Friday, January 12, 2007

Nutshell...

I made it to Guadalajara safely...here's a little bit about my journey here. The trip from Pasco to Seattle to Houston was relatively uneventful. It consisted of sleeping, an old guy with an iPod Nano who refused to speak to me, and a little bit of motion sickness.
I visited with my family in Bedias and Galveston Texas...so a couple road trips through Houston ended up being part of the deal. I haven't seen my Nana (dad's mom) since I was very young. She was very sweet and I was very blessed to see her. This was my first real visit with my Uncle Bud and Aunt Lisa. They showed me around the island and took me to the marina where my uncle works. I absolutely loved the time I was able to spend with them...and it definitely came to an end too quickly.




The flight from Houston to Salt Lake City was delayed for an hour and a half. I was worried, to say the least, since the time I had between connections was 45 minutes. Sitting beside me was a retired Vietnamese Lawyer. His name was Doan Than Liem. (Liem means honesty in Vietnamese, and he pointed out how ironic people must think it is to have a lawyer with that name.) He shared some of his incredible life story with me. His very impressive list includes: meeting Robert Frost, learning Latin, French, German and English, and being imprisoned by the Communist government in his country for 66 months (10 of which were served in solitary confinement.) He wrote many works of poetry and essays relating to his time in prison, a few of which have been published. He currently involved in a group called VAVA (Vietmanese American Voters Association) which is working on solutions to stop human trafficking in Vietnam. The passion with which he spoke not only of the past, but of his present efforts in ending injustice was so inspiring. One of the things that he brought up over and over again was the motto by which he strove to live his life:
  • Think Globally
  • Act Locally
  • Love Totally
I arrived in Salt Lake with 7 minutes to catch my next flight...and it was on the opposite side of the airport. I ran through, with a few dirty looks from security. There were quite a few other people who were running as well because Salt Lake is not the final destination for many people. (After seeing it, I can understand why:) I missed my flight by one minute, and there were at least 40 other passengers who were in a similar pickle jar. I was tired, hungry, and not very happy at the thought of spending the night at the Salt Lake City airport alone. Thankfully, a Delta airlines representative recognized me as being one of the people who missed my flight. I knew he was tired and had just dealt with 39 other unhappy travellers. He set me up with a paid motel room and meal...and with a smile on his face. I thanked him, but he said he was, "just doing his job." I think I could do my job with the right attitude much more often than I do.



The trip from Salt Lake to Guadalajara was also relatively uneventful...other than the heavy amount of snow fall. I ended up sitting by a guy from Pasco. Which was where this story started. We talked about Eastern Washington kind of stuff, and I felt very much at home.
Well, that's all i can cram into this nutshell... I'll be posting again soon.

posted by jessika @ 9:35 PM Comments: 3