Stranger in a strange land

Loneliness is a difficult bedfellow to deal with. In this entire house, the only company I have is the cockroach family downstairs. My housemate has run off with her boyfriend to Chang Mai and won't be back until Friday. Sometimes it's hard to come home in the evening, it's hard to turn off the lights, lock the doors and retire to a bedroom that's not mine. This will be the hardest thing to get past while I stay in Thailand.

Luckily, I made a new friend today. Her name is Tip and she's also a teacher at the school. She's a bossy young woman who tells you straight up what she's all about and she's not afraid to tell you that you look a chunky after taking your picture. She told me this while photographing me on her roof. "We take photo again, you look a little fat." I wasn't offended, the Thai's standards are vastly different from my own.

We went to a temple today, where the Emerald Buddha and the Grand Palace were. We had a great time walking around and taking pictures. Tip took some wonderful pictures. We met a couple from England who were really nice and friendly. Tom and Susannah were on their way back to London from Australia. We all had dinner together and talked about being westerners in Asia, Tip corrected our Thai. "Kaaaaiii, not Kai."

I'm glad I got out of the house and went out with Tip. She was an excellent guide today. She showed me some interesting insights from a Thai and Buddhist perspective, while looked at the temple buildings and she prayed before the Emerald Buddha.

As I sit home and reflect on my day, I'm less inclined to believe that living here will be so lonely. Perhaps I'll be more busy than anything. I'll have too much time to devote to my students that I won't even think about missing my family and friends so much. I've already cut down my phone calls to Noah to once a day! This was a decision also based on economics. But I think there will come a time when I will finally settle in this place. By place, I mean my house and Bangkok.



This is a shot of me and Tip in from of the temple.










At night, these statues come alive.










But seriously, in all of these dog statues, there are stone balls in their mouths. According to Thai legend, if you can take this ball from the statues mouth, (I tried and it's impossible) the statue will come alive.