We're here!

It only took 64 hours, but we've finally arrived in Chicago. I will post more about that tomorrow, but right now, I need a nap!

The kids have all showered and changed into their pj's, and now they are busy doing their blogs. It was a LONG journey to get here, but we've finally made it!

Konichiwa Japan!

After waiting 22 hours in Bangkok for the flight to Japan, we finally boarded the airplane and we arrived at Narita airport around 6am, where we quickly learned that our connecting flight was...... delayed.. ack!

So now we have to wait another seven hours before we can get on another airplane for our 20+ hour flight to Chicago. The kids are handling it like real troopers though. They've found free internet connections and so they are updating their blogs and playing on Facebook. Nothing is open right now, so we can't find anything to eat, but hopefully something will open in the next hour or two.

Fern on the airport shuttle

Lin on the shuttle

Erng and Jane looking around at all the airplanes

Jean's not quite awake yet

Well, at least Narita Airport is such an interesting place to be. The kids will have LOTS of things to do here! :-P

Hour 22

After 22 hours in a Bangkok airport, we are finally at our gate and getting ready to depart. If all goes well (knock on wood!), we will arrive in Chicago on April 4th at 8:40am. Wish us luck!

The Looooooooooooong Goodbye

You know, when I wrote that last blog entry, I thought to myself, "I probably shouldn't say that the trip preparations were 'Easy' because I might jinx it." But then I thought to myself, "George, you're a man of logic and reason, you shouldn't let foolish superstitions dictate your actions."

Well,.... jinx! :-P

Things got off to a good start. All the kids arrived on time, and we had our bags quickly organized and lined up like ducks in a row. Patty interviewed the kids on video to get their pre-trip thoughts and emotions. Then we went over a few last minute details and the parents made their good-byes. We were ready to go!

Here's the students and their families:

Jean

Jane

Lin

Fern

Erng

First in line! Whoot!

So we were all set and ready to leave Thailand for our great American adventure. The Japan Airlines staff opened their counters and the kids eagerly got out their passports. But the airline staff made no move to call us forward. They just sat at their desks. We waited for a while until a woman came to tell us the flight might be delayed. Since we only had a two-hour layover in Japan and their passport control is notoriously slow, I sat the kids down and talked to them about the possibility that we might need to run through Narita airport to make our connecting flight, so sightseeing tours of Japanese airports might not be possible today.

Then some staff came out with hurriedly printed posters to announce the flight delay time. "Ten o'clock", I read. Oh well... that's not so bad... "PM" Huh? Wait, what?

Yep, you heard that right. Our flight was delayed FOURTEEN HOURS! Guess we won't be making our connecting flight :-P. So now we're sitting here in wonderful Suvarnabhumi Airport on Hour 13 of our (hopefully only) 54 hour odyssey to America, and let me tell you, after the first ten hours or so, the cold floors and overpriced restaurants still haven't lost their native charm!

America, here we come! Er... not quite. :-P

Early Birds at the Airport

Dealing with the airport taxi mafia is one of my least favorite things about living over here, so I'm very happy that we now have a nice, convenient airport rail-link that goes from the BTS Skytrain Phaya Thai stop all the way out to the airport.

Unfortunately, it only runs until midnight and we needed to be at the airport at least 3 hours before our 8:00am flight, so we hopped on the last train and arrived at the airport around 1:00am. Patty quickly settled in for a nap (the woman literally cannot function without her beauty rest, haha!).

I found an electrical outlet so I could charge my phone and now I'm updating this blog at around 2:00am local time. We'll be ready to greet the kids when they arrive around 4:30am. Compared to last year's hectic last-minute dash to the airport, this year's trip is starting off really well. So I guess Patty's been a good influence on me! :-) We had all our bags packed since Saturday, and so today all we had to do was exchange a bit more money into dollars and go to Makro to buy some snacks. Easy!

Whew! Of course, I won't rest easy until all the kids are safely tucked into their sleeping bags in Valders, but in spite of some considerable drama booking the plane tickets, I'm feeling really good about this trip. We've got a lot of really cool activities and adventures planned for the kids this year, so I think they will have lots of fun!

The only problem I have right now, is deciding when it is safe to wake up Patty! Haha!

About Me.

I asked all the kids to answer some questions about themselves. Here are my answers:

1) What is your nickname? My nickname is Dtangmo.
2) What is your favorite color? My favorite color is purple.
3) What is your age? I am 43 years old.
4) What do you want to see in America? I want to see my family and also my friends in Boston.
5) What is your favorite band or who is your favorite singer? I like Grooverider, Paradox, the Violent Femmes, and New Order.
6) List five Thai snacks that you like to eat:
- Gummy Dinosaurs
- Lactasoy Chocolate milk
- Cougar milk candy
- Tommy jelly beans
- Snickers
7) What do you eat for breakfast? Chocolate soy milk and Mataba-Gai.
8) What is your hobby? I like to read books, make websites and play Magic: the Gathering.
9) Do you have any pets? I have a cat. His name is Pumpkin.
10) How many brothers and sisters do you have? What are their names and ages? I have two brothers and two sisters. They are Diane, Pat, Bob and Dan (ages withheld under threat, hahah!)
11) Are there any foods that you cannot eat? I cannot eat peas! Yuck!
12) Do you have any allergies? No. I am very healthy!
13) What is your favorite sport? I like to play tae-kaw, and I like to watch Packer football (American football).
14) What do you want to be when you grow up? I am an adult already! I am a teacher.
15) What is your favorite movie or book? I favorite movie is "The Iron Giant" and my favorite book is "The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant". I also really like watching "Walking Dead" on TV.
16) Do you like computer games? What games do you like to play? Yes, I like to play computer games. I play "Sudoku" on my phone, and I play "Homeworld", "Battlefield" and "World of Warcraft" on my computer. I also like stealing Patty's phone to play "Plants vs. Zombies"!

2012 Trip Preparations

Tonight is our overnight pre-trip orientation camp. We're staying at a guest house in Kindergarten on Chok Chai 4.

The kids have just finished setting up their blogs, and now they are chatting and giggling. It's pretty late, so I should be telling them to get to sleep, but it's important for them to bond a bit before the trip, so I'll give them a bit more time before shooing them off to bed. Right now, they're playing a Thai version of "Truth or Dare" or "Spin the Pencil". It's kinda cute :-). I think this will be a good group of kids, and I suspect they will all be best friends by the end of this trip.

We leave for America in a little over a week, but there's still a lot to do! It's crunch time for trip preparations, and I've been putting in 20-hour days for the past few weeks to get everything ready. We very narrowly avoided an airline-ticketing disaster that could have torpedoed the whole trip, so I'm relieved that is finally all fixed and behind us. Some day when I've had some sleep (and perhaps some post-traumatic stress therapy) I'll blog about the whole airline-ticketing ordeal we had to go through, but right now the drama is still too fresh to relive at this moment! Ha!

Here are the blogs for everyone on this year's trip:

George: pudgimelon.blogspot.com
Patty: patnida-abadebi.blogspot.com
Jean: lookchinamerica.blogspot.com
Fern: baifernamerica.blogspot.com
Lin: linhuiamerica.blogspot.com
Jane: natchajane.blogspot.com
Erng: erngusa.blogspot.com

This is where we are staying for our overnight, pre-trip orientation camp

Setting up our blogs

Erng getting ready for Wisconsin's lovely spring weather. Is she overdoing it much? 555+