merentasi lautan pasifik...

Dear Blog, (cewah)

I have safely arrived in Charlotte, North Carolina and after a week here, I have found myself an apartment near campus and have settled most of the things (habis harta beli barang2 basic jaaa...swipe swipe pastu menitis air hingus tgk baki).... and have started my day at the lab.

A big thanx to Prof and his wife, as well as Kak Ieta, a Malaysian and her daughter Fifa, for their helps and concerns to get me settled.

Before this, I never travelled further than south east asia, with Bandung, Indonesia being the furthest city I've been... So when my attachment has been confirmed, I have been warned about long haul flight. Erk...yikes!

Then the weather... Charlotte shouldnt be that bad coz it doesnt snow dat much, so maybe not so cold down there :P I guessed wrong. Lucky thing, I did get one winter jacket!

Saying goodbye... its hard... away for 6 months?? and to a location where I can't get home in just few hours of bus-ride? Oh my.. Ok, Its not a big deal, ppl do this all the time, but kan... for me, who have been in the comfort zone for almost 3 decades :P
Tho I can be a lil unpredictable every now n then...I usually prefer to be "Safe and Sound" most of the time... so I shocked myself with my decision. The thing that worries me is that I'm leaving my parents. But, them being positive and supportive gave me enough confidence to go through with this.

My Flight itinery:

Penang -- KL(KLIA) -- Taiwan, Taipei Airport (transit 1 hour plus) -- LA (LAX) -- Charlotte (CLT)

= 40 mins + 3 hours (at KLIA) + 18 hours 50 mins (include taipei transit) + 4 hours (at LAX) + 4 hours

= 30 hours 30 mins !!

Penang to KL... didnt sleep

at KLIA...
I met my sistas and kiddos...second round of saying babai

Oh ya just as I reached KL, I got a text from my boss... she forwarded an urgent email frm Prof.

"Please note that due to possible snow storm in North Carolina, especially in Charlotte area, your flight from Los Angles can be delayed! Therefore,  keep my home and cell phone numbers handy so that you can contact us. We will try our best to arrive at the airport by 6:30 am, it will be still dark and early morning! , But it is also a possibility that due to snow and ice some roads may be closed and that can further delay our arrival at the airport. Please be confident and stay calm, you can make phone calls from the help desk at the airport to inform us or checking our arrival time. Be confident and Insha’Allah, you will be received at the airport. Have a safe flight"

Alamak.... oh ooh.... Kept praying that it wouldnt be that bad....

KL to Taipei...
I got a seat by the window and there's no one beside me... ahaaa.. yey! Didnt sleep.. sibuk melayan movies berbagai...

at taipei airport... went online while waiting at the transit room.. haha sempat lg tuh

Taipei to LAX, no more empty seat beside me..

Put some songs in the playlist and kebummm...Zzzzzzz... ilang dibawa hangin pasifik melayan mimpi indah...slept for a few hours... Oh yaa, the flight attendant and kapten pun announced dat we would land an hour later than the scheduled time...beacuse of the weather.

Dalam dok bangun sat-sat, jenguk luar a few times - sometimes its dark, then cerah balik then dark balik, sbb melawan arah time zone kan. There's this snow flakes on my window... nyaman terasa, ahaks :-) Ok, sambung tido.... then sampei lah kt Los Angeles Airport @ LAX.

Passed the security with flying colors.. hihik... even my bags are spared...which is a good thing coz I didnt bring anything sangat pun except for packed food, but if they were to inspect in and out... would be a headache for me to reorganize em back....so dat was a huge relief :-) then my next flight was from Terminal one via Us Airways. I had to walk out from the current terminal and 10-15mins walk to terminal 1 which was like 2 buildings away.

ok la gak jalan, layan blues jap....

aaaa... dekat dah....

....

I had roughly 2hours plus after custom clearance, checking in with us airways and all... so I entertained myself with a cuppa of kopi and just looking at people moving in and out... but  buat expressi monotonous je coz didnt want to look like budak sesat sorang2 or terkebil-kebil excited dengan environment baru :)) hoho

the next flight was on-time... no delays... legaa....

Off we gooooo to charlotte... and bubye LA for now....

Tried to sleep in da flight but mcm tido2 ayam aje....

Then d plane landed safely... but took somtime to look for available gates coz most of the flights out were cancelled thus many planes still hybernating in the airport.

got all my bags... ok now... where do I go now from here?

My phone was roaming but restricted any calls out, or maybe I didnt put the right country code or somthing. I did try calling him from 'what looked like a public phone' but it didnt get through as well. There were 2 ladies seated somewhere near and they were kind enough to give me coins change and when dat failed, one of them borrowed me their phone to make a call to Prof and it got through. It seemed that the weather was kinda bad before I arrived and they couldnt drive out from their house because there were frozen ice along the pathway. Ok... cuak sket dah time tu :P They asked me to take a taxi from the airport and assured that it will be safe (I had doubts coz I don't really take taxis back home... hoho...) ouhh well... Man vs.Wild 101 - go and get a taxi now already will ya!

And the taxi driver was alllll grumpyy when I told him that the address would lead him to a housing area. He at first thought that I was heading to the uptown area.

He kept on driving though... so I just have to tahan sikit dengan all his grumbles... but deep down inside, I berdoa-doa dah... please, just take me there! and was practically preparing myself to embrace the 'wild'.. haha.. in case he were to drop me off somewhere in the middle of the road...

Lucky me, I didnt have to go through Man vs.Wild 102.... phewww.... He brought me safely to Prof's home, he dropped me off by the main road in front of Prof's home coz the pathway to his house was all icy and slippery... prof and his wife were there to welcome me. sempatt la ber "ice-skating" bbrapa meter utk masuk ke dalam rumah...  Alhamdulillah, selamat sampai.

the housing area. p/s: not prof's house

So cosy inside.... and warmerrr... legaa ok.
Had breakfast....with this as the view....

Lovely....

 

Went online and one of my friends was online, asked her to call my parents to get online...though I had called them from prof's place and sent sms to them... I still wanted them to feel more assured...so we Skyped... they looked happy that I arrived safely.... but I can see tears in their eyes.... I know they have already starting to miss me... coz I have been missing them too since I depart from Penang...