Traveling to Thailand

View of the Grand Palace

Chad has his yearly conference in Bangkok and I get to tag along.  It's a hard life!  The kids are suddenly old enough to stay home alone. I swear yesterday I was pushing them in a stroller!  But this separation has caused me some anxiety.  It's not the minor accident because I know they can handle that and I left them with a contact list a mile long.   Call this person if you cut a finger off and this person if you can't figure out how to cook something and this person will help with school problems and if the city blows up call this number. They are covered.

Rather it's the major disaster that has me worried. What if Bogota is flattened by an earthquake or what if Thailand washes away in a tsunami or our plane falls out of the sky?  What would we do without each other in this life?

I was tense the whole way to the airport but as soon as I stepped out of the van my worries vanished. I realized the most dangerous part of the trip - driving through Bogota- was over and we were safe.  Now onto the most grueling part, two night flights.  Ugh. 

We arrived at our hotel and promptly fell asleep. Fortunately we awoke in time for the opening reception. For Chad this is a great reconnect with colleagues previously met, personal meeting with colleagues with whom he has had correspondence with and of course meeting new people scattered across the world.  For both of us this was a great opportunity to begin talking with people who had been posted in Moscow.  It was also a great time for me to begin connecting with spouses. 

- Kris