Getting here

10:00am EST Tuesday (10:00pm local time Tues.) - leave my home for Philadelphia International Airport
11:30am (ish) Tues. (11:30pm Tues.) - arrive at airport; told my luggage will be checked all the way to my final destination (yes!), go through the very long security line that moved much quicker than what I thought it would, bought an Auntie Anne's cinnamon pretzel for lunch :)
1:40pm Tues(1:40am Wed.) - board the little airplane for a 27 min flight to JFK

2:10pm (ish) Tues. (2:10am Wed.) - arrive at JFK and figure my way to the next terminal (I forgot you have to walk outside and down the road to get to it), check in and go through security again, then try to find something to pass the time - have I mentioned I don't really like this airport...
5:20pm Tues. (5:20am Wed.) - 30min behind schedule, board the big airplane for the long 13.5hour flight

I mostly drifted in and out of sleep most of the flight except when the Chinese guy next to me just thought he'd crawl over me instead of asking me to move.  We fly north so if you have a window seat and the sky is clear you might have a nice view of the Arctic Circle out the window.  (Awesome!)

7:10am (ish) Wed. (7:10pm Wed.) - finally got off the plane about 45 min late and I hurried to get through customs so I could make it to my next flight (without delays I was supposed to have only a 2 hour layover)
7:45am Wed. (7:45pm Wed.) - arrived at the gate just in time to board the bus that took us out to a normal sized plane for a 2 hour flight to further out (got an Asian version of a ham sandwich as the snack on the flight... strange)
10:30am Wed. (10:30pm Wed.) - arrive, but my luggage did not make the flight with me, had fun trying to communicate with the employees who take care of such things, meet up with DW and headed to the hotel for the night
12:00pm Wed (12:00am Thurs.) - check in at the hotel, finally wake my roommates up so they can let me into the room, brief hellos and then sleep!

Thursday consisted of taking a taxi for an hour back to the airport to get my bags, then a shuttle bus to the train/bus station area.  We bought tickets and sat around at the bus station until our 4:00pm bus left; 5hours later we got to our city.  A taxi ride and ascent up to the sixth floor (with all my stuff) got my roommates and I to our apartment.  CW showed up to check on us and the wired connection to the main light was totally causing it to flicker and then not work so he spent a little time fixing it... welcome back!  :-P