Monday, September 22, 2008

Relocating to an new country

I am posting this later as it was started and not finished until some time after I reached Asia.

At 10:30 PM on Tuesday night I walk in to the perpetual chaos of Tom Bradley international terminal. Most often when I fly internationally it's at midnight or sometime there after, I guess it's cheaper to fly after midnight...and flight MH095 was scheduled for a 1:40 AM departure, Oh goody.
It feels a little surreal, I keep reminding my self I am not coming back in a week or ten days... My ex-wife drove me to the airport, as she was going to keep my... well, her truck now. I unloaded my bags out onto the curb, rushing guiltily as if I am personally holding up all the cars jockeying for position at the curb. Even my ex ran around to get in to drivers seat for a quick getaway. So when I get my bags out, I awkwardly shake her hand and say thanks. As she drives away I stand on the curb with way too much stuff, and it sinks in I am starting the newest stage of my life,
Luckily the Malaysian airline counter was near the door and I could slip right in line, me and my dunnage, is that a word? I think it is, doesn't it mean cargo? if it doesn't it should. Anyway as you can tell I am fixated on how much stuff I'm taking (and I refuse to talk about what I shipped ahead) It's funny how we... (most of the Americans I know) are attached to our stuff...like security blankets. When I travel no mater the length of the trip I attempt to carry on my stuff, not this time.
I start the crawl to the check in counter, the guy in front of me strikes up a conversation as we're making small talk about international travel, a swarthy young guy (Ha! I have always wanted to use that word) I think he's Malay, like I know... but anyway he's looking at my bags (yes I know they're ginormus) he asks "do you know what our weight limits are?" so the three of us start discussing it...Malaysia Airlines has just recently lowered the max check in bag weight from 70 lbs. to 50 lbs. with the caveat that it applied to tickets purchased before some time in April. But, as well as Malaysian airlines appears to be run (more on that later) their website isn't very user friendly. because no one else seemed to know it, and I missed the part about carry on's weighing less than 11 lbs. So after so creative cargo shifting, collecting my boarding pass (with the admonishment " we will be boarding at 12:00 AM... really? I doubt that highly) it's off to play x-ray, x-ray where is the baggage x-ray, Oh... and after that , security....I am all a twitter with excitement.

No comments: