America..here I come..

 What a long journey!! It took me 31 hours of traveling on FOUR planes to get to Amherst, Massachusetts. However, I must say that I am very fortunate to arrive here according to my schedule. All the planes I boarded were very on time and landed a bit earlier than scheduled.

My very first flight from Bangkok to Narita, Japan was at 6.05 am; therefore, I needed to get up as early as 3 am to get there on time. Thanks for the scholarship that provided me an accommodation at Novotel Airport for me. Staying overnight there was so convenient for me; otherwise, I would have been very panic traveling to the airport. I stepped on the plane at around 5.30 and found out that there was no television screen in front of my seat. OMG..what would I do then? There was a big television screen in the middle of the plane which is not so far from where I sat. There were also two tiny televisions hanging on the ceiling of the plane. I thought to myself that perhaps this is only the short flight to Japan so there is no such a fancy facility. Therefore, my six hours of traveling was not as pleasant as I thought.

My second flight, taking 9 hours, was from Japan to San Francisco. Still, there is no TV screen!!! But this time I'd got a good company. It was a 24 year old Singaporean heading to Denver for a military training for two years. He was also disappointed because there was no TV screen so we had to relied on programs in the larger TV screen. San Francisco airport was rather large and houses as many as three terminals. It was not hard to direct myself into the right domestic terminal. There I decided to spend my first dollar in a cup of small cappuccino as I got so sleepy (It was 2 am in Thailand) and a box of salad as food is not free in domestic Untied Airline flights. Flight from San Francisco to Chicago took 7 hours. Surprisingly, there was a tiny screen for in-flight entertainment for passengers. I really don't understand why TV screen didn't exist on international flight, but domestic one. My last flight was from Chicago to Hartford, taking two hours. It was a very small plane as I expected. The plane arrived safely at 10.45 pm local time or 9.45 am Thailand time. In Hartford, I have to wait for ITD staff to pick me up. As soon as I found Utama, an Indonesian staff of ITD, I also met with some participants from other countries, i.e. Anne and Anniken from Norway, Soon from Mali, Reka from Hungary, and Dorisbel from Dominican Republic. We were extremely tired and ready to sleep but we still needed to wait for other participants who arrived at around that period. I found out that some only half of participants had already arrived, the other half hadn't, one participant got stuck in New York because his flight was cancelled, one didn't get her visa on time so she postponed her flight to Monday and one got turned down, which means the immigration of the US did not let him in the country because of some reasons. I was so glad that I decided to fly over the Pacific, otherwise, I might be stuck in the airport in New York like one of the participants. America is such a big country with so many people and cultural background. After 31 hours and 17,224 kilometers of travelling, I am here in America!


Vocabulary List for M.2 and M. 3
1.journey = การเดินทาง, fortunate = โชคดี, schedule = ตารางเวลา, board = ขึ้นเครื่อง, accommodation = ที่พัก, convenient = สะดวกสบาย,  otherwise = มิฉะนั้น, panic = ตื่นตะหนก, step = ก้าว,  seat = ที่นั่ง
2. tiny = เล็ก, perhaps = บางที, facility = สิ่งอำนวยความสะดวก, pleasant= รื่นรมณ์, company = เพื่อน, heading to= ไปยัง, military training = การฝึกทหาร, disappointed = ผิดหวัง, rely on = ขึ้นอยู่กับ, rather = ค่อนข้าง
3. terminal= อาคารผู้โดยสาร, direct=หาทิศทาง, domestic= ในประเทศ, surprisingly= อย่างน่าประหลาดใจ, in-flight= ภายในเครื่อง, entertainment= ความบันเทิง, exist = มีอยู่,  postpone = เลื่อน, immigration= ตรวจคนเข้าเมือง, cultural background = ภูมิหลังทางวัฒนธรรม