I have two new roommates from Thailand. Not sure if I mentioned that yet. Their English is enough for us to communicate, and although I feel like I'm living with my students, it's nice to have people around. I still spend a majority of my time next door watching friends and eating and doing work there, but it's nice to not come home to an empty house. They are the sweetest girls, too. They keep feeding me and cleaning up after me, which is slightly annoying but also the nicest thing. They are here until February, and I won't be here in December, but at least we'll have a little time to get to know each other, and hopefully they'll give me some tips for traveling around Thailand.
I'm trying to write an essay for Teachers for Vietnam about my experience so far and it is the hardest paper to write. I have so much to say and at the same time, there is nothing I can say that will really explain how I've felt. Luckily I'm just sitting around all weekend with a bum foot so I have a lot of time to finish it up. The foot is doing better, i don't think my toe is broken anymore because the swelling has gone down quite a bit. My ankle hurts the most now, so I think it was just all swollen and bruised. I've been staying off of it and I cancelled all my plans for today (football, volleyball, and a get together with my students) Actually, my students cancelled it all for me because they said it would be better for my health to rest. They are very concerned about what is good for your health. If there is a match in the afternoon they often tell me I should stay home because they are afraid it will be too hot and I will get ill. If I sneeze, they immediately ask me if I'm sick, and if I say no they say that it is probably just because of the weather changing constantly. I've never been taken such good care of. I've also never been respected as much. I realize this more and more every day, this is something I will miss when I leave. Not so much the being pampered, but just being respected and valued at a completely different level.
I have finally come to terms with being here. Is three months long enough to be over culture shock? I've realized, and confirmed it after talking to numerous friends who are now or have been abroad, that you can't completely settle until you've felt that homesickness. Getting over it has made me confident that I I will be able to get through anything. Not that it won't be hard again, I know that it will, but now I know that I can get through it. Thank god for the support system I have (I literally hit the bottom and didn't want anything else but to go home, and Whitney and Michelle told me I wasn't welcome and they didn't want to see me. In a weird way, that was the best advice I've received :) I'm still not sure if the internet is a blessing or a curse, but it is definitely nice to keep in touch with what everyone is doing. I hope you get a chance to check up some blogs I've posted the links to - I am lucky to know some really amazing people who are out doing incredible things with their lives. But anyway, this is where I live for now and this is my life - some days suck, but some days are incredibly rewarding, and those days more then make up for the bad ones. And it's suppose to be hard- otherwise it wouldn't be worth it.
Some things you all probably know about but I'm just catching wind of-
-Phish is playing a reunion tour this summer? Can someone clarify this and buy us tickets?
-Backstreet Boys are back in the recording studio? Doesn't anyone learn?
-Whitney from the Hills is going to have a spin of show about being single in Manhattan called The City? Am I crazy, or does something like this already exist? They couldn't even come up with a clever title!
-Tim Burton is making Alice in Wonderland. I can't decide if I'm really excited about this, or if it will be too terrifying for me...
-Sarah Palin rapped on Saturday Night Live? I'm currently trying to download the video.
I currently can't stop listening to Blinded by Third Eye Blind.
"Time passes and it tells us what we're left with. We become the things we do."
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