It's Wednesday September 7th around 6pm, my mother is driving me to the airport as I frantically book a one way ticket to LA on my iphone. Last flight out leaves at 7pm and if I do not arrive in LA tonight I will not be getting my visa until next week. Rewind to Tuesday the 6th- finally got my contract from Nakorn Payap International School (NIS) in Chiang Mai to take to the Thai consulate in Portland. Went there only to discover it was closed for the entire week of Labor Day. So I contacted the headmaster at NIS and promptly threw some money at the problem and flew to LA, which is the only other Thai consulate on the US West Coast.
I arrive at the airport and check in to my Southwest Airlines flight at 6:10. Only to discover the connecting flight from PDX to SAC has an hour delay and will not be making it to LA tonight. The woman at the counter stands there staring at her computer screen and endlessly typing... Why do they always do that?! Then as I am trying not to freak out or lose patience she looks at me and says, "There is a flight leaving at 6:34, you have 12 minutes. Run.
So I do. As I get to the gate panting and sweating the agent looks at me and says "Megan?" I nod as he hands me my boarding pass, off I go to LA.
Upon landing around 10:30pm I find a decent hotel for $96/night near the airport, check in and get to sleep.
The next morning I am all business. The consulate in LA accepts Visa applications between 9 and 11:30am, and will process them in 24 hours. In theory this means I will pick up my visa Friday morning and be on the next available flight out to Asia. Well remember that saying I often use, "How do you make God laugh? By making plans..." (Thank you Izza). Yeah, this is one of those times.
I take a $40 cab ride into downtown LA to the consulate. On the way I get to talking with the driver who is from Armenia. He has been in the US for about 7 years and is offering some interesting perspective to someone who is about to be the foreigner. One thing he told me has really stuck. When he first arrived in the US he asked his uncle where are all the people? (He was used to seeing people out and about on the street. His uncle replied "They all live in their cars." Two things really resignated here with me: First, he is right. Second, we see a new place with open eyes and often notice things that others who live there forget about or take for granted.
So he drops me at the Consulate and tells me he can take a 20 min break and if I am in and out quickly I can ride back to the hotel with him for free. (He works for them, so has to return there anyway.) I thank him for his kindness, and hope I will be back in time to take him up on the offer. The bus ride back to the hotel is 2 hours!
I am sure you have already figured out this did not happen. I head upstairs and am greeted by a friendly Thai woman. I tell her what I need, and show her my paperwork. She asks me for my criminal background clearance from Oregon. I say, "what?" I don't have this stupid piece of paper that I need (no one from the school told me, and it's my fault for not doing my homework). SO basically I can only get a tourist Visa with what I have, which does me no good. I am in LA, just spent all this money, the Portland consulate is closed.... You can imagine.
So this sweet older Thai woman who is there for her own purposes offers to take me to the nearest police station. I accept and on the way she offers me bottles of water. So very kind. I get to the LAPD station and tell them what I need. The officer hands me a piece of paper and says, "sorry we can't help you, call this number."
So I walk back to the consulate for about 40 min in 90 degree heat. Did I mention my bag did not arrive in LA with me so I only had my carry on clothes. Dark jeans and a black top. Genius.
It is at this particular point where I almost start to lose my shit. Hot, tired, and not sure this is going to work out. What if I spent all this money only to come to LA for nothing. What if I have to spend the weekend here? Will I still be able to buy a ticket to Thailand? As I am starting to spin I stop myself. "You are a Keach woman. You have been in much worse situations in places that you don't speak the language. This is just the beginning, if you can't figure this out how are you going to survive in SE Asia? Buck up and figure it out. So I did.
I get back to the consulate only to discover the boss man is determined to help me. Through a lot of phone calls and research we discover all I have to do is go online and get my clearance. Ha, who knew?! Easy- seeing as I have no criminal record. It takes 5 minutes and costs $10 bux. He agrees to make the exception and process my Visa same day. Tells me to come back between 3 and 4 and he will have it ready for me. Wanting to kiss him I restrain myself and head around the corner to have some lunch.
I return promptly at 3 pm, sit for about 15 minutes, and off I go Non- Immigrant B Visa in hand.
Long Story short I take a 2 hour bus ride back to The Hotel. The bus driver helps me along the way. We went through every part of LA- Crenshaw, Inglewood, etc. I have two theories about her kindness: Either she was trying to watch my back and help me from getting lost in the wrong part of town. OR she thought I was a complete idiot. Maybe a little bit of both? Either way I made it back to the hotel, ate some Chipotle and prepared to fly out at 1:20pm on Friday to Beijing then to Bangkok and finally Chiang Mai.
The flight all goes smooth. Typical haze of time zone to time zone, and perpetual morning. Spent the night in the Bangkok airport and was greeted by Kate- the NIS assistant principal upon arrival in Chiang Mai. The humidity here hits you like a ton of bricks. She drove me through the city to stay with Lani- NIS Early Childhood Coordinator, and her dog Eddie. We ordered pizza the first night. Exhausted and over- stimulated by my new surroundings I was asleep by 6:30pm.
Photos: Somewhere over Siberia, and Early Morning Bangkok Airport.
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