Goodbye Boston, Selamat siang Indonesia.

So after a long hiatus from my travels in Ecuador, where I failed to update my blog because I was too busy having wild and crazy adventures in the Galapagos and the Amazon, I'm going to give this another shot. Same idea, different place. I think I made the mistake of making my posts too long last time, so smaller posts, more frequently this time.

My plan for the next year is to live and work in Indonesia on the island of Borneo. I will be working at a research site in Gunung Palung National Park called Cabang Panti, where there is currently an Orangutan research project led by BU professor Cheryl Knott. I'll be doing such things as following orangutans, taking photographs, collecting their poop, and analyzing samples in the lab. I'll share more about this later, since I have yet to actually get there. But I'm really excited about it and can't wait.

Indonesia! (which, coincidentally, is at the equator as well)

My itinerary the past few days has been hectic...I had to take a 6am bus from Boston to NY, pick up my passport and visa from the Indonesian consulate (because governments are slow and I didn't want to show up at the airport for an international flight without a passport...which usually tends to get you absolutely nowhere), bus back to Boston, have a farewell party, and then somehow wake up the next morning after a night of vices and Allston shenanigans (thanks to all my friends that participated in said shenanigans) to catch a flight to Istanbul, and then Indonesia. But I made it. It's been an interesting journey to get here. In total I spent 24h55m actually flying (which was mostly spent sitting on my ass, eating airplane food, watching movies, and falling asleep to Of Monsters and Men). The total trip (including layovers in NY, Istanbul, and Singapore lasted 50h. Turkish Airlines has awesome service though, they made it go by quickly. I ate way too much delicious airplane food and tried some Turkish beers while I was at it. They also gave me a little toiletry bag with really soft socks (which I wore almost the entire time...) and a toothbrush (which is good, because I forgot mine).  For my layover in Istanbul, my plan was to arrive at the Attaturk airort, get the free hotel room that Turkish Airlines offers its customers with long layovers, and leave to see the city. As I found out though, things don't always go as planned.

Yes, I watched Into the Wild as I ate delicious airplane food, drank beer, and literally was flying into the wild.

Coming up next time: My 13-hour layover in Istanbul, Turkey