On Thursday, September 18, 2008, I got up and said goodbye to all that I know for six months. My parents put me on a United Airlines flight that served as the first leg of my journey to be a Fulbright ETA (English Teaching Assistant) in Thailand. When we got to the airport in Newark, both of the bags that I was going to check were overweight and they were going to charge me an arm and a leg to take them to Bangkok. Always innovative, my parents rushed to the gift shop and bought me a third bag to help me unload the other two. Once we did that, we were good.
As I was taking off my shoes at security and emptying my pockets of all metal objects I caught my parents watching me out of the corner of my eye. As I watched them watching me, I was struck by how much this reminded me of the first time they dropped me off for school, even as I sit as a man on the edge of 25. The anxiety over their son going to a place where no one in their family has ever been was telling in their eyes as were the hopeful smiles that said silently that they knew this be all right. I hope I bear that out.
The first flight was Newark to DC and took about 40 minutes. It’s one of those flights that’s too short to be a flight. I switched over at Dulles in Northern Virginia for a 14 hour flight. I went to sleep immediately and woke up about 5 hours later. I was very satisfied with myself and how much time I killed until I realized that I had nine hours left. Those next hours were spent wedged in the middle of a 5 person row , where everyone else was asleep, trying to negotiate how I was going to climb over these people to go to the bathroom. Over the course of those 9 hours, I watched a girl in the row in front of me go through a sheaf of papers that looked oddly familiar. I realized that it was the packet of information on Thailand that Fulbright has sent us. I tapped her on shoulder and, of course, she was a fellow ETA, Karen from Lancaster, PA.
Never has a person been as happy as I was when I got off that plane at Narita airport outside Tokyo. Karen and I walked to our gate and over the next two hours we met another 6 of our colleague, who I will write about at a later time. Tokyo to Bangkok was six hours. Our Fulbirght advisor, Siriporn, met us at the airport and two hours later we were at the university dorm we will be staying while we are in Bangkok. It feels good not to sleep sitting upright. More posts soon.
Chike
P.S.- I will be posting most of my pictures on my facebook page until I figure out a way to link all of them to the blog.
7 comments:
very nice
Glad you made it safely Chike! I can't wait to hear more exciting stories about your adventures with Fulbright in Thailand!
I can't wait to see the pictures! Everyone over here is doing well, and lil' Christina Prindle was just asking about you, so I'll have to tell her that she should check out the blog and Facebook.
Can't wait to see the pictures! Everyone over here is doing well, and lil' Christina Prindle was just asking about you, so I'll have to tell her that she should check out the blog and Facebook.
hey fellow Fulbrighter, how's stuff? I'm enjoying my time in Indonesia. I already speak a significant amount of the language and taught through Ramadhan. I'm fasting, too. And I'm thinking I should probably buy tickets to come visit you soon!
I have figured out my international calling situation, so when you get a chance, drop me a number for you there. AMINEF gave us phones; maybe you'll be similarly lucky. I'm anxious to compare experiences, and also work out dates for a visit.
By the way, will others be joining, as best you know, and if so, will they intend to travel Indo, too?
so you're an eagle now?
hey, it's andrew. i just read of some of the stuff going down in thailand right now: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/08/world/asia/08thai.html?hp
are you still in bangkok? (also read as, please blog that you're okay and not arrested or anything)
Post a Comment