I MADE IT!

Wow.

Sooo, Friday morning me and my mom got up at 4 am, and were out the door by 5 for my 7 o'clock flight. We were checking in at like 5:30, and all of a sudden the machine was like "It is too late to check in for this flight." And we were like "lolwut?" And this guy who worked there came over and was like "No, that flight is at 6. You'll have to go over to the help desk." And we were like "lolwut?" But we went, and the line took forever, but finally when we got there the woman was like "Nah, you can make it." Both my suitcases were 2.5 lbs over the weight limit (exactly) but she was like "I don't have time to deal with this, your suitcases are over the weight limit, don't do that again," and she let them go. So then me and my mother pretty much jogged over to the security thing, and my mom asked the person guiding people to lines "Hey, her flight is boarding now, can you help her?" and the woman was like "Sigh... yeah, okay." and my mom veryyyyyy hurriedly gave me a hug and kiss, but I had to run off and go through security, so that ended up being an oftly crappy goodbye. Haha.

Once I got through security I speed walked to my gate, which was a couple minutes away. When I got there everyone had boarded, but I was okay. It was a tiny plane, and my seat was the second row, so I was actually the only one in that row, but before we started taxiing the flight attendant was like "We need three volunteers from the first three rows to move to the back of the plane-- it's imbalanced." Two men got up, and went back, and then nobody else did. So I was just like "whatever, I'll go, give me a second," and I ended up sitting way back. That was an uneventful flight.

I got to DC at like 6:35 (dude, it's close, and that pilot was pretty fast.) And walked over to the gate the flight attendant had said my flight to Tokyo would be. Anddd I was the first one there. I got out my laptop, plugged it in to this cool plug thing, and tried to use the airport wi-fi, but it wasn't working, even though it was connecting. I was just about to turn it off when TA-DA, a Rotary kid showed up! Her name was Emma. After a couple more kids came, Helen, Jay, Elizabeth, Maia, some of us went off and bought smoothies... then a little later I went with Emma and bought a pretzel at auntie anns. I was like "Hmm, last pretzel for a while. Yum." Then more kids came, and stuff, and we waited for a very long time. Eventually other people who were on the flight came. Then we waited. Then finally we boarded, and at first it looked like I was going to get the seat next to me, too, but then some guy sat next to me. He was like "Haha, did I ruin your fun?" and I was like "Hahaha, yes." He was an opera singer headed for Seoul. Anyway, the flight was kind of dreadful. It was super long and my muscles kept all hurting and stuff. Plus, the movies sucked and I could never seem to catch the beginning of one. Blah.

Hanging out in Narita for a couple hours was fun, though. I got a type of pretz that I'd never seen before, and I ate some green tea kit kats (yummmm), and I went to McDonalds with a couple other people. At McDonalds I got Shaka Shaka Chicken, which I don't believe you can get in the US. It's a piece of chicken that comes in a little paper bag with a packet of seasoning, and you put the seasoning in and shake it around until the chicken is nicely seasoned. Season season season. While we were at Narita, a couple more rotary kids joined up with us, coming from California.

On the plane to Bangkok I was sitting next to a couple of kids that were like 10 years old or so, and about as annoying as 10 year olds tend to be, but they ended up just falling asleep about 10 minutes after the plane took off, and then staying that way pretty much the entire time. I slept pretty well too, because my window seat didn't really have a window, so the wall was close to the seat, and much more comfortable than usual. I ended up missing dinner because I slept through it by accident, which was a little annoying, but then I wasn't terribly hungry, so it was okay. I slept like 3 hours, and watched like most of 17 Again without sound. I could have had sound, I just didn't bother. And I listened to my iPod for most of the rest of the time on the plane.

Once we disembarked, things went pretty smoothly. We all got through customs without mishap. I had an almost impossible time hearing the woman through her face mask, and I felt really bad, but it wasn't really a problem. I got two guys to help me grab my huuuuge suitcases from the belt-- they both came out within 5 minutes of me getting there, and then I managed to sort of drag them to the place where the many host families were standing. My host family (Mama Sea, Mickmee, and my father whose name I can not think how to transliterate. I will figure that one out at a later time.) and my councelor were there to pick me up, and then we all drove back to Korat in a van. After the 2 1/2 hour drive we arrived at my brand new home! It's mostly above their gold store, but other than the ground floor (which is really just an entrance hall place) there are three more floors. My room is on the top floor, and shaped pretty oddly because it is above the store! Which also means that my windows look out onto the street, which is kind of nice. It's a good thing I'm not my mom, though, because there are tons of things that drive by and make a ton of noise all the time, and this greatly increases in the morning. It would make her miserable. It doesn't really bother me, though.

This morning I woke up at like 9, and just chilled out in my room until like 1:30 or something, at which point Mama Sea and Mickmee came to wake me up/check on me/whatever. Since I was all up and dressed and stuff they asked me if I was hungry, which I kind of was, and I had some crazy hot dog wrapped in dough thing (a la pretzel dog, or bagel dog) which had plenty of mayo on it. (At this point I was very glad that I was not one of the many people I know who hate mayo.) I guess the other two had already eaten, since I was the only one who had anything, and then once I was done Mickmee went over to this mall that's a bit away (but first I got the internet password from her!). Mama sea went to go take a shower and told me that in a couple hours (at like 4) we'd head over to the mall, and eat dinner there with Mickmee. We ended up doing that, and also eating with my host cousin, and aunt. (By the way, this mall was freaking huge. Hugeeeee.)We ate at this American steak house place, Sizzler, which was pretty silly, but it was still nice. While I was there I got to meet the Thai kid I'd met online, who is good friends with Mickmee. He is taller than I thought, haha. Once we'd chilled out at the restaurant for a sufficient amount of time, we went to a supermarket (which was a big supermarket!) and they tried to get me to buy snacks and stuff for myself. I was like "You don't need to buy me junk food. Really. owo;" but they wanted me to, so I got some chips and some intriguing sweets.

- Mama sea interjects to say good night. :'D -

After that we just went home, and I went on the computer, and took a shower, and went back on the computer, and wrote this, and stufffff. c: And soon I'll be going to sleep~ Hurrah.