Goodbyes aren't quite that hard to do because you'll be away from a loved one for a year. With social media and advanced technology, I'm globally-connected to anybody and everybody in a matter of seconds. Goodbyes are hard because there are so many milestones and changes that neither of you will experience together firsthand for an entire year. An entire year is a long, long time... most of us will only get about 70-90 of them. But, I'm confident that this is a year being well, well spent.
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Me and Sarah (CBYX)
a few weeks before we left! |
I left home on the morning of August 11th, 2014. I planned on not sleeping the night prior as I had so much left to do, but alas, I clocked out at about 3 in the morning. That morning was a scramble for me, but I finally had everything I needed and was ready for takeoff to New York. I still remember exactly how I felt that morning, and I have honestly never felt like that before. Think of every emotion in the world besides anger and combine them all. That's the most accurate depiction of how I felt. I boarded my flight, and soon departed for New York City. I've never really "been" to new York City. I had only traveled through the airports during layovers. But I definitely experienced New York City driving once I arrived! It was absolutely insane. Coming from the Midwest and having been all over the world, I can affirm that midwestern drivers are definitely the best. Our cab driver from Laguardia to the hotel orientation site was quite the character. He had a heavy accent, and I guessed he was from somewhere in western Africa. Although when I asked him where he was from out of curiosity, he gave a great laugh and exclaimed: "oh my boy, I am from New York! I live in New York, so New York is my home." And let me tell you, he had so much pride in his home. It boggles my mind that I may also one day call New York my home when I attend university and even during my future career. I hope I end up possessing a similar pride wherever the world takes me.
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The four amigos at the zoo.
I really do miss this dysfunctional family. |
In New York, we only stayed one night, as the next day we would be departing for Tokyo, Japan, and then Bangkok, Thailand. We would have a 14 hour flight to Tokyo, and an 8 hour flight to Bangkok. I've since figured out that Bangkok is one of the farthest away places that one from America can ideally visit. Crazy, right? I really am on the other side of the world. During our stay in New York, we had a few last minute orientation activities with AFS. We also met the AFS groups traveling to Switzerland and Sweden for their years abroad! During my AFS orientation in Saint Louis, there was another guy that was going to Switzerland for a year. It was awesome to meet him, but I didn't think much of the encounter as I was sure I wasn't going to see him again. Sure enough, he was in New York! We were both quite sad about missing Cardinals baseball and STL Bread Co. At least somebody understood the struggle! Eventually the next day rolled around and it was time to really start our year-long adventures.
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| Right before we left for JFK! |
The five of us Thailand-bound students and our chaperone Debra had one last briefing from AFS, and said goodbye to our YES Abroad alumna group leader, Alexandra! She gave us these wonderful, handmade cloth envelopes with a Thai flag stitched on the front pocket to keep all of our loose souvenirs and what not. She also included an encouraging letter that I've read every day since arriving. Then, we headed to JFK airport, took a few group pictures, and flew to Tokyo! We flew with a Japanese airline called ANA. We were about the only non-Japanese people on the flight. But the flight went great! It was long, but the food was interesting, and we had so many movies to keep us entertained. I watched Rio 2 and the Life of Pi. We soon landed in Tokyo and it was insanely hot. Narita airport is a mega-giant airport with a lot of shopping and foods to try, so we got to do a little bit of that. We were all exhausted at that point, but we still had to fly to Bangkok. We arrived in Bangkok at 2 in the morning and got a little bit of sleep before we had to start our first day in Thailand!
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Grace, Ryan, Brandon (me),
Sarah, and Emily at the Royal Palace! |
Because we were delayed about a month, us American students were the only ones at the orientation along with the AFS staff. But we spent 4 days in Bangkok exploring, trying new Thai foods, and learning a bit of Thai language! It was a grand time exploring the Royal palace of the king and ordering street food by ourselves for the first time. Also, little did I realize that the hot showers at the hotel would be my last hot showers for a quite some time. But, that's Thai culture for you! Bangkok is a large, crazy, colorful city... one of the biggest in the world in fact. The language here is loud and tonal, and it sometimes intimidates me, but I'm sure I'll overcome this soon enough. We had some scary moments in the taxi rides around Bangkok. Thai driving is not exactly the best! Additionally, I quickly learned that I really liked Khao Pad Kai (chicken fried rice) and Som Tam (Papaya Salad), and I have been eating both quite often since I arrived in my host community. On our last day of orientation, we met our advisers and/or host families. My host mother came to pick me up. We all had lunch together and soon went off to our host communities. Since I live in the far south, I actually had a 10 hour bus ride to Suratthani, but I really do like the Thai bus system. Soon, I will update on my adjustment into my host community, but for now, I must go. We're headed to the Suratthani bridge and the night market!
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| Here is the infamous royal palace! |
Until next time,
Brandon
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