Erwaman's Personal Journal - May 2014

Last weekend, I flew back to San Jose (SJC) from Las Vegas (LAS). Here was my itinerary:

When the plane landed at John Wayne Airport (SNA) in Santa Ana, Orange County, California, I thought we had landed in San Jose. I remember thinking, "What a short flight!" I hurried off the plane and headed to the baggage claim. I remember thinking the terminal seemed very different from what I remembered. "Must be a new terminal," I thought. Also, I was surprised at how quickly I got to the baggage claim area. I remember normally having to walk quite a while to get there.

I waited at the baggage claim area for a while. During this time, they switched the carousel for my flight multiple times. At one point, I heard an announcement asking passenger Anthony Hsu to return to Gate 16. I was pretty certain I heard my name, but I had already exited security and didn't think there was any reason I was needed at Gate 16 -- I had remembered to take both my carry-ons off the plane. Thus, I ignored it, convincing myself it was either someone with the same name or a similar-sounding name.

But after 15 minutes or so and still having not seen my luggage come out on the carousel, I heard my name called again. This time, I decided to take it seriously. I also looked outside and saw palm trees, which I definitely didn't remember seeing at SJC. I finally concluded I was not in San Jose.

As I headed toward the security checkpoint, I bumped into an airport agent, whom I asked, "What airport am I at? What city am I in?" That's when I found out I was at John Wayne Airport in Santa Ana, California. I didn't have a boarding pass on me because Southwest takes and keeps it at the boarding gate. (This happened in Vegas.) I explained my situation to the agent, and fortunately, a Southwest employee walked by just then, and she was able to straighten me out. We went to the check-in counter and she printed out a special non-boarding pass that allowed me to get past security. When I got to Gate 16, other people were still boarding, so in the end, I didn't delay the departure at all.

You might be wondering how they knew I departed the plane in Santa Ana. I wondered the same thing. As I thought about it, I realized the only way they could have known was by counting the number of passengers that remained on the plane after those whose final destination was Santa Ana had disembarked. I confirmed my theory by asking a Southwest steward, who told me there were 6 passengers who were flying from LAS to SJC, so when they only counted 5, they quickly figured out who the missing passenger was.

Definitely an unexpected experience, but a fun adventure! If there had been more passengers flying from LAS to SJC, perhaps they would have miscounted and not noticed that I had disembarked at SNA. But I guess I would have eventually realized I was in the wrong city and worked it out with Southwest staff. In this situation, they probably would have just put me on the next plane to San Jose. All's well that ends well!

In the last month or so, I've more or less settled into a regular work schedule that I try to adhere to. I leave my house at 7:56 AM and bike to the Sunnyvale Caltrain to catch the 8 AM northbound Caltrain. (I bring my bike with me onboard -- Caltrain always has two bike cars per train, and each can hold up to 40 bikes.) I arrive at Mountain View at 8:05 AM and take the 8:12 AM LinkedIn "Last Mile" Caltrain Shuttle to LinkedIn's campus. (The shuttle bus has a closet in the back into which I put my bike.) I arrive at LinkedIn's headquarters at 8:22 AM and then either start work or go eat breakfast, depending on whether I already ate at home. In the afternoon, I try to leave work around 5:30 PM and bike all the way home, which takes about 25 minutes, and get home around 6 PM. (I normally don't bike to work to avoid being sweaty when I arrive, and also to give me time to read the newspaper on the train + shuttle ride over.)

In theory, the ride from the Mountain View Caltrain Station to LinkedIn's MV campus takes 10 minutes, but due to the ever-increasing traffic on Shoreline Boulevard, it can sometimes take twice as long. The shuttle bus driver, however, is quite experienced and knows all the routes from the Caltrain Station to the MV campus. I'm surprised at the variety of routes he takes, and I wanted to share them with you.

First, the most straightforward route, as recommended by Google Maps:

The strategy is to get to Shoreline as directly as possible and then take it all the way up.

However, the driver usually prefers to turn onto Shoreline later. He'll take Moffett up to Middlefield and then to Shoreline.

Yet, he does not usually cross the railroad tracks at Castro/Moffett, probably because he runs the risk of getting stuck there when a train passes. Instead, he usually takes Villa St to Shoreline, which has an overpass over the railroad tracks and so is unaffected by passing trains.

With this approach, if the traffic is really bad on Shoreline, he'll sometimes duck out onto a side street and then cut back onto Shoreline further north.

The alley he takes - San Leandro Ave - though technically a street is actually more like a parking lot and even has speed bumps on it.

Finally, when Shoreline is completely hopeless, the driver will switch to the other main artery across 101 to get to the tech campuses -- Rengstorff Ave.

These traffic headaches are one reason I am reluctant to get a car. I much prefer biking, for which commute time is almost constant, or taking public transit, which allows me to read or do other projects while commuting.

Recently, I noticed that my 6-year old Samsung flip phone has been getting a bit flaky. It'll display full bars and yet won't be able to make calls -- when you try, it'll say "Not Allowed." When this happens, I have to reboot the phone and try again. I've also noticed that reception seems to have degraded. I have more trouble hearing, and it seems that the person I'm talking to has more trouble understanding me as well. Thus, I decided it was time to get a new phone. I finally got my first smartphone ever on Memorial Day, May 26, 2014. I went to RadioShack and got an iPhone 5S, along with a 3 GB per month data plan and unlimited texting.

On Wednesday, May 28, 2014, I left my house in the morning for SFO, to go to Waterloo, Ontario, to interview students for LinkedIn internships. A coworker picked me up and we drove to the LinkedIn headquarters in Mountain View, where we met up with another coworker. We grabbed some breakfast there before calling an Uber ride (my first time using Uber or Lyft) and taking that to SFO.

We got to SFO and headed to the Air Canada counter. My coworker joked, "I hope you guys remembered your passports." That's when I realized I had forgotten mine. I completely forgot I was flying international. It was 7:30 am. My flight was scheduled to leave at 8:50 am.

I ran out and jumped in the first cab I saw. I explained to him my situation, and we sped off down 101 toward Sunnyvale. Given the incredible traffic on 101 in the morning and the fact that Sunnyvale was about 30 minutes away (without traffic), I thought there was little chance I could still make my flight. Then I remembered that my brother had decided to spend the previous night at my house. I called him. I might have woke him up because he sounded groggy when he picked up. He complained, "Ugh, I don't even have my contacts on yet. ... Are you sure you need a passport to fly to Canada?" I told him where my passport was, he found it, and he said he'd drive north on 101 to meet us.

To expedite things, I decided to check in to my flight online. I found my confirmation number in an email via the default iPhone Mail app. However, as I was filling in the fields on the Air Canada website, I noticed that they needed my passport information. I could have just called my brother for the number, but I decided to find the information myself. So I downloaded the Gmail app and searched for "passport." I found an email from 4 years ago that my dad sent me with a scan of my passport. I was finally able to check in.

I originally told my brother to meet us at Oracle headquarters in Redwood Shores, estimating that that was roughly the halfway point between us. However, northbound 101 traffic was pretty bad, and he was still stuck in Mountain View by the time we got to Oracle. So we got back on 101 South and kept going toward my brother. The next time I called him, he had just passed the San Antonio road exit, and my taxi had just passed the Oregon Expressway exit. We had just missed each other. I told my brother to get off at Oregon Expressway and find a spot near the exit to wait for me. We did a U-turn at the San Antonio exit and headed back north toward the Oregon Expressway exit.

To help us find him, my brother texted me his location on Apple Maps, and I studied it on my iPhone. We got off at Oregon Expressway, did a U-turn, had my brother toss my passport in the window, and then got back on 101 north.

I then enabled the GPS location service on my phone and used the Apple Maps app to estimate the arrival time at SFO. Estimated arrival time was 8:32 AM. I just hoped we didn't hit traffic. My driver jumped in the carpool lane and went as fast as he could, aggressively weaving around cars. The arrival time went down a few minutes. My coworkers texted me, asking if I thought I'd make it. I responded, "Yes, barely." But around San Mateo, we hit some traffic, and I thought that was the end of me. It fortunately cleared up soon and we were going full speed again. We got to SFO around 8:30 AM.

I just needed to pay. My fare was about $138. I swiped my card, and then the machine froze on the Authorizing... screen. I gave the card to the driver and told him to keep trying as I went to grab my luggage from the trunk. I took off my belt and watch and emptied my pockets and threw everything in my backpack. I just held my passport. When I peeked back in the cab, the driver still hadn't been able to get the card reader to work. Precious minutes were ticking by. He finally decided to go the old-school approach and imprinted my card number on some carbon paper. He didn't imprint the numbers very clearly, so he ended up rewriting my entire credit card number by hand, along with the expiration date. There were a lot of boxes to fill - fare, subtotal, tax, etc. - so to speed things up, I told the driver to just put $160 as the total payment. He did and I was finally able to leave. In my haste, I didn't even get a copy of the receipt. (At least it'll show up in my credit card transaction history.)

I sprinted into the airport and to the Air Canada counter. There were probably five people in line, but I just ducked under the tape, rushed up to the counter, and shouted, "My flight leaves in 20 minutes!" (Actually, it was leaving in about 15 minutes.) People gave me dirty looks, but fortunately, they let me go first and the attendant helped me out. While she was processing my boarding pass, I pulled out my LinkedIn water bottle and chugged about 20 ounces of water, spilling several ounces down my chest. I kept the main pocket of my backpack unzipped, ready to whip out my laptop at security.

When the attendant handed me my boarding pass, I dashed off before she could tell me where my gate was. I already knew what my gate was and where the security entrance was because I had talked to my co-workers on the phone beforehand. They had told me my gate was G93 and that the security entrance was all the way on the other side of the terminal from the Air Canada counter. I carried my backpack and suitcase, one in each hand, as I sprinted down the terminal corridor. This was the most exhausting part. The corridor must have been a good 200 to 300 meters, because it certainly felt like I had sprinted a solid minute before I arrived at security. Here, I cut about ten people to get to the front of the line where they check your boarding pass and passport. I kept yelling, "Sorry! My flight leaves in 20 minutes. I have to get through." Lots of dirty looks, but people did let me through. When I got in the xray scanner line, and there were another five or so people in front of me. Again, I just butted right in at the front of the line, annoying a lot of people, but fortunately, they let me through. Thank goodness nothing was flagged in my luggage. I grabbed my stuff and sprinted to Gate 93, which fortunately, was fairly close to the security checkpoint. When I got there, it was 8:39, one minute before the gate closed.

Even when I stepped onto the plane itself, I was still in sprint mode and rushed down the aisle, at one point slamming my carry-on into an old woman's arm. I apologized, but understandably, she was still angry at me and in pain. Her arm will probably be bruised for a day.

I sat down next to one of my co-workers and finally, I could take a breather. My shirt was still wet from the water I had spilt while chugging my water bottle, and I was beginning to sweat as well. I then started to reassemble myself: putting my belt and watch on; putting my wallet, phone, and pen back in my pockets; and reorganizing my backpack.

On the plane, I tried implementing my own solution to my Day 2 question and read some Effective Java before passing out.

In Canada, even though I did not have international voice, text, or data, I could still use wifi on my phone. My coworkers and I ended up using WhatsApp for communication. I also utilized my phone's camera to take pictures of receipts that I needed to submit for reimbursement.

I learned two lessons on this trip:

1. Never forget your passport.
2. A smartphone is pretty useful.