Adventure Time with Keri!

Sunday, March 10, 2013

Well, I’m here, in one piece, thankfully.  

We left the house this morning after I got to talk to my family back at home. Huzzah!

The first leg of the flight was uneventful, although I realized towards the end that I hadn’t eaten anything for breakfast. If you know me, I get hypoglycemic very easily. The lady next to me shyly offered me her extra meal (not that she knew I was ravenous) but I shyly declined. Me? Shy? Um. YES. Very much so. For those of you that think you know me, think again. I am actually a very big introvert. Shocking, I know. I’m just really, REALLY good at pretending to be an extrovert. I’m quite good at it, if I don’t say so myself, especially when I’m around people I know. Lol, now that we’ve all discovered this ground-breaking news, we can all carry on with our lives. 

Back to the problem at hand:  I’m hungry. No, scratch that. I’m starving. The flight is almost over and I’m finally half way through my book and I still haven’t eaten. No worries, I’ll just get a bite to eat at the airport. I have more than two hours to kill. 

After disembarking, I wait forever for my bag to come. Then I enter into a room of mayhem at best. I scan the screens for my flight to no avail. I scan again. Nothing. I know everyone makes jokes about my eyes and eyesight (b/c let’s face it, I have tiny eyes and worse eyesight) but I KNOW my flight has GOT to be on that huge board. I finally get out my confirmation paper and scan the boards again. No one told me that they don’t list the airport as Bangkok, but as Don Mueng. Epic fail. I also realize that my flight is NOT at 3:40pm as I thought it was, but was at 2:40pm. There are times like these where I’m unprepared b/c I forget…HAH. One hour less to kill. Shoot. Almost half an hour had already elapsed while I was waiting for my luggage. So much for getting much needed food in my body. When I reached the designated check-in booth, there was already a long line ahead of me. Awesome. I anxiously waited in one of the slowest lines of my life while looking repeatedly at my watch. After an agonizing 25 mins had passed and the line had barely crawled forward (and a lot of praying, might I add) there was an announcement on the speakers for a last call to check in for my flight. Oh mercy, that was close. I ran to a different counter and checked-in in record time. I hurried through security and immigration (which took forever and a day) and made it in time to board. Phew. That was exhausting. This is the one thing I hate about traveling….traveling. Wasn’t that profound?

Lol, anyway, I made it onto the plane, but I still hadn’t fixed the problem of me being extremely hungry. Not to worry, I always carry granola bars in my backpack, especially after being stranded in an airport for 27 hours (yes, I’m still bitter). Yeah, total fail. When strategically placing items in your overstuffed backpack, make sure the granola bars are NOT on the bottom of every electronic device you own. Yupp, you got it. I couldn’t find them for the life of me without chucking everything in my backpack onto the person next to me. Another epic fail. Therefore, I had to wait till half way through the flight to buy (yes, buy, b/c this airlines is cheap) a cup of noodles. And yes, ramen and cup of noodles tastes better in Asia than anywhere else, especially when you haven’t eaten for almost 20 hours. Yay for food!!

After arriving at the airport and going through immigration/customs and baggage claim (hey, I actually got my bags this time!) I was told through email to meet my coordinators at door 3. Unfortunately for me, door 3 is no longer door 3 and there is some sort of kiosk or so in front of it. More epic fail!! After walking back and forth a few times (which, is no short walk in the park), conferring my email, attempting to use the cell phone that was given to me which asked for my PIN and I had no clue what it was talking about, and then walking back to the other side, I finally found them! Thank you, Jesus!! 

Ok, so what am I doing in yet another country, you might ask? Well, it’s a long story, but basically I decided to apply to an organization for this volunteer position in health education. Since I’m interested in getting my master’s degree in public health, I figured this was a great way to not only gain experience in the field, but also a great way to explore and experience this amazing country. It’s been on the top of my list of places to visit for the longest time, so here I am. Ready to serve, observe, and learn as much as I can. 

Anyway, back to what I was saying. I found the in-country coordinator and her husband waiting for me at the other end. They are so helpful and Chadathip was trying to explain to me how I get to my program location the whole way to my host house. I get confused easily and I’m afraid I’m going to be so lost this whole week until I get the hang of things. What fun would it be if I didn’t get lost even a few times? I get my [awful] sense of direction from my dad and I’m so good at getting lost it should be my profession. Reminds me of the time Ariana and I were in HK and we were lost the majority for the time we were there. I’m not even kidding. This week will certainly be interesting. My host family is wonderful and their daughter, Po, is about my age. They have the cutest dogs too!

Dinner was at Chadathip’s house as she wanted me to meet Kathlyn, another volunteer that has just finished at the same place I will be volunteering at. We had a lovely meal and great chat. Since she’s been here for a month and a half she was very helpful in answering all my questions. It eases my mind a bit from the unknown. 

So call me ignorant or what have you, but I totally forgot that this is a different time zone than Malaysia. Usually Malaysia is 12 hrs ahead of EST, but because of Daylights Savings Time it was 13 hrs. So I changed all my watches and clocks except for my computer. The one day that my computer should’ve been correct (today) Daylights Savings Time ENDS. Go figure. This is like the fourth fail of the day. Haha. 

Also, I feel like driving over here is hazardous to your health. I keep on thinking we’re going to die even though I know we’re not. Lol. You’d think I’d be used to this by now…and I usually am…I just have to get used to it again. When I was in China...now THAT was bad. 

Anyhow, I’m exhausted. Ciao!

PS. Sorry for the lack of pictures. I promise to have more later to make up for it! =)