These were written in my journal. Additional thoughts to my journal writings are in italics. Thought I would share for the first post here!
20 JUNE 2018
Only my youth is sustaining me now, I think. Flew a thousand miles (actually, it is 3915.881 miles or 6,302 km) from Sydney in to Singapore on a red-eye… now flying out on another red-eye… to Russia. But first, Uzbekistan.
Reflections on the plane as a place. (I didn’t finish my reflection on this in my journal. But it occured to me that the plane itself is really a place, too. It is someone’s workplace. It is somewhere where you could meet someone new. I eat on it, sit in it, sleep in it.)Planes used to be more of a delight, an anticipation of, a joy. (I forget… I am flying hundreds of metres IN THE AIR. What?????? Isn’t that crazy???)
Lately, I think I have been treating it with a little bit of… contempt. Flying has become too easy, too normal, too part of my life.
I uncomfortably take on the label of “Ever-travelling”, knowing the weight of all the privilege it carries.
“Again?” is the repeated question. And I will proceed to sheepishly say yes… but it IS partially funded by my school, you see…
Planes with TVs… BLESS.
But this one has none…
Sleepy.
Leaving family^this time was harder.
Crazy summer.
21 JUNE THURSDAY, 7am SGD time, About 4AM UZB TIME
Landed in Takesh Int’l Airport in Uzbekistan.
Tell you the truth… I don’t really know where Uzbekistan is. (Now I do. It is below Kazakhstan, bordering Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan and Turkmenistan. Lol.)
There is a distinct foreignness about the faces I see here—so different from the ones I am used to. (By that, I mean that categorisation of “Asian” faces and “Western” faces)
There is a real desire/struggle to want to speak the language, to blend in, to look part of this place. (Honestly, any place I go). But my hair probably gives my foreignness away, an DRAWS attention more than avert it LOL
Again, my general desire to be a part of yet distinct from.
There is this bunch of 50-year-old Malaysian Dudes on their way to the world cup—so nice to hear their accents, and Cantonese.
My tailbone is aching a bit—all that sitting on transport I have done the last two days has taken its toll LOL. Just standing here journalling near a charging station. No workable WiFi tho.
No WiFi… it forces you to look at real people doing real things. Sleeping, chatting, being bored, staring into space.
Why is it easier to wait sitting down than standing up?
A friend or a stranger to speak to would
kill the time so well.
It’s going to be a loong wait.
LOL there is a flight to New York from here…
Change of plans???
21 JUNE 2018
On a bus to the city centre of St Petersburg.
Omgosh I am in Russia
This is crazy!
I think it is the furthest
I have ever been, from
home. It is seriously the most
foreign place I have been to
yet— a whole new language, a
whole culture I don’t know
about. This is so, so, so amazing
and the most excited I have
been in a long while—the
previous times, I felt in control,
I knew what to do, there
were people who knew the
place. Bu there… No one.
Nobody, and that is exciting.
It is like I am travelling
for the first time.
Also cos language is such
a problem, here…
Who knew learning Cyrillic
would help me now…
Hehe.
Not even in the city yet
but just like.. WOW
there is so much I DON’T
KNOW!!!
Which is very exciting,
very awesome, very amazing.