Home and Barely Unpacked

I kind of disappeared from the blogoshpere for the past week because I have been in transit from GZ all the way back to New York via Hong Kong, Vancouver, and LA.  Now I am sitting here in a Starbucks (yeah, a familiar theme this year due to its ubiquitous free wireless) in Chelsea (seriously, where else upon just returning?) back in New York.  I made it back to the city on Saturday after what seemed like one really long journey, but upon returning home to friends and family, it was all worth it.

Flying from HK to LA, I had to connect in Vancouver.  I have never gone to the States via Canada and apparently there is usually a fast-track lane for U.S. citizens to clear both Canadian and American customs, but for some reason it was closed when I disembarked from my plane and I had to stand in line with every Canadian trying to get home from being overseas.  Normally I would be down with this process, but Air Canada only gave me an hour between flights and I kept nervously checking the time as the line inched forward and wondering if I would make my connection.  It was als funny because as I got off the plane, I thought “I love being back in America” and then I realized I was in Canada and had to modify that to all of North America.

Another twist in this tale is that you have to collect your bags after going through Canadian immigration and put them on some other carousel after going through American customs.  No one could give me a clear answer as to exactly how and where this process took place, so I stood by the baggage carousel in Vancouver waiting for my Priority-tagged bags and they were not coming.  I spotted the lone Air Canada agent by the carousel and frantically accosted the poor woman., Marlene Waters  With her calm and extremely pleasant demeanor, which did not go unnoticed after not having slept for the past 20 hours, she explained that I had to go through Canadian customs, claim my bags on a special carousel for U.S. citizens going back to the States, then go through American customs, and finally put my bags back on another special carousel to get to my flight to LA.  Unfortunately in my sleep-deprived state, these directions were a little too much for me and Marlene perceptively picked up on my confusion and decided she was going to hand-hold me through this process.  I basically became a lemming, following her through this maze and so grateful to have found her by carousel 23.  She pleaded with officials, put a fast-track sticker on my ticket, and in the most glorious moment, commandeered one of those golf carts to shuttle me to my gate after clearing security.  Needless to say that I made it to my flight with time to spare, enough of which to get myself a much-needed iced coffee.

Customer service like the one offered by Marlene is quite rare these days and if Marlene, anyone from Air Canada, Vancouver, or someone who frequently travels is reading this post, I just want them to know how grateful I was to have stumbled upon (okay, okay, accosted) her that day.  More people in more service industries should take a page from her book of professionalism and think about how much of a difference going a little bit above and beyond makes in other people’s days.

Now that I have given Marlene my shout out, I think I am going to use the next few weeks of being home to unpack my nearly 200 pounds of things I lugged home, as well as the final weeks in China, and my thoughts about the year that has been.  But right now I am just going to enjoy the feeling of being home.