Saturday

June 16, 2012 (Saturday)

Today has been a great day.  It’s my first day where I haven’t really seen any friends and I’ve been alone most of the day.  It’s been a struggle the past two weeks to find a balance between being with people all the time, and also being alone to be renewed and rested.  Whenever I am alone here for long periods of time I tend to get lonely and homesick so I’ve been spending a lot of time with people and keeping busy to distract myself.  However, I need time to relax and be refreshed and renewed and usually that happens when I am alone.  Up to this point I have not been able to do that.  People time has kept me distracted and happy and alone time makes me lonely and homesick, making me a little worried when it comes to weekends and I have lots of free time.  But today was a breakthrough!  I’ve spent all day by myself and it’s been great!  I’ve been lesson planning in my classroom, went to a café down the street to lesson plan some more, came back and made some artwork in my room, went out to dinner and read, and now I’m back and just relaxing for the night.  It’s been a relaxing, enjoyable and renewing day which I desperately needed.  I am so grateful to God for answering my prayers and giving me this day of enjoyable rest!

I also had some fun/crazy/sweet experiences today.  I was craving a sandwich today so I walked down to 7-11 to try their ham and cheese toasted sandwich… it was actually pretty good!  That and a bag of watermelon slices was a nice American lunch.  I also went to World Coffee this afternoon which is just two blocks away.  It is a really nice modern café run by a Thai woman who speaks really good English.  Their drinks are a bit pricey for Thailand (although nothing compared to Starbucks) and she can make an amazing iced mocha!  This was my third time going there and my first time alone.  When she saw me she asked me if I wanted a mocha (which I did!).  A little while later she came over with a cup of jasmine tea (which she refilled after I drank it all).  She also gave me a current issue of the Reader’s Digest and cut up some fruit for me that I had never tried.  I forget what the fruit was called but the outside was sour like a grapefruit but was the consistency of a pear and the inside was sweet and the consistency of gooey cotton (that sounds gross but it’s the only thing I can think to compare it to).  I’m not a big fan of sour but I liked the sweet inside.  We also chatted for a while and I found out that she used to teach management at a university in Bangkok but now she is retired.  Anyway, she is the sweetest woman and it was a great time to get off campus, have a change of scenery and do some work while this woman doted on me.

Then I came back and did some art work while listening to music (more on that to come).  Around 5:00pm here every night it rains really hard for about 10 minutes.  Today it rained harder than usual.  When I left my apartment to go get dinner I found that the sidewalk out of campus was completely flooded!  I had to walk through ankle deep water until I got to the raised sidewalk.  I guess it rains so hard that the drainage system can’t keep up with it.  By the time I got back it was dry again. 

On my way out I saw the security guard who always sits by the gate of the school.  He started talking to me in Thai and pointing to a fallen down tree branch.  I gather that he was sitting under the tree and during the storm the tree branch fell down.  I responded in English and talked about how crazy the storm was and commented on the flooding.  We basically had a 5 minute conversation, him speaking in Thai, me speaking in English, and somehow somewhat understanding what the other was saying through the tone of our voices, pointing, and gestures J  After I said goodbye and walked away I laughed at what had just occurred and how absurd but cool it is that we can both speak our own languages (acting like the other one is understanding what we are saying) but yet still kind of able to communicate.

I went to P Nee’s for dinner (I pretty much go there every day for iced Thai tea and a meal).  She is a really sweet lady and speaks some English so we can actually communicate.  I love her cow pad gai (chicken and fried rice with vegetables… and a little lime juice sprinkled on top makes it absolutely incredible… it brings out all the flavors!).  It’s also only a dollar which is great J

Tonight I am doing some more lesson planning and then maybe I will watch a movie or read until bed.  I started reading the Hobbit and the first chapter introduces Bilbo Baggins and how he loves being in the Shire where everything is comfortable and familiar and homey and he does not like adventure!  Sometimes I feel very much like Bilbo Baggins but I have been sent on an adventure just like him.  Today I have enjoyed it!

World Coffee:

1. My complementary jasmine tea and the sweet lady who owns the cafe in the background

2. My delicious iced mocha

3. The view outside the window I was sitting by

4.  A panoramic sweep of the cafe

5. Where I was lesson planning (along with my tea cup, fruit, Reader's Digests and mocha)

6.  The view from where I was working