Together at last!!

I left on August 27th to begin my adventure to Malaysia. Everyone was worried about Gary not getting over here, but he and I were so positive about him being right behind me within a week or two...4 weeks later he finally arrived!!
He left on Thursday afternoon (Tennessee time) to fly to LA, then to Hong Kong, then arrive in KL at 12:30pm on Saturday (which would have been 11:30pm on Friday-Tennessee time).
I talked to him while he was in LA and told him that I would meet him at the airport. I had called him on my phone several times so I figured he had my number to call me. I didn't arrive at the airport until 1:18 and his flight had landed at 12:28. I stood at the arrival gate for a while and never saw him. I started pacing around and asked the information desk if there was any way I could find out where he was. They were not very nice or helpful. They gave me a number and told me to call it to talk to immigration and they would know if he had been through or if he was stuck inside for some reason. Well, if you have never been overseas it is a little bit difficult to figure out which numbers you are actually supposed to dial because sometimes you don't have to dial the first number. I tried to call the number several times and nobody ever answered. I made friends with a lady there that must have worked for some company that was picking up a lot of people at the airport that day. She told me that the people that they were supposed to pick up from the 12:30 Hong Kong flight had come a long time ago and already left. Then I really started freaking out. I had given Gary directions on how to get to the hotel, but his mom had written them down and he lost the piece of paper. I just knew he was wondering around somewhere freaking out as bad as I was. The nice lady that became my friend told me to find out what flight he was on and go to that airline office and just make sure he arrived.  It would have been nice if I knew that... I went to Cathay Pacific and they didn't have him registered on any of their flights. They then told me that a Malaysia Airline had come in at the same time. She said that their office was on the 5th floor. Whatever, the 5th floor was for departures. I am about in tears and I have been at the airport for way too long. Oh and on top of everything I ran out of minutes on my phone. I tried to find a place that carried the top-up (pre-paid) minutes for my sim card, but couldn't find one. So, I just had to buy a whole new sim card (which changes my number) and get a new top-up card. I sat down at a table above the arrival gate and transferred all of my numbers over to the new sim card. I called Pearly (my friend from church who has taken me in) and I was freaking out to her a little bit. She was about to jump in her car and come down there. I told her that I was going to call my friends from home that were at the hotel and see if he happened to get there somehow.

I called Jason first and he was not at the hotel so he gave me Ellie’s number. Ellie was taking a nap and did not answer. I then called Jason back who didn’t answer so I called John. He answered and said he was going to go to the front desk to see if he had checked in. He called me back later (remember I’m still in the airport and at this point it is past 3) and said he had not been there. I asked him if he called or went to the room. He was like duh why didn’t I do that. He called me back a few minutes later and told me that Gary was in the hotel…I instantly started crying and could barely get the words “Thank you” out of my mouth. I jumped on the train and started back to the hotel.

Gary called me and it was soooo good to hear his voice. We apologized to each other about the miscommunication as where we were going to meet. He said as soon as he got there he didn’t see me so he started walking around looking for me. He also said that it took him about an hour to get out to the arrival gate, so I would have been there. He told me I must have blended in too well, and I guess I have to say the same about him.

Anyway, so I road the 28 minute train back to KL Sentral (yes that’s how they spell it) and then I was going to hop on the train to Mid-valley. Well, the KTM is not a very reliable train and it was supposed to arrive at 4:30. 4:30 came and went and the new arrival time was 4:55. I got frustrated, turned my card back in, and grabbed a taxi. The taxi driver was extremely nice, but I wasn’t in the mood to be all buddy buddy and he just kept talking. He missed the first turn into the hotel so we had to loop back around. I finally arrived and it felt like the longest elevator ride I have ever been on. When I walked in the room I yelled “Hey”…no answer. Then, there he was asleep on the couch!!! YAY!! We are together at last!!!

All I know is next time we will be more specific as to where we are going to meet!!! But that doesn’t matter now because he is here!!