Emily Takes On Thailand

Part 3: Hua Hin The van ride to Hua Hin was brief, only four hours. But my mind raced the entire time. I had no idea what I was getting myself into. All of my friends were gone, my family was gone, it was just me now. What was the school going to look like? What was my new host family going to think of me? Did I just spill iced coffee on my shirt? My co-teacher was sitting next to me, and my principal was in the front seat. Both had been incredibly warm to me in the past three days during the counterpart conference. They were visibly nervous, but I'm sure I was too. We made light chit chat along the way, and eventually became more and more comfortable with each other. Eventually, farms turned into mountains, and mountains soared above the water. The closer we got, the more beautiful it became. I thought "there is no way this is going to be my home." Then suddenly, my co-teacher (Cru Tok), said "we're here." I looked up to see the most stunning templ...

Okay, so it's been a while since I've posted, but I JUST MOVED TO SITE, and I don't want to leave out a single detail of what it's taken to get here, so I'll break it down into three parts... Part 1: Site Reveal It was Tuesday afternoon, everyone had just walked (more like jogged) back from lunch. We sat down on the benches that lined the walkway of the Don Chedi school, since they would not let us inside the meeting room. I swung my legs over the bench so I was turned away from the crowd. Behind me, I could hear people chatting excitedly: "Oh my gosh, is this really happening?" "I should not have eaten that much pineapple at lunch, I'm nauseous now," "Is that sweat going down my back, or just a bug?" I sat there watching some water trickle down a leaf right in front of my face, and thought Well, it's now or never I guess. Then, the doors opened. The country director smiled and shouted "Are you ready to find out ...

Part 2: Saying Goodbye I biked home as fast as my legs could take me to tell my host family the site I had been given. My phone was blowing up with texts from them: "Do you know where you are going yet?!" "Tell us where you are going!!" "When are you coming home?!" When I finally got there, Bua raced up to greet me as she always did. I jumped off my bike to give her a hug, and ran into the house. I called out "Hellloooo! I'm home!" No one answered. I quickly realized the only one home was Paw. He and I were probably the least close out of everyone in the family, but I still could not wait to tell him. I went to the back yard to greet him as he watered the plants. I said "Di chan ja bpai tii Hua Hin!" (I am going to Hua Hin!). The often stoic man smiled, something that only happened now and then, and exclaimed in English: "Ah! The beach!" Soon after that, the rest of the family came home from the market. Meeh (Mom...

Group 131 is exactly one week away from finding out about our site placements. This means that we are six days away from taking the LPI exam, twelve days from leaving our host families, and fifteen days from swearing in as official volunteers. There is much work to be done until these days, and for some reason, I am finding it hard to bring myself to do any of it. The TESS trainees have been out of the classroom for a few weeks now, so the average day of Pre-Service Training usually consists of a four hour language class, a one hour lunch break, and a four hour technical training. In other words: sitting, sitting, and more sitting. While I know all of this information is necessary and there is really no way around it, I find myself fighting the urge to fall asleep. If you asked my fellow trainees, you would probably hear similar sentiments towards the sessions. But for me, I think it goes a little farther than that. I have noticed my mind beginning to wander, often to things that...