The beginning of the adventure

Hello there! Just to catch everyone up to speed I got a job in Thailand!  It is with a company called International Language Programs (ILP).  It's the same company I went through when I volunteered in China about 10 years ago (Wow! Time flies... 10 years sounds like a long time).  They opened a brand new paid year long position.  I applied and got the job! I'll be teaching 2 different sets of kids: each for about 2 1/2 hours a day.  

(This post ended up being really long and maybe too boringly detailed.  If you don’t want to read it that’s okay… just don’t tell me.  If you do read the whole thing you have far too much time on your hands… haha)

 My visa arrived Tuesday and I flew out Thursday.  I cut it a little close!

So I packed my bags and got ready to go!  I always feel like it's hard to know just what I'll want in my carry on when traveling for a long amount of time. 

My brother Bryce demanded that I send him postcards at each stop/layover.  He them let me know that if that was too much that I could send a picture.  So here I am in the San Francisco airport.  Bryce thanks for asking me to do that.  I think if you hadn’t I probably wouldn’t have taken nearly as many picture. 

 San Fran airport

Hong Kong airport

Here I am waiting in San Fran for my 1:15 am flight.  I brought my pillow and beloved pink blanket.  I have been VERY happy with that decision!

 Right when we boarded the plane they gave us hot, wet washcloths.  It was actually really nice to wipe down my face, neck, hands, and arms!  It seems like that it a pretty typical thing for them to do because they passed them out again before every meal and at the beginning of every flight.  I flew all the way with Singapore Air.  The flight attendants were dressed in the coolest clothes.  The men wore suits and the ladies wore matching long skirts and tops.  I wanted to take a picture but then I was embarrassed.  I heard mom’s voice in my head saying, “Oh just take a picture subtly.  I want to live through you on this trip.” So I took one.  It’s not great, but maybe it’s better than nothing.  I got a better one on a later flight but I can’t find my phone cord now…  Almost all of them had their hair up in a French twist and just looked so elegant.  I was fed 3 or 4 meals on the planes.  They food wasn’t horrible but it wasn’t great either.  Mom, I took a picture of a piece of fruit they served because I thought you’d like that kind of thing.  But now I have lost my phone cord and cant post it.  The fruit was really white with lots of little black seeds. It had the texture of kiwi and almost no taste.

The flying went something like this:

2 hours to San Francisco

2 hour layover

14 hours to Hong Kong

2 hour layover

3 ½ hours to Singapore

Just enough time to get to the right terminal and get right on the next plane.

2 hours to Thailand

(Then after the flying)

11 hours of waiting for the driver

4 hours in a van to the school

When I landed I just wanted to be in a soft comfy bed sleeping.  But I needed to wait for the volunteers and the school driver.  Anyone who knows me well can attest to the fact that I am not cheerful when I’m unrested.  That was making me feel overwhelmed and I decided that I would sleep, cry, or get out and do something.  I decided to get out some money and get out for a bit.    At the ATM it asked how much I wanted out.  It gave the options of 200, 500, 1,000, and a couple more.  My tired overwhelmed brain couldn’t figure out how much in USD that was and hoe much I should get out.  I decided on 500.  That ended up not being very much (less that $20) so I got 2,000 out later.  I’ve since discovered that $1 is about 30-35 Baht if you care.

I got my luggage and asked around about lockers or storage so I didn’t have to deal with lugging all of it all over the place.  People kept vaguely telling me where to go but it took me far to long to figure it out.  When I got it all figured out and taken care of I had dropped off my backpack and two suitcases.  It was going to cost me 300 Baht.  That sounded like a lot to me, but $10 for 3 bags out of my way was really worth it!  After I was free from those bags I decided that I’d like to at least see/experience a tiny bit of the city.  I felt nervous about being all by myself, getting lost, not figuring out how to get back to the airport, going too far and not being able to get back before it got too late, and on and on.  There were a couple booths at the airport for tours.  The first people I spoke with were useless.  They basically said they just helped people get a taxi or bus to where they need to go.  That felt deceptive seeing that they had a big sign on a pole and matching shirts with their tour company name.  Then I stopped at another booth and discovered what they mostly sent people out early in the day.  That guy kept asking me what I wanted to do or see and I honestly didn’t know.  In the end I decided to hop on the train/air rail.  I figured that way I would go straight on one line, walk around really close to it, then get back on and ride back to the airport.  After watching lots of other people I managed to get a token that would take me to the end of the red line.  That ride took about 20 or 30 minutes.  I enjoyed just looking out the windows.  It’s really green here.  There are really new nice buildings right next to old sketchy ones.  About half the roofs I saw were brown or neutral.  The other half were orange, red, green, or blue.  At the end of the red line I got off and walked around.  I looked in a couple convenience stores and ended up getting a cold bottle of water and a kiwi popsicle.  I found a place to sit and people watch as I enjoyed those.  At that point I was feeling done.  I was tired and a little dizzy.  I don’t know if the two were connected or if the dizziness was from not eating enough or being too hot or something else.  So then I got back and rode back to the airport.  There was a subway in the airport so I had that for dinner.  It was close enough to an American sub to be comforting, but not close enough to be incredible—just adequate (after I wiped off the 4 pounds of mustard the girl put on there!)

By that time it was about 6:30 so I went and picked up my luggage and found some chairs to sleep on.  I wanted somewhere that was private enough that it wasn’t too loud and I could get some sleep.  But I also wanted it to be public enough that if someone wanted to steal my stuff there would be other people around to deter them.  I found the perfect spot.  I put my two large suitcases under the chairs, then held my purse and put my backpack by my legs.  I slept really soundly for 3 of 4 hours.  Then I went to my meeting spot at 10:30.  I was supposed to meet the driver there at 11:00.  I met up with him and he had me talk to the school director on his cell phone.  He them found me a place to hang out while he went and held the sign for the volunteers.  They didn’t get there until after midnight.  They stayed in Bangkok last night and were flying out to Phuket today to spend a week there.  It was really good to talk to them while the driver went and got the van.  They all look so young to me!  It’ll be nice one they are back and I have some English speaking company.

We loaded up all the luggage and they headed on their way and the driver and I headed on ours.  I climbed on to a bench seat and fell asleep.  I woke up feeling like I’d slept a loooooong time—it had been 1 ½ hours.  Then I changed into another position and felt like I slept a reallllllly long time again—it was an hour!  When I woke up that time I really needed to use the bathroom but didn’t really want to ask him to stop the car.  As is he read my mind he pulled off at a rest stop a few minutes later.   I was still lying down even though I’d woken up. He stopped the car and as I sat up he announced “Toilet!”  I walked in to the bathroom to discover… squatters!  (That’s a toilet in the ground that you squat over to use.)  Thankfully I had seen and used them in China.  Otherwise I would have been really confused!  After that we were back on the road and make it to the school about an hour later.  The gardener met us, helped unload all the bags, and showed me to my room.  I put my backs down, turned on the AC in the room (thank goodness!!!!) and them went and brushed my teeth and tried to feel cleanish so I could feel good getting in to the (quite hard) bed.  I slept from about 5:30 to 7:30.  I got up and got showered and changed and feel so much better!  I have how gross I feel after traveling for a long time.  This morning I went for a walk around the school and the gardener chatted with me and walked with me.  I don’t think he felt comfortable with me on my own.

I’ll include pictures of the school next time.  When I spoke with the school director on the phone at the airport she said she’d be by about 9:00 or 9:30 to get me.  I have no idea where she’s going to take me, but I’m just waiting for her now.  Also, there is internet here but it’s password protected and I really with I could get in!!  I want to post this and Skype with Tanner.  Hopefully I can get hooked up to the internet later today so I can post this, chat with Tanner, and be ready to facetime with family tomorrow!  However I don’t know what I’ll really have to say since this post is so long and covers just about everything.

As a side note:

I have been reminded of a couple things that I experienced in China that seem to be the same here:

1)    Personal space is almost non-existent.  On the plane I sat in an isle row.  When the flight attendants wanted to get something from the person at the window they would just reach right across, but since they were on the shorter side they would end up partially draped across my lap or side.  Didn’t even phase them.  They didn’t even say excuse me or anything.

2)    It’s totally okay to wear a medical mask out and about.  You know the kind that doctors wear when doing surgery?  It’s not uncommon to see people wearing them.  It makes me feel uncomfortable… Are they contagious? Are they afraid of everyone else?  Isn’t it hard to breathe?  Weird.

 Until next time!