Hey hey hey!

So I'm taking a gap year to travel, and I kept thinking a blog would be a nice thing to do, but it hasn't happened until now. Better late than never :). I'm not great at internet things, but I'll do my best!

Here's a quick lil' synopsis of my year so far...I spent a month in the UK watching football, drinking lager and lime, and singing karaoke to Frank Sinatra (not really sure why that last one happened). The first week I was accompanied by my three best friends, and we went everywhere, from chillin' with the Beatles in Liverpool to visiting good ol' Billy in Stratford-Upon-Avon to watching the olympic triathlon in Hyde Park.When they left, I popped over to Spain to my wonderful English friends' holiday home. Spain heat was rough, but my friends and I still managed the 3 hour hike to Africa (well, a view of Africa) and have the best time ever. Last phase of the trip I shipped up to Scotland to stay with my beautiful friend who inspired me to take this gap year and her lovely family. In addition to getting rained on a ton, I got to see Glasgow, Edinburgh, Helensburgh, and Oban. Each was more beautiful than the next, and all with the friendliest people ever (when I could understand their accent). The only bad part was leaving. I totally cried. Hopefully I'll be back to visit soon, though!

Next I traveled to Spain for yoga teacher training at the stunning Suryalila Retreat Center (aka Yogaland) with Frog Lotus Yoga. Yogaland was filled with inspiring people, delicious vegetarian food, and (obviously) lots and lots of yoga. I went in expecting to learn how to teach yoga but left with a better understanding of what it means to be a good person. I gained a whole new outlook (and inlook) on myself and my relationship with the universe at large.Yogic philosophy is super awesome; I highly recommend looking into it. The last night a few of us sat in a circle chanting in Sanskrit around a single lotus candle. Probably one of the most beautiful moments of my life, I totally cried again (more like sobbed). I have a yoga family now, and I'm so very grateful for that experience.

Now I'm in Thailand! The company Rustic Pathways opened the Rustic Pathways Children's Home a few years ago for kids whose families can't afford to send them to school. Each student (there's 27 of them) at RPCH has an American sponsor that funds his/her education (http://rusticpathways.org/hilltribesupport.html). For two months I'm living at the home to teach English, learn Thai, and make new friends. The first week, since schools were closed, I helped the Rustic Pathways staff with the rice harvest (what? rice doesn't grow in the supermarket??). We cut rice, tied rice, carried rice, threw rice into a giant truck thing, bagged rice, dumped the rice out onto the floor, rebagged rice, and carried the bags of rice to the storage house. Oh, and every once in a while we took a break to eat rice. But it's cool, because the rice we harvested feeds the home for the whole year. Besides for rice, I've drank coconut water and eaten papaya straight off the tree. I attended a Thai boxing match, planted a bamboo tree, and swam in a gorgeous waterfall. Last weekend we went camping in the jungle, where I learned that 1. Thai people aren't very concerned about litter, 2. Thai people eat frogs for breakfast, and 3. Thai people also eat turtles, rats, birds, bugs...basically anything that moves. But we had a blast, and I learned how to shoot a slingshot...which should totally come in handy back in Jersey.

That takes me to today. This morning I went to speak with the school at which I'll be teaching. Starting tomorrow I'll teach full time, grades 1 through 6.  Apparently the knowledge of English is basically nothing, so this'll be a good challenge. I'm a little nervous but super excited. Wish me luck!!