From Southeast Asia to Cold Colorado

Got a couple hours of sleep on my favorite bench in the Saigon airport before it was time to check in. Luckily b/c of my job at sapidyne where I got to fly all the time for work, I am a 1k star gold member on united and the star alliance, which means you get to hang out and enjoy the 1st class business lounges while you wait for flights. These always include good free food and unlimited free beer, cocktails, and spirits. So I made sure to indulge at the star alliance lounge in saigon.

From Saigon I had a short 2.5 hour flight to Hong Kong where I had a decent layover. I first checked out the united red carpet club there and stocked up on some american food and beer before heading out to the Thai airways (smooth as silk) royal orchid lounge. Thai is a member of star alliance and I know that the thais have a tendancy to spoil people. And I was right. The other lounges are all fancy and luxurious, but this was beyond that. Had some good thai food (and some cereal!) the got a massage from the massage chair, did a bit of a work out on the elliptical machine, and then took a nice hot shower before relaxing in a comfy chair and doing some internetting with a thai cocktail.

My next flight was from Hong Kong to San Fran and took 11 hours. I sat next to a middle aged business man from san diego who was just blown away by the fact I had been in se asia for a year. He said he wished he had done that and just kept exclaiming how amazing it was. He suggested I do at least one more before going to the real world (my sentiments exactly) though also told me an all to true joke: What do you call a person with a bachelor's degree in biology? Unemployed. Though apparently I'm easy to pick out as a biologist. For those of you who have been abroad, you undoubtedly remember the customs form that you have to fill out. With all the questions that you usually answer no to: are carrying any disease agents, any fruits or vegetables, currency greater than US 10,000, any drugs, etc. Well there are the two questions that ask if you have been on a farm or in close contact with livestock. B/c there is no way of knowing, I think most people just answer no to those so they can speed through customs, not really understanding that all those questions are set up to protect us in the US and not just to cause hassle in the airport. Well knowing the biological consequences of bringing diseases into our country (wiping out crops or animals) or ecological damages (those in boulder county are all too aware of the havoc that new zealand mud snails are doing on the creeks in the area), I checked yes on those. So it did mean I had to go to some special line where they disinfected my shoes (gave them a nice shine) and anything else I had that may have touched dirt or mud. They were all very nice and appreciated me being honest and checking those. They asked if was a biologic science major b/c they said it is usually only those that voluntarily check yes on those forms.

In San Fran I settled into the red carpet club before my 3ish hour long flight to Denver. I slept pretty hard so I don't really know how long it was, but I was woken up with a jolt when the pilot came on the intercom as we were preparing to land and said that the current temperature at DIA was a balmy -7F.

I was easy to pick out by my mom b/c I was the only one in the area code wearing shorts and also had an asian cone hat on. Had a happy greeting with my mom and then rolled outside to the parking lot full of blowing snow, subarus, and below zero temps. I guess the low that day at been to -16F. The low in Saigon had been 85F. The high in Denver -2F, the High in Saigon 97F with 99% humidity.

On the way through Estes Park, mom treated me to Taco Bell. Mmmm! It was good to be back home, if not cold! Gave the papa bear a big hug and then went downstairs after some more food to watch jay leno and some sportscenter.

Recouperated and tried to stay warm for a couple days. Got more into the swing of things today and went out with mom to cut ourselves a Christmas tree. Drove out into a snowy road into the national forest and then traped through the snow before we finally found a nice one we liked. Tonight after some pizza (very difficult to eat with chopstix let me tell ya) we sat down to watch the snow village and listen to a concert a la Reg. Tomorrow heading down to Denver for a big Christmas concert at the buell theatre and then a fancy dinner in LoDo.