Saturday night I had dinner with the lovely Natalie and Graham, some friends I made at orientation but hadn’t had the chance to see since October. They are wrapping up their semester here and are about to start traveling around SE Asia. When I told them I was staying they seemed a bit surprised but when I gave them reasons, Natalie parroted it me short and perfect. She said “I know what you mean. I have felt very wound up since we got here.” Trying to live in another culture so different from your own without offending anyone is pretty impossible and so I have felt wound fairly tight since I got here. Add on that I have a job to perform that I’ve been trying to figure out without much guidance and you have a recipe for some good stress dreams. Being here hasn’t been all beaches and beautiful floating lanterns. I really have no idea what I’m doing most the time. It’s like floating around in a cloudy ether trying to get your bearings and watching everyone else to mimic their movements; I believe the scientific term is culture shock. And the shock has me wound up nice and good.
The only way to counter act this feeling is by staying. The hard part is over. Six months of struggling to order food and find bus stations have come to a close and I don’t feel ready to leave. I’m making progress with the language (I’m sure the Thais think otherwise) and being able to deciper their hand gestures when they are trying to explain something to me. I’m ready to start traveling to other countries around SE Asia and experience what Thailand looked like before tourism ruined parts of it.
Damn, there is just so much more to do! So if it’s alright with you guys I’ll keep this trip and this blog alive a little bit longer.
So I present the highlights of Teach in Thailand Oct-Feb
- My first squat hole. Yeah, I’ve got thighs of steel now.
- The colloquial terms of Thailand (some terms are not localized to Thailand alone but there meaning here is different than anywhere else): Same same; bucket; toilet; Thailand is calling (nature doesn’t call here, Thailand calls); visa run; mai pen rai (no worries); farang; tip tip; mawborow (Marlboro); and Thai tacky, to name some of my favorites.
- Elephant riding. So much fun.
- The look on Jenna’s face as she stared at our bathroom the first night in the dorms.
- The first time Xiao Xiao spoke. He’s a Chinese boy and new student at the school who doesn’t speak Thai or English. He didn’t look at me or speak for the first three months.
- Turning our headlamps off in Christmas Cave.
- My first Thai thunderstorms. It’s the loudest thunder you’ll ever hear.
- Surprise weekend in a 5 start resort on Koh Samui.
- Molly Hadley’s face when I picked her up at the airport in Bangkok (Technically this was in March but I’ll get to that later.)
- And then there is these guys:
Cheers!
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