I guess I will start at the beginning. bear with me because I think I'm running on about 4ish hours of sleep in the past 48 or something hours.
I left Minneapolis airport at 9:15 in the morning of the 6th. My family was there to see me off and give moral support and teary eyed hugs. I bought my coffee and boarded my flight to San Fransisco.
I arrived in San Fran at 11:30 (San Fran Time) and found my prebought shuttle to the Raddison hotel at Fisherman's Wharf. In this shuttle with me were two other young folks who looked about as confused as me. "you wouldn't happen to be going to Peace Corps Indonesia would you?" I asked. I had just met my first of many fellow volunteer companions Elliot and Francesca. We swapped relatively awkward small talk/get to know each other conversation as we rode in our very hilly ride across Downtown San Fran. We arrived at the hotel and met our other volunteer companions at the staging event in the hotel. The Peace Corps staff were very nice and we did many educational/get to know each other activities including performing sketches representing the Peace Corps Core Expectations. We all got along swimmingly. This group is a good group. very fun and nice folk they are.
After the staging event we decided it was necessary to go out on the town. So all of us rambunctious Peace Corps trainees left for Pier 39, a outside sort of touristy food court situation. Many of us decided we needed to have some beers so we went to the nearest place that had beers: Wipeout Bar and Grill. We continued going and finding more places with more beers and delicious food and beers. Our last night in America ended up in a hotel room with many very fun folks chilling and talking about how awesome we are. I did a bit of serenading with the accordion. I went to bed at about 1 or so I think. I don't remember very well.
Then my alarm goes off and I realize I have to get my things packed in 20 minutes so we can leave for the airport at 7:30. I threw everything randomly into my suitcases and went down the stairs. In retrospect I should have showered because I ended up stinking very badly, but I will get to that in a bit. We loaded up the buses and off we went to the airport in preparation for our 12 hour flight to Tokyo. WOOT!
At the airport in San Fransisco we all lined up to get our baggage checked by an incredibly irritable little Japanese woman who was not interested in checking all 51 of us. I ate my last meal in America. A burger and fries.
The nice thing about a 12 hour international flight is that everything is free and we got our own little TVs with a plethora of movie selections. The not so nice thing is that it is a 12 hour flight and it is impossible for a person to be comfortable sitting in one place for that length of time. I watched a couple movies that I had wanted to see like Cloud Atlas and A Beautiful Mind, and I also leveled up my Pokemon a good amount. However, one thing I did not manage to do was get any sleep.
When we landed in Tokyo it was a wonderful, wonderful feeling. I got into the airport without my boarding pass somehow, but I didn't think it was a big deal. Me and a couple dudes got a couple beers in the terminal and talked about how awesome we are.
I realized that I did actually leave my boarding pass on the plane so I had to get another one printed out. We then all hopped on a plane for our 7 hour flight to Singapore. It was a nice plane ride, seemed pretty short compared to the 12 hour one we had just been through. I did manage to get something like 3 hours of sleep this time. The food was pretty good too.
We arrived in the Singapore airport and collectively did not know where the heck we were supposed to go. We were told that there was going to be foot massages, a butterfly garden and a lounge with complementary food. It was just a matter of finding it all. Unfortunately it was about 1:30 am Singapore time, so not much was really happening. We all lined up to transfer our baggage to Singapore airlines. When it was my turn the nice lady at the counter told me that I needed my baggage tags in order to transfer. I had lost these. I was told to go to the other side of the airport (30 minute walk) and talk to them. I briskly walked through a mostly empty airport trying to find the counter she told me about. I was stopped by 4 Singapore policemen who were all packing large assault rifles. They asked me for my passport and boarding pass. Luckily I had these so I didn't get shot. When I finally found the desk I was looking for, the nice man told me that if I didn't have my baggage tag then my bags would be stuck in Singapore. on the verge of pooping my pants I asked if there was anything I could do. He said that in the off chance that there is a Delta flight leaving the airport, then I could get new tags. I then walked to the other side of the airport again to the Delta counter. Lo and behold there was a Delta flight leaving and a person behind the desk. I got my tags and got my boarding pass. Poop in pants avoided.
I then was able to relax in our nice lounge that the Peace Corps reserved for us which had SHOWERS! I was so incredibly stinky at this point. Never take a shower for granted. In this lounge we also had wifi and a gym if we wanted to use it. There was a place where we could go outside as well. When I went out there it was more humid than I thought weather could get. it was the middle of the night and it was as hot and humid as Minneapolis gets in mid summer. This is what I am going to have to get used to. yaaaayyy...
After our 6 hour layover in this sweet lounge situation, we got on the last plane headed for Indonesia.
If it hadn't set in yet what we were about to be doing, this was the point where it was getting very real. The air conditioning on the plane shot out a weird mist into the plane; it looked like we were being poisoned through the ventilation. I had a coffee and a chicken sausage on our 2 and a half hour flight. My ears started to pop as we descended into the city of Surabaya Indonesia.
Landing and first days in Indonesia soon to come.
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