Yet another trip as the result of an impulse buy, this time falling victim to a Groupon tour package for ten days in China. Honestly, this is my first tour group I've traveled with a group and not too happy to be traveling this way, but for the deal I got, what the heck.
Something was different from the start. I got into Seattle five hours early and decided to go straight to the check-in for the international flight. The desk was preparing to open with the attendants getting barked at by a portly authoritative female that was clearly taking no crap. To my pleasure, she yelled at the group in front of me to move back into the queue ropes. She marched around arranging fake flowers on the desk, placing brochures exactly an inch back from the counter front, unrolling carpets into their position then moving them. Every TV monitor has the same display, but she forced a staff member to read them all and for good measure and then did it again herself. The other attendants stood clearly annoyed with her and seemed to be begging to get the day over with. With a squeak from the queen, the desk opened at exactly 10am.
The flight was nice enough despite the disappointment of the in-seat media center being broken and the headphone jack missing. The plane steadily filled but when the cabin doors were finally closed, I was tickled to find the two seats next to me unoccupied, some room to spread out.
Customs was quite through with infrared fever detectors, environmental police, and some other stations where their purpose was not as clear. I giggled on the third x-ray of my bag thinking of the apparent redundancies.