Y’all, getting to Thailand was an entire journey on its own. Thankfully, I didn’t have to go through it alone. The original plan was:

• Get to the airport for my midnight flight
• Meet my friends because they were coming with
• Get on the plane and try not to have a mental break down during my 15 hour flight
• Get to my connecting flight to Bangkok (another 5ish hours)
• Get off that plane for my 3rd flight Chiang Rai (for a total of about 22 hours on a plane)

What actually happened:

I got to my midnight flight and met up with my friends

We met up with another student from the class, who quickly turned our trio into a quartet

Our flight was delayed due to technical issues. This isn’t uncommon of course, we just wanted to get on the plane ASAP. It would take 15 minutes to 1 hour, they said.

1 hour goes by… another hour goes by… we kept getting the promise of getting information as soon as they knew what was going on. It was basically 2am and we had no answers.

The pilot comes on the loud speaker at the gate and says “the plane is not filling with fuel and we don’t know why. We must cancel this flight. The flight will be postponed for all of you for 10pm.” I dont know about you guys, but 12am to 10pm is a LARGE jump in terms of waiting for a flight. All four of our jaws dropped. None of us had ever flown internationally on our own. And now, we had no parents. Frantic calls and texts to parents commence.

On top of this, the flight was what they called “over booked” and as there was a rush of angry customers trying to get more information, the attendants told everyone not to bumrush the desk because there were THREE HUNDRED of us and it would be easier and faster if we all went back to the check in desk as there were more people to assist us there. The thought from me and my traveling buddies? There are SO many planes, why not switch for a new one?

At this point, it is 2am. We had to pick up our luggage and go to the check in station to fight for new tickets for all four of us. But, don’t forget those other 300 people. Our squad waited in line for FOUR HOURS to see a representative. And when we got there? We were told that the only flights they had were 2 back to back flights that were already fully booked and that they would not delay those flights to compensate ours. We stressed that our trip was for education purposes, they told us that we can standby and wait for a no show but in the meantime we would all be getting hotel vouchers that included free meals. But, when we stressed that we had a third flight to get to, they were able to redirect us to someone that had the ability to switch our tickets.

Yet another line, but this one was promising. We told the lady our whole situation about the class and the third flight, and that we would be missing our program being that we’d get there on the 8th instead of the 6th (tuition and study abroad funds weren’t cheap either). She searched the data base and said there were no flights that take the same route through Asia and no other Asian airlines had empty seats available. We asked if there were any flights that didn’t go through Asia but still went to Bangkok. She found a flight for 9:45am that same morning that had four seats left! AND she booked it for us manually because the servers between different airlines are not connected. GOD BLESS THIS WOMAN’S SOUL

Pros:

• We got our flights (for the most part. We still had to fix our 3rd flight).
• We still used the hotel voucher which included free meals, so we were able to get breakfast before our flight. I gladly took the complimentary soaps and lotions from the rooms we were given. The hotel also had a free shuttle bus which we used to get back to the airport.
• We were reimbursed for any cabs we paid for going to and/or from the airport.
• None of us bawled our eyes out

To Be Continued…

What I was told to pack:

• 5+ shirts and 2-3 pants
• A sleeping bag (sleeping mat optional)
• 7-9 underwear and socks
• 2 long sleeve shirts
• Comfy shoes
• Rain gear (but no umbrella)
• Sun hat
• Camera (optional)
• 1 dressy outfit (for a nice night out)
• A day pack
• Water bottle
• Small luggage/duffel bag/backpackers bag
• Swim gear (for hotel pools)
• Towel
• Field notebook
• Visa credit card
• Needed medications
• Sunscreen
• Bug repellant
• Toiletries
• A sweater

What I actually packed:

• 5 shirts and 4 pants
• A sleeping bag
• 10 undies and socks (+3 wool socks)
• 1 long sleeve for pajamas
• 2 comfy shoes and a set of slippers
• An umbrella (yeah… I know..)
• 2 cameras
• A day pack
• A water bottle
• My camping bag (that may be too large, but I love and will be using again for back country camping!)
• 2 field notebooks (in case 1 wasnt enough)
• My planner and blog notebook
• 2 books and a sketchbook for the plane ride
• Medications (I took malaria, pepto bismol, imodium, advil, allergy pills and some prescribed traveler’s diarrhea meds)
• More toiletries than I’ve ever used in my life (but this is also the longest trip I’ve taken away from home)
• And of course a sweater cause I’m always cold.

What I was supposed to buy once I got to Thailand:

• Sim card
• Towel
• Sunscreen
• Sun hat
• Bathing suit
• Micro SD adapter (for my camera)
• The long sleeve shirts I didn’t pack

Getting everything I needed turned out to be a harder task than expected. I’ll explain why in the next post.

For those of you that don’t know, I am an animal behavior major. I’ve wanted to be a veterinarian ever since I can remember, and it started with my first puppy that I got when I was 8 years old. An interest for animal psychology grew as I took my STEM courses alongside psychology courses during college. Since Vet school does not have a major requirement to get accepted, I was able to join a program that allowed me to combine these two interests of mine.

CUNYBA is an interdisciplinary program for undergraduate students. If you’re interested in learning more, here’s the link: https://cunyba.cuny.edu/

I found out about CUNYBA through a study that the CUNY Graduate Center was doing on students whose high schools were not required to take regents. Yes, I went to one of these high schools and many people are baffled when I mention that I never took regents, but my school had other ways of proving to the Board of Education that we were competent enough. During this study, I met other students from other high schools like mine and we discussed how prepared we felt for college without regents. I was also chosen to be interviewed for an article because many teachers want more schools like mine (article here: https://bit.ly/2sHPKoI). After the study, the head of the CUNYBA program came in to talk to us and spread the word.

Through CUNYBA, I was able to make this study abroad experience part of my major requirements. I believe this will give me the hands on experience to understanding animals so that later on I can focus on the hands on experience of caring for them. While in Thailand, I will be visiting many elephant reservations, elephant hospitals, conservation organizations, and possibly some tourist attractions

I can’t wait for all of you to experience this journey with me!