We try and control change, try and either have it not happen at all, or have it bend to our whims. But we have no control, and change is in fact inevitable…and really, it’s just better to let it happen and go with the flow. Ya dig?
As it stands, many things have changed from my last pretty lame attempt at letting you all get a glimpse into my world. My parents went home…alas. It was a sad departure, but honestly (dad, kaz…don’t take this the wrong way!!) I think it was time…only because after several weeks of travel and more luxury than I was used to, I was ready to go back to site…to go home. Yes…home. It was a strange transition to feel like site was home, but there you go…there it is. Though, I must confess, it wasn’t only the feeling of being able to wake up in my own bed and not live out of a bag that excited me…just so happened that I was also pretty excited to hang out with two pretty cool peace corps boys in Udon Thani, one of which, admittedly, I have quite a crush on…(god, what an understatement…). Ben, Marshall, and I stayed in Udon for a night, wandered about, eating pizza, drinking beer, and scarfing down (inevitable when in the company of Marshall) tons of fruit. Afterwards, it was Ben and I to go back to my site, where my co teacher was holding a merit making ceremony for her mother…apparently the whole village was invited, plus some…which means over 600 people. She asked me to dress up in full thai garb, which I agreed to with some hesitation, but turns out it was only for the morning, which I had missed…due to laziness and craving for good coffee…which turned out to be kinda shitty anyway. Oh well. Can’t have it all.
Bringing Ben to site was one thing, but bringing him to a celebration with drinking and dancing (and always the one crazy woman with too much makeup and too little clothes) is quite another. Poor boy…harassed to no end. “are you together?” (shrug), “do you speak laos” (no), “Drink Whiskey!!!!” (I’ll stick to beer, thanks)…and that was only the first 15 minutes or so. Then the walk around the village began…under the blazing and unforgiving sun, fire crackers going off everywhere and kids running after them, balloons fueled by heat released into the air by monks, and the ubiquitous shrill of thai music trailing behind the crowd, urging them to dance. And Ben and I…well. Ok I’ll just start from when this woman with too much rouge, brighhhhtttt pink lips, neon blue eye shadow, and a shoooort short dress (whoa isaan is even effecting my English) ran up to the two of us, threw her arms around Ben, and kissed him all over his face, leaving bright pink traces of this violation everywhere. Then it was my turn. Needless to say, we spent the remainder of the time trying to avoid her…not an easy task. On the walk, we stayed mostly with the dancing crowd, protected (hardly) by my coteachers sister…who happened to be drunk…so the body guard thing didn’t really work out. It actually was more like Ben being dragged away by drunk men (one infuriatingly persistent, the other creepy in a ‘making EYES at ben’ sorta way)…and I finally using my bouquet of flowers to run them off. Successful, to a degree. Whatever…anyway…
Ben stayed at my site for the weekend…a wonderful, fabulous weekend of…well, wonderful and fabulous things. After a few days, we took a first class bus (we were too late to get on the VIP…a mistake never to be repeated…don’t think me spoiled…you wouldn’t want to ride on a first class bus for 12 hours either) to Chiang Mai, to both visit Bens site as well as to celebrate Halloween and Loy Krathong (a thai holiday involving fire crackers, heat fueled balloons, and putting some plant flower incense candle arrangement thing in the river and watching is float away – something to do with respect for the river…or romance…or , yeah I don’t know). Halloween was amazing, spending time with a large group of 120ers, and Nancymarie and Ben from 121, all of whom were so badass and dressed up!! More than I can say for others….grr. I was Lara Croft (pictures to come soon) and Ben was Mega Man…notice the video game theme…if we actually faced off like we said we would…I so would’ve kicked MegaMans ass….try and refute that…just try! With all the strange occurrences that happened and places we ended up and people we met, Halloween was, simply put, amazing.
The rest of the few days in that region were spent at both Bens site and Chiang Mai, and all the time spent with Ben was that sort of thing I was talking about that brings about those changes you don’t really expect. We spent all that time together, hardly apart, and every day was more amazing than the next. He even took me to the tallest mountain (it was freezing…so perfect) in Thailand to watch the sunset…’nough said.
It all was a surreal experience, but I’m back at site now with new feelings and motivation...I haven't felt this good in quite some time...could be getting my need for travel out of my system, temporarily, could be having a month away from school and site and actually missing the whole thing, could be the sweetness of Honeycomb,...i think its all of the above. And it's only getting better...
Peace out, One Love, and Chocolate Sauce!
