"Travel light my friend and enjoy life!"

I am writing this in an attempt to stay awake so I can try to get adjusted to the new time zone as quickly as possible, since I start new teacher orientation TOMORROW(!). If things seem a bit confusing or even delirious, please forgive the jet lag.

The title of this post was inspired by a Facebook post: “Travel light my friend and enjoy life!” When my friend Alberto wrote these words to wish me well on my adventure, I immediately said out loud, “I will!” Little did I know how true these words would ring. There was a bit of a fiasco with the movers who I hired to bring my stuff from Chicago to Jacksonville. Long story, short: I came to Yangon with MUCH less than I originally intended, most of which is brand new. Initially I was upset, but I think it’s very fitting for the newest chapter in the story of my life.

Bags packed and ready to go!

I left Jacksonville on Sunday, July 24^th. My greatest concern on this journey – other than the length of the flight – was the process with my bags. I wasn’t sure if I would have to pick them up and transfer them at any point along the way, so when the man at JetBlue told me I would see them again at my final destination, I was incredibly relieved. I said goodbye to Mama Britton (aka I cried), and she told me how excited and proud she is, and how she can’t wait to come visit. (More tears.) As I walked through security, I felt a sense of deja vu I felt equal amounts of excitement and terror, just like I did when I left the same airport almost eight years ago to move to New York City. Maybe it was the fact that I was actually flying to NYC to connect for my overseas flight, but I think the feelings come from a place of happiness and doing exactly the right thing with my life right now.

Mama Britton and me

My flight left on time and went very smoothly, and we even arrived in New York early. Ordinarily this would make me very happy, but I already had a scheduled seven-hour layover at JFK. I think I was more concerned with this than I was about the 20-hour flight! It was not enough time to leave the airport and go into the city, so I took my time in Terminal 5, grabbing a $10 sandwich and reading over the outpouring of love from friends and family through texts, calls, and loving Facebook and instagram posts. I started to feel very sentimental, so I gathered my things and headed to Terminal 4 to catch my next flight.

I really do <3 

Trying to eat healthy before the endless amounts of airline food.

My plane to Singapore

  

Look... my legs have a tiny bit of space! Well done, JetBlue!

I finally boarded my Singapore Airlines flight and was absolutely blown away. I sprung for the extra legroom because of the length of time I would be spending on the flight (about 20 hours total). Probably one of the best purchases of my life:

Holy leg room, Batman!

As much as I travel, I do not do luxury travel. So this paragraph may seem silly or even a bit juvenile to some people, but that’s just me...

The stewardess passed out hot towels to everyone. I felt very much like Adam Sandler in the movie The Wedding Singer. I looked from the hot towel in my hand to the guy next to me and back again. I finally decided to copy what he did. It was quite nice, actually. (By my third leg of the trip, I was a pro!) Just when I thought things couldn’t get any better, I added my polka dot compression socks, a personal TV, and a (free!) glass of wine to the mix. I settled in and watched The Jungle Book while I ate my dinner of beef goulash and potatoes.

 

My setup for the long haul.

Oconomowoc friends will appreciate this: 

The roll was definitely the highlight of this meal! #passthebutter

Later in the flight, the stewardess brought around a “refreshment” of apricot crumble, yogurt, and tea. I was trying to stay awake as long as possible so that I could try to make the transition to the new time zone. I lasted most of the trip but ended up napping for the last two hours before we reached Frankfurt, Germany.

 

Yum! (especially for airline food...)

Originally, I thought we were staying on the plane, but we had to disembark during refueling and crew changes. I walked around the tiny corner of Terminal B to stretch legs yet avoid missing the flight. Therefore I could only snap this German sign - I feel weird photographing gate areas. I don't know why.

 

Leisure Zone in the Frankfurt airport. Unfortunately, that was the same 

position of my 20 hour fly, so I had to take a pass.

I sat in the same spot for the next and longest leg of the journey. I had new seatmates, who promptly took the overhead bin spaces I was using on the previous leg of the flight. I had to put my things about five or six rows back, so I ended up getting a bit bored because it was a pain to get up and down, crawl over people, and simply retrieve a little bit of chapstick or a book (for example). I noticed that everything on the screens and many packaged foods changed to French and German after we left Frankfurt (which makes complete sense). The cuisine also shifted from German cuisine to Asian-inspired dishes.

This leg of the journey was my longest. I planned to sleep toward the second part of the trip because that made the most sense for my new time zone. I took some melatonin to help me sleep. For the most part, it helped. I occasionally woke up to screaming babies or the slamming of bathroom doors, but I was able to fall back asleep. It started to feel a bit hopeless when I had about seven hours of the flight remaining, but I somehow convinced myself that if I slept for a good chunk of time, then I could tolerate the rest of the flight. This tactic seemed to work best. In the early morning hours (about 4:30 a.m. Singapore time), I received another hot towel and a very interesting breakfast.

  

I had to transfer planes in Singapore in order to get to the final leg of my journey. It took a moment to realize why things were “backwards,” and then I remembered that the British had many colonies in this part of the world.

Notice I'm walking on the left!

 

Highlights from the Singapore airport

I had a very short layover in Singapore. I had just enough time to wash my face and put my contacts back in before going through security one last time. I boarded my plane and left at 7:55 a.m. Singapore time, which is 12 hours ahead of Jacksonville and an hour and a half ahead of Yangon. My flight was short and smooth – about the time it would take to fly from Chicago to NYC when I went on weekend excursions. Mostly, I was happy to be done with my flights!

When I arrived in Yangon, I stopped to pick up my business visa. I probably looked ridiculous with the amount of papers I had in my hand (I was incredibly OVER-prepared), but everyone was incredibly polite to me. I got my visa, went through immigration and customs (I was relieved that my luggage made it!), and met with a teacher from my school who escorted me home. I will post more about it later, but just as a teaser, it’s nickname is The Palace. There were many rooms to choose from, but I chose one on the bottom floor because of a quote that is painted on the wall:

 

Is it possible that this was meant to be?

I did a lot of reading to try my best to prepare for this trip. For those of you who are planning to come visit me (yay!) or plan to travel anywhere else far away, here are some stats from my trek:

Things that I did that worked well for me

• Singapore Airlines – highly recommended!
• extra legroom on a long flight is definitely worth it (if you’re tall like me)
• layers of clothes to easily adjust to temperature changes in airplanes and airports
• inflatable neck pillow (space-saver yet comfortable)
• ear plugs
• compression socks (to aid in circulation while you sit for many hours)
• toiletries to freshen up at each layover (soap to wash my face, toothbrush, etc.) -water bottle to refill at airports and plenty of chapstick/lotion – planes are dry places!
• snacks (cut down on expenses, especially on layovers)

Things I will definitely do next time to make the trip even more comfortable:

• fewer/shorter connections
• some sort of eye mask to block the lights on the overnight flight
• canvas bag or some sort of shoulder back (extra legroom meant no seatback in front of me, so I slept with my glasses case in my lap and my water bottle jammed in my back, and had nothing to read for a good stretch of time because of the seatbelt sign)
• change of clothes

After about 24 hours of flying and more than 13 hours spent in airports, layovers, and plane changes, I am finally here! My feet have now touched 3 different continents for a total of 12 different countries (I do not count Singapore because I only saw the airport… SO FAR!). I’m a bit nauseous from all the airline food and the motion sickness, my head hurts, I am completely exhausted and generally feel like I’ve been hit by a bus, but I could not be happier :-)