Step One

Lordy LORD I am currently very far away from home. I assumed that my LAX to Tokyo jaunt would be the longest (clocking in at 11 hours) but little did I know, the Tokyo - Bangkok route is another SEVEN HOURS. So I essentially flew to Europe three times, or to the moon and back again...all dependent on where you put the decimal. Regardless, it is damn. far. away. 

United has been killing it, with a brand new plane with windows that tint and untint for night and day, rather than having sliding covers. There were some excellent movie/television options, although I do NOT suggest watching Girls when sitting next to a 65-year-old man. TheTokyo airport had HEATED toilet seats and deodorizing spray and a bidet..very intimidating but I also felt like a princess. The flight to Bangkok was pretty chill as I made friends with the Canadian couple next to me and slept forever. There was an incredibly haunting amount of seaweed for the meal, which, if you know my thoughts on seaweed, left me swelling with hunger pains and continued resentment towards my father for the rest of the flight. 

Some intercultural introspection on language: I rarely think about alphabets, about the letters themselves that form the words we write and speak. To some extent, I assume that all languages I don't speak, I don't speak equally. For example, I don't speak or understand Arabic as much as I don't speak or understand Russian. However, not having the same alphabet, not knowing the generalized sound indicated by lines on a page, is completely and totally alienating.  I tried communicating to my taxi driver where to go by pointing at the address I had written down in the Latin alphabet. He looked at me in complete bewilderment. We spent a solid 5 minutes rolling the tones of "Kingkaew" around in our disjointed tongues until we finally made a connection. Yet, the number "43" he got right away. Thus we are left with the eternal wisdom of Mean Girls and reminded that math is the best because "it's the same in every language". Thank you Lindsey Lohen for leaving your perennial mark on all of our adventures.