Booked My Tickets

Yesterday was a big day for me!  After calling about a couple dozen travel agents and visa providers, I found the place with the lowest prices – only $160!  Some places were telling me that it would cost upwards of $250 depending on the type of visa I wanted.  The place I ended up going is called Asia Travel and is located in the international district in Seattle.  They were very helpful, and it turns out that all of the different types of visa cost the same amount ($130) so I am really glad I called around.  The reason I had to do it through an agency was because if I were to do it myself, I would have to fly to the nearest Chinese Embassy to hand in my paper work in person, and the nearest Chinese Embassy is in California.  By doing it through someone else, I can have them act as my liaison and turn in my papers for me. I ended up getting a multiple entry visa to mainland China that is good for one year.  After surrendering my passport, providing another one of my scary passport photos, and writing a check, they said I should get my passport back with a visa in it in about two weeks.

After getting home from the international district, I started looking for flights to Los Angeles.  My friend Megan and I are flying standby to Hong Kong from LAX on Christmas so we just needed a solid flight to get to California.  There were a few times when I thought I found some cheap tickets, but when I went to book them, they were already gone!  A few hours after searching the internet later, and some help from my dad and step mom, we ended up using air miles to fly on Alaska Airlines.  Our flight leaves SeaTac on December 24 at 8:00pm and arrives in Los Angeles at 10:33 pm:  we won’t be leaving for Hong Kong until the next day at around 10:00am.  Megan and I are prepared to spend Christmas morning in the airport “like bums” as she says, but I don’t really know how many bums can afford to fly or hang out in airports.  We will probably spend our time sleeping, but I think I will be too anxious and excited to sleep.

Finally finishing all of this, I had to do my homework.  I tend to use my trip planning as a way to procrastinate, which is not good.  I spent a little over six hour studying Chinese last night and hopefully the little things I am learning will help me one way or another in China.  Next week, I am going to try and find time to go to the doctor to get some shots and other stuff taken care of – maybe I will be one of the lucky few who get the vaccine for swine flu!