March1

It is March 1, 2015 today! After several hectic and upsetting days of preparation.

Finally the day has come for me to head for Capital International Airport, where I will board the United Airlines plane to fly to the United States of America, a countryof which I have heard for long but to which I have never been. In fact, this isthe first time for me to see in person in close distance a real airplane!

Takingthe Airport Express, with a huge luggage and other smaller bags, I, alone,arrived at the airport. My heart was filled with a mixture of excitement andcuriosity. This is indeed a large place in which I feel a little disoriented.In fact, I simply did not know which is the direction to the area forinternational travel. So I asked a staff member sitting there and he, withoutany patience, told me the direction. Anyway, after a series of procedures and along time of waiting, I was finally in the right airplane--UA 888. A very luckynumber, isn't it?

Theplane was supposed to take off at 13:50. Yet, nothing happened even the timehad been 14:30! I sat there, looking out of the window, hoping that the planewould take off soon...Anyway, ultimately at about 14:50 something happened. Theplane started to move forward, first slowly, then very fast, and within aminute it was in the air! I felt so excited and amazed! After all, this is anunprecedented experience for me. I the minutes that followed, I could feel theplane rising higher and higher until I started to have a panorama of the citybelow.

Thenthe plane moved forward in a very stale way--so stable that I just could notfeel its movement. Compared with al the other vehicles I had taken, this plane must be the stablest! In the firstseveral hours that followed, I could not see anything exciting out of thewindow. But, as time went by, I started to see a extremely broad sea of whiteclouds and occurring in my mind was the imagination of my stepping over thoseclouds like Sunwukong, an omnipotent figure in the famous literary work "The Journey to the West" by WuCheng'en.

Afterseveral hours, though, it became dark outside window. I was not sure where theplane was, but the person sitting close to me told me that it would fly overacross the Bailing Strait from Alaska and finally enter the space of the UnitedStates. By the way, as I mentioned that I had been anxious about the securityissue, he assured me that there was no need to worry that much considering thisis an American airline, which must be under comprehensive protection of some unknownforces, agencies or organizations.

Ijust prayed that at the end of the whole journey I would be safe and sound...