I know I posted yesterday, but I feel like what I posted was much more oriented towards what we were doing as opposed to how we were (and have been) doing.

This morning at breakfast a few of us started talking over toast and raisin bran about what really makes a trip great. We kept lobbing ideas off each other, ‘why is this trip turning out to be such a positive experience?’ It wasn’t an incredibly deep conversation (it had that I-just-woke-up-and-didn’t-get-enough-sleep-but-I-feel-like-having-a-conversation-anyway vibe) it was just something at least the three of us had been pondering over the past few days.

Then someone said it. “I feel like a trip goes like this: first it’s who you’re with, next it’s what you do, and finally it’s where you are.”

Suddenly it made sense. It doesn’t matter that I’m not in Spain or Ghana or Thailand (although that’s still freaking awesome) it matters that I’m with a group of folks that meshes and collaborates fabulously.

I had my reservations about staying in the States. Before I left for Senior Projects all I could really think about was how stupid I was for not signing up for the trip to go to Spain (flamenco dancing is so cool– and so is Spanish food) and how dumb I was for passing up the chance to go to Ghana (both to be someplace warm and to have the experience of a lifetime).

But I’ve never been good at travelling. I freak myself out at the last minute, I come home early, I get homesick, and I don’t pause to really experience what’s around me. I get in this horrible negative mood, I’m antisocial. Anyone back at Westtown would probably jump back in shock at that (I’m not generally known as a quiet and negative person… I hope) but it’s the truth (seriously, ask my parents).

And here, I’ve done exactly the opposite of what I usually do. So far I have yet to experience that weird pit in my chest that suggests homesickness, and I most certainly have not been sitting around all day, just waiting for the trip to end (like I usually do).

I know it’s only been four days, and that’s kind of a pathetic amount of time to be saying this, but I think I’ve changed. I feel like all the times I’ve travelled before (with a few exceptions, of course) have been preludes to this particular trip.

I just needed practice. Now I feel like I can go places and really experience them–I mean really be there– in a way I never have before.

But maybe it’s too soon to tell.

After many hours of traveling, we finally arrived in Bangkok last night.  The trip started off Monday night; we all arrived at Westtown at 7pm for departure to the airport. The original plan was to sleep in the airport until our 6am flight, but the flight was cancelled, so we all stayed in a hotel room.  Our flight was then delayed, but we finally departed Philadelphia at 9:45am.  Our plane landed in Tokyo late, and we were so close to missing our connecting flight. We all ran through the airport for what seemed like miles (even though it was probably only 20 terminals), and we ran to check in. We had no time to get food before the flight, so I spent the first hour of the flight starving. We were then served food and I was happy. Falling asleep on the 13 hour plane ride seemed like it was going to be easy, but the uncomfortable seats and constant daylight made it difficult.  I am not looking forward to the 13 hour plane ride back. We arrived in Tokyo, got some drinks for the plane, and boarded our final plane. It was weird to be in a store and not recognize any of the brands or foods. When we arrived in Bangkok, it was night. Stepping off of the plane, the humidity engulfed us and was probably and indicator of how it is going be for the next two weeks.  We went through the passport check and had 2 vans waiting for us to take us to the Lub D Silom hostel.

We drove through Bangkok to get to the hostel, and it was amazing to look out the windows. It was midnight on a Wednesday night, and there were hundreds of people outside shopping and talking in the streets. I noticed that the streets are crowded, and there are a lot of 7-elevens.  We got to the hostel and settled into our rooms. Natalie, Lynn, and I are staying in the girls dormitory, and there are about 7 other women in the room. They were all asleep, and we changed and went to get food with the group.

We walked down the street for awhile to get to the main stretch of people. There were hundreds of people in little booths cleaning up after selling stuff all day. There are so many things to buy, from bracelets and jewelry, to pirated DVDs and shirts with celebrities on them. We went to McDonald’s, and everyone sat and ate together. I guess that wasn’t the right thing to do, I should have tried authentic Thai food, but I was hungry for a cheeseburger and wanted a McFlurry. I paid in Baht, so maybe that counts for something? We walked back to the hostel, and there were a good number of people variously scattered sleeping on the streets. The one that struck me most was a little boy sleeping on the concrete alone.

We showered (finally!!!) and went to sleep. Right now it is 10am on Thursday, February 24th. Wei-Hao is taking us to the temple for a tour, and I’m pretty excited to experience daytime Bangkok.

Finally here! We safely landed in Bangkok around midnight last night after total of 48 hours of traveling! That was the longest traveling for everyone, and when we got to the hostel, everyone was pretty much exhausted.

Let me do a briefing about what happened so far since my last post. Our flight to Detroit ended up being delayed for 2 hours and 30 minutes. So, when we landed in Detroit, we had no time to waste and started to run towards the other gate. We barely made it to the connecting flight! It was an exciting moment for everyone, running across the whole terminal from one end to the other. Everything seemed to work out after the flight to Detroit. Our flight to Tokyo was long, but comfortable and we were able to get on the flight to Bangkok without any problems. We got in the vans after we landed in Bangkok and headed to our hostel that we will be staying in for the next few days. After we were assigned to our rooms, we went out briefly to grab some dinner to McDonalds. I know what you’re thinking, American food while in Thailand? But, it was close to 1 in the morning, and it was open for 24 hours. So basically we had no choice.

It’s close to 10 in the morning here, and we are about to go visit the King’s temple… I’ll upload the pictures later. But briefly, the things we noticed so far about Bangkok and Thailand. Everything is so cheap here! Our meals at McDonald’s were 3 to 5 dollars. We went out to the market last night to get to McDonald’s and there are were lots of people out still at 1AM! Bangkok is the city that never sleeps! There are lots of street shops, there were people who recognized us as tourists and tried to take us to restaurants and other weird places. People seem nice around here.

I think everyone is going to have fun here! We are all so excited for the 2 weeks that we have ahead of us.

So now, off to the temple we go!

Lynn

February 24, 2011

Yesterday I cleaned out a hallway that was filled with all kinds of junk, sorted it, and cleaned the space. The next step is to paint. I also found out about a volunteer day at an urban farm called Earth Works. They farm about 10 acres all over vacant lots. I pruned apple trees and pear trees. We also started some bed prep. The guy who runs Earth Works called me up later for some extra help. After a free lunch from the farm I headed towards a location one of the Trumbull folks told me to check out but not what would be there. It is this massive art project that has taken over a vacant block! I came back to the Trumbull and split fire wood all afternoon. Tomorrow night I’m going to help out at a bike co-op called the Hub.

Peace,

Henry

After about 30 hours of travel time, we have finally reached Thailand. We arrived at about 11:45 pm and even at night the temperature feels like 100 degrees. Thailand is a lot nicer then I thought it would be. Its kinda odd…I mean when you get off the plane you feel as though you are at a tropical island, but as you get closer to Bangkok, the atmosphere changes into city life, yet it still has that tropical feel, it’s hard to explain. Also they have really cool pink  and green taxis, and these open door cars/carts that act as a taxi. Once we arrived we got in a shuttle and went right to our hostel. Now, I never been to a hostel before, so I was a bit nervous. The only thing I know is that there is a community bathroom and you buy by bed not by room, which means you could be sharing a room with complete strangers, which is fine by me, but all I’m saying is it’s just not something I’m used to. Anyway, we were given our room keys and the place was really nice. there are seven guys and we are all in the same room with four bunk-beds. When we entered the room it was extremely hot, even worse than outside, and it smelled a bit. After we settled in the air came on and the smell drifted away, so we are now all comfortable. We decided that we would go out to Bangkok and get a late snack. One of the guys had some locks for the lockers, so I asked him if I could use one. I set my lock and everything seemed fine. I put all my belongings inside the locker just so everything was safe. I locked it up tight and left…Good idea right?…well just wait…more on that in a bit, so there we were out on the town in the middle of Bangkok. So much life for 2:00 in the morning. As we walked looking for a place to eat, many locals began bombarding us with things to buy.  Anyway we were able to brush them off even though they were convincing and we finally got something to eat. Unfortunately we were not feeling adventurous enough for the first night, so we ate at a Thailand restaurant classic…Mcdonald’s, home of the Big Mac. Except in Thailand it wasn’t that big. Everything was smaller. The average American would have needed to order three meals instead of one. After we ate we headed home. So remember I told you about that lock, well when we got back upstairs I needed a few things out of my suitcase. Unfortunately I couldn’t open my locker. The lock was stuck. I tried my combination a hundred times over. I even tried combinations near my number, nothing worked. I was seriously going to cry. I didn’t know what to do. I just kept saying to myself, “I told you Thailand wasn’t for you…you should have stayed home”. I was getting paranoid like I normally do. So I decided to go down stairs and ask the front desk for help. Luckily they had a bolt cutter and I was able to get my supplies out. Let me tell you explaining the situation to the Thai locals at the front desk was not an easy task. Now here I am getting ready for bed writing to my followers back home…(if I even have any and mom you don’t count). I don’t know if I will get wi-fi in the Elephant reservoir, but if I do i will be sure to keep updating. As for videos, I am filming the trip constantly, but I believe that it is too difficult to post videos from Thailand, so I promise the minute I return, I will try to post the videos up on here and YouTube. Also sorry about my last post I didn’t realize I was not allowed to mention names so no more children updates, however everyone seems like they are enjoying themselves and are really excited for what is to come. Thanks

John-Michael

We’ve barely been here for three days and it feels as though we’ve been here forever. So far we’ve managed to master (sort of) the subway system, walk a ton, do service in a church and at DC Central Kitchen, and eat some of the best meals ON THE PLANET (Merzi in the Penn Quarter has the best chicken I’ve ever tasted).

Another unexpected twist, for me at least, was seeing just how well our group has meshed together. We’re an incredibly diverse group– both ethnically and in other ways. I’m not going to lie, when I first found out who was also going on the DC trip I was a little bit skeptical about us all getting along, but it was like we got on the Megabus and we were family.

Back to day one!

We got on the Megabus, which promptly broke down (turns out the Megabus was a mega-bust). We loaded onto another bus after an hour of sitting on the side of the freeway and made it all the way to DC without a hitch. We hiked for 20 minutes to the William Penn House, were welcomed with a group meeting, and then went out to an early dinner.

Then it was day two!

We woke up, had breakfast, and went out to a church in a more business-y district of the city. We prepared simple meals, sandwiches and packaged goods mostly, loaded up three shopping carts with the help of William, a well-meaning and previously homeless schizophrenic man, and walked three blocks to the park.

In the park we had a church ceremony for the local homeless. It was freezing, and I was struck by all the people who showed up. Not only homeless were at the brief ceremony, but so were men dressed in their business attire. One woman I saw was wearing a flamboyant fur coat.

I knew, as I stood shaking in the icy breeze, that I was going to be inside a warm building very soon. But I also knew, as I stood shaking in the icy breeze, that most of the people reciting the 23rd Psalm with me would not. They would stay outside and enjoy their meager meal of PB&J and applesauce, and then they would stay outside when it got cold too, at night.

02/23/11

Hello from Jerusalem!

 I have to say, the past two days have been extremely exhausting. First, my group and I got on a plane in Philadelphia at 9:15 Monday night, and ten hours later we landed at 3 pm in Tel Aviv. The first thing I notice was how nice the airport was. In some cases, it was even nicer than Philadelphia’s. As we got on the bus and began driving to the home of an Israeli couple that some of the teachers on our trip know, I noticed how Western everything looked. I came into the trip prepared to have a culture shock, yet I felt oddly comfortable. The couple’s house was very pretty, and they were very nice and welcoming. We sat down and listened to them talk about their experience in Israel (most of us were too tired to engage in conversation). One point that I found most interesting was that the women said that she would never enter East Jerusalem (the Palestinian side) because she was afraid of how they would react to her. Yet one of our trip leaders said that in her time in Jerusalem, she doesn’t even notice she is crossing from West to East Jerusalem.

We then drove to the Azzahra Hotel in East Jerusalem. We ate a very tasty dinner and promptly went to sleep.  As I was falling asleep, I thought about how strange everything felt. My experience at that point was completely different from my expectations going into the trip. Nothing seemed very different from what I was used to.

In the morning we were out the door by 8, and went on a walking tour of the Old City. It wasn’t until we were walking through the crowded streets of the Muslim quarter that I felt that culture shock. It was amazing to see all of the holy sites such as the Western Wall, the Dome of the Rock, and the al-Aqsa mosque. The one that struck me most, though, was the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. I was raised Christian, but a very secular one. Yet, something about seeing where Jesus was crucified and buried meant a lot to me. It hard is to put into words, but I could very clearly feel the passion that many have for Christianity.

 In the afternoon, we visited an organization called Israelis Against House Demolitions. We went on a bus tour of parts of East Jerusalem, and the woman giving the tour was very interesting and I learned so much about the complicated situations Israelis and Palestinians find themselves in. What I found most striking was what we saw. We stopped at a portion of the separation wall, and you could very clearly see how it literally split a town in half. What is heart breaking about that was how those who found themselves outside the wall are no longer allowed in Jerusalem unless they can get a permit which is extremely rare to get. We also stopped briefly in a settlement about ten minutes into the West Bank. I was shocked by how everything look. It felt like I could have been in any upper-middle class town in Southern California. It made it seemed like nothing was wrong. Our tour guide mentioned that she had a friend who didn’t even realize she that the town she lived in was a settlement until she was 19 years old. Going from this settlement into some of the towns in East Jerusalem was shocking. There was trash everywhere. The streets were narrow and dirty, and many of the houses were in terrible condition. I couldn’t believe the difference in the quality of living from places that were five minutes away from each other.

Tomorrow we are off to a Kibbutz in Israel. I wish we could spend more time here, but there is so much else to see. I am not sure what the internet will be like there, so I might not be able to get back on here until the weekend.

 John