Homeward Bound

Turns out sitting on planes is less fun than not sitting on planes. Somehow, watching a movie is boring, food is less appetizing, reading makes you sleepier, and sleep is way more difficult to achieve while seated on a plane. My 24 hours of travel was generally not a great time. Not that it was particularly awful or offensive, but nothing entirely good came out of those 24 hours.

Turns out caffeine keeps you awake. In the span of 51 hours , I drank 5 cups of coffee and slept 2 hours. Generally, I aim for the ratio of cups of coffee to hours of sleep to be a little lower.

Turns out winter is cold. While in Thailand,  I had eagerly awaited the time when I'd arrive home in comfy sweater and hot tea weather. The image of me bundled up in Starbucks, talking to a friend while watching the snowfall constantly danced in my mind. Now that I'm here, though, I'm not really sure why I was so excited. True that I'm happy to be out of the blazing heat, but winter in the states means frozen extremities and general chilly discomfort elsewhere. A nice spring-like temperature would be excellent.

After all that complaining, it turns out I'm really glad to be home. Thailand reached a natural ending, and I'm glad to close that chapter in my life. Now I can rest and regroup in good ol' Jersey until my next adventure.

Chachachang Mamamaiiii

We made it! Chiang Mai is awesome. SP and I spent the first two days exploring the city on foot. We would basically find a store or restaurant online that looked cool and go find it, like a self-made scavenger hunt. We found the best pizza in town, the huge grocery store, and the only pumpkin pie in Thailand, among others. One night for dinner we went to this fancy-ass place where we sat in our own outdoor room thing (shown above) that was fairly inexpensive for American standards. Saidee took the midnight bus from Mae Sariang, arriving at 4am on Tuesday. We surprised her by going to a place that has cheesecake, her favorite dessert. We decided to all get hair wraps, and we found this awesome cafe where the owner does beautiful ones. In the cafe we discovered this subculture of young Europeans, who were once tourists but decided to stay. They all hang out in cute cafes, do yoga, play cool instruments. Last night we ended up at a cheesey Mexican place with karaoke called Loco Elvis. We sat next to two guys who...prepare for your mind to be blown...went to Colorado College, my tiny school no one on the east coast has ever heard of. They gave me tons of advise, made me so so excited for the fall. Later we're going to a Thai movie. And tomorrow we go home!

School's Out

 

Yesterday was our last day of school. They held a big assembly for SP and me where they gave us each a Karen shirt and bag. Two of the sixth graders read a speech in English, and each class came up to take pictures with us. At the end they requested we sing an American song. We made a deal that we'd sing only if we could have a giant group hug at the end. We put on our best purple dinosaur voices and sang the Barney "I Love You" song. When we finished, the boy standing next to me in the picture was the first to come hug us. He's a first grader named Boo, and it's very possible I love him more than any other person in the world. I've never exchanged more than the few English words we taught with him, but it doesn't matter. He sat on my lap each class, secretly knowing that he was my favorite. The moment he ran up to hug me was the moment I lost it; the tears came before I could stop them. The rest of the day was full of hugs from everyone...our favorites, the trouble makers, the kids whose names we still didn't know. Teaching at that school was truly such an amazing experience. I wish there was a way to continue their English education, because no teachers there know any English. Those kids have such potential. Hopefully I can go back in a few years, see Boo all grown up, and refresh what they learned in the two month English crash course we game them.

Tomorrow morning we're off to Chiang Mai! We have everything planned out (well, mostly just what we want to eat). Mexican, Italian, more Mexican, and one last Thai meal for good measure. We just have to get through the five hour bus ride. Weeeee!