144 Hours

144 hours went by between leaving America and arriving in our new home, Sisaket. It would have been a lot shorter, but when we got off the plane in San Francisco we found out that our flight had been cancelled. We panicked a little at first because we were on a strict timeline, but since there was nothing we could do, we just had to go with it. We found our bags and got a hotel for the night and then the next afternoon we took off for Thailand. We flew to Hong Kong, then to Singapore, and then finally arrived in Bangkok.

Once we got off the plane we found all of our bags (thankfully!) and then went to get a cab. I knew where we were supposed to go next, and so I handed the cab driver a sheet of paper with the name of our hotel and directions to get there. That's when I realized I wasn't as prepared as I thought. The sheet of paper had everything written in English and he couldn't read it! I had no idea how to explain where we needed to go because our phones didn't work, and all I had was that piece of paper. Finally, I realized I had a phone number for the hotel, so the cab driver called it from his phone and got directions from them.

When we arrived at the hotel I fumbled through my wallet, trying to pull out the right amount of Thai baht to pay him. We're pretty sure I gave him 500 baht too much, but between the flights, the layovers, and the new time zone, we were too exhausted to worry about it. And anyways 500 baht is only about 15 dollars.

We got checked in and then spent all day and all night sleeping. When we woke up it was morning and we made our way to the AYC office nearby. We met with our employers and they explained their program and the school we would be teaching at. They went over information all day and then put us on a bus that night. We rode the bus for nine hours until finally they called the stop for Sisaket. When we got off we got a taxi to a hotel, (this time we had the name of the hotel in Thai) and then we showered and had to report to school.

Brad and I figured we would continue the tradition of taking first day of school pictures, so here's us on our first day as teachers.

Anyways, those 144 hours were spent on way too much public transportation, but in the end it was worth it.