Yes, this is a juxtaposition of sorts, but it FEELS like our end here has been endless! We have now said goodbye to our students, after tears and an excessive amount of photos flashing peace signs, we are preparing our next journey. It seems we have been preparing to leave for almost a month, and now it is nearly upon us. This week will be filled with cramped muscles and dreaded pink books where I have to enter in ALL my 550 students' grades and marks for the semester. Needless to say, I will need an IV with a coffee drip straight to my cranium.
These last few weeks have been good though. One weekend we went to Bangkok with Beth, saw a ridiculous Will Farrell movie involving enlarged mosquitoes, and staying in a swanky skyscraper hotel and going to night markets. Last weekend an old friend of Christine's came to our beach with his buddy and we went motorbiking up north. We found, only in Thailand I swear, a temple that house hundreds of languor monkeys. So, after seeing them and peaking in some Buddha-filled caves, we headed on to find the most SENSATIONAL beaches in Thailand that seriously NO white people know about. In this idyllic fishing village, we watched a storm blow in as we soaked our feet in the lukewarm, shallow ocean waters, and it was like watching a giant paintbrush smear the colors of the skies downward. And the beaches we found had the finest sand that when you walked it made a screeching noise beneath your feet. We got there just in time to watch the sunset and roar off home on our motorbikes in the dark.
There are no words for the beauty this country possesses. There is something to discover at every corner, and the people are so wonderfully kind and simple in their happiness that you can't help but want to soak every bit of them up. I have loved living in the South, but am ready for my journey north in two weeks to the colder, mountainous portion of Thailand (formerly known as SIAM until the 1930's).
As things come to an end here, I find myself wondering if leaving this idyllic beach will be harder than I can imagine. Though at times I want to burrow in our room and not be stared at, perhaps I will miss feeling special and unique (as I am sure my pale skin will not be praised in the US). Where else will I eat piping hot noodle soup in blazing, humid weather and not think twice? Will I really only need ONE shower a day in the US, and not 3? Hard to imagine.........and yet, it is time to head back to reality. For Thailand, in many ways IS a reality, but is also a dreamland, and part of me wants to keep it like that in my precious, guarded box of my mind. So fragile and so incredibly challenging, I know I will return to this part of the world more than once more in the future. It is a home now, thanks to the kindness of the people and sway of the trees, and of course, I have to see my students again, if only to be called, "Teacher Kiss" once again!!!!
More soon when our travels begin, one week from today!!!
These last few weeks have been good though. One weekend we went to Bangkok with Beth, saw a ridiculous Will Farrell movie involving enlarged mosquitoes, and staying in a swanky skyscraper hotel and going to night markets. Last weekend an old friend of Christine's came to our beach with his buddy and we went motorbiking up north. We found, only in Thailand I swear, a temple that house hundreds of languor monkeys. So, after seeing them and peaking in some Buddha-filled caves, we headed on to find the most SENSATIONAL beaches in Thailand that seriously NO white people know about. In this idyllic fishing village, we watched a storm blow in as we soaked our feet in the lukewarm, shallow ocean waters, and it was like watching a giant paintbrush smear the colors of the skies downward. And the beaches we found had the finest sand that when you walked it made a screeching noise beneath your feet. We got there just in time to watch the sunset and roar off home on our motorbikes in the dark.
There are no words for the beauty this country possesses. There is something to discover at every corner, and the people are so wonderfully kind and simple in their happiness that you can't help but want to soak every bit of them up. I have loved living in the South, but am ready for my journey north in two weeks to the colder, mountainous portion of Thailand (formerly known as SIAM until the 1930's).
As things come to an end here, I find myself wondering if leaving this idyllic beach will be harder than I can imagine. Though at times I want to burrow in our room and not be stared at, perhaps I will miss feeling special and unique (as I am sure my pale skin will not be praised in the US). Where else will I eat piping hot noodle soup in blazing, humid weather and not think twice? Will I really only need ONE shower a day in the US, and not 3? Hard to imagine.........and yet, it is time to head back to reality. For Thailand, in many ways IS a reality, but is also a dreamland, and part of me wants to keep it like that in my precious, guarded box of my mind. So fragile and so incredibly challenging, I know I will return to this part of the world more than once more in the future. It is a home now, thanks to the kindness of the people and sway of the trees, and of course, I have to see my students again, if only to be called, "Teacher Kiss" once again!!!!
More soon when our travels begin, one week from today!!!
