day 3

Hello! Fun fact: this is my first blog post that I am typing in the dark. While that is normally a very common practice for me in my new york life in my new york bed (bedS mom, both places are my home ;-), I haven’t experienced much night time here bc of all th crazy traveling and time changes. So it feels good to be back in my normal routine of “night typing”…I was about to whip out my mumford and sons Pandora station to really get in the zone, but apparently they don’t work in this country, wtf! Attn.: Pandora, Netflix, hulu, etc… its time to start functioning in asia! Anyways, as promised, today was much lighter and super fun! After putting up my post, it was time for the group to meet down in the lobby to head to chabad for some breakfast and to start the day. The place was super chillin (well actually, not literally, it was actually quite the opposite, with the temp. at about 90 degrees) but anyways, we were in somewhat of a rush to start the day so the staff was pretty adamant we do the whole eat and run kind of thing. Only problem is, I was told to finish up before my food even got there! I ordered a very simple meal: tuna fish. (I know, shocking, me and fish, but after having chabad chicken for about 5 meals straight I needed a change) back on tangent: got my tuna and ran to the hotel conference room where we would be starting the first part of our day; meeting with a woman named Boom (pretty sweet name, I know. Can’t count how many times I sang boom boom pow today. For those of you thinking, wow deena that’s so annoying of you, boom actually thought it was refreshing bc all people sing to her is boom boom boom lemme hear you say ayooo) aside from having a really cool name, boom also lives a very cool and inspiring life. She is the founder of one of the NGO’s (non governmental organization. Ie: non profit) that justifi works with. It is a human trafficking task force called “The Hug Project Thailand” (check it out on fbook if youre interested) which aims to prevent and protect street children from violence, exploitation and abuse. They deal w prevention, retention, recovery & aftercare of child victims. Boom gave us a background on human trafficking, specifically trafficking children, something we touched upon yesterday but did not go into depth with. We learned about the “industry” and what they do to prevent these kinds of things, as well as how they intervene and how they support these children after they’ve already been abused and/or trafficked. It was extremely informative and again, made me aware of something that I really had no idea was such an issue. There are tons of “street children” here in Thailand who literally have no place to live, either because their main care giver is broken, they have no one to take care of them, and people have failed to help them. Boom has taken it upon herself to make sure these children are safe and getting the help they need. Emotionally, physically, etc… one very small thing out of the many things boom does, and that stuck out to me, was that they have a “pow-wow” once a week, where all the children share a “pow” (downer) and a “wow” (upper) part of their week. Something that I found comforting is that the police in this area actually happen to be helpful and cooperative in terms of tackling this issue, sometimes even serving as social workers for these kids. (dk: half police officer, half social worker #itshappening #nextdegree) after the session was over we actually did something pretty crazy that was a justifi first. We went to lunch with some of the kids who are currently living on the street and part of the hug program as well as go karting with them!! If you see my go karting pictures, you will actually not see one of the street children in them, that is because 1) it is illegal in Thailand to post these pictures in the media b/c they are so obsessed w/ “saving face” 2) so this way they are not poster children of this terrible issue 3) to hide them from pedophiles on the internet. It was really such a fun afternoon, and to take a step back and think that for these kids, this will be a highlight for them for a very very long time, while for us, go karting, generally, is not the BIGGEST deal. You could see the smiles and excitement on these kids faces all day. Jumping on the trampoline, putting on the riding gear, etc.. I will remember this afternoon for a very long time. On top of the children coming with us, there were also under cover cops who came riding with us! This is in order to provide the children w/ some comfort and support, and so that they know that should they need help the police are trustworthy and there for them. If you see some older peeps who don’t look part of my trip in the background, those are undercover police offers. It was quite the experience. (on a total side note: while I probably shouldn’t be telling you this, bc lots of you already think I drive on the wild side, I was going way too fast, couldn’t break, and went straight through the tires onto a different part of the track….hey I was just trying to represent rhe usa against these thai kids, what can I say #miniolympics #london2012vsThailand2013) it was SO HOT there, I know I keep saying that, but the heat is rly so intense, so I spent some time outdoors and some time “indoors” in the shed thing. Amazing afternoon. After we said our goodbyes (oh I forgot to tell you about one of the volunteers, she was born out of a failed abortion in kazakstan, her parents left her on a door step of an orphanage, she was adopted by American parents who moved her to Utah, her adopted brother suffers from fetal alchoholism aka: when his mother was carrying him she was an alchoholic and that got into his body, and now she is sponsored by her church to come work here for two years.) we headed back to the hotel for some SHOWER time and we were told to meet in the lobby at 5pm sharp covered in bug spray for the big surprise! We found a baby lizard in our room, who I accidentally killed w a glass cup when I was just trying to move him out of the room, so now he lies dead in a cup right outside my room #survivorsguilt. What was the big surprise you ask?! We would be taking a trip to one of the most gorgeous temples in thailand that is above a mountain top (aka 200 stairs) and climbing it for sunset. Was I prepared? No. excited? No. did I think they were kidding when they said 200 stairs? Yes. Was it amazing in the end? Hell yes. Let me tell you, these stairs were worse than the mercazia stairs and fort wash stairs COMBINED #movingbackontop #yayassociated. I happened to have been wearing sneakers bc my friend SHELBI #shoutout (who got a severeeee allergic reaction to a fruit she tried yesterday that was so scary to look at) told me that wearing sneakers might help w the kim kardashian feet syndrome #heat #traveling #ugly. So in the end, me wearing sneakers by chance was a hugeee help. When we got to the top the views and sunset was absolutely breathtaking. After a brief session w rabbi Jamie we were asked to take some time to medidate by ourselves, walk around alone, and just take in the moment. My moment led me to head inside the temple and see what it looked like. After I was stopped to be skirted by monks in training! Aka little boys who accosted me a askirt and proceeded to tie it around my waist. Mrs spirn can learn a thing or two from their methods. But headed in, and it was beautiful. Climbed back down the stairs and to the bus back (rocked out to some awesome music on the way back by DJDK #kanyenewslaves #matisyahu #theshins and everyone got a song request. Good music was all around) for dinner atttt….#ifyoudontknowthisyouneedhelp chabad! We also booked our excursion to tiger kingdom for tomorrow. Just so you all know in advance bc ive been getting a lott of comments about this, the tigers are NOT drugged. They are fed milk from when they are born and not meat (vegetarian tigers) and are raised from birth to be calm, its as if they don’t know they belong in the wild. My trip leader STEVE told me that he does not have a problem going and I trust his word when it comes to these things #helivesinportland. So yea, dinner, booking plans for our free day, and then back to the hotel since the hour was late. Random facts: it is buggier here bc we are higher up north. SERENA laughs at inappropriate times, and ARIANNE forced me to murder a lizard. #shoutoutscompleted. Im hoping tiger kingdom has wifi so I can watch the heat/ spurs game 7 #gospurssssss. Maybe ill cuddle up w a tiger and we can watch together. Thatd be cute. Going to sleep! I have plans tomorrow #sonotlikemysummer2013 Xoxoxxo And ps: Mazal tov Ray Ro and Shai!!! So sad ill be missing your party Saturday night, but hopefully we can go out when I get back, compare some Thailand stories, and celebrate in style.

day 2

Hey Everyone! A little torn about how to write this next blog post bc the day I had yesterday was incredibly heavy. It was 6 hours straight of sitting in a classroom getting an education on prostitution and sex trafficking in Thailand by a woman who moved from the US w her husband after the death of their son, and she opened a safe house down the block from the red light district “the worlds largest playground” for all prostitutes to come live there. She does outreach in the bars, through English classes, and dedicates her whole life to saving these women. I will elaborate a bit more later in the post. Sorry if the post in general isn’t so funny, it really wasn’t such a funny day, just a lot of learning and processing in order to understand the work well be doing. After I put up my last post and went upstairs to bed, about to begin watching “the dark knight” for the first time, I got a text from Brian Koegel that he was in Bangkok! Now I knew he would be in Thailand, about all of kew garden hills told me that when I spent Shabbat there before my trip, but I had no idea we would be overlapping in Bangkok, we realized we were staying on the same street so we decided to meet up at 7-11 right across the st from my hotel (yes there are 7-11s here. Thousands of them, like 2 on every street, they are all owned by one family who is one of the richest families in Thailand, so if any of you are interested in making billions take a franchise to a foreign country and watch what happens) so we chilled, got some drinks and hooka, had some fish eat at our feet, got thai massages where I hardd core passed out during. I woke up when my massage was over and next thing I knew it was 4am and had to wake up at 730! So went back to my hotel and took a small nap. SKIP THIS PARAGRAPH IF YOUR ARE NOT INTERESTED IN A “LESSON” Woke up in the morning, my roommate had gone to get her and myself starbucks, thank gd! And we were ready to start our first session of the day w Rabbi Jamie. This session was extremely powerful, we spoke about how we need to let go of interpretative thinking, about what others my think, or what we may think and just live in the present and take the moment for what it is. We have to ignore our own perceptions of what others are thinking bc we cannot control that. Also, by using thought and interpretation you are bringing your past into your present. Memory is not reality and by bringing the past into the present you defile it. When you chose not to bring memory into an experience, that is a choice not a reality. We need to learn to experience as it happens. Don’t bring your past in a negative way into your present. Experiencee things for what they are with no interperation and then ask yourself how you can experience reality in a calm way. You need to trust other people, you don’t have to let them control your experience by worrying what they might think. Dotn try and control their definition of you. We need to give people space to get to know us without controlling their perception. There is a constant desire to control how other people perceive us. We need to trust others that they perceive us correctly. Your authenticity comes when you free yourself of interpretation. GOOD STUFF ANYWAYSSSSSS After the session we had breakfast at chabad, took lunch from there to go and we were off to “Beginnings” the name of the safe house we would be visiting. Bonita is the name of the woman who opened this safe house. She used to be a principal in Cali and is extremely passionate about education. Her son was hit by a drunk driver at 10 years old and became paralyzed from the armpits down. He overcame that and became the number 1 ranked junior paralyzes tennis player in all of California. Unfortunately he passed away and her life felt totally empty, she couldn’t relate or be around family and friends anymore and had no desire to go out. Her husband had been coming to Thailand for business 4 times a year for a 1 month at a time so they decided together in order to get away they would try out moving to Thailand. At first all she did was sleep and grocery shop bc she was so depressed but then a friend of her husband invited her to get involved in a safe house she had been working on. The house got full and this woman asked bonita if she would house 3 thai prostitute girls, and bonita did and fell in love with them. She felt a sense of purpose and like she had a child back in her life agin. She decided to open her own safe house. In the house the girls who came learn to sew, bake, make journals, and more skills in order so that they have what to do besides prostitute. They make 3,000 baht a month doing this, which is in the same range of what a prostitute would make monthly. However some prostitues make around 8,000 baht a month and if that’s the case she knows she has no shot of recruiting them. (the girls become prostitutes in order to support their family. In Buddhism it is believed that the men hold up the family spiritually and the women hold them up financially. So the responsibility is on the women to make money and they have no choice but to resort to prostitution) I know it seems like a huge jump to you, but that really is the case and I can explain it in person when I return if you are really interested in knowing. I have 6 pages of notes on the topic and am happy to share them. Bonita goes to the bars to try and do outreach to the girls, she has English classes and tries to do outreach there, and she hosts dinners. Keep in mind that when bonita hosts dinners, she must pay the bar fine which is the price it would cost for a man to take the prostitute out of the bar, for every single girl. So it comes out to about 200 dollars for 10 girls, before any actual costs of food! Her biggest recruitment method is that she hosts an annual Christmas for 150 girls dinner to “honor them for what they are doing for their families” and she pays all their bar fines for that night which is 18,000 DOLLARS before any food even! It is very hard for the girls to come through the door because the thais believe very strongly in “saving face” which means keeping up an appearance. So they have a hard time admitting shame, or embarrassment therefor making it very difficult for them to want to come to a safe house. She explained to us trafficking which is even worse, b/c girls are literally being sold to bars against their will, or promised by a man at a bar that they will have a better life and make more money if they show up to a certain place at a certain time and then are captured and put on a bus and shipped somewhere where they are drugged and abused to be compliant for up to 30 men. This industry is feulled by western culture, NOT by thai men (they have their own issues). We learned the different kind of men who come, why they come, etc.. Bonita explained that she used to have real rage issues when it came to seeing these men, but shes come to accept the fact that anyone who is willing to fly half way around the world for sex and exploit these girls must be a broken person. elderly men come, fathers bring their sons as a right of passage, amputees and handicaps come for the “girlfriend” experience that they cant find at home, some ppl actually come looking for love, ppl come bc they aren’t satisfied by what their wives are doing, and they come for the anonymity that they cant get at home. After spending 6 hours in Bonita’s classroom we actually walked through nana plaza in small groups to see it with our own eyes. After learning about everything it was honestly hard to walk through. And I will share some of the thoughts/ feelings that I had experienced. 1. bonita who suffered an incredible loss of her son, sets herself up for loss every single time she takes a girl in bc sometimes they just don’t show up the next day and she knows they were trafficked. She loves these girls like her children after spending so much time w them and when she loses one it breaks her heart. 2. She spoke about how when she goes back to visit friends in ny she has a very hard time relating to the “first world problems” they complain about it and it makes her upset to hear them complain. I am not sure what the appropriate balance is between their complaints being totally illegitmate vs. everyone being allowed to complain about what bothers them and not being held accountable for a small problem when there are much bigger ones in the world 3. I used to make fun of guys who got super religious for taking off their glasses to walk in the street bc how can you live in a bubble, and just walk around blindly. Without even remembering that, I at one point took off my glasses in nana plaza bc I was so disgusted and saddened by these men and didn’t really want to make eye contact with any one of them 4. Everyone knows about the “104 johnnies” from Nassau county whos name and picture was posted in every single newspaper. Their lives are forever ruined, ppl talk about them, their marriages are probably over, and they lost all dignity and respect. When people come to Thailand they can do the same exact thing and get away with it no big deal. Not lose out on anything. If we think what happened in ny is such a big deal. This happens every single day in thousands. In nana plaza there are 3 floors, 40 bars, and 3,000 girls working there every night. That is just 1 of the 3 red light districts within ten minutes of each other. This place is busy every single night. Think about what a big deal that is if you think what happened in ny is a big deal 5. The girls are in the bars wearing pins on them that have numbers. If a guy thinks “number 42” is cute, he will tell the head of the bar and he will send “number 42” over to the customer for them to negotiate a price for the night. My mind immediately headed towards another situation where people were stripped of their identities and reduced to nothing but a number. It is horrible, but that is literally how it works here. How is it ok that in 2013 11-18 year old prostitutes walk around with numbers on them being sold to men so they can support their families? 6. Bonita is one of the most inspiring people I ever met in my life, I really mean it. I did not get antsy once for the 6 hours straight she spoke, she has sucha good energy to her and you are really drawn to her. I posted a picture to insta/facebook with her in it and I hope to never forget the principles she lives by. 7. Having the ability to plan our future is a luxury and a privilege that so many people do not have and we take for granted. So those are some of my thoughts. Was a bit of a heavy afternoon and definitely a lot to learn. And process. This was the heaviest part of the trip, as going forward we will be working with kids on PREVENTION making sure this doesn’t happen. We’re starting at the top of the supply chain. We headed back to the hotel, Bangkok rush hour is like the van wyk at 6pm x1000 so at one point we were literally not moving for 45 minutes so we just got out and walked the last 2 miles….in the pouring rain. It honestly felt nice after such a long day. Went to dinner at chabad, bumped into brian who was walking the streets looking for chabad so he came along! We had dinner and then went back to the hotel to get our stuff and head to the bus stop for our overnight ride to chang mai. Had an hour at the bus stop, so we processed the day as a group and shared our thoughts which was honestly really hepful and healthy for everyone to talk about. Got on the bus, slept for all 10 hours (it was a fancyyy bus….beds, waitresses, etc) of it, and I am now writing to you from my new hotel in chang mai! So much nicer than Bangkok! I am about to go down to the lobby to get some breakfast at chabad and start the day. Today wer meeting with the founder of a trafficking task force, doing some games, excersises and case studies, and then a surpise cultural excursion in the afternoon! This day is supposed to be muchhh lighter and more fun than yesterday, so looking forward! Will write later tonight. Love to all! Miss you! I am having the BEST, MOST AMAZING TIME. Feeling super grateful for all the blessings in my life. -DK

Day 1

Hello loved ones, I am currently writing this post in the lobby of my "hotel"/ "hostel" and dripping in sweat, bc ac only exists in the room where there is no wifi, but i'm making this sacrifice even though that might mean me taking my second shower of the night. thats a big deal for me. I made it to Bangkok! And in good timing, bc I kind of had it with all the traveling and I was ready to get the show on the road. I landed and made it through customs with ease. I was trained ever since I was a child to RUN off the plane, and run i did! i also kinda wanted to get the hell out of the airport already :-) so they give you a tourism visa thats good for 30 days and gets stapled to your passport. you kind of cant leave the country without it, so heres to hoping that i dont lose it! When my bag came around the carousel i was pleasently surprised since I am not used to stopovers and am not aware of the likelihood of your bag making it to your final destination. but it did! I had originally anticipated to wait for the one person i know on this trip in the airport who was landing an hour after me, but after not hearing from her for 30 minutes after her expected arrival time, and finishing finding out why jen anistons marraige plans are on hold plus doing the people mag crossword puzzle (this week was a hard one) i decided i was just gonna go solo. Got a cab and headed for my hotel to Kaoh San Road. The driver dropped me off at the top of a one way street and sent me on my way to find this hole in a wall. and lemme tell you, it aint easy doing that in jeggings, a backpack, and a suitcase with 95 degree sun and humidity beating down on you! but i did it, checked in (the group was out at chabad for breakfast/ orientation) and went up to my room. after being told i was on the 4th floor and asking where the elevator was, the woman laughed in my face and pointed to the stairs. now, im in pretty good shape, ive been prepping for this sports staff job that lies ahead of me when i return #daycamping #makingmoney! but by the time i made it to the top of the stairs, it felt like unpacking my trunk on the first day of camp and swearing to never put on that shirt again (pre bunk renovations and ac) #anubneimorasha. you know what im talking about. The rabbi knocked on my door to introduce himself and tell me to change bc the group would be meeting here to begin the day in 5 minutes. I threw apart my whole suitcase which was packed SO nicely to find the absolute lightest clothing i can find. Met the group in the lobby, introduced myself, theres another dina on the trip, so i am going strictly by dk here. and we were broken up into groups for the bangkok scavanger hunt! i had a good feeling about my team from the get go, and felt good about my winning chances. after the knicks and my recent settlers losing streak i really needed the win for self esteem purposes. Each team was given 1000 baht (dont ask me what that is in american dollars, i know its super cheap, and you can google it if you care that much, too hot to do it myself) and a list of tasks. best shot of lumphini park, best shot of erawan shrine, nicest temple shot, craziest picture with your tuk tuk driver, craziest picture on the sky train, picture of the biggest bug you can find, best thai suverneir for under 50 baht, best conversation with a thai person in thai caughto n video, best panaoramic shot of the city, and strangest looking thai fruit you can find. this started at 1 and we had to return by 7pm. arianne was assigned team accountant and map reader, i was team spirit coach and motivator, serena goes to barnard so shes smart, david was in the israeli army so hes boss, and cheryl is an experienced backpacker so we were pretty set. we basically mapped out our strategy and headed out. i wont tell you exactly how we executed everything bc i think that will bore you, plus ill put up pics on facebook at the end of my trip, but lets just say our panoramic view of the city was from the rooftop pool of the intercontinental hotel. went up there like we owned the place. a few other highlights include more walking than i ever have in my entire life (more than london eliss) and more sweating. i honestly dont remember ever being hotter. we added an additional challenge to our team and that was "shower before 7" so not only did we complete every single task but we had enough time to shower! #winning. for those who dont know me so well,im not such a passionate showerer so you can only imagine what its like. forget my hair looking normal. #msfrizzle. anyways, we met in the lobby and headed to chabad for dinner where we had like 250 baht to order whatever we wanted. solid menu! and i also hadnt eaten normal food in like 48 hours so it felt pretty nice. our group leader erin is a reality tv coniseeur like myself so it was much fun to discuss our thoughts on the lives of various celebrites who dont care for us. anddd she lives near the kipps bay movie theatre, nyc's best kept secret (your welcome) so that was points in my book. post chabad was scavanger hunt finding presentation time. we kicked asssssss. not one other group completed every single task, and the ones that they did complete were not nearly as classy as ours. as the leader said "thats what happens when you put 3 type a personalitys on one team" ummm i dont think he knows me, least type a, except my planner. it was a realy fun way to see bangkok and a really awesome day! after presentations we had our first session on the purpose of the trip and an excersise on listening with our ears (ie: not relating everything someone says to you in conversation back to yourself, and to focus on the big picture of what the person is saying) we had to speak for 10 minutes, and then listen to your partner speak for 10 minutes and count how many times you connected it to yourself. it was a great leadership lesson and one i plan to use for the rest of the trip as well as relationships in geenral. now is free time, i could have gotten a massage since after 19 hours of flying my feet look like kim kardashians 9 months preggo, but i decided to write to you all. ok fine maybe ill go get a massage now. tomorrow is our first day of work and meeting with our first ngo and then wer heading on a 1st class sleeper train to chang mai. peace and love to all! dk

The travel

Day 1. Hello all, the purpose of this blog is to hopefully share with you what's goin on with me while I chill on the other side of the world. However since I am traveling literally to the other side, it takes quite some time to get there, and at this point I am nearing the end! I am on the last leg of the flight from Istanbul to Bangkok and getting to this point was relatively smoothe. I was actually dreading this long travel time alone and had extremely low expectations, so it could only be better than what I was anticipating. JFK check in was pretty easy, rly long line, but when it was finally my turn I got this rly sweet guy to help me, who I asked if I wanted to be upgraded to business class. Little did I know the following question would be if I wanted to pay for it too. After explaining that I could not afford business class at this stage in my life, he handed me both my boarding tickets with the second ticket telling me I was in row 9 #elation! That row is way too low to be coach. Anyways, checked my bag, went thorough security, and headed to the gate. Rewind about an hour or so to when I was in my house and had my iPad and iPhone both plugged in to my laptop. What I had INTENDED was to put only music on my iPhone and only videos on my iPad. But I misread which was which, consequently taking all the music off my iPhone! #buggingout #firstworldproblems but after reminding myself that I'm going to be working with teenage victims of sex trafficking I recognized that the music coming off my iPhone is rly not a big deal. However I did try very hard to fix it at the gate! Got about 4,000/6,000 songs on there before I was the last one to board. I usually have severe flying anxiety for those who don't know, I think it' s hereditary, but I knew if I was traveling alone for 24 hours that wouldn't rly fly. #nopunintended so I tried to squash that from the get go, starting with being the last to board #livinontheedge. As my good friend @sfgross had told me, Turkish air is a baller airlines! Super old school in the sense that they actually rly want to help you! The craziest part was that there was free wifi on the plane from New York to Istanbul! I was blown away as to how a) that's even possible b) delta and American charge you like 20 dollars to use wifi from ny to Florida. But my laptop was dead from all that iPhone/ iPad catastrophe plus I was rly tired so I didn't even take advantage of it. I passed out before I could even take an ambien which is both great and not so great bc my sleep was not deep enough to carry me through the whole time. Which is why I woke up with about 3 hours left and played candy crush till I ran out of lives (this has actually been rly good practice for me bc I can't buy 5 more turns since I'm not connected to the Internet and I actually need to work on beating the levels) so I played candy crush the commoner way and watched (oh I fell asleep watching identity thief w Jason Bateman and Melissa McCarthy, that movie I actually laid down my line and refused to see bc it looked too bad for even my standards. And it was just as bad as I knew it would be, which helped put me to sleep. I didn't even get to hear the song from the trailer that I saw 7,000 times "bad girls die young, bad girls do it well" oh well) but to finish out the flight I watched, eh I'm not even gonna tell you. Way too embarrassing. Ok fine "the clique", please don't judge Turkish air's movie options on what I watched. They have an excellent selection, I've either just seen them all, and I need something rly light to watch when I fly. But yay, landed in Istanbul! I was also told that the Istanbul airport is a hugee mess, and just as I anticipated it was. The messiest part: no air conditioner! How do you not have ac in a thousand degrees when most of the women in your country cover everything in black gowns except their eyes! So I got off the plane, went through security, and bc my flight would not be for another 3 hours my gate was not even close to posted. I found a nice comfy seat and was soon joined by an American family, one girl in crutches and a mom and her other daughter. Forget needig to watch anything, they were the most entertaining trio I've ever seen. For starters, the crutches girl realized soon after she sat down next to me that she left her kindle on the plane #icouldtotallyrelate and started crying, and her mom was pissed. I was so tempted to interject and tell her that its ok and I too lose things but I didn't wanna get on the moms bad side if I'd be sitting w them for 3 hours. THEN the mom left her daughter w me while she went w her other daughter to buy McDonalds. So she comes back and tells her kindle less, wheelchair bound daughter that they ran out of chicken on the third salad (all 3 of them were large) so she got her tofu instead. When her daughter asked what tofu was since she'd never heard of it, the mother told her she had no idea and to just eat it! She rly was pissed at this child. This was the second time I wanted to interject and explain tofu but again I held back. (Oh in this time, I completed putting all te music back on my iPhone) the woman finally acknowledged me so we chilled. I told her abt my trip, and this family was moving from Florida to London bc they needed a change and their husband/ father was waiting for them there. That's quite the jump! I honeslty don't know this family well at all but my first impressions tell me that London may not be the right fit for them. I tried to calm them all down and told them I went to London this past summer and what a fun city it is. I then proceeded to reach out to wheelchair girl since my heart rly went out to her and asked her what happened to her knee. Literally her mom went into a 25 minute explanation of the details of the surgery and bones and tendons and ligaments in the knee. It's beyond me that she knew this, but never heard of tofu and didnt know what it was! #classicamerica . I kinda had it w this family after the woman must've told me she's never flying without her husband again 20 times so I went to see if my gate was posted. It was! So I headed there Boarded the second plane all excited bc I thought I was heading to my business class seat, but row 9 on this plane is just simple economy! Why did my "friend" in JFK tell me he upgraded me? And why did he tell me Istanbul to Bangkok was only 3 hours? Was he in desperate need to please someone and feel good about himself even though it was all bull? Must be! So I got settled in for my second 9 hour flight for my final destination. My first movie was "the first wives club" I thought it was about time, since for an entire summer me and my friends used to respond to our counselors orders "you don't ownnn me" #mature . Anyways, the movie was great! I found it in the "classics" section on Turkish air right next to phone both starting Colin farell, which I'm not so sure is a classic. Also found "new years eve" in the drama section and "we bough a zoo" in the comedy section. I think the Turks have it a lil backwards. But watched that, took an ambien before supper was served bc I was soo tired and needed to sleep! And then passed out. I woke up a bit ago with about 3 hours remaining, and chose to watch "bee season" with Richard geere starring as a husband who immerses himself training his daughter for the spelling be to distract himself from his failing marriage. I specifically looked it up on rotten tomatoes before take off and they gave it a 23% so I'm not sure why I chose it despite it's horrible reviews. Anyways this movie sucks and that's why I decided to take out my phone and write to you (and bc I need to wait another 20min till I get candy crush lives). One thing I will take from this movie, is that Richard plays a college religion teacher and teaches the class about tikun olam in the movie, which is exactly the purpose of the trip I am doing. So was nice to get a little crash course. #hollywoodissojewish (first wives club had a husband named Mordy and a lot of leining in shul, so basically my movies were super Jewish). Anyways not too much time left till I finally finish this lonely 24 hour journey and land in Bangkok! I'm super excited for what lies ahead. I actually don't rly know what lies ahead since I haven't read the pamphlet yet, even though I made all my siblings read it Friday night, so that's how I'm going to spend the next two hours. Finding out what I'm doing when I land. Bc I still DKwhatimdoinginthailand Love to all! Ps: sorry if this post was more of a movie review of horrible films than anything else. The next one will be more exciting, I promise. Pps: I haven't written this much since Wurzweiler. Actually I don't think any of my papers were this long #deansscholar Pps: I will be offering a prize to the 100th person who makes a joke about me having my passport. Wer at about 70, so keep it up, it could be you! #not