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| My niece Stella and I |
Returned to Thailand a couple of days ago now. It was easier than I thought to return to life here. The trepidation that I had about driving in the USA when I first arrived there, didn't exist here. In the USA, I was worried about getting onto the wrong side of the road mainly. Even when I was a passenger, I was mentally telling myself that I couldn't make a left turn on a red light and to make sure that I always drove on the right side of the road when I did turn. Back in Chiang Mai, it was natural to get back onto the left side. I still know how to get places and my motorbike doesn't freak me out.
I don't really have a routine to establish yet here as my regular work schedule doesn't begin for a month. I will actually be taking on a babysitting job for the next 3 weeks. Turned out to be perfect timing as I wanted to head to southern Thailand before the summer was out. Now I will have the extra funds to do it without having to use existing funds. While I did carefully budget my money to get me through the summer til my next paycheck in Thailand, I didn't budget as well for the USA portion of the trip. As a result, I need to wire home money to my account sooner than later.
It might seem weird to some people that I refer to Thailand as home. I generally refer to anyplace where I live primarily, as home. Right now, I feel like Thailand is home to me. Its the place that I'm building relationships, making new friends and trying to learn the language so that I can do all of the latter more easily. It would be really easy to live here in Chiang Mai and never bother learning the language. I work in an English speaking school. I have English speaking friends. The Thai church that I regularly attend, usually translate services for me or I could opt to only go to English speaking churches. I could isolate from my neighbors so I don't have to try to figure out how to talk to them and I could have a small English speaking world of my own. But realistically, that's not why I'm here. I'm here to immerse myself in the culture, build relationships and let God use me for however long he has me here. Yesterday, my neighbors told my landlady that they liked me as a neighbor. I have really like having them as well. My neighborhood accepted me from the very beginning of moving here and have been helpful in different ways. I still don't know who fixed my gate when I first moved in. I don't know who has been cutting down the weeds that grow up around my gate and make it difficult to open and close from time to time. But it keeps happening. I once heard the phrase "Bloom where you are planted." This has been my motto since I arrived in Thailand and continues to be almost a year later. I will embrace life here as long as God has me here. So how long will I be here? Who knows? I'm here til I'm not.
