Thailand: the land of smiles

Camp of course came to a sudden end as it always does, good bye's were said and last hugs took place and off I went, down that black top road out the gates and one last head turn over the shoulder to see the yellow and blue "Sandy Hill Camp" sign. This year brought a sense of closure and I feel in my heart I won't be back for another full summer, but never say never.
Lovely, beautiful Portland. How I love thee. It was so good to be home, but didn't last long. I literally took all the clothes out of my suitcases and put half of them back in and before I knew it I was started my journey to Thailand.

4am Eugene, OR airport:
I met the rest of our team.. medical eye mission 2008: Bringing Vision Back yo! No really that's what our shirts say, ok maybe not the "yo", but I sure wish they did.. maybe I'll sharpie mine in. Anyway, all of us had been told before hand that we were only allowed to check one bag because the other one would be a bag-o-medical supplies. After assembling a nice tower of suitcases and bags, Ms.Snatchface, an United Airlines employee disapproved of our mountain and pushed us in the long line with everyone else, our "we are going to go save the world" spiel didn't work. After a good 45 minutes of moving items around from bag to bag to meet the weight requirement we finally headed off to our gate and headed off to San Fransisco, CA.
San Fransisco, CA Airport:
Our layover in SF wasn't bad because my step dad is gangster status and has the red carpet membership which is were all the big wigs of the world chill out when waiting for their flights. The lodge had nice chairs, free bagels and fruit and not to mention a full bar in which I took advantage of. Nothing like a cocktail with the fam at 10am! My mom and I were off to a rough start, clashing as we do. I bit my tongue hard and hoped for the screaming inside to stop. God help me please, help me tolerate my mother on this trip for the sake of everyone. 12:30pm we finally boarded and off to Tokoyo we were. 10 hour flight, at least I got a window seat and a sleeping pill.
Tokoyo, Japan Airport:
Our layover was only suppose to be a few hours, but as we waited we were glued to the airports window witnessing a small typhoon consisting of large amounts of rain and lighting. Hmmm.. maybe we will be delayed. Off to the beer can vending machine, yes vending machine. Rad. Flight delayed. Flight canceled.. ugh. After a good 4ish hours John (my step dad) worked his magic and we got on a flight leaving later that night, instead of the next morning. I guess the "we are going to save the world" card works in foreign places. hah. 6 hour flight here we come..
BANGKOK, THAILAND:
Finaaallllyyyy. 2am 8/22 we finally met our destination. The "we are here to save the world" card worked for customs too. So getting through customs in record time.. not a bad gig. The Thai people that John and his nurses and techs have worked with for the past five years were there to greet us. Not surprising that our bags didn't show up, but definitely surprising when we realized that a two story, neon colored, black light and disco ball- PARTY BUS, was our ride to the hotel. hahaha. Luckily no strippers jumped out and we had a peaceful trip to our hotel. After getting to our hotel my first taste of Thailand was that there were a lot of stray dogs, advertising, poverished housing next to nice skyscrapers, and lots of motorcycles of all sizes color and styles.
Our hotel is ah-mazing. The Peninsula, apparently ranked in the top fifty in the world. This would be our home base for all our travels that we will be doing while we are here. I am rooming with K^2. Katie who is Johns 14 year old daughter and Kate who is 17 and the daughter of the director of the Newport, OR hospital. Both quite, nice girls. I didn't sleep much when we got to the hotel even though it was 5am. That whole time change thing, throws ya off. It was nice to rest in a bed horizontal and not vertical, like on the planes. 8am rolled around and I woke up to find their was a river outside our hotel that I didn't noticed at night. It was obviously used for transportation and I sat in the window for awhile watching the colorful boats go up and down the river. But soon enough I was in need of a friend named caffeine and I went on a search for coffee, I found my coffee and found an amazing buffet as well. I indulged in the fruit selection and wow, America, we are missing out. Even fruit we have at home like bananas, watermelon and pineapple are nothing compared to here. After breakfast I hung out in the room. Sweats pants + humidity= not a lot of fun. John showed up a bit later and we embarked of a journey to find a bathing suit for Katie and I so we could at least lay by the pool. We met up with the Arie family and we took a ferry across the river and hoped in a motorcycle cart thingy which was an experience in itself. The driver told us about getting in an accident awhile ago and being in a coma. Crazy little Thai man. He took us to this tailor that would give them free gas for doing so, we poked our nose in and we were instantly bombarded with sales men insisting we all needed suits. John and Kayron gave in, and before we knew it their measurements were taken and material chosen. Persistent buggers they were. We got to the BMK mall which was five stories, and probably had 1000's of stores because each store was the size of a cubicle, no exaggeration. Walking down the halls we heard about 10 different languages, it truly felt like the world had came together at this mall. My want to be there ended quickly with the smell of fish oil and confusion of where to walk, because it is the left side here, not the right. It's funny how we become so second natured to things like that. Back at the hotel we enjoyed Pina Coladas pool side and then jet lag kicked in for me and I was out at 5pm which I'm hating myself for because its 2am and I can't sleep. poop. Tomorrow we are off to our first round of surgeries, I'm excited. xoxoxo