I'm nervous because I've never left the country before. I've never flown over the ocean. Our destination seems dangerous, with sex traffickers and brothels all over the place. None of us know the language. But I worry too much! So I stop psyching myself out. Worrying accomplishes nothing.
Landon and I meet at Andrea's at 5. We load up our gear and are off by 5:15. We pick up Alauna in Lehi, and arrive at the Delta terminal of the airport by 6:30 a.m. The rest of the team are already there, waiting for us. We check our bags at the front and make our way through security and to the gate, passports in hand.
We will take a total of three planes over the next 28 hours. Our first plane takes off from Salt Lake and lands in Portland. I sleep for probably a couple of minutes, but for the most part I just stay awake, entertaining myself with a movie on my computer. We arrive in Portland and wait two hours. Then we board our 767 plane - it is the biggest plane I've ever been in. There were at least 40 - 50 rows, and 3 columns. My seat is in the middle column. It is 12:10 Pacific time when we take off. I think to myself, I should take some Dramamine now so I don't get sick during take-off. I am already feeling slightly queasy. But by the time I think to ask a flight attendant for some water, we're already about to take off, and it's too late.
It's our plane's turn for the runway. The engines roar and vibrate the cabin. We start moving. Faster. Faster, even. It's rainy outside. Visibility is low. We leave the ground and immediately there's turbulence. I just know I'm going to puke. I can feel it coming on. I am holding a Dramamine tablet in my palm, trying to muster up enough saliva to put it in my mouth and swallow it without water. After a few minutes, I am fairly confident that I have enough moisture in my mouth to swallow my pill. I take the pill between my two fingers and put it in my mouth. Immediately I am filled with regret. The pill begins to dissolve almost instantaneously - it's disgusting. I can tell that if I were to swallow it now, I would surely gag. I put my hand over my mouth and focused on getting more saliva in my mouth. Mike and Jack, who are sitting on either side of me are worried that I'm going to hurl all over them. I don't blame them. Finally, the bitter pill dissolves completely in my mouth, leaving my mouth entirely numb, and I manage to swallow what's left. I start feeling better.
This plane ride is eleven hours long. I try to sleep for a bit. Read a few pages of my book. Listen to music on my phone. Sleep a few minutes more. Play a game of Mahjong on my phone (in honor of being in Asia, I guess?). Sleep again. Mike and I watch The Island on my computer, using my headphone splitter. More sleeping. The flight attendants give us dinner, and then breakfast - in that order.
12:36 a.m. MST: We finally arrive on solid ground. In Utah, it is the middle of the night. It's 4:36 p.m. and still bright outside in Tokyo, and we have another two hour layover before catching our next plane to Bangkok. The last thing I want to do is sit, so we go walk around for a while. Some of us exchange our dollars for yen, and the cashiers at the souvenir shops help us with counting out the coins.
It reminds me of when I was on the other end of this situation, working at the outlets in Gilroy, California. Apparently it's a pretty famous outlet mall, and we got visitors from all over the world. One time two girls that were from Asia were at the checkout, buying some clothes. I told them their total, and they looked at me and just handed me all of their dollars and American change. I counted it out for them, and took what they owed for their purchase. It is strange being on the flip side of that.
It seems like no time at all has passed by the time we start boarding our last plane out of Tokyo to Bangkok. This time, I've learned my lesson. I ask the first flight attendant I see for some water so I could take my Dramamine. I am already so exhausted, and the Dramamine only makes it worse. I fall asleep almost immediately after I board the plane. I don't even remember taking off. For pretty much the entirety of this plane ride, I am dead to the world. That sleep was much needed. And now it is tomorrow.
Too much flight time and travel for me. I would much rather try to sleep through all of it...
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