Tuning in for June 14th

It should be noted in the following entries I will be referring often to 4 other girls traveling with me during my time in Thailand. For clarity’s sake, I want to list them now so outside readers don’t become lost or confused as to who I am referring. Renee, Kellie, and Jen are fellow MSU students and also education/kinesiology majors. Also along for the ride, Suzie, one of my closest friends who luckily decided to join me for her first out-of-country experience.

It hardly seems real after months of preparation and planning, travels to Asia are becoming a reality. Arriving in Detroit just before 7am for our flight to Chicago at 9:05 am didn’t affect the reality factor either. Being at the airport is nothing new to me; why should I assume this adventure should be any different? Our flight took off and landed on time, an appreciated and rare occurrence. While we were separated on the plane, the flight was only about an hour long. It was when we reached Chicago O’Hare, I began to get a little nervous about the language barrier I will have to face. It is difficult for me to accept that I know not 1 single word of Thai or Malay. And since we are flying on Korean Air, a lack of Korean can be added to that list as well. Any other time I have traveled abroad (Europe and Mexico) I have felt comfortable knowing I could communicate enough to get by. In this situation, I am aware of the fact that I may not be able to do anything other than nod, use gestures, and make a fool of myself as the typical ignorant American. There was a 3-hour layover in Chicago’s airport and then the 5 of us girls boarded a double-decker airplane! That is a first for me. But sitting on the airplane, seeing the timer counting down hours to go (12!) I realized this is really it. Get ready to be gone for 2 whole months from your comfort zone and everything familiar.

On the plane we were separated again, Jen and Suzie on one side of the humungous plan and Renee, Kellie, and I on the other. I sat a row in from of Renee and Kellie between a Korean businessman and a girl returning home to China after being away at school. We were served a Korean-like dish of raw salmon salad, some beef and noodles, and a roll. I was offered a tube of something the stewardess called “hot pepper Korean paste.” Of course, I took it, tried it. Nothing like eating something out of a plastic tube right? But that’s what this trip is all about… trying new things that would typically turn me off. Anyways, it was a strange type of spicy and I didn’t really enjoy it very much. How much does anyone really like airplane food though? Something else I noticed right away was that besides a very few other people, us girls were some of the only noticeably American passengers. While this is an experience I was anticipating, it is slightly unnerving to actually be immersed in such a different make-up of people. I hope from this experience, and others like it throughout the whole trip, I put myself in the shoes of others. How must this feel to a child in a classroom? How does the language barrier make a student meek, shy, and unsure of himself or herself when they typically are not? These are things I want to delve into more so that I can be a better, more accommodating teacher in the future.

5 hours into the flight to Seoul, Korea (7 and ½ more to go!) I started to get REALLY antsy. Anyone who knows me can understand how hard it is for me sit still for an hour, never mind 12. Bored. Really, really bored. One thing that held my attention was the TV monitor on the plane; our flight path was being tracked on the map. We flew north from Chicago over northern Canada and along the southern border of Alaska. This is for real. I am traveling to the other side of this world. How small are we?

Also, pictures have been updated thus far!