Hey Santa

OK, 24 hours of transit later and here I am, feeling like I won the lottery. Paul, if you're out there reading this, your brother is amazing (and so is his apartment)! Seriously though, I feel like I'm staying in a 5 star hotel, except its even better because it comes with 2 very wonderful hosts (with encyclopedic travel knowledge to boot).

As my sight-seeing in Hong Kong has been limited so far to the airport, taxi ride and sweet view from this 25th floor apartment, I don't really have much else to say except that flying over the north pole is pretty sweet. I highly recommend doing it sometime. And getting a window seat. Better yet, you could get one of those nifty first/business class seats that are diagonal and are both a window seat, an aisle seat and a bed, at the same time. But for the rest of us, I recommend the window, even if it means that you only gather up the umph once in a 15.5 hour flight to wake the sleeping chinese woman who does not appear to speak any english next to you so that you can go to the bathroom. It's worth it. They give you next to no water to drink, so you're properly dehydrated anyway.

Reflecting back some more on the surreal experience that was that long flight, I realize I flew through a day. literally. I left when it was light, only to fly due north (right over NH, saw Lake Winnepesauke) over the barren tundra in the north of Canada into the darkness. When it was light again (at like 2 am EST), I was able to look right down and see the very northern parts of Russia, which looked like some sort of bizarre moonscape. I also realized at this point that it must have been dark out when we went over the north pole, and I missed Santa. Oh well, some other time. Finally, it got dark again and we landed, in a land where time is 12 hours ahead of where we left. And that's how you lose an entire day traveling.

I'm off to attempt to go to sleep, despite the fact that I snoozed through about 7.5 hours of my flight and its currently noon EST. I will beat you jetlag.