I know. It should be "lainie in Chiang Mai". But no, it's not a typo I'm really at Changi airport in Singapore once again, sadly.

On Monday I woke up early and went to STA Travel to pay for my ticket to Shanghai on Oct 26th. Unfortunately as I walked in the door their computer system went down and they were unable to ticket anything. So I sat around for a few hours, waiting for their system to get up and running again. No luck, so after a couple hours, the travel agent asked me if I wanted to come back later, take lunch and go shopping or something. I said, sure no problem, but asked if there was an internet place I could use somewhere around there. She showed me the computer they had setup for clients to use the internet as they waited. I hopped on and checked my email. Bad news, there was an email from my parents saying that my grandfather had passed away. They told me to keep travelling but I knew that I couldn't. I started crying right there in the travel agency but tried to compose myself. The travel agent came over to talk to me about my ticket to Shanghai and I told her that I'd had bad news that my grandfather had passed away. It was awful, there I was in the travel agency, crying. The agent was really nice, made me a cup of coffee and asked if I had to go home now. I said yes and she called up Singapore Airlines for me to change my ticket. I got a flight for Thursday, tomorrow.

So I'm going home.

After the agent put me into a taxi to the hotel, I had to find the tour group leader to explain my situation as my tour was supposed to start the next day. I went to the office in the hotel and once I said the words "my grandfather..." there I was, waterworks again. What a rough day. The tour people were incredibly sympathetic and called my travel insurance company to see if I could get home earlier (no luck) My tour leader took me across the street for a drink of watermelon juice and even bought me some rice from a street vendor. So sweet. I basically spent the rest of the day crying, attracting the attention of people in the elevator, on the street etc. Terrible. I didn't get to call home until yesterday when I finally spoke to my parents and grandma. They're all really upset, obviously, and everyone's flying in from all over this week. I spoke with Aki and he said we may move in with my grandma for awhile. Poor Grandma, I'm sure she's taking it really hard, it's been 61 years or so since she's been married to him. Just awful.

So now I have the night here in Changi airport before I fly out in the morning. Not a bad place to spend the night, it's got everything you could ever want, even a place to have a shower or take a nap. Shopping is good too. So just hanging around here, waiting for my flight in 11.5 hours.... hope it doesn't crash

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