The blog in which I completely change my mind about being homesick...

Now, with the end in close sight, I am no longer homesick or ready to go home! What is wrong with me? I mean, I am completely ready to see Jeremy and sleep in my own bed and eat tacos... but suddenly the sky seems bluer here, the mountains more...rolling, the beach more tempting, and my $250/month house rent so so appealing to my budget needs.

It is strange really, this turnaround. Sure, I am still lonely. Still often frustrated with my staff and the so slow you are practically moving backward in time way of getting things done here, but then a weekend afternoon comes where my only responsibility in life is getting myself and one small dog to the beach located 6 minutes away and possibly, if I feel like it, taking the half hour that is needed to clean my little house. I suppose you could also count returning emails, watching tv, and going to the local market responsibilities so I'll add those in. Sure, my daily job is work but it ends around 4:30 and then life is my own. Even without a job my daily responsibilities are about ten thousand times more in Washington, DC. And access to the outdoors and beach are pretty limited. I will miss that.

They posted a For Rent sign on my gate this week! Felt like a huge insult! I may want to leave but I certainly don't want someone else living in my house!

I am coming to the realization that I may not ever be back. And while it has not always been an easy place to live it is my place now and this chapter is almost closed. Every shell and sunset and rainstorm suddenly something to be valued and appreciated.

Last weekend I drove to Phuket and took my friend to the hospital where she was diagnosed with "mild hepatitis" although they could not tell her which variety. It was all very comical. I visited the eye clinic of the hospital where they showed me disgusting photos of the insides of my eyelids and told me I could no longer wear contacts and need lasik. Great. The upside was that we went to the VIP cinema at the mall. The Thai VIP cinema has not yet arrived in the US but it should! For the equivalent of $15 we were ushered into a special entrance with a lounge and buffet snacks and drinks. Then entered a theater with only 24 huge reclining plush seats. We reclined. We were given blankets. We were given big ceramic bowls of popcorn and huge glasses (not cardboard cups) of coke with crushed ice. I think we saw Ocean's 13. Didn't really care what movie it was as long as I could recline 180 degrees! Heaven.

This week I have realized that maybe my calling is both children AND animals. I've started bringing Talay with me to visit some of the children we are working with. Now that the project is almost finished we are mostly still working with the kids living at a local institution so we've gotten to know them well. Talay, who I thought might be scared of all the kids, handles it wonderfully. They pull her, squeeze her, fight over her, and generally squish and over handle her but they love it and I think she gives them the affection they really crave. So it is a match made in heaven. And somehow it is so much easier to cross that language barrier with the dog as part of the meeting. The kids are much less suspicious of what my team wants when we come and hand them a puppy. :) Maybe a future career of kids + animals? Well , we'll see.

Night from suddenly fantastic, ha ha ha, Bang Niang.