airPOST
Posted by: stak
Posted on: 2005-04-25 04:23:45
so, here i am in the seoul airport, waiting for the flight that is the third leg of my trip. thankfully, i found an internet cafe thingy and so have something to do while waiting.
as usual, transiting through the US was the worst part of the trip.. they search through everything. the US-visit guys at pearson airport were morons. while i was waiting in line there, they making racial cracks about previous passengers. and were just generally rude to boot. the guys at SFO were much better.. they had a more professional attitude. they also have this newfangled device that searches for explosives residue by blowing air at you and then presumably analyzing the particulates in the air. nifty.
anyhow, i got to meet ![[info]](https://staktrace.com/resources/images/ljuser.gif){kind=small}
megazork in san francisco, after 2.67 years. that was good.. :) also, over the two flights i've already had, i've watched ocean's twelve 1.75 times, national treasure 1.5 times, bridget jones' diary (sequel) 0.25 times (man that movie sucks - although i guess i'm just not in their target demographic), lemony snicket once, and some other movie that was apparently very forgettable, since i don't remember it.
finally, the difference in time between here and waterloo means that quest will become available just as i'm boarding the next flight, so i probably won't get to check that for a while.. :( bah well.
ETA: for some reason i can't seem to access livejournal.com from this internet cafe. either the website is down or is being blocked.. :(
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lemony snicket was.. ok. i was expecting the plot to be slightly more complex. but meh.
as for the searching thing, there's no way i can stop them from searching (you know - i'm a brown guy, in his 20s, travelling alone - how much more can i fit the profile of the stereotypical terrorist?) and making them go slowly just means i'm more likely to be late. so i usually just check in most of my stuff and keep very little in hand. :) but anyway, the guys in SF were nice about it - they didn't mess up my stuff, just took it out, examined it, and put it back nicely. |
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but brown, not arab....
do they not search checked in stuff? only carry on? |
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i think you overestimate their intelligence. megazork's brother (who is pakistani) once managed to convince belligerent americans that he was mexican shortly after 9/11 to avoid getting beaten up.
and they have the right to search checked in stuff too, but they rarely do. probably just x-ray it for bombs and have dogs sniff for drugs. it's not like you can hijack a plane using stuff you checked in (unless it's a bomb). |
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what do americans have against pakistanis? but generally a mob doesn't rank high on the intelligence list. but I'd assume customs officers are a little more astute.
unless it has a remote access thing that will allow it to be guided out of the suitcase, but I suppose that's less common |
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You're gonna have to make a spot for pictures here.
If you want to avoid them from tearing through your bag, you calmly tell them that you spent a long time packing that bag and as such they will need to put everything back carefully. This is not refusing to let them search or hostile, so they have no reason to say anything, so they won't. They'll just search slowly and more gently rather then tossing things out...