Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Why I was shitting my pants 24 hours before I left

I was stuffing the last of my tee-shirts into my overly-stuffed bag when the phone rang. It was Katie Boomgaardt the co-op coordinator at U of T who has worked tirelessly the past two days trying to get me out of the country for the year, all the while at home with the flu – thank you Katie!

She called with the news that the Canadian Government's travel advisory, which advised against travelling in the boarder regions of Tak and Mae Hong Son, may prevent me from going to the city of Nai Soi – one of the two cities my placement will have me working in, and thus I may have to stay in Canada and look for another job in Thailand with CUSO-VSO.

This would have been job #3 with CUSO-VSO. It was 18 hours before my flight was scheduled to take off, and 15 hours before it was too late to reschedule my flight.

I found myself in a blizzard of emotions. Part of me was dying to leave, and part of me was glad at the chance of staying with my family for a couple of extra weeks. I would be able to see my friends and family again, but I'd also have to say good-bye again. I was mentally and physically prepared to go, and now the carpet was getting yanked from under my feet.

Katie said she'd send me and email by 8:30 Toronto time/ 5:30 Vancouver time. I could barely sleep and was waking up at least every hour just to be disappointed by the lazy pace of my clock.

At 6:30 Katie called to tell me that she still hadn't heard back from the Canadian embassy in Thailand, and I'd have to reschedule, but our conversation got cut short by a call on the other line. It was someone from the other side of the world telling her that Nai Soi was perfectly safe!!

So after a few more tearful good-byes, I got to the airport. I'm sitting on the parked plane to Beijing right now realizing that I forgot to call my dad from the airport. CURSES!! The good-bye from home will have to do. At least this way he'll be learning how this whole Skype-thing works a little quicker.

I'm also eye-balling the two seats across the aisle. They're still empty and I'm hoping they stay that way so I can catch some Z's on the 11 hours hop to Beijing. ACE OF SPADES!! We just started moving and the seats are still empty!! Now it's off to Bangkok for some in-country training. 

1 comment:

  1. favourite thing I've read in a blog thus far: "Ace of spades!" I can almost hear you saying it too. Awesome. Take care of yourself buddy. See you in 2011.

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