• Part 3

My legs wobbled as I walked along to the seats by the gate. Everyone aboard the flight were given a one hour break to “freshen up.” But I honestly don’t think that people could recover after a thirteen hour and thirty minute flight in one hour. We had just landed in Hong Kong. My mom and I went to the bathroom to brush our teeth, and comb our hair( and may I mention, the bathroom was so cool.) My brother and my dad went to the men’s restroom as my mom and I got our stuff ready and put together. I reorganized my first aid supplies and took out my little leather journal and stuck it in my pocket. I knew I would use it later. My brother and dad came back. I marveled at the structure and size as my brother look wide-eyed at the planes that were lined up in rows, counting each one and talking excitedly about how he loved it and how cool it was( he was four years old so this was quite typical). We walked down to the gate. Passing by shops and stores. We stopped by a Starbucks and my dad bought a coffee. and two cookies for my brother and I. My brother and I ate the cookies as we pointed out to stores and got closer to the gate. We walked into the gate, giving our tickets to the lady collecting them in the desk beside the gate.

We went to our seats, and I claimed the window seat(again) to my fathers playful dismay. I settled in my seat, buckling my seat belt with ease. My brother needed help with his though. His seat belt sat in a sad little pile of metal and material on his lap. i put it on and he sat there happily. I looked out the window at the ground below. I saw workers bustling around with carts of luggage, putting it inside the plane that was a few miles away. The plane started to move slowly at first, we picked up speed, going along the runway. I gripped the armrests. I love it when we take off because it feels like you are so pressurized into the seats that you could be going into the speed of a rocket ship picking up speed as it goes out of the Earth’s atmospheric layer. We were finally in the air, I looked down below, watching the buildings and towers. One of my favorite sights to see on a plane though is the ocean. It’s amazing to see the different shades of blue’s and bluish greens.

I didn’t know what else to do with myself so I decided to switch on the screen and play a movie. Shortly afterwards, I was deep into the movie. Flight attendants started coming down the rows with meals for the passengers. I munched on my food while watching my movie, looking out the window, and was carefully making sure my brother didn’t spill anything. This flight was three hours and fifty minutes, since it was from Hong Kong to Singapore. And we were already about an hour in. I was starting to re watch the live action Cinderella movie because everything else stored in the options was either something I already watched, or something I wasn’t allowed to watch by my parent’s request’s. Plus, I really liked the movie. It was very good.

What I noticed about people boarding planes and getting off them is that there are two stereotypes. There is that person or group of people that enjoy every minute of their travel, and breathe in every moment they have away from home. On the other hand there are the people who tend to be, um, unappreciative. It’s always click, click, click, click. Tens and hundreds of unnecessary pictures. Can pictures make you hear? No. Can pictures make you touch? No. Can pictures make you feel? No. Absolutely not. It’s better to live the moment then look at it through a screen. You could probably tell which stereotype I seem to prefer the most.

Throughout the whole flight I spent most of my time looking out the window, or watching a movie. But I thought as well, taking notes in my head of what I saw and what we did. Soon enough, we heard over the speaker. “We will be landing in Singapore, please prepare for landing.” As soon as I heard those words I looked at my brother, my mom, and my dad. I produced a ridiculous grin of excitement and enjoyment.

An aerial view of Kong Kong Airport.