Sean Arrives At Des Moines

After an excruciatingly long flight from Hong Kong, I arrived safely at Chicago O’hare airport to find myself in the midst of an emergency situation.

During the 14 hours flight, one of the passengers suffered from breathing difficulty I supposed. It was so serious that the flight attendant had to summon a doctor among the United Airlines passengers over the PA. After arriving at Chicago, we were all required to remain in our respective seats as the doctors rushed into the plane to the rescue of the patient. You get that once in awhile.

At the custom, the queue wasn’t very long compared to the queue I was in at KLIA. I quickly got out the necessary documents and hoped that everything would go well for me. Well, FML, things always don’t go smoothly for me, just like how I was put on hold for a week before I could get my US visa.

The immigration officer behind the counter greeted me and started punching down my info to the computer in front of him after I conveniently handed him my passport and documents. I sensed something went wrong when he’s taking a much longer time than supposed. After he was done, I thought, Great! I could go get my luggage, YAY!

Instead of saying Thank you, have a nice day, he told me to follow another officer to get my process completed. Great! What now? So I followed this officer whose name was Rolland or something like that, pass through all the counters right to the counter at the end, just like someone who was going to be detained. Freaky much? I was then asked to fill up a form that has “US Homeland Security” printed on it as the header. What is this all about?!

When I was done filling up all the details that I remembered filling for more than a thousand of times just to come to US to further my studies, I handed it to another officer and was asked to grab a seat. Okay, that means the hope of all is well went Kaboom because for God knows what reason, I was being held back. 

I sat on the aluminium bench and watched “NSEERS REGISTRATION” those two words ran through the LED board just above the counter over and over again for about an hour before being summoned to the counter again. Behind the counter, Officer Mitchell asked me for some biological verification and explained that if I were to leave US, I had to go through all the hassle again or else I would be illegally leaving the country. FML. No leaving the US until 2 years later then, thank you.

At gate F12 in Terminal 2, I boarded UA6225, a really small plane and departed to Des Moines at 4.25pm. Hey, it’s not as smooth as it sounds. The flight was delayed for about half an hour. The best part was that I reached the gate half an hour before the expected boarding time. Which added up to a solid 1 hour time of waiting.

So, I went to the wall, put me bags down, took out my laptop, sat against the wall and started blogging offline with Windows Live Writer cause the wireless service in Chicago Ohare Airport was just like that in Changi. This showed how useful Windows Live Writer is, okay? (This message is for those who chose not to heed to my advise). =)

Despite all the delays, I arrived at Des Moines airport just in time to see Siva, a senior Drake Student who’s also majoring in Actuarial Science and who’s also a Malaysian, walking through the automatic glass doors. I identified him with the Drake hoody he was wearing, Duh.

After loading my heavy luggage into the boot, Siva took me around University Avenue before heading to Cottage Groove Avenue, where Angus and Hern Ee now temporarily stay.

My tummy was grumbling ever since I landed in Chicago. So, shortly after all my luggage were stowed in the house, I went out with Hern Ee to this Chinese place which was a walking distance from the house. I must admit that the portion served here is bigger than that in Malaysia but the taste, obviously, wasn’t close to the standard of Malaysian’s food. Owh, and did you know that in US restaurants, they expect you to give a 15% tip?

I guess that’s about my trip to Des Moines. =) The weather tonight wasn’t freezing cold although it was –10 degrees Celsius. However, if there’s wind, then everything would’ve just been plain shivery.

PM me if you’re curious about how I’m really doing here.

Byee.