SUSI: Carbondale

After 20 hours sitting on an airplane I think I have reached my yearly quota for air travel. Sleep was almost impossible for me with the cramp seats and the loud engine noise but I persevered non-the-less. After transiting at Changi Airport in Singapore we had a 6+ hour flight in a Boeing 777 to Narnia Narita Airport in Tokyo, Japan. Then it was a 9+ hour flight on a very cramped Boeing 747 to San Francisco plus another almost 4 hours of additional flight time on an Airbus that has seats that are not screwed/attached onto the plane. Lost my confidence on United Airlines by the way. Lastly it was a 2 hour drive from St.Louis Airport to the small town of Carbondale.

It was somewhat agonizing physically to me that is on the journey but it wasn’t as bad as Joann who had her entire luggage lost by the airline company. She had to go through almost a week without new clean clothes. Its something nobody has to go through at all.

Being in the United States didn’t really hit until we landed in St.Louis. The situation in San Francisco felt more like being in Singapore than anything else as there were so many Asians around. Felt a bit like home really.

Once arrived at St.Louis Airport we were picked up by our graduate mentors Onur and Jeniffer who drove us 2 hours south of St.Louis to the small city of Carbondale. After checking into our dorms at the Southern Illinois University Carbondale we heard that the Indonesian group were going to be late as some of them were detained in customs and missed their flight. Racial profiling perhaps? Maybe. Gonna talk about this in a later post.

All the Indonesian group finally arrived at about 2am local time though. The first night was cold and I mean freezing cold. It rained a little that night but I think the major problem was with the very cold air conditioning. Shivered like crazy and had to use an extra towel as a blanket. Found out too late in the morning that there was an “off” switch on the said air conditioner though. Dammit.

From left: Fareeza, Farah, Joann, Faizal, Sabina, Ridwan and me.

It has been quite a tiring journey and I’m still having a bit of a jet lag right now. The people here have been great and very friendly. A big difference from the usual antics we have back home. Gonna stop for now.

Next update: Classes and such.