Finally, finally got back after a gru­el­ing day of trav­el­ing. It’s much faster (about six hours) to fly east home than it is to fly west to Hong Kong, some­thing about wind cur­rents. It feels weird to be leav­ing Hong Kong at 1:30 pm local time, and then arrive home at 2:30 pm local time.

Got caught at cus­toms, although I feigned extreme igno­rance, played it cool, and the cus­toms guard let me off pretty easy. I still had to pay tax on the things I bought, although at a reduced rate, and got a warn­ing. Actually, I still ended up sneak­ing a bunch of (non-illegal) things in any­way. Now I’m $200 wiser.

It’s a funny feel­ing to get “caught” at some­thing like this. There’s no per­se­cu­tion, worst case is just a heavy fine. Yet being chal­lenged about how hon­est I am just makes me feel bad any­way. I’ve always hated, hated, get­ting in trou­ble (or caught at least), even if the con­se­quence is just a lec­ture. It’s com­pletely oppo­site of John; he would just pay the fine, admit that he’s wrong, and think noth­ing of it. I think that I just can’t stand the idea of some­one not lik­ing me, whereas John has absolutely no prob­lem with that.