Finally home, after a long long journey

I am writing this from our new apartment in Harvard Square, which is beautiful and wonderful and just the right size for two young people.  It is very far away from Bangkok, and even further away from the Gili Islands, but it is home here and already we are starting the task of making a new home.

But to get here… man, what a trip!

Bangkok, Monday evening 7:30pm:

We ate our final meal in Bangkok for dinner on Monday.  We had about a day and a half in the city which we filled up with eating at delicious restaurants, shopping, getting a haircut for Andrew, and watching Harry Potter.  We really tried to squeeze in as much as possible before leaving the hotel for the airport at 10:30pm!  Our flight left Bangkok around 1am on Tuesday morning.

Seoul, Tuesday morning 9am:

We made it to Seoul by around 9am, and my auntie picked us up at the airport so that we could eat lunch with her. We decided to go into Sinchon, which is the area near Ewha Woman’s University (I studied abroad there for 1 year).  We walked around, enjoyed the shops, ate a ton of delicious Korean food, and went to Artbox.  Artbox is a stationary store full of cute stuff and while I resisted the temptation to purchase one of every notebook, I did get a few notebooks for myself.

By 2:30pm we were back at the Incheon airport for the longest leg of our flight, Seoul to Los Angeles.  HALLELUJAH we had exit row seats so poor Andrew wasn’t totally squashed.  Unfortunately it was also where the lavatories were located so people were always coming and going.  Andrew said to me that some people would come to the exit row just to stretch their legs, which he claimed to be a gross violation of safety procedures.  “If they stayed too long,” he said, “I would give them the stink eye.”  Yup.

Los Angeles, Tuesday noon:

Yes, thanks to the miracle of the international date line, Andrew and I managed to get from Seoul to Los Angeles in negative four hours. So, we got to spend another Tuesday with another branch of my family!

My mom picked us up from LAX and we ate In’n'Out hamburgers for lunch.  Then, we took naps while my mom and grandma did our laundry (“Eew!” my mom exclaimed upon seeing our dirty clothes).  For dinner we ate fish tacos at a local Mexican joint and then it was off to the airport again for another redeye, our final leg of our journey and the final act of our travels.

Boston, Wednesday morning 7am:

Home.  Despite a yowling cat behind our seats, we slept a little bit and then spent the final few hours of the flight waiting to land in our home city of Boston.  We have lived here a long time, since 2002!  Which means it has been 7 years for Andrew and 6 years for me, thanks to the one year break in Seoul.  And now we are guaranteed to stay for another 4 years, possibly longer.

We took the silver line to South Station and then the red line to Cambridge.  Coming home is weird because it is so comfortable and familiar, so it feels like you haven’t gone anywhere at all. All the time that we spent out of the country seemed kind of like a dream because, hey, I am so used to passing MGH and taking the bridge over to Kendall that I might as well have been in Boston the day before coming back.

Anyways, once we got to Cambridge I got keys to the new place and we went in for the first time.  We dumped our bags, called our moms, met my brother, and then went to eat breakfast in Somerville, another place I love so much.  A real American breakfast with unlimited coffee – can’t beat that.  Andrew made it until 2pm before crashing, and I made it until 6pm, just long enough to see Julie.

Final thoughts.

People like to ask us what our favorite was in the whole trip.  I think for both of us, Hanoi and Gili Air are the highlights.  Hanoi is such a great eating city and full of charm.  And Gili Air was just a magical place where we really lost all sense of our worries.  There are so many people that I know who could use 2 weeks at Gili Air.  If Andrew and I were going to take a monthlong vacation for total relaxation, we would go back to Gili Air in a heartbeat.

Otherwise, I feel so happy and appreciative that we had this chance to travel together and spend time in Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, and Indonesia.  Of course it is an awesome part of the world, but I think more than that I feel lucky to be able to spend 10 weeks with Andrew, just the two us.  Traveling is stressful and chaotic but we made it together and there were no major, or even minor, relationship meltdowns.  I think we are both excited to start this next adventure together.  College and first job are behind, and we are looking forward to becoming professionals in the medical and legal fields.  Soon we will be grownups!

Here is a farewell, and thanks for following us on our blog!

Kop koon ka (Thank you, Thai)

Com on (Thank you, Vietnamese)

Tarimah kasi (Thank you, Bahasa Indonesian)

and finally, something that I hope is true for you and me…

SAMPAI JUMPA NANTI!!!

(See you later, Bahasa Indonesian)

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