Finally Arrived

I have finally arrived in Udon Thani!!!
         It all started on August 9th at 8 in the morning. My family and I set out for the airport. We had some emotional goodbyes (mostly mom), and then I was off to Chicago from St. Louis. I arrived in Chicago after a relatively short flight and went to my gate. There I was surprised to see a group of Foreign Exchange Students already there. They welcomed me warmly and then we all gathered in a group and waited for the boarding call. Finally we were called aboard and then started the 12 and a half hour flight that would land us in Korea.

 

We had a boring time in the airport, but some of us were smart enough to bring entertainment.

 We all got on the plane, and I was happy to find that every person had a personal T.V. built in to the seat in front of them. I sat down an i went to work right away at trying to figure out the T.V. I almost missed the take off because I was so taken by the T.V. To start off the flight I just put on a movie, and it lasted a good two hours. After that ended I decided to just watch another one. After another movie I thought it was time to take a break, and I looked out the window. Boy, am I glad I did... I got to see mountains in Russia, and glimpses of polar ice caps through extremely iced over windows and cloud covers. 

These are mountains in Russia.

    After a while I stood up and walked around a bit. I was able to go talk to some of the other Foreign Exchange Students who were on the other side of the plane. After a while I got bored and went and sat down, and I watched another movie. After the movie finished, and to my surprise the plane was starting to descend. The flight was almost over. I never slept once. We landed in Korea and we tried to stay in one group.

The group of Foreign Exchange Students getting off the plane in Korea.

      We found our gate together, and then we had a few hours to kill. After I was sure someone was watching my stuff I took a walk around the Korean airport, and I got the chance to exchange my money for Korean money. I walked around for a while longer, then I headed back and there wasn't much time before we boarded. We finally took off for the four hour flight to Bangkok. It also had T.V.s which surprised me, but I didn't use it much. Instead I had a great conversation with a Canadian who, weirdly enough, was also named Spencer. That lasted for a while, and then I fell asleep for the rest of the flight. I woke up and we were descending into Bangkok.

Bangkok at night, not too much different than the big cities of the USA

      When I arrived in Bangkok, I was blessed enough to have my host father be there to welcome me. He is a great guy and made sure my every need or want was for filled. After he welcomed me we set out for a hotel for the night, because I had a 12 hour layover in Bangkok. We got to the hotel by shuttle and then my host father ordered my first Thai meal by room service. After I was finished we went to sleep. We woke up the next morning and headed to the airport. There I checked in, found another money changer and got some Bahts, and had another glorious Thai meal for breakfast. After, we found our gate, and I found out that there were two other Foreign Exchange Students who were flying on the same flight. We boarded the flight and it took us only about an hour. Once we landed I found my luggage and we head for the exit. I was bombarded!!!!

This is my welcome crew, and you can see me as I am the one with tons of flowers around my neck.

          I met every person in the photo and every one of them gave me flowers. I was almost overwhelmed, but I just went with it. After about a half an hour of welcoming to Udon Thani, we all went out for lunch at a restaurant and I had my third Thai meal. After the meal I finally got to see my home...