An Unsure Step Out of My Comfort Zone

Date: 8/11/10 11:45 pm or so

The epic 19 total hours of flight time are over, but things don't start out well. It started when I landed and my ride was not waiting at the International Arrivals door with a card bearing my name as I had been told. This forces me, with about 130 lbs worth of luggage, to run around asking and looking for him as well as making expensive phone calls to my contact with the company, who isn’t picking up the phone. After 30 mins of this, I’m contemplating getting a taxi and it dawns on me, 'I have no idea where I’m going.' Luckily I cooled down and waited, my ride showed up and took me somewhere different than I’d been originally told, so the decision works out. Although the city is beautiful and the condo is nice for this area of the world, I can tell I’m out of my comfort zone. My complex is made of about 10 high rise buildings, each about 25 stories high, with a dark, people filled courtyard in the middle, I can’t help getting images of “The Carter” from “New Jack City” out of my head even though this complex is clearly nicer than projects. Once I made I into my pleasantly furnished condo, problems immediately arise. Three of my biggest needs for comfort are immediately problematic: phone (namely texting), the Internet and electronics. My phone is no good here unless I’m willing to pay over $2 a minute to call back home and my loophole to text from Malaysia is no good without wireless internet; which leads into the next problem. Then I pull out my laptop, ready to announce my arrival so that those concerned back home don’t worry too much more. There are several wireless networks within range; none of them unlocked though. I figure out my converter (a great buy) and plug up my surge protector so that I can plug things up. Immediately as I switch it on, POOF, a flash of light, a small gust of smoke, and the plug is blown. I try to the other plug in my room (just the converter, sitting the surge protector out) and it doesn’t even work. So I’m immediately forced to using the one available plug in the living room. And I’m forced to only charge one thing at a time; much different from my electronically compatible world back home. I turn on the tv that is missing vital buttons (namely Channel Up) and find 7 channels; two are duplicates of another channel, one in English. Another failed effort, which keeps me disconnected from the world. I take a deep breath and decide I need to go get some food and think things through. I return to the sound of loud dripping, the air conditioning unit in my electrical plug-less room is dripping profusely right in the bathroom’s doorway; forcing me to get a tray from the refrigerator to catch the drippage. So after surveying the needs of the place, I realize we’re missing such necessities as toilet paper, sheets, towels, and trashcans in addition to food and help with my Internet, phone, and electrical needs. So here I lay in the living room, beside my phone (now only a contact book and alarm clock) as it charges in the one working plug, watching the one channel in English available and for the first time I think I may have bitten off more than I can chew. One of my biggest attributes is my fairly silent but unshakable confidence; which is wavering for the first time in a long time as I think about the one year in front of me. As my coworkers haven’t arrived yet, I’m the only person there and I’m not connected by either phone or Internet, so there is no one to discuss it with. But then my inner Orr (passed down from Master Sgt Bernard and Lt. Col. Duane, my grandfather and father) takes over and I tell myself “Suck it up, you’ll figure out a way and prevail. Get the 5 hours of sleep available to you and hope you can make it through the jet lag and sleep deprivation and make a good impression at work tomorrow morning.” Goodbye night one in Malaysia…