The other end of the Earth: In transit

Hi friends,

I'm trying to put my diaries here, dating back since July 31. Will catch up and update my posts soon.

Chicago airport. In transit.

July 31, 2005 9:43am HKT
Sitting in the cabin relaxed, finally. The seat is like just any other seats in the economy class. Yet, my swollen right knee is about to touch the seat pocket in front of me. Anyways, this is economy class and I don't expect to be able to do my straight-leg raise physiotherapy exercises.

Anyways, Chinese students have been going for studies overseas since more than 100 years ago. (Sophia, you fill in the exact number of years here!) Sailing on boats for weeks to places they didn't have any chance to see what it's like in the TV or the internet. Yet, they made it. I'm not going to do less good.

Nine years ago when I first heard of the term "global village" -- probably it's in the Mass Media and Society class by Dr. Chan Man -- I did not actually think about what the globe is and what a village is. Well, the impression of the term that has stayed with me is that, the world is getting smaller and people are about to meet each other like village people used to, through the advancements in communication technology.

To put it simply, that is, with the telegraph, telephone, radio, TV, internet, email, blog... people all over the world know each other as in a small village. Yet, sitting here in the cabin facing the challenge to sit for 20 hours doesn't seem to me that the world shrinks because of the icq or msn.

I'm going to the other end of the diameter of the globe. (Lillian, thank you. We discovered this fact. The little charming globe is still in my rice cooker and will probably stay there until I find an apartment. :DDDDD) Gainesville, where the University of Florida is, is like, I could reach there by digging a hole straight down from Hong Kong. I want so much to go away and incidentally, I have probably selected the university that is the most far away from Hong Kong, in terms of both distance and displacement. (Please go back to Form 4 physics for the differences.)

It still feels like far to reach the other end of the diameter of the globe though I'm already on the first plane of a total of three in my itinery. Hope my knees are going to make it to the end.

12:48pm HKT
Now, it's my M. It comes, only three hours on the plane! Well, this is expected though. I know my body's pattern. It's to react to events and less likely to be punctual in accordance to the abstract time. Perhaps to react to events is actually more adaptive.

Lights are out. It's "bed time." Yet I'm too excited to see my M coming. Can't sleep even though I only slept for three hours last night. My body clearly tells me that a PhD is what I want. A man? He's probably going to make me pregnant and I won't have M!

7:24pm HKT
My M is only a little bit of it. Is it that my body is in a hurry to produce M once I was on the plane? Then it didn't have sufficient time to produce the normal amount of lining and bedding?

My right knee is still painful and swollen. My left knee is all right. No complaint at all. So at least one knee is OK after months of treatments and exercises. Just finished 20 minutes of double-leg semisquats. As you see, I just can't do straight-leg raise here in the economy class. Couldn't do single-leg as my right knee just hurts so much. Did a bit of ITB stretching against the wall. (Anybody would like to know about the knee anatomy? VMO, VLL, ITB... )

Was trying to work on the acupoints that Dr. Lam used to punch me. That 3-inch point below the medial "knee eye" is killing me. Terrible. Don't know how I'll be like when I'm at Gainesville. I'm only nine hours on the first plane. Praying the rosary. (Thanks Twiggy!)

1:11pm Chicago time

Chicago time.

Now, I'm in a wheelchair. Was pushed from the first gate to the next. That is, I was pushed all the way through the immigration, baggage and custom. Nice trip.

The first time I was in a wheelchair dated back to a day camp in the secondary school when I learnt how to push a wheelchair -- a person in a wheelchair. I bet I wouldn't think that one day I would have to be pushed around by then. I remember I was asked to sit in the wheelchair to feel how it feels to be in a wheelchair. Probably we kids just raced around banging each other.

My right knee is all swollen and in dull pain. Very tiring. My left knee is still OK though I can feel that my handcarry luggage is beginning to hurt. Anyway, I'm here waiting for the second plane. I'm formally admitted into the US! Well, what a Chinese woman in a wheelchair with a PhD offer can do with a bomb?

Bai Xin Yong wrote "Death in Chicago" which is about a tragic story of a Taiwanese PhD student. He sank into the Michigan Lake the day after his graduation. He was trying to find a job and his mother died but he didn't go home for her funeral. He barely survived the master's and doctoral studies by working in the Chinese restaurant for six years. All dark and very sad.

What will I become in four years? I don't have a clue. Now I want a PhD but can't be sure if I will still want it four months later. I wanted to be a journalist 10 years ago. Set out to get into the department, succeeded yet I swore not to make a living in the field after my internship in the first year.

I made a dream happened and lost it in less than a year. Good enough that I didn't sink in Tolo Harbour.

Probably I wouldn't be able to tell what I'll become in four years. I didn't know I'd begin to want a PhD so badly when I was on the plane to London for my master's four years ago.

The plane is moving away from the gate, finally. I'm on the way again, whether it's in the wheelchair or by my own feet. Just got to move on.

9:12pm Gainesville time
After being in a wheelchair in Chicago, I had to do hiking in Charlotte. I arrived at Concourse A and had to walk all the way down to E26 -- E32 was the last gate. Then they had the gates changed and I had to walk back to E9 for the plane to Gainesville. Walking with my handcarry on my back for 20 minutes. My knees tell everything.

My two luggages are less lucky. They are somewhere else on earth. Just not here in the Gainesville airport. So, the first time shopping in the US -- underpants, 88C, Walmart. No tax for the back to school program.