Getting to my new home

Leaving San Francisco was harder than I ever imagined. I cried and probably felt like if I left nothing would ever be the same - of course that’s because it’s true - my cousin is having her first child, my older sister is graduating from ASU, and I'm essentially leaving the nest.  But my dad put it best… “This is just an extended vacation. Enjoy, don’t worry, and keep going.”

Nothing truly stays the same whether I stay or if I leave… I just need to make the best of how challenges are presented to me. Of course having Skype, emailing, and having a group of gals I get along with real well helps immensely.

Rewind: Got to the SFO international and checked in with Cathay Pacific. I departed for HKG en route to BKK at 1:20 am, and arrived at BKK 10:15 am on October 13, 2010.  TIME TRAVEL!! Naah just really intense traveling. Of course it was quite sweet due to the upgrade. Thank you for the mileage points dad!!

                                           

When I got off the plane, I felt the humidity despite the gust of air-conditioning in my face. I wandered to the immigration checkpoint, but before I could exit, they stopped me. Slightly worried and thinking “oh SHIT! What did I bring that I wasn’t supposed to?” But it was only my Klean Kanteen filled with water. Psh..  of course they didn’t catch the foldable scissors I "accidentally" left in my pencil bag. After that there were no problems. I thought the checkpoint individual would question why I was coming to Thailand and why I have a VISA. Nope! No questions. I guess another farang is barely worth more than just a quick check to make sure I match my picture on my passport.

Eventually I made my way to Exit 3 to meet up with my CIEE peoples, and after some time, any young American with more than a single suitcase was my peoples. YAH! I got to meet some great people right away, people from Wisconsin, Michigan, Montana, other California individuals, and it gave me hope that more good things were to come.

But what’s ridiculous and quite weird, we had two vans to transport over twelve people with 20-24 pieces of luggage. Yea…imagine that. Thank goodness another van moved towards us. The trip from BKK to the Louis Tavern Hotel took about an hour due to traffic and lets say Bangkok is like LA. The different surrounding districts/counties have their own names, but together make up what is Bangkok.