang, and it was Guei Ju Jei. She was shocked to hear my voice, so was I to hear hers. She said, “aren’t you supposed to be in the air now?” I told her what happened to the airplane. She said: “let’s pray.” After the prayer, she told me that she was driving and God told her to call me. She thought that Spencer and I would be on the plane, but she took that step of faith and called us anyway. Both Spencer and I were touched, because during that “anxious” and “unknown” moment of airplane repair time, God sent Guei Ju Jei to calm us down and let us know that God is with us on the airplane, and everything was going to be okay!! It was so real that God was with us, and He was repairing the airplane Himself for all of us.

The repair took about 2 hours, and we finally took off from San Francisco airport. Fast forward, we arrived at the Chicago O’Hare airport just about 10 minutes after our connecting flight to Paris had already taken off. All other connecting flights to London and adjacent cities were full. United Airlines gave us hotel vouchers so we could spend the night in Chicago and fly to Paris via Frankfurt tomorrow afternoon. So, we will be in Paris one day later. As our dear friend Jenny said, good things are worth the wait. Haha

Just a quick side note, it was about 21 degrees in Chicago, and some light snow flakes were coming down from the sky. Man, it was cold.

Done with Packing!

I know I had to pack but I’ve been procrastinating; I really had no idea how and what to pack for 5 weeks. I could have brought the whole house with me, if I had a choice. Haha

As our departure day is approaching closer and closer everyday, our dear friend Jenny has asked the progress of our packing and if we had enough luggage for the trip. As naïve as I was, I told her that we had 2 pieces of luggage and that should be enough. Without saying much, Jenny offered her luggage to me just in case we needed some.

So, 2 days before our departure day, I started putting some stuff in the luggage, and just before I realized it, the first luggage was full. I looked at my second luggage sitting right next to the first one, it’s smaller and there’s no way I would be able to fit both Spencer and my needed items in those 2 pieces of luggage, and not to mention the medicines and food I intended to bring with me.

Without hesitation, I called Jenny and borrowed her luggage. So, here we are with 3 full pieces of luggage and ready for the Europe adventure!

White Sneakers in Paris?

We know that Paris is a romantic and trendy city, but we were not sure what clothes we should pack for our trip. As visitors, we plan to hit all the popular places and we know it requires a lot of walk in Paris, so the first 2 things came to our mind are sneakers and jeans. Hey, that's what people wear in the US, and sneakers are a must for tons of walk. Everyone wears sneakers all over the places; they are comfortable, and they look great with jeans, khakis or shorts.

So, to get some ideas and make sure we are not off track, we got on the internet and looked for fashion advise. And we realized sneakers, especially "white" sneakers are a big NO NO. http://www.parisescapes.com/paris_wear.html.

So, sneakers are out, not only they are not sophisticated and stylish enough, they are also a way for street thieves to identify the next tourist in town to pick their pockets.

Bizarre sleeping position

This obviously has nothing to do with our trip to Europe.

Always have a grateful heart. We are grateful that ZaiZai has not asked us to take him to see a chiropractor.

Getting ready

We are still 9 days away from our departure date.

Faye went to the book store yesterday and bought a bunch of books. We now know how to speak French and Italian, we also got a new digital camera to help us make sure we capture everything that's worth sharing.

I was actually feeling a bit overwhelmed by the information, so I decided to ask Faye to handle all travel-related tasks... I will just work hard, and come along for the ride as a tourist, following tightly behind my tour guide — my wife, the one I am married to, the one I trust with my whole life.