It's been about six months, which means it's been quite a while since my last post, and many things have changed.
Also, I've made a bit of a bad habit of writing drafts, but not successfully posting them. Let's just say, I haven't been making complete thoughts, or following through.
The basic updates since my last post:
- I witnessed two weddings, both small and quiet enough. Both of couples who had been together for at least five years.
- I chopped off a good amount of hair to donate to Locks of Love, for the second time in my life.
- I went to Europe
The one-week detour taken through Europe was fantastic. Most of the trip was quite amazing, to be honest. Unfortunately, I have not so many pictures from the trip because I misplaced my phone one magical night in Cologne, Germany. If I were asked if I would make a return trip, I would say; 'HELL YES" as calmly as my body could contain it.
These were the cities I visited, chronologically:
1) Berlin, Germany 3 nights
2) Cologne, Germany 1 night
3) Paris, France, 3 nights
4) Amsterdam, Netherlands 1 night
In each city.... except Paris, I would say I had an adventure. Adding on to the thrill was managing to stay warm, because in Thailand, there is no need for cold-weather clothes, so I wasn't going to bring many winter clothes for one week.
Nonetheless, I traveled by myself and managed to survive. For someone who still doesn't know how taxes work, and has quite a lot of dependence on her mother for adulthood questions, it was a major feat.... a milestone, one would say.
Many of the activities I did were last minute. Things like... Finding some historic museums, going to an underground funk-hiphop show after trying to fix my lights, getting lost in a city to find my way back, celebrating "Man's Day" with complete strangers. Finding transportation to different cities and booking a room the day before I would arrive. I was living on the edge, maybe.
I even had a chance encounter that made me think of a certain shirt saying.:
"Do you believe in love at first sight, or should I walk by again?"Why did I think this? Easy, I was at a café in Amsterdam, eating an apple pancake, when I saw a beautiful young man walk by the window. I watched him curiously. five minutes later, he returned to the café and came inside to eat.
After I finished my breakfast, I left, and started walked across a bridge. On the other side of the bridge, this same boy(pardon me, I'm so used to saying boy, because I'm not used to saying man, unless they look much older than me) was on the other side, walking towards the bridge. We made eye contact, but it wasn't only that. We made solid eye contact that made it obvious that we were looking at each other, turning heads, uncertain of who would make the first move to talk to the other. Sadly, we passed by each other and went our opposite directions. I couldn't help but be reminded of a poem which I heard, but long ago forgotten the title, about how a man was in love with a girl, but he never once spoke to her, for the fear of ruining is idea of her. Then again, it posed the question of: "What if one of us had spoken to the other? Would our perception change, or would we be just as enamored?" Many what ifs were thought, but if one believes in the way the world is and acts, chance encounters will always happen, and if this one random stranger and I were to meet again, it will happen.
Ah, I encountered quite a few people, and what a mix it was: pleasant, wild people, pesky hoverers, and the infamous multi-faceted ones who give one impression of themselves, and turn into something else completely unexpected. That's the way the world can be and as an acting piece in it, one must handle it and move on.
Now, back in Thailand, and after being back at work for a few months already, I've been getting into the grind of things. I moved into a slightly larger home that offered more comforts, figured out a transportation method to and from work, and picked up a few extra side jobs to make the extra income. In addition to that, I've been making more travel plans and developing more of a social life outside of my work friends or, rather, outside the bubble of a town I've been living in.
In doing that, it did open my perspective of how I had been living my life here so far: I had been limiting myself in making friends and enjoying myself because I didn't think I could survive outside of this comfort zone. I made excuses to why I couldn't go out... because of lack of transportation, but I also couldn't leave town because of the appointments I had every weekend, I was depending on them, even though quite a few were less than dependable, canceling last minute, more often than not.
And they payment wasn't so regular. So, lesson learned: payment must be received at the end of every appointment, or paid in advance so that any time wasted wouldn't be a monetary loss.
Of course, someone told me that contracts like that scare Thai people, and frankly, those are the people you don't want to do business with. Wa-HOO.
Not that it is already past the half-year mark, another things must be taken in to consider: the looming of the decision to be made of renewing my contract or not. On one hand, I could stay, and maybe my contract will be renewed. On the other, it may not.
This is one big decision I have yet to concrete. The decision to move. Lately, this thing has been growing heavier and heavier on my plate of things to do because the pros and cons must be weighed out. The problem I have? I'm not finding so many cons, besides leaving the people I know here, and maybe not finding a job. That being said, job opportunities happen to be quite plentiful in general for foreigners, so is that really a problem? It seems that I have more motivation to move, but the weight of guilt to stay and I think that, if my only reason of staying in the town is because I would feel guilty if I left, I probably shouldn't be staying anyways.
Ah, the decisions of being an adult abroad. Thanks for reading.
Until next time,
K.
