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“Jai-yaen-yaen”

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Excuse the Instagram screen shot, but this is the only picture I have that captures the essential moment of the week: MEETING MY HOST FAMILY! The morning we were leaving the hotel, everyone was excited. We were finally going to be able to put our Thai to use. I rehearsed my lines over and over (in Thai) “My name is Emily, I am from America, I have three sisters, my dog’s name is Tilly, I like spicy food...” my teacher (aajan) told me I was ready. I felt ready, too. We ate our last meal at the hotel (which was the hotel’s attempt at mashed potatoes special for us), loaded our stuff on the bus, and headed to meet our families at the Don Chedi hub. When the busses pulled in, my heart skipped a beat. Alright Em, phase 2 of training, here we go. We got out, sat down across the aisle from the host families, and endured an excruciatingly long opening ceremony. No one was paying attention to the speakers because we were just too excited to see who got who. When it was finally over, nam...
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The People You're With

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I have officially been at site for two weeks. Before we packed our bags, our trainers in Don Chedi told us "you'll have so much down time when you get to site. It's bid term there so you can kick back and relax a bit!" I think they were right, if you exclude the two day exam conference, graduation ceremony, staff dinner parties which you're given thirty minutes prior notice for and told to "go shower!" and the usual demand to play "hospital" with my crazy (but perfect) little host sisters. All joking aside, having a jam packed schedule has been essential for my integration here. I can feel my counterparts and I getting more comfortable with each other (last night she said "I'm gonna miss you when you leave" and I told her she literally has two years before she has to worry about that). My host family cracks jokes with me more, the students who play volleyball ask me to join, even the stray dogs know I'm probably gonna ...
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Bike Day: “Leaning in”

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In the past week, Group 131 has been working diligently under the theme “you can do hard things.” It seems like an obvious statement at first, but once you repeat it in your head when you’ve been put to the test, it energizes you. I want to explain how it helped me today. Most people know that I’ve never been a strong biker. I start off alright, but if I hit an obstacle or an unexpected bump I get what some refer to as “muppet arms,” flail about, and crash to the ground. So today, when we were expected to bike 10 kilometers in Don Chedi, our new home in 3 days, I was nervous. The morning started out alright, I got my bike (which is beautiful!), adjusted the seat, and did some practice loops in the driveway with my team. I was starting to relax when I saw the person in front of me had stopped, and I plowed into them, causing me to fall off my bike. I was horrified, but got up and made jokes so people wouldn’t worry. My hands were all cut up. I thought “God if I can’t do this how ...
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