As one sun sets a brighter one rises

I left Thailand but Thailand never left me. I wear my thai pants everywhere and I bite back so many “This one time in Thailand…” stories so I don’t sound like that ‘Gap Yah’ kid.

The summer of 2013 was a nice one, the soundtrack of my flashbacks consists of geckos chattering, tuk-tuks honking and monks chanting mixed with ‘Thrift Shop’ and ‘Get Lucky’. I had the time of my life counting fireflies, sheltered from a monsoon under a bamboo hut with my new friends, strangers I had met that day, laughing at each others accents and hiding from the co-ordinator whenever she came to yell at us for still being out, or being so loud (sorry Nikki… it was too much fun!).

During my time there I ate over 54 bowls of rice and had some of the most absurd, hilarious and enchanting moments- where do I start?

There’s the evening where torrential rain spontaneously burst upon the nightmarket and I, along with Trip, Aisling and Karan-my new friends found ourselves dancing with the locals until the monsoon weather stopped, an hour later and our clothes had soaked to our skin, rain leaking out of our shoes.
Or being woken up at 5am at the temple by teachers who, as it turned out, weren't joking about compulsory morning exercise for staff and pupils.
Last summer was something I laugh about a lot still. Because jumping in a waterfall in your best dress is a memory that can’t be over-replayed.

You can’t explore the world if you don’t open your front door. My experience only confirmed my initial optimism- that most people are good. The kindness shown to me- teachers giving me lifts, locals inviting us over for lunch and waitresses making note to stock my favourite cake as I told them I would return on the weekend, has made me determined that other young people should have the opportunity to experience a new culture while giving something back. So my advice to any young people reading this is to dream big, work hard and take the jump to go to far out places, because my only regret was that July had to end.

Those of you who read this blog last year will remember that while I was teaching English in Thailand my sister was doing an Internship in Washington DC (http://nikitagoestotheothersideofthepond.blogspot.co.uk/). This year…the adventure continues! It seems we will be spending the summer on different continents again, crossing over as I head over to the East Coast to teach Adventure at a summer camp and while I trace her footsteps she will continue mine, doing education and outreach work in China. (I made a cool map, above, which shows how we have crossed over!)

If you like travel journals, are thinking of being a camp counselor, here’s the blog I intend to keep while I’m over the Atlantic: http://i-like-to-be-in-america.blogspot.co.uk/

Thanks for reading guys, I feel like you've travelled with me, really. 1470 hits? Woah!

Georgia xx

This is what goodbye looks like

my scrapbooked journal: now an inch thick with travel stories

traveller bands: the yellow stolen from southern belle Lucy, the pink and yellow made for me by girls at the orphanage, the white and red, some string I found on Mod's porch and fashioned into a band

the brown books: messages from everyone at foundation. We all wrote in each others and vowed not to read them until on the plane home. They have quotes from funny happenings here, contact details and just funny things to read. There are so many beautiful and hilarious messages in those pages, testimony to my amazing and hilarious new friends!

thank you cards: from kids at my last placement: a reminder of the children, the lessons, the songs, the games...

I want to say thank you, lastly to so many people- those who started this journey with me- who sponsored me to come out here and the teachers and friends who inspired me to travel. Those who listened to this blog which now has almost 1000 views, that's so cool to see, thank you! And to the wonderful volunteers and travellers who I shared this experiences with, thank you guys. This summer has gone beyond words (coming from someone who writes a lot...). Anyone on this webpage must fall into one of those three categories, so THANK YOU ALL!

Lastly, my wish for anyone reading this page is that they travel. If you can't get on a plane this summer, get a bus and see your own hometown- go to new coffee shops, talk to strangers, get involved in local culture be it temples, theatres or bookstores nearby. Go out and see the world (well, a bit of it...)

Above 1: A quote I found on the wall in Peace Bar (Chiang Rai) and loved instantly
Above 2: Playing my favourite game- how many people can you fit round a table in Doi Chaang

 

Until next time
"Goodbye"
Georgia <3

Placement no.3

Above photo: Taken from the hammock. Not the best quality as I forgot my camera so had to use my laptop camera. Hopefully you can make it rice paddies with a mountain backdrop.

 

I'm staying at the Tom  Karen centre- a functioning building with electricity and mosquito-proof windows. We are spoiled (this isn't sarcasm. The place is lovely). The bathroom has a light, an flushing toilet, dry floor and TOILET ROLL. All of this made for a lot of gasping from us volunteers.

 

We teach at a hilltribe school from 9-3 and for an hour after school at the centre.

 

Mod, our host Mum is wonderful. Last night Aisling told her she'd never seen a firefly, Mod ran to get a bamboo mat for us all to sit on and turned off all the lights Ash and I insisted everyone turn off their phones so we sat in complete darkness (it's not like there's any street lighting here..).
Soon fireflies came some only a metre away from us. It's like zooming fairy lights in the sky.

 

Mod also came to our school during lunch hour today and explained she had cooked tofu sweet and sour for Axel and I as the school was making pork curry and she knew Axel was Jewish and I vegetarian. She made food and bought it in for us. I love Mod!
(She also said she would teach us all how to cook Thai food tonight :D )

 

This is Axel, by the way. He's French and when he says 'Hokey Pokey' it sounds like 'Le Honky Pokeny'. I laugh about this approximately ten times a day.

 

 

Thai Culture

FOOD!

Not gonna lie. The thought of eating something other than rice has me excited all week long. Because there’s only so much comfort given by Oreos. So while people around me plan temples to visit and daytrips, I create menus in my head. Tonight I had a cocoa frappe (a week without dairy products made the arrival of a cream-laden chocolatley drink to my table worthy of whooping) tomato soup, fries (A CARB THAT ISN’T RICE!) and a Dragonfruit (try it) and Kiwi smoothie. I’ve literally been walking round the town making food plans for tomorrow “So breakfast can be pancakes and then it’ll be pizza for dinner…”.

On weekends we volunteers tend to gorge ourselves on western food- fries, pizza, milk, cheese, chocolate, waffles, pancakes. Obviously the rich, oily, sugariness came as a shock after a week of rice so a lot of us spend Saturday night feeling ill. But I have no regrets

This is half the volunteer group at Doi Chaang, the Asian version of Starbucks. So far I’ve had around thirty bowls of rice. Rice is good. Rice is constant. It’s the side dishes- the mushy dark green, foul looking vegetables that I’ve taken to avoiding. Ew. Hey, I tried them. My first week I tried every dish but I kept making this face, every meal. So I soon gave up.

 

PANTS!

I don't know if there's an actual name for these type of trousers but we all just call them pants. Perfect for this climate: loose fitting, pretty pattern cotton pants. We all wear pants. We all love pants. Pants! That is all.

 

SA WAT DE KA!

This is the standard Thai greeting (for girls, for guys it’s Sa Wat De Krup). You cannot buy anything at the shop, ask a question or say hello without saying SA WAT DE KA!  And wai-ing. (Smiles are also obligatory :D )

 

MOSQUITO NETS!

SQUAT TOILET!

Urgh. Not so glamorous. There’s not really much to say about squat toilets, except that they are everywhere and they are not my favourite thing.

 

MONKS!

The Monks here are just Thai men who happen to wear orange robes. They own iPhones, have tattoos and go to cafes around town.

 

SHOES!

In Asian culture it’s polite to take your shoes off before entering any temple, classroom ands some cafes.                   

 

THAI TIME!

Everything runs late. I call it “running on thai time” because if you arrange to meet up at 8.30 and show up at 9.15 you’re not considered late. Similarly, last week my first class of the day started at 9am but the school didn’t collect me until 9.15am.

Above: Chiang Rai clock tower that lights up on the hour

 SKIN WHITENING!

It's funny how at home everyone wants to be more tan and here girls lather themselves in skin whitening products...

 

STREET VENDORS!

For those brave enough (so far Emily and Sam) there is a variety of fried insects to buy and eat. That’s right. People PAY to eat bugs here. Mealworms and Crickets and other winged beetle things.

 I was quite excited about getting street food, which is world class here. Here I am, getting a dragonfruit smoothie. I think my excitement shows…

 

 

 



 

 

My Senior Prom Night

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytBR7ET_6uU

Tonight, back in England it's my senior Prom.
The story Facebook shows is of girls in pretty dresses and boys in tuxes sitting in a decorated room.
I'm on a bamboo platform hut, totally exposed to the elements in rural east Asia. It's Tom, Andy, Sam, Jake and I. The conversation alternates from sociology and cultural politics to the stuff you would expect teenagers to speak about.

But tonight's incredible. So much more so than Prom could ever have been. Ever. Last week, these guys were strangers, tonight the only thing louder than the laughter is the rain- it's a monsoon. Torrential, deafening, but not cold, heaving streaming, pouring, like you've never seen it rain. So we sit for a few hours, until gone midnight on this platform. Listening to crickets. Watching fireflies.

I've never seen a firefly before.

 

"Hello Blogspot"

So, in July I'm off to Thailand for a month to teach English to school children and monks with 'The Mirror Foundation' through an agency called IVHQ. This blog is for family, friends and anyone else who is interested to open my journal and read a diary of my thoughts, photos and experiences while I'm 12,626km away. I didn't want to be "that girl" on a 'gap yar' annoying everyone on Facebook with constant travel status' in a smug hipster way so I've got a blog so people can tune in/tune out instead.

It's going to be fun and challenging. The trip. But also using BlogSpot as I'm unbelievably bad with technology (when I say bad I mean last month I actually found out how to change the ringtone on the phone I've had for 2 years...). Right now I've got a pile of paperwork to get through- application forms, visa, passport, CRB, insurance, flights, medical checks and all the forms that go with university and student bank accounts...fun.

Thanks for coming along the ride with me. I promise the next post will be more interesting!