Things that keep me sane.

As a dear friend has noted, I am approaching my 6th monthsary here in Thailand, by the end of March. I know, that's still another month to go, but I figured that I've spent a long enough time here to warrant a reflection of things that keep me sane. Who knows how universal they might be!

1. A great morning cup of coffee restores the soul. Even better when friends are in the mix.

My favorite beans come from Latin America, and Thailand being bereft of such, my amazing friends and family have risen to the occasion and sent me coffee grounds in glorious packages. I can't wait to start traveling in April just so I can put my grubby hands on some beans from Thailand and Laos. Also, a note to self, when I return home I will never use a coffee machine again. I'm swearing my oath of loyalty to a coffee press from now on.

2. My jogs on highway 22. On my best days I have a wonderful view of the sunset running up a hill. Yes it's 80-some degrees and it can be incredibly humid, but the stares I get that convey "is she off her rocker doing that?!" or seeing baby water buffalos playing in the water are rewards enough. My best run thus far has to be the one where I encountered a 60 yr old Thai man in short shorts, and as we passed each other we shared a Wai and a laugh.

3. Making dinner every night. My roommate is vegetarian, so we have had some really awesome dinner exploits. Black beans and rice, fried bananas, Indian curry and dhal, falafels, refried beans, pasta, homemade tortillas, ... oh my! The list goes on, but I also should say that we have come a loooong way in making things for dinner. We make everything from scratch, Soon I will dedicate a post cataloguing, with visual aids, our daily ahan yin. I always look forward to it, nearing the day's end, another ritual, another chore in which I can decompress. That is, on nights when our gas stove is not plotting to kill me and Trish...

4. Cleaning. My broom is my zen brush, and with each stroke, I swipe away all of life's debris.

5. Laughing. Both to yourself, and with friends. When you live in a village in Thailand, there are an exponential number of things to laugh about.

Of course, it goes without mentioning that on days that I really connect with my students, which is most of the time, I just get shivers knowing that I have, somehow, amidst all of life's variables and insanities, ended up doing a thing that makes me happy.

A year older, hopefully a little wiser.

Oh birthdays! Let me just say that I got to spend this birthday right, surrounded by incredible volunteers with an 80's dance party, and students who threw me a huge party at school and gave me flowers and... yes, mango!

If someone had told me, last year, on my birthday, that I would be spending my 23rd here in Thailand, performing a ridiculous homage to the 80's, I would tell them that they were crazy. Just absolutely crazy.

Well, it can't be helped to look back in retrospect, and to think about how so many things in my life has changed within the span of one year. Big life things, I mean. I graduated from college. I finished a thesis. I packed up my life in a suitcase and a half and moved oceans away from home, to live in a Thai village and teach English to elementary school kids. For the past four months, I've learned an incredible amount of things that I wanted to share:

1. Wealth is defined by the amazing things that have come to occupy your heart, not your pocket. By our American standards I'm probably close to destitute. But in that case, I'm a very happy pauper. As I've witnessed through this American recession, money is just so transient. I've learned that one should pursue and hold on to fortunes that are more sustaining. A great example of emotional riches is your students haranguing you to play "Hey Jude" by The Beatles, because the song, whose meaning they can't yet decipher, has obviously struck an inner chord that keeps resonating. Another, is the family you can rapidly build, and whose support you cannot, absolutely, live without. (this is a shout out of my fellow volunteers).

2. Laughter is the best anodyne.

Freud speculates that laughter is symptomatic of anxiety. I agree, but to expand on that, it's the best way I've learned how to deal with the absence of the Western world luxuries. No running water? No functioning toilet? No proper plumbing? Near death experiences with my gas stove? Ubiquitous insect bites? No problem. Have a beer, and laugh at life.

3. There is no need, no rush, to live a conventional life.

And by conventional, I mean a life that most adults expect you to have. Go to college. Graduate. Work, or go to more schooling, graduate, and then work. Make lots of money. However, living here, and thinking about the things that I appreciate, I've learned that there is nothing wrong with a little bit of improvization with your life. It's like cooking--experimentation can lead to some amazing results. Traveling and volunteering has helped me expand my worldview, expand my horizon, and expand my heart, to capacities I'm only beginning to discover.

4. Happiness is working in service of others, and having fun while doing it.

More than ever, I want to have a career that lets me sleep at night knowing that I've done good things that day. My respect for the teaching profession has exponentially increased. What they do, or at least, what they are capable of doing for students, is absolutely incredible.

5. Home. Its definition is explosive.

Home, is where you can sit down and have a good meal. Home, is where you can have a good cup of coffee in the morning, hot off the press. Increasingly, through my experiences, home is location independent. Home is everywhere and nowhere. I want to keep it that way.

And now, after this long post, I've gotten prescriptive. But that is okay, because along the road I will read this again and think about whether the 23 yr old me got it right...

Much love from Nakhon Phanom.

ps, here's a very happy 23 year old, celebrating with birthday cake:

Nowhere you can be, that isn't where you're meant to be.

Happy Valentine's Day, from Thailand.

Scenes from Na Bpong School

It is a treat to have their picture taken, for some reason. I will exploit this to my full advantage :)

The 6th-graders pretty much run the school. Distributing and making lunch include some of their daily responsibilities.

A cramped classroom of twenty kids.

A school dog sleeps in the afternoon haze.

Children's playground. Although, I imagine the metal slides and bars are no fun when the sun is blazing.

1st graders helping the janitor clean up dead leaves.

He is half my size. He is adorable.

2nd graders sweeping the school clean.

They know a camera when they see one!

Na Bpong School. Student population: 80.

An Atypical Day, Part 2.

Surprisingly enough, my Thai speaking skills are getting better after I thought I'd hit a plateau. Maybe it just takes a little while for your brain to become fully acclimated to a different language, but I feel like I'm more attune to understanding (and speaking!) Thai with the natives here. Also, it helps that I try to translate English vocabulary that I teach to my students into Thai, which I didn't realize was actually self-serving as well. After about 7 classes of teaching things over and over again, I have learned my fair share of Thai.

Which means, that I'm able to communicate more to my students! It's so great. Apparently at one of my schools, Thai Samakee, they've nicknamed me, Ms. Mi kuam sook, which means, Miss Happy. Hahah, I had to qualify that. Mai tukwan, I said. Not everyday. When students aren't giving me sass, I am happy. I've been able to joke around more, and even teased one of my teachers for having ten husbands, in Isan. Kru mi sip puan!! And the students just roared with laughter.

Today, turned out to be one of those atypical days again. I've been practicing simple prepositions with my 5th graders, and to reinforce the lesson, I decided to play a game where they have to stand in front, beside, behind, sit under, and sit on top of their partners. However, when I asked my students to stand up, one of the girls suddenly projectile vomits all over her hands, and I was like a deer caught in the headlights. It was one of the situations where I knew I had to do something, but I didn't know what, like the time when Trisha was making dinner and the pipe from the gas stove loosens and suddenly we had 4 foot flames in the kitchen, and we just stared dumbly at it for a while.

But I digress. I quickly got my act together, fortunately, and took care of the poor girl. But being queasy as I was, at the sight of vomit in the classroom (and secretly worrying that I also ingested something nasty during lunch and was seconds away from suffering the same fate) I bleakly pantomimed for a mop. A tiny 5th grade boy came to my rescue, after I insisted we resume classes, and cheerfully, and deftly, mopped up the mess. I was pretty upset at myself for not having enough balls to do it, so in order to compensate the awesome superhero for his efforts, I gave him 20 baht and told him to get himself some sweets after school. This sort of thing definitely makes the job interesting, to say the last.

I am pretty excited for the next unit--which is parts of the body, and parts of the face. For next week, I asked them to bring mirrors (nam ma kra chok lek!) because we are going to do some serious self-portraits! I love integrating visual arts and songs in my classes, so naturally, because I am the sole autocrat in the classroom, the students will have to subject to my whims...

Hopefully I will bring my camera to school soon, so I can take photos of the every day and post them here. I admire the school kids for being so incredibly involved into how the school runs. Every morning, I watch them prepare food for the day's lunch, and then they wash all the dishes, and even look after the younger kids when the teachers are absent for an inordinate number of reasons. It is really admirable, compared to how school kids live in the states...