A Forced Time Out.

-Adjustment-

So I'm about three weeks behind in my weekend adventures but my excuse is Thai time, and also that I've been very ill on the one weekend I planned to catch up. To elaborate more on Thai time, it is a theory of presence where time completely consumes you before you remember what time it is and where you need to be. It is a real thing and I have fallen completely into it. Its almost as if time just stops and whatever you are doing, you are completely in the moment but you know, I think it's one of the best things that has happened to me.

-Change in Lifestyle-

America is completely obsessed with time, productivity and this comes along with completely jam-packing your days until you have as little time possible to sleep. This is something I became used to in the last three years of my life, going to graduate school, working at a bar and all at the same time, running an Art Therapy Program at Hartford Hospital's Cancer Center. I got used to waking up, hitting the ground running, and then not catching my breath again until the half hour I got to catch up on social media before bed. This is a reality that most americans come to terms with over time, and as sad as it is, its just a difference in lifestyle. I wouldn't consider this comparison as better and worse, I would just consider it different. The difference is in Thailand, people walk everywhere, people talk to each other, and help each other out. People take time out of their day to help feed others, help others, assist others and listen. There is a lot of listening. The friendships here are built on trust and communication. When you need something, it is expected that you lean on those around you. This is what i'm used to with family and close close friends, but not with my co-workers and boss. It is so interesting but people might even get offended if you didn't ask them for help when you were sick or if you needed help with something but were too proud to ask. (An issue that many americans struggle with). This is something that is going to take getting used to. The reason I say this is because I have been very sick the past few days. In those few days, I did not leave my bed, I did not eat, I barely moved a muscle. This is the first time I realized that I haven't done 'nothing' in years. Even when I got surgery over this past summer, I realized that I filled my healing time with movies and shows, research, planning for my trips, painting, drawing, etc. I wasn't actually doing nothing. Well I got a taste of it this weekend. I came down with the stomach bug. One of those stomach bugs you get when you're a child and your body stops functioning and you come down with a high grade fever kind of thing. Needless to say,  I shamelessly needed my mom. I woke up Sunday morning feeling a little off, but telling myself that I can get through it because 'thats what I do'. Well let me tell you, next time this happens to me, I will not be continuing my regularly scheduled day. 

I found myself on a bus, then the Bangkok Sky Train slowly becoming more nauseous and achey. I knew that this was a good sign. My productive roommates ran off to church and shopping while I sat my butt down at a Starbucks and watched shows on my phone knowing I was sick and that I shouldn't have made the hour and a half commute to Bangkok. Now if you could only imagine, the symptoms came on and without getting into too much detail I found myself having to ask to skip lines in the mall bathrooms occasionally having to move from a walking pace to a running pace to get there. It was pretty miserable I won't life. My amazing roomates quickly noticed this shift and changed their daily routines to get me home safely. Shout out to you Emily and Shawnda for being my soul sisters.  The issue is, it costs nearly 3x as much to get home without public transportation and all of us are budgeting for the holidays so yes. You are thinking right, I  continued the hour and a half commute home this busy Sunday Afternoon and a rocking train and jolting bust route until I no longer wanted to exist. If you are wondering, I am now afraid of public transportation after this apocalypse of a day. So... Long grueling story straight, I struggled with a fever and stomach flu for the past two days in my bed. Enough of my story on illness because thats not really what you want to read about.  

-The beautiful people in Thailand-

The people I have met here are a blessing. They checked in on me, bringing me water, food thermometers and occasional company. A Fellow teacher from my school Marta, and my best friend here Emily, stopped in from her lunch break on Monday afternoon to give me an herbal remedy she has found helpful in the past. This teacher is from Barcelona and explained to me the way your body can often react to the shift in environment and helped me go over ways to keep the air clean in my room, a clean diet and other extremely helpful tips while practically spoon feeding me homemade tea, yogurt and bread. I am forever in debt to this act of kindness. I have noticed over my time here that not only the other foreign teachers who are here, but the locals are amazing. They are unbelievably beautiful and kind and will go out of there way to make sure you get where you need to be. This is a theme that has persisted throughout my time here. Every act of kindness is sweet and without expectation of reciprocation. It makes me rethink my actions everyday. What do I expect from others? What should I expect for others? If at all. The kindness I have received here from a little girl in an open market showing us where is safe to eat and how to order the right food, to the local teacher who bought and left us free bike locks the morning after we bought our bicycles to the outreach of support when the word spreads that you are sick or having a bad day, has on a daily basis almost brought me to tears. Where does this kindness come from? I think its inherent to the culture here. I believe people are raised to believe that their good will be reciprocated by the universe and therefore their care and concern is entirely genuine, a rarity from what I see in this world. I don't know what I would do without the support I have received here. I can tell you that I would not be half has happy as I am today, sick laying in bed. 

On that note, I have decided to shift my frame of thought towards good deeds. I am going to uphold them without reason or expectation. I have told myself that I am going to buy food, coffee, bring in snacks, and or small gifts for those who have treated me with nothing but kindness, and for no other reason but to make them happy as they have made me. I am so grateful for the support here, and my mother im sure would say the same very thing every time she facetimes me in response to worried news of her daughter being sick in another country or encountering whatever issue I have come across during my stay. I can see the physical response of relief on my mothers face when she asks me what I need and I respond, whatever I need has already been accomplished by people who she would assume are complete strangers. So this was a very long-winded thank you note, to all of the new friends I have made in my country, and also a promise that I will spread and encourage the act of good deeds and genuine care and kindness. It should be and is contagious and I cannot thank you enough for that gift alone! 

Below are the random acts of kindness I would like to highlight:

-Aoys Riverside Cuisine-

Thanksgiving night, a beautiful woman named Aoy, we had met over dinner at her beautiful riverside restaurant a few weeks before heard about our thanksgiving night and offered to hold us a beautifully decorative and festive thanksgiving dinner. I will elaborate more on our holiday experiences here in a future post. However, we were completely overwhelmed with the amount of kindness the entire staff presented us with this evening, and the beautifully thought out decor made our hearts so warm on a difficult holiday far from home. Thank you to the foreign teachers who joined us and make our lives easier at school every single day. We are very thankful for you. 

Herbal remedy from Teacher Marta. As I Mentioned above, teacher Marta took the time out of her day to not only call me beforehand and inquire about the symptoms I was facing, but walk in the grueling heat on her lunch break back to my apartment with Emily to both feed and create this chamomile and thyme tea remedy which she promised would increase both sleep and apetite. Little did I know, I woke up three hours later well-rested and extraordinarily hungry for the first time in days. She received these herbs from China-town and offered to bring us in the near future to show us where we can acquire our own! Something I am very excited about. 

On days where my students can tell they pushed me a little too much, they tend to write me love letters. This does not make me entirely happy with them or forgetting of the wrong-doings they committed two minutes beforehand but dang it they are cute and they can make you smile with a swift tap on the shoulder and guilty smile pointing to the board with your names surrounded with hearts. How could you say no to these faces? 

Thank you to my lovely co-teachers who bring us to local markets, hospitals and medical clinics when we need food or any other form of care. The locals here have been so unbelievably selfless in their genuine desire to help foreign strangers. Below are the local markets that teachers have personally brought us to to make sure we understand what local vendors are safe to eat as well as what markets are most cheap for apartment supplies. (As you can see we balled out). Either way they are our saving graces when it comes to being hangry, or need anything under the rainbow. I feel so very lucky and inspired by their good graces and want to work on giving back just as they do because it is surely an inspiring way to live.  We can all be better people, it just takes selfless acts of compassion.

A couple local food stand with "Potato Chips" ranging from BBQ to Pizza Flavors and fresh fruit stand fort for about 20 clementines a whopping total of 1 american cent- YUM

Local Shopping Plaza known as "Central Plaza" with everything from McDonalds to a Superstore comparable to Walmart. In this picture we are "riding dirty" With our shopping carts after maybe spending a total of 50 dollars for everything from sheets to decorations for our new apartments!