At Dad's suggestion, I've included a little map of where we'll be in Thailand.
The map in blue shows some of the major cities; I land in Bangkok Friday morning. It's the capital of Thailand and the biggest city in the country. We'll spend a few days there seeing some of the bigger tourist sites. Then we'll head to the Nan Province, near Pua, specifically in the village of Paklang, which has a notoriously Hmong population (highlighted in red.)
While we're there, we will all conduct different research projects. I'm studying the effects of medicalization on childbirth rituals. We're staying with host families and we'll eat with them twice a day. We have translators to conduct interviews, and we will also hold class once a week to workshop our research topics. At one point near the end of the trip we will go to Chiang Mai University (it's about four hours southwest of Paklang) and share ideas with the personnel there.
I leave tonight to get on a plane at 1am. I have a layover in Taipei, Taiwan and the flight is around 11 hours, I think. Then it's another few hours to Bangkok. I get back on August 9th. The time difference is 14 hours between Bangkok and LA, and 11 hours between Columbus and LA, etc.
Anyhow, I plan on checking my email everyday (nyevegrl@gmail.com), and although I will have a phone, I probably won't make any calls from it. But I shall blog!
Love love love! See you in Bangkok.
Mom and I drove Rachel to LAX last night. I wanted to go and not have Mom go alone. Miraculously, Stake Pres'y. Meeting got out a couple of hours earlier than typical so I was home in plenty of time help pack and go and see Rachel off. Even with all our recent plethora of experience with flying and LAX we figured we had better slate plenty of time and leave home at 10 p.m. for her 1 a.m. international flight. Rachel is an independent girl plus she wasn't planning on checking a bag but I directed that Mom ought to go in with her anyway, "just in case".
ReplyDeleteI dropped Rachel and Mom off at Terminal 2 for CHINA AIR. Rachel handed me her cell phone as it would not be usable in Thailand. Before I got too far around the circle I got a call that Rachel had left her coat in the car. Mom also said that the line for CHINA AIR was hundreds deep. Well, I found that the "Return To Airport" cut-off takes one to the lower "Arriving" level. Mom was waiting on the curb on the upper level to grab the coat. I figured I just missed the upper level cut-off so I went around again, but there is no way to go up once you are down. The "Arriving" level was crazy and packed and it took forever to go around twice. In the mean time Mom keeps calling me wondering where I am because the "Departing" level is nearly deserted. I finally connect with Mom by going clear out of the airport and back in and Mom runs the coat in. I go wait at our self-discovered cell phone lot (i.e. In-N-Out Burger).
After about an hour Mom calls to come and pick her up at the INTERNATIONAL Terminal (which is between terminal 3 and 4). Remember I had dropped them off at T2. The International Terminal is where AIR CHINA flies out of. Yes, Rachel's flight was on AIR CHINA not CHINA AIR. (Who knew?) Mom had been looking at the screens in T2 to find what gate Rachel was flying out of and could not find a flight to Taipei, Taiwan. They were all to Hong Kong. Time was tight as Mom had spent so much time out on the curb retrieving the coat. Mom felt impressed to bolt to the ticket counter, force her way to the First Class agent and ask if she was in the right place. "No, you need to go to the International Terminal".
So, the two girls take off running out on to the sidewalk (the terminals are not connected). Mom, without luggage, sprints ahead. Well, workers are finishing up a multi-million dollar upgrade to the Int. Terminal and the last phase is the Departing curb improvements. The sidewalk and access to the Int. Terminal is closed and a big construction guy tells Mom, "Sorry lady, no can go..." Mom tells the guy to tell a girl who will shortly be coming the same way with a back-pack the same thing. Mom runs back into T3 and down the stairs to the Arriving level, then out on to the sidewalk and around to the Int. Terminal and sprints inside and up the stairs to the ticket counter level. She get in another line, hundreds deep at AIR CHINA. Rachel eventually arrives. Finally at the ticket counter, her bag is too heavy to carry-on and needs to be checked anyway. Mom hustles with her girl to security - no time or breath or tears.
I get a call from Mom as I am snoozing at In-N-Out Burger to come and pick mom up at T4 (remember the curb is closed at the Int Terminal and as it turned out Mom was the last person they let out to get to T4 as it was closing for construction). I soon have Mom beside me in the car and innocently ask, "So, how did it go?"
Oh what an adventure - I am so thankful for that tender mercy - the Lord loves us and watches over us.
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