The Long Journey

Oh boy! My first plane ride and trip out of the country turned out to be a 3 day long process! That's three days of sitting, no showers, hunger, cramped legs and zero sleep.  I don't even know why people try to sleep on planes, I have deemed it impossible.  But I am finally here! I am finally in beautiful Thailand and oh my goodness is it gorgeous! My only complaint is the humidity but I will take it any day if it means I get to be here.  I seriously might die from the beauty of it all, and the kids! Oh my goodness I wanted to cry they are so cute! But more on that later.  The trip here in itself was quite the experience so I wanted to share with you guys.  

So, my journey began August 20th at 3:00 PM when I departed from the Salt Lake airport, bound for Las Vegas, a whole 28 minute plane ride away.  But, need I remind you that this was my first experience on a plane. And if i'm being honest, I was completely terrified and petrified the entire way.  Honestly didn't know how I was going to make it to Bangkok.  Every single movie consisting of a plane crashes was going through my head the entire time.  It was really cool flying over Nevada and seeing all of the rocks and desert areas, but It was a terrifying sort of cool.  I guess I just don't like not being in control of the massive tons of metal that is hurtling me through the air miles above ground.  I literally was chanting in my head, 'more people die in car crashes, more people die in car crashes' just to make it through.  Maybe its just cause I have waited so long to fly that I found is so scary, and most people have done it since they were kids, I don't know, but I'm not going to say I'm never going to fly again.  It's good to do some things that scare you, and I think it's a good scare, I just really hate turbulence.  Anyways, enough on my thoughts of plane rides. 

 After we touched down in Las Vegas we had a 7 hour layaway until our next flight to Korea.  It took us a while to find the next terminal and get ourselves checked in so by the time we had it all figured out we had about 3hours left.  We decided to take a taxi down to check out the Vegas strip for a bit since we had time to spare, but it ended up that if we hadn't scheduled a shuttle/taxi with the airport, there wasn't really a guarantee that we would be able to find one back, much less one that would get us back in time since it would take about an hour of travel time.  Plus, we didn't have anywhere to put all of our carry on items so we opted to be safe and just wait it out.  So we waited.  Finally, it was time to board our 11:00 PM (Las Vegas time) plane, and we were on our way over the ocean.  

The flight from Korea to Las Vegas was 13 hours in length, but the weird part was, it didn't really feel like it to me.  We flew with Korean Airlines, and I must say, we got the posh treatment! Even the ILP coordinators who come to visit us during the semester don't even get to fly with Korean Airlines because they are so nice and expensive! We each had a TV on the back of the chair in front of us, and the TV had options for really good movies like the Avengers (which isn't even out on DVD yet), Battleship, mirror mirror, some really good movies! And then it had so many other options for games, information, magazines, you could check the progress of the plane, speed, height and how much time we had left! It was so amazing! And before we left they gave us all little slippers, pillows, blankets, toothbrushes, all that jazz.  So even though I only slept for about 2 hours, I had plenty to do.  The meals were actually not that bad for airline meals! They were korean, but I really enjoyed them! Eventually we touched down in Seoul Airport at 3:45 in the morning in Korea, August....23rd.  Yea we skipped a day because of the time difference! 

Now came our 13 hour layover.  We were not looking forward to this, so we decided to get on top of it and make sure that we had something to do while we were in Korea.  We decided on a five hour tour of Seoul.  Best idea ever! Even though we were all wiped it was so much fun! Our Tour guide, Rachel, Took us first to the river Cheonggyecheon.  It was a river that was rebuilt through the city after the original river was forced to be covered for transportation purposes (don't know why it mattered, It still takes anyone whose driving forever to get anywhere! Super glad I don't live there! Drivers are crazy!).  There were lots of little tents and shops around it.  It was very beautiful.  I tried octopus.  Never again.  It was raw and yucky.  

P.S This is for Michael and Andy, they will understand.  Sgt. Frog is everywhere in Korea! Our tour guide was even wearing a Sgt. Frog purse! And yes, the picture above is of a diaper with Sgt. Frog on it.  

 Our next stop was the temple of the King.  It was from the 1300's.  Amazing right? Wait till you see the pictures! 

 It wasn't just one building, it was a huge enclosed area with tons of these buildings scattered throughout it.  If you notice the little animal statues that are perched on the edges of the roof, Rachel said that the more animals that were on the roof, the more important the building.

Inside the kings worshiping place and outside.  The colors were even more vibrant in person. 

Cutest little downtown alley, we ate in the place to the right.  

The food was very Korean and lets just say, I was glad that we would be eating Thai for four months and not Korean.  One of the girls threw up from the food on our way back too.  It just wasn't very agreeable with our American stomachs.  It was basically lettuce, one egg, sprouts, and all these other veggie/seaweed things.  I dunno what it did to us, but we all didn't feel to well...It didn't taste to grand either.  

Finally it was time for our flight out of Korea.  At 6:00PM we got on the plane and flew the 6 hours to Bangkok, finishing our journey through the air(thank goodness!!).  I actually slept a bit on that flight though which was good because I probably really needed to.  When we got to Bangkok, the time difference was only 2 hours so it was about 10:00 when we got there and were greeted by a driver for the school (who's english consisted of "toilet" and "teachers?") and he drove us the 4 hours to Phichit.  I also found out that Phichit is not pronounced the way that I thought it was.  It sounds like "pitch it".  We got to the school at about 3 in the morning.  we were really worried because the lady we were greeted by didn't say a word to us either and we thought that the driver and that lady were the two people who ran the school and were supposed to speak english, but turns out they showed up today and they have great english so Phew! Anyways, this is already probably too long of a post, but I will take lots of pictures of the school and the town for you guys, miss you lots! I am having a blast!! Hope you guys are too.  

-Charlotte Quebbeman