I have finally arrived in Thailand, and settled in with my host family. They have been very kind and welcoming! It’s been an eventful couple of days, but I’ll try to keep it short.

My travels went smoothly. My first flight from Houston to Taipei allowed me to sleep for 10 out of the 15 hours (my flight landed an hour early!!)  I feel lucky that I was able to sleep for so long. For the other 5 hours, I read Jeff Tweedy’s How to Write One Song, and watched The Summer I Turned Pretty.

The Taipei airport was a wonderful stop on the way to Thailand. Each gate was decorated with a different theme (woodland forest and Hello Kitty were my favorites). I was also able to meet up with a fellow RYE student that’s going to Northern Thailand, before he boarded his flight. We’ll get to hang out more, along with the other 8 exchange students, next weekend at Rotary orientation!

Once I arrived in Chiang Mai, after an 8 hour layover in Bangkok, my host family greeted me. We ate Mookata, which is similar to Korean barbecue, for dinner, along with Namkhaeng Sai (shaved ice with gelatin and condensed milk). We stayed the night there, and ate breakfast in the hotel. It was interesting– we ate pad Thai and rice with eggs for breakfast! Afterwards, we visited Wat Phra That Doi Suthep, a place of good luck for visitors. We also went back to the airport to welcome another RYE student, Brian, who will be attending the same school as me. His host family will be my second family. The day ended with a 3 hour drive to my host family’s house in Phrae, where I also got to see my school.

It still feels unreal that after 9 months of dreaming, applying, and preparing, I have stepped foot into Thailand. This has been an amazing start to this once-in-a-lifetime experience. Now, I will hopefully be catching up on sleep before school starts next week 😉

Hugs from Thailand,

Emma Kate