In Which I'm Here!

The view from our room.

Sawatdee-ka!

I’m a little jet-lagged right now, so forgive me if I’m not the most coherent person in the world.  My plane was delayed for a couple of hours in Tokyo, so I didn’t end up getting to my hotel last night until nearly four in the morning.  Apparently a plane coming in from New York and making our connection was late, so they just kept pushing the boarding time back for us by twenty minute intervals.  That’s probably why they didn’t update the delay on the airport website—the very gracious friend who came to pick me up had to wait at the airport nearly three hours for me by the time I got through customs.  I’m very glad she was there, because I didn’t do a lot of sleeping on the plane so by the time I got in I wasn’t very functional.  Hiring a taxi would have been an interesting experience to say the least.

Even though I got up and walked around at least once every couple of hours on the plane, by the time I got to the hotel my feet were so swollen that my ankles looked like part of my calves.  But after a few hours sleep I feel much better and don’t have to squeeze my feet into my shoes.  All in all I think I was about twenty-two hours in transit.  Whew!  Luckily I had some lovely seatmates who were interesting travel companions.  I had an aisle seat too, so I could stretch out a bit, which was lovely.

So I’m here now, and ready to do a bit of exploring before I go to the orphanage tomorrow to meet Ellen.  Jer won’t arrive until later in the week because of his school finals, so I’ll be on my own in the big city for a few days. 

The hotel we’re staying at is very nice—much nicer than what we where we would usually stay in the United States.  We did get bumped from our triple room since I got in so late, but we’re in a room that’s the same price and they’ll set up a bed for Ellen once she’s here.  It should fit just fine—the room is more than spacious enough.  I got stuck on the elevator for a little bit because I didn’t realize you had to swipe your key card to go to your room, but I’ve got it down now.

I’ll be trying to update at least once a day if I can, and I’ll also be checking my e-mail.  I can’t believe tomorrow’s the big day!  Surprisingly I’m not feeling nervous when I think about it right now, but I'll probably be shaking in my boots by tomorrow morning. 

I can't believe I'm finally here!

~Jess