Day 3: Soaring, flying internationally
Today was the last day of orientation before our flights to Kazakhstan! Today we created a code of conduct/ethics and spoke more about the ways to behave in Kazakhstan: the very minute, yet important details that often go unnoticed. We quickly took a boxed sandwhich lunch and headed on our way back to the hotel to prepare for the shuttle to the airport.
Me and a couple of my groupmates had flights at later times, ranging from 8:30PM to 10:00PM, so we were to take a separate shuttle that would depart a couple hours later than the one for the earilier flights. This means that those of us who had later flights were able to explore D.C. for a couple more hours before flying off! We all either took our luggage and prepared to leave or stored our luggage in a conference room located in the hotel for safe keeping. I saw my groupmates off in their shuttle and shortly departed the hotel on my own to look around D.C. a bit.
I can't really see myself happily living in D.C. The reasons for which I moved to Portland: the trees, animals, cold, rainy weather, and unique 'weirdness' was absent from D.C. Instead, it was hot, humid, and cars kept on honking from every location. Oh yeah, and I really dislike the sound of D.C. ambulances, they are so obnoxious in comparison to ambulances from different states! I walked around for a bit but wasn't very interested in the downtown area and decided to just sit down in a cafe and do some work.
At around 3:00PM I left back for the hotel and got a little bit lost. This is due to the fact that D.C. is not in a grid formation, but rather a circle formation. I had on multiple occasion come extremely close to reaching my hotel, but barely miss it due to my incorrect assumtions of how the roads are layed out. Nevertheless, I made it back and saw some other students already in the hotel lobby, but they were not with RLASP.
I came to the knowledge that these students were on the OPIT program, which, just like RLASP, is run by American Councils. There students were also about to leave for the airport for their internships abroad in locations such as Armenia and Russia. After a couple of minutes, the RLASP students began to arrive at the hotel for the 5:00PM shuttle to the airport. We got into a shuttle, but that shuttle turned out to be the incorrect shuttle, so we have to unpack and get into a different shuttle which then brought us to the airport.
From here, I separated from the rest of the RLASP students. After all, they were going to Frankfurt with American Airline, while I was headed off to Kiev, Ukraine on Ukraine International Airlines. While waiting in the terminal for my flight to New York, some of the OPIT students who I had met at the hotel earilier happened to be there. It turns out that we all had the same flights to New York and to Ukraine! I felt very relieved that I didn't have to leave the country alone, and was very excited to learn more about these other students and their life stories. We talked for a while, and this made the inevitable flight delay much more bearable.
Arriving in New York, we left as a group to exit the airport and re-enter, because our next flight was international, which required us to go through security again. Security in the New York airport was very rough and rude, especially towards those who didn't speak English. It felt like the security personnel acted in a very demeaning fashion, but I can understand this type of behavior in context of where we were and where we were going to. Regardless, I felt very glad to have passed through security and been on my way to Ukraine!
By the time we all made it to our terminal, a long line had already began to form. This gave us the impression that we were to board and leave soon, but boy were we wrong! Instead, we had to go through a whole other nightmare with New York airport personnel shouting orders and acting demeaning toward those who didn't speak English. Why couldn't they just use the announcements and had someone speaking in Russian or Ukrainian to explain what was going on, instead of the chaos that occurred?
We were separated in to groups so that we could easily get onto the plane based on boarding numbers, and then were made to wait in these groups for an hour before starting to board. Waiting in the line for so long, I suddenly felt the urge to use the restroom badly ... maybe it was from chugging down my bottle of water before going through security finally catching up to me. However, I was not lucky: my group began to board, and I didn't want to complicate the process further. I decided to just use the restroom when the plane was in flight.
My seat was in the middle section of the plane, one seat from the right aisle of the plane. This meant that I would have to climb over someone to use the restroom and that sleeping would be a nightmare. What a nice way to spend the next 22 hours! Everyone boarded the plane and the seat-belt sign turned on, but we kept on waiting and waiting for what felt like forever. Meanwhile, I felt as if my bladder would explode in any second, so I tried to run off to use the toilet while we were still not moving. However, it was locked! A Ukrainian hostess asked me what I was doing and I quickly explained in Russian that I had to use the restroom urgently, but she responded that the plane was about to leave, and that I would have to wait. I dejectedly returned to my seat, and the hostess came up to me and told me with genuine kindness that she would unlock the restroom door as soon as possible, when we were in the air.
It was a long 10 minute wait to get into the air.
After the flight, I waited in the terminal for my flight to Almaty. I just watched some videos about the Carbonaro effect, where a magician performs magical tricks in front of unsuspecting people and makes them question reality, even if only for a bit. I boarded the plane and immediately went to sleep.
This day was full of travel and being extremely tired, going through the airport alone and in a different country. Ukrainian looks similar to Russian and you can often understand written text if read out-loud, but it is still different from Russian and, of course, quite different from English. I wait with anticipation as I fly over to Kazakhstan and fill out my migration card.
Me and a couple of my groupmates had flights at later times, ranging from 8:30PM to 10:00PM, so we were to take a separate shuttle that would depart a couple hours later than the one for the earilier flights. This means that those of us who had later flights were able to explore D.C. for a couple more hours before flying off! We all either took our luggage and prepared to leave or stored our luggage in a conference room located in the hotel for safe keeping. I saw my groupmates off in their shuttle and shortly departed the hotel on my own to look around D.C. a bit.
I can't really see myself happily living in D.C. The reasons for which I moved to Portland: the trees, animals, cold, rainy weather, and unique 'weirdness' was absent from D.C. Instead, it was hot, humid, and cars kept on honking from every location. Oh yeah, and I really dislike the sound of D.C. ambulances, they are so obnoxious in comparison to ambulances from different states! I walked around for a bit but wasn't very interested in the downtown area and decided to just sit down in a cafe and do some work.
At around 3:00PM I left back for the hotel and got a little bit lost. This is due to the fact that D.C. is not in a grid formation, but rather a circle formation. I had on multiple occasion come extremely close to reaching my hotel, but barely miss it due to my incorrect assumtions of how the roads are layed out. Nevertheless, I made it back and saw some other students already in the hotel lobby, but they were not with RLASP.
I came to the knowledge that these students were on the OPIT program, which, just like RLASP, is run by American Councils. There students were also about to leave for the airport for their internships abroad in locations such as Armenia and Russia. After a couple of minutes, the RLASP students began to arrive at the hotel for the 5:00PM shuttle to the airport. We got into a shuttle, but that shuttle turned out to be the incorrect shuttle, so we have to unpack and get into a different shuttle which then brought us to the airport.
From here, I separated from the rest of the RLASP students. After all, they were going to Frankfurt with American Airline, while I was headed off to Kiev, Ukraine on Ukraine International Airlines. While waiting in the terminal for my flight to New York, some of the OPIT students who I had met at the hotel earilier happened to be there. It turns out that we all had the same flights to New York and to Ukraine! I felt very relieved that I didn't have to leave the country alone, and was very excited to learn more about these other students and their life stories. We talked for a while, and this made the inevitable flight delay much more bearable.
Arriving in New York, we left as a group to exit the airport and re-enter, because our next flight was international, which required us to go through security again. Security in the New York airport was very rough and rude, especially towards those who didn't speak English. It felt like the security personnel acted in a very demeaning fashion, but I can understand this type of behavior in context of where we were and where we were going to. Regardless, I felt very glad to have passed through security and been on my way to Ukraine!
By the time we all made it to our terminal, a long line had already began to form. This gave us the impression that we were to board and leave soon, but boy were we wrong! Instead, we had to go through a whole other nightmare with New York airport personnel shouting orders and acting demeaning toward those who didn't speak English. Why couldn't they just use the announcements and had someone speaking in Russian or Ukrainian to explain what was going on, instead of the chaos that occurred?
We were separated in to groups so that we could easily get onto the plane based on boarding numbers, and then were made to wait in these groups for an hour before starting to board. Waiting in the line for so long, I suddenly felt the urge to use the restroom badly ... maybe it was from chugging down my bottle of water before going through security finally catching up to me. However, I was not lucky: my group began to board, and I didn't want to complicate the process further. I decided to just use the restroom when the plane was in flight.
My seat was in the middle section of the plane, one seat from the right aisle of the plane. This meant that I would have to climb over someone to use the restroom and that sleeping would be a nightmare. What a nice way to spend the next 22 hours! Everyone boarded the plane and the seat-belt sign turned on, but we kept on waiting and waiting for what felt like forever. Meanwhile, I felt as if my bladder would explode in any second, so I tried to run off to use the toilet while we were still not moving. However, it was locked! A Ukrainian hostess asked me what I was doing and I quickly explained in Russian that I had to use the restroom urgently, but she responded that the plane was about to leave, and that I would have to wait. I dejectedly returned to my seat, and the hostess came up to me and told me with genuine kindness that she would unlock the restroom door as soon as possible, when we were in the air.
It was a long 10 minute wait to get into the air.
After the flight, I waited in the terminal for my flight to Almaty. I just watched some videos about the Carbonaro effect, where a magician performs magical tricks in front of unsuspecting people and makes them question reality, even if only for a bit. I boarded the plane and immediately went to sleep.
This day was full of travel and being extremely tired, going through the airport alone and in a different country. Ukrainian looks similar to Russian and you can often understand written text if read out-loud, but it is still different from Russian and, of course, quite different from English. I wait with anticipation as I fly over to Kazakhstan and fill out my migration card.
Hello again my dear son :) Thanks for the detailed info you had during your last day in DC. Definitely, I can not see yourself in there unlike in Oregon. So glad you're not all alone traveling to a different country. Sorry your seat assigned it was not as I expected. Next time you could ask the staff upon checking in to switch in your preferred seat - perhaps by the window so your head could lean on it.
ReplyDeleteOh thanks for sharing this video. Hmmm... interesting!
Looking forward to hear from you again. Hope you have a good rest after that long flight. Sending our love to you from us here in the U.S.A.
Love,
Mama xoxo