Study Abroad in Cambodia
by Aly Webb, Nursing Student
I plopped down, out of breath and sweaty, in the front seat of a friend’s car. It was 5:45 am on the dot. I’m late. I look at my buddy Evan, my right hand man for this kind of stuff, as he turns on the car. It’s clear he knows me too well when he immediately recognizes my visible stress, “Come on Aly Webb, I got this. I can get you to the airport in ten minutes. Tops.” I give him a disbelieving raised eyebrow.
As he makes a right turn onto the interstate I freak out, “Dude! The airport’s that way!” He tries to not laugh at my obvious lack of confidence in his sense of direction. “Aly Webb… I got this.”
I, of course, am still not convinced and attempt to slyly look up directions to the airport.
Turns out he did know a short cut, and I made it to the airport with plenty of time to force Evan into giving me three over-dramatic hugs before heading off into the great unknown that was the next three weeks. I walk through the sliding doors and immediately recognized the sweet faces of our group. I set down my bags, and looked around the bustling airport. Our trip to Cambodia had finally begun
It was only a short thirty minute flight to our first layover in Atlanta where we then boarded our 15 hour flight to South Korea. If you have ever traveled with Korean Airlines, you can understand why we all walked down the aisles with wide eyes, distracted from our one job, finding our seats. Luckily, ready to help were the notoriously immaculate staff both perfectly sleek and stylish, and to our relief, bilingual.
The flight experience felt luxurious. A pillow, blanket, toothbrush and even slippers were all patiently waiting for us on our seats. The seat itself was the only reminder that I was actually in economy and not Beyonce traveling to Seoul, Korea to meet up with my hubby Jay-Z for a dinner date.
Like an Italian mother with company, we were never left hungry. From the moment the seatbelt light switched off, meals, snacks, and drinks were continuous, and I was not complaining. I had told myself I would get ahead on my studies during the flight, considering I had fifteen whole hours to kill, yet somehow I managed to watch three entire movies instead. Oops.
When we arrived at the South Korean airport we all immediately ran to the bathroom to brush our teeth, exchanging stories from the flight, all while trying to not spit toothpaste on each other. Our layover was short and before we knew it we were already boarding our final flight. Five hours later we arrived to our destination and promptly received our visas. Exiting the airport, we were greeted with the humidity we had heard so much about, ohh I get it now.
I didn’t know what time it was nor the temperature, but it was clear our adventure had officially begun. After almost thirty hours of traveling we had finally arrived to the Kingdom of Cambodia.
