I never thought I would be so relieved to see my own name.

Leaving Nikki at the airport was harder than I let on.  I hate goodbyes, and saying goodbye to my wife was not something I relished remotely. Watching her disappear into the crowd, back into normal life, wasn’t easy. But, as lines do, I moved forward.

I remember thinking, about 15 minutes before boarding my first plane to Shanghai, that I should go and release my bladder. But, I didn’t want to miss my first flight either, and who knows what kind of nasty surprises could happen in the bathroom? So I held it. Which resulted in gut-wrenching agony for the first 45 minutes of the flight. The first 6 hours dragged on at a never-ending pace. There were no outlets, no TV’s, and a ton of Asian people, of which I am quite confident none of them spoke English. I didn’t want to use my laptop, because I wanted to save those precious few hours for when I really needed something to distract me. I tried reading, but to avail, as there was no air conditioning in the cabin, which meant I was sweating from head to toe, and couldn’t concentrate on anything other than keeping mu body temperature as low as humanly possible. The second 6 hours passed a little more smoothly. I’d like to be able to credit it to something other than drugs, but, sadly, I cannot. Two gravol’s in my stomach, and I passed out for three hours. Blissful sleep. But then, I awoke, as we often do, but not always, and wasted away the next three hours in anxious worrying. For you see, this is my first time overseas, my first time on an airplane for a trip longer than 4 hours. I knew that the arrival was coming up, and I had no idea what I was going to do. Apparently it is cheaper to book two different flights, with two different carriers, in two different terminals. So I had to get off my plane, go through Chinese customs, get my luggage, check in again, and then board. But once I had miraculously found my way through all that, they told me I had to switch terminals. Sooooo, I hoofed it to the other terminal, 15 long minutes away. Once there, I checked in, gave them my stuff, and went to find my gate. Two hour lay-over’s are a joke.

The second flight was slightly more enjoyable, as I dozed for half of it. The second half was spent wondering if the next leg would go smoothly. It did not. First off, my plane circled Bangkok for an hour, and so we arrived an hour late. Go figure. It’s a weird thing that circling your destination will make you late. Regardless, I got off, and then proceeded to exchange all my money, and go through Thai customs. There were about 20 arrival desks, where you could fill out your arrival and departure card, and not one of them had any cards to fill out. However, out of the corner of my eye, I saw a little woman peeking out at me from underneath a blanket, behind what looked remarkably like a desk. I practically pounced on the woman, and discovered there was another one underneath with her. These were the customs guards, sleeping on the job, not passing out arrival cards. I tried my best to get arrival cards into the hands of the people on my plane. They should have given me a name tag. Anywho, the line up was long, and I was already an hour late, so I feared my driver wouldn’t be there anymore. When I got up to the desk for customs, the guard wanted to know where I was staying while I was here. I didn’t know Peter’s address, so I said I didn’t know. So he rejected me, and sent me back the way I came. My phone, up to this point hasn’t been working in this part of the world, and I couldn’t find a payphone. So, naturally, I saw a discarded arrival card that said “Princeton hotel” on it, and I figured if someone else can stay there, so can I. So, I put that down, and the same guard let me through. I grabbed my bag, and took off. I needed to now find my driver.

I followed Peter’s instruction as best I could, and I couldn’t find my driver. I came to a fork in the road, and decided I should probably just try and use a payphone. So I finally found one that took visa, and as I was dialing the number of my driver, my cell died, taking with it the only access I had to those numbers. So I grabbed my carry-on bag, and sprinted up the stairs where the city was. Then I realized I had left my luggage downstairs next to the phone. Sooooo I sprinted back down to the pay phone where God must have stood guard over it, because it was still there.  Then I decided to go that way. And lo and behold, my driver was there.

And hence, you now understand why I have never been so relieved to see my own name.

God, you are stretching me in ways I don’t want to be stretched. But you are my strength, my fortress. I will reside in you. Give me the patience to walk through the streets of Bangkok and see what you see, and feel what you feel. Please keep my heart receptive to what you want to teach me, and what this city has to teach me.

Love you,

Matt