hong kong airport

after 24+ hours of traveling - from hong kong to tokyo to chicago - i finally made it back home. it was close though: my alarm clock didn't go off this morning in hong kong and i woke up at 7:10am for a 9:10am flight. i basically threw all my stuff into my backpack and ran out the door, hailing a taxi with the help of the apartment doorman. by the time i made it to my gate they were already boarding.

japanese drinks

in tokyo a bevy of attractive security guards watched as i tried to chug a whole bottle of special yellow pepsi since they wouldn't allow it on the plane. they asked what it tasted like. "same," i said, as i reached my capacity only after a few carbonated sips and handed the bottle to one of the girls for disposal.

chicago o'hare airport

in chicago, my stuff got a thorough search from the US custom officials. apparently on the x-ray they saw something that looked like seeds. i played dumb but in fact i was smuggling some rubber plant seeds that i found in xishuangbanna. fortunately, nothing was confiscated. no one can stop me now from becoming the rubber baron of cambridge.

logan airport

my family went to pick me up from logan airport. after a lengthy show-and-tell of all the stuff i bought in china, they gave me the bad news: i'm being audited by the IRS, and apparently they've been trying to contact me the past 3 months, but i've been out of the country, and this morning i was supposed to have an appointment with an agent but i was somewhere flying over the pacific at that point. anyway, it's kind of a mess, but just another exciting log on the burning fire that is my life.