writing in real-time

although i have hardly covered anything from my travels since last june, i think it's time to move out of the past and back into the present. whenever i start a new life somewhere new, i find myself with the same mix of emotions--the euphoria and excitement about the new and the longing for the life i had just left. like returning to camp summer after summer, i have to close the door on the previous experience in order to move on, and that can be a difficult task after something magnificent, like my time in bali or phi phi.

i have a great life in korea now. it feels so much like a normal person's working life. i sleep late in the mornings, have coffee and orange juice while watching the news, go running around the lake by my building, ride the bus to school, work until i am finshed (pronounced "finish-ed"), and then ride the bus back home and sometimes go out. my school takes such good care of me, which is such a surprise after my last school and the dreaded head teacher ajarn unchalee. as the saying goes, life is good.

home, part two

i love going for walks in my neighborhood; helen took these photos one afternoon. the kayaking photos are from the st marks.

homecoming

the longer i am away, the more i love where i am from. in september, i went home to get my korean visa after things failed to come together in bangkok. going home meant starting my new job a bit later than i had planned, but everything happens for a reason. my friend helen came to visit me from california, and i took her on a tour of the forgotten coast--st george island and apalachicola. we went kayaking down the st marks river with my mom and her friends, and we spotted some huge gators there! i'm already excited for helen to come visit again. the two of us can make any travel idea work, so it will definitely happen. the weekend after helen left, i made a surprise visit to kentucky to go to my father's wedding. there's certainly never a dull moment with my family!

bye bye in bangkok

a little trip to laos

i fell in love with laos, as most travelers do. i started out the trip with my headband friend imogen from saraburi, where we got on the train the thursday night when i was recovering from the bangkok bug. i thought the best way to squash it was with some tubing down the river in vang vieng. i immediately felt better, although we spent the first day doing little other than lounging in hammocks, watching friends, and eating sandwiches. tubing was a blast, but there are no pictures to show for it since i didn't want to lose another camera. i went back for tubing part two with a friend i made in luang prabang. i really thought about staying to work in laos, but i had a flight home planned and some good-byes to say in bangkok. chances are, my new school probably wouldn't have been too pleased if i had turned up looking like i did when i arrived home (and without any dress clothes to my name...17 bikinis and a stack of sundresses would not have been appropriate attire for korea!). i can't wait to go back to laos one day, especially if i get the chance to bring along helen or warren.

ha's birthday weekend....when we all thought we had contracted the plague

and then

after too much time partying on the beach, i decided it was time to relax a bit. the solution: a week in a spa in chiang mai. i could live here and be euphorically happy. my days included having breakfast in bed, floating in the pool, reading poolside, getting massages, and going on bicycle rides.

the transition...bouncing around

my one week before teaching turned out to be several before going home. i had a fabulous time revisiting a few thai places and exploring laos. first stop, return to bangkok, home of the pizza sounds restaurant and spicy affair.

the island said goodbye

alicia put together the world's best good-bye party when i left. somehow, she even managed to arrange the most beautiful sunset ever, as seen from the mojito bar. there was so much love that it almost looked like a bachelorette party. to leave my little mark on phi phi, i painted a corner of the banana bar, a place where i spent many of my favorite nights and the hungover morning-afters, munching breakfast burritos and watching movies.

some more favorites...working hard!

some favorite faces of phi phi

a few more photo reflections of phi phi and then back to my new life....scuba girls gone wild

during one full moon, alicia and i planned a brilliant night out for the girls who lived on the island. we called it the "wear what you never wear party." we started out at mojito bar (r.i.p.) and then moved on to banana bar. we stopped by the dojo, where most of us worked or hung out every night. sim started a train around the bar, and while phil got on top of the bar with a cocktail shaker containing something delicious. like any other night on the island, we ended up on the beach. i love these girls so much!

another first day of school in a new country

after my visa application was accepted in atlanta last thursday, my life has been moving pretty quickly. i received my passport on friday afternoon while packing, yet again, for another year. i left tallahassee on saturday morning, after trying to cram everything i love about home into 18 hours. i went out for indian food and shopping with my mom. i love shopping with her, because both of us absolutely hate shopping; we run in and out, just lingering long enough to pick up what is absolutely necessary. we sat on our back porch and enjoyed the cool, cloudy fall day (quite the rarity in tally). we went out in town for sushi and drinks downtown. we baked chocolate chip cookies and ate cookie dough. i quickly finished packing on saturday morning, being sure to leave enough time to stop by waffle house for breakfast. oh, food and the south.

forty hours later, i arrived in seoul. i really felt like i should have arrived in bangkok after i left eh states. i was just glad to arrive after a very rough flight that involved flying around korea for an extra hour to avoid actually going through the thunderstorms covering the city. i wish we could've just gone through; it would have taken ten minutes, tops, and would have cut out a lot of screaming and puking (oh, how i wish the italian girl sitting next to me had eaten less for breakfast!).

i thought getting to my apartment would be easy after the mental morning. a korean man met me at the airport and put me on a bus. i thought he would ride with me, but he seemed to be telling the driver to let me off at a certain stop. needless to say, the driver forgot. i got off at the last stop on the line with all of my bags. freezing in the early morning wind, i asked around for a little help and made a new friend named deborah, who contacted my school for me. he was waiting many stops before mine and had been there for a couple of hours, panicking that he had lost the new teacher.

given the morning, i thought i was in for a terrible day. i was wrong. sophie teacher took grat care of me on my first couple of days here at school. the other teachers are amazingly kind. i think i will be happy here.

fun times

malaysia

sim and i went to kuala lumpur to renew our visas and made some interesting friends at the reggae bar.