The Flight Plan (Part 2)

Ok, do you see the above envelope? Here’s the story how I got it and how it related to this ‘poor’ story.

看到上面的圖片嗎？那是由聯合國兒童基金會所推動的一項捐款運動。主要就是要求人們用他們所剩餘的零錢來資助一些貧苦的兒童。所以就叫做“零錢布施”。這個的信封其實是我在前往三藩市的飛機上所拿到的。那時，我本來也想放一些的零錢進去，但是後來才發現我身上根本沒有零錢。有的就是那些五十和一百的美元鈔票。其實，我還有兩個港幣，就只有25分，信封上註明的是美元，沒有硬幣就算了，不可能用港幣捐那麼少啊，因此，我就打消了念頭，而那個信封就這樣被我收了起來。。。

At first, when I was in the flight from Hong Kong -> San Francisco, they distributed the forms for us to fill up for the immigration. And, the above envelope was among those forms that being distributed to us. When I got it, I did plan to put in some money to help those children. “Change for Good”, I searched my pockets, I found that I have no small change, I only got 50 & 100 dollars. And, in fact I got another 25cent HK coins. But I felt that was too small and I was hesitate to put it in. So, I end up keeping the envelope in my bag. And, the story has yet to finish…

在我到了三藩市後，過了關卡的檢驗，我的心情特別輕鬆，因為已經過了最擔心的那關。就在我走向航機的櫃檯要去換取我的機票時，一個黑人突然間喊住了我。他問我想要去哪裡？我就回答說要去波特蘭，正在找著我的航機公司換取機票。他聽了就很熱心地很詳細地告訴我那個櫃檯在哪裡，要如何去到那邊等等。而我也很有禮貌地道謝後就想要離開，他卻突然間拿出一張寫滿華文字的紙張叫我讀，還把一個小盤推過來。我看了過後，心頭發熱，原來那也是要求捐款的紙張，和剛才的信封一樣，是UNICEF所翻譯成華語的宣傳單張。我看了過後，心想著慘了，沒有零錢哦，但是人家那麼熱心幫忙，又不可能推辭吧，手不由自主地拿出了錢包，硬生生地把裡面的其中一張五十塊美元鈔票拉了出來，放在盤上。。。他驚訝得不停地道謝，最後還說了一句“上帝祝福你”。當時我想，上帝的確也真的很眷顧我，讓我能夠有機會也平安地到達這裡，雖然心裡有些隱隱作痛，不過卻也是件好事啊，能夠幫到那些孩子們，也是自己的福分，最後想了還真慚愧自己並非在早前就把錢自願地拿出來奉獻，還要等到給人家‘逼’了才肯。。。唉，真是可憐。。。

After I reached San Francisco, I passed the immigration checkpoint, I was so happy and proceeding to the counter to exchange my domestic flight boarding pass. Suddenly, there was a black African, using his ‘pure African slang’ asking me to go over his counter. He asked me where am I going? I answered I was going to Portland, and finding the counter to exchange my ticket. He kindly told me the directions in details and when I was going to leave, He asked me to read a piece of paper full of mandarin words, and hand over a small tray for me. I read it and it was actually a donation request, which was same like the envelope above in different form. I was holding the tray, thinking of I don’t have any small change, but I was hesitating to reject him directly. So, I slowly pull out a $50 dollar bill, and put it on the tray, gave him back……He was so happy and keep thanking me for being so generous, and He said: “God bless you!”. Well, though I was feeling ‘pain’ that moment, but after all it is for those children, and indeed I should be grateful for having this opportunity to be here. Hence, I asked God to forgive me not to give earlier, but until someone ‘forced’ me to do so. Anyway, I do hope that guy won’t misunderstood that all Malaysian will actually treated 50 dollar bill as a small ‘change’ after all…… So, that was my ‘poor’ story. And, let’s get back to my journey because there were more to come after that.

好了，回到我的行程。三藩市的機場其實是個蠻繁忙的機場。那裡的人都匆匆忙忙地在趕著飛機。就算機場面積大，人也不會顯得少，至少我就要在那裡花上二十多分鐘排隊才能經過檢驗關卡，到達我的候機處。其實本來我的飛機是在三點二十五分起飛的，但卻被延遲了整一個小時，我們要在那兒呆上三個小時多才能夠搭到飛機。等待，有時也是很痛苦的，尤其當時我又有時差，真的蠻難捱的。。。

San Francisco Airport is a very busy airport from what I can see over there. Though the airport is very big, there were a lot of people going here and there, and I need to queue up for around 20mins to go through the checkpoint and reached my gate area. Initially my flight was scheduled to be departed at 3.25pm, but eventually it was delayed until 4.20pm. Hence, we got almost 3hours of free time over there to wait and do nothing. We only got to board the flight at around 3.50pm. Waiting, was a painful process, some more I started to be jet lagging……

捱過了漫長的三個小時，還有接近一個小時的飛行，我終於抵達了目的地：波特蘭，時間是傍晚六時許。我頓時興奮起來，因為我終於到了！我和我同事就立刻到行李處去認領我們的行李。但是，等了好久都不見我們的行李出來。於是，我們就到櫃檯處去詢問，也許他們已經幫我們保管了，因為可能行李已經到達很久了。在幾番的翻查後，我的同事也順利認領回他的行李，而我卻“認領”了一個壞消息：我的行李被遺留在三藩市的飛機場處！原因是當我從第一個關卡出來後，那裡的官員看了我的機票知道我是轉機的，就告訴我直接從旁邊的通道出去，所以我沒有經過行李檢驗處，也就沒有拿到行李，而行李也因此沒有轉送過來。我頓時心涼了一下，想著剛剛早上朋友才告訴我行李會直接到達波特蘭啊，為何要在三藩市拿出來，然後再轉進去？他們再告訴我行李會轉由航機公司幫我通過檢驗，然後最快也要下一班航機才能到達，也就是晚上的十點以後，。。。我不可能在機場呆上四五個小時，所以就先和同事回到各自公司所為我們預備的家休息先，希望行李能夠盡快有消息回來。而我的第一個波特蘭之夜，就是這樣穿著同一件衣服，同一件褲子睡覺，直到我領回行李時，已經是第二天的下午了。。。

After 3hours of waiting, and almost an hour of domestic flight, I was finally reached in Portland Airport at around 6pm! Yay! I made it! I was so happy and heading to the baggage area to collect my baggage. After few minutes of waiting, we saw no baggage coming out on the transferring belt, we proceeded to the counter to ask for our baggage because they might had collected them on our behalf if our baggage had arrived there for sometime. After some checking and verification, my colleague managed to get his baggage but it’s a bad news for me. 🙁 My baggage was stuck at the San Francisco airport!~ They asked me did I see my baggage there when I reach San Francisco, and I told them i did not, because the custom guy just asked me to go through another transit walkway instead of the normal custom checkpoint. Hence, I did not collect my baggage there and clear it through custom. In fact, I also did not think of that as well because my friend told me earlier that my baggage will directly reached Portland Airport just as what it is printed on the tickets. SO~…….yes, I can’t get my baggage immediately. They need to ask the Cathay Airline to clear it for me and deliver to the Portland Airport by the next flight as earliest as 10pm that night. So, it was impossible for me to wait there for 4hours and some more it is not confirmed yet my baggage will arrived on time. So, I end up going back to my house first, rest for a night, while waiting them to call me for collecting my baggage if they had arrived. And, yes I was forced to wear the same clothes for 2 days until I got my baggage back the next day evening. =.=

That was how I went through my 1st night in Hillsboro, Portland……