USA

I leave in a week. To know that next Saturday I will be waking up in Thailand is a little bit more than intense. Well, that's assuming that I sleep when I'm supposed to after 24 hours of travel. Until then, I'm in the last bits of preparation.

There is a certain sense of accomplishment when you make that last big run of chores, when you have taken care of the major items on your to-do list. It's an expensive sense of accomplishment, but hey: I have a new computer battery (one that lasts longer than 15 minutes!), an SD card, toiletries, a real-people wardrobe (kind of) and more sunscreen than I ever really wanted to buy. I have changed banks, cancelled magazine subscriptions, mailed packages, and received packages. Overall, accomplished. Now I've just got to fill a suitcase or two, check to make sure that I haven't lost my passport and my tickets every three hours, and then we’re good to go. This is convenient, seeing as in a week I will be in that nervous, sitting around mode, waiting for 7 am Thursday morning to arrive.

Needless to say, I'm excited. And terrified. This time around is completely different from France—I don't speak the language, don't know the country well, and haven't been enamored with all things Thai for years. Simply put, this country is not in my blood. Yet.

So while it does terrify me that I am going into something more foreign than I have ever experienced, it is also (predictably) thrilling. This next year promises to be incredibly difficult, challenging, and a number of other synonyms for arduous. But I am claiming this next year for me—to play an instrument, write letters, learn to meditate, go on long bike rides, maintain this sucker, not get sunburned, find a dragon boat team. This year is going to be made up of personal victories.

And lots of stories and photos, of course. So I'd be delighted if you'd join me.

I apparently don't feel that my life is all that interesting when I am stateside. That's my story to explain the lack of entries over the past year and I am sticking to it. But I'd like for y'all to be there with me when I head across a new ocean. Since I suck at keeping in touch in normal ways, I figured I'd bring this bad boy back. So please don't be upset if I don't email you back, manage to ignore a facebook message, or have let too much time pass between phone calls. Just know that I will do my best to send out real letters, to invite you into my home (wherever it is), or try to keep you around via words on the internet.

That being said, it has been a while. I'm not going to make any excuses, but I will just say that in the past few months I've done my fair share of things. Graduated, for starters. Moved out of Hendrix lodging for the last time. Moved back home for what is, hopefully, also the last time. Before that, the entries that fell into a black hole, I did a European capitals tour-- Berlin, Prague, Vienna, Budapest, Ljubljana, Rome and then back to France and then out of France. Arkansas held me captive for the follwing year and, finally, as of now, I am a graduate of Hendrix College, with all the bells and whistles, hold your applause, please. And I am on my way to Thailand! Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I received a Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship to Thailand. Let us pause in order to celebrate the fact that I know what I will be doing next year… and that it is over an ocean. !!! I will be spending my next year at Det Udom Technical College (Dtec) as a conversation teacher in the middle of nowhere, Thailand. If anyone knows of any nifty people I should get in contact with, send them my way!

My summer has consisted thus for of learning Thai (44 consonants alone), immunizations (Japanese Encephalitis, yuck!), study for the GRE (no comment), tearing up linoleum floors, French tables scattered around Lafayette. I was lucky enough to attend the Congrès Mondial Acadien, World Acadian Congress, to support Louisiana's presence there. It's a cool event, you should look it up. And in a bit, I'm sure I'll elaborate, photos and all.

I went up to Hendrix to work orientation for a while. It was fun in that crazy, ridiculous way that OR usually is. At one point in time, three of us were dressed up as skyscrapers while a fourth was godzilla. All for costume bowling.

Mainly, it was good to see people--new freshmen, upper classmen, friends coming back from abroad. I also got to tie up a lot of loose ends, bureaucratically and otherwise. I drove home last Tuesday, getting in early Wednesday morning, and then turned around and left for Houston Wednesday afternoon. To sum up my trip, I managed to survive this:

to get this!

Houston driving in a van. The fact that I am alive is a testament to my incredible luck at not beign squished between an 18-wheeler and a concrete barrier while attempting to maneuver across 6 lanes... The French Consulate was about as easy to deal with. Everyone entered with the same nervous faces and ended up becoming buddies with the person next to them in such a stressful time. But, the fact that I got my visa would be the important part of this story. I also got to visit John, and in doing so got to speand time with his family, see an Astro's game, watched Saturday morning fireworks set to 80's music, and ate his dad's wonderful breakfast. All of which were very cool.

So now I am into the semi-packing up stage. There is only so much packing one can do when you still have to use the majority of what you would pack, but I'm making a valiant attempt to start the process ahead of time. I am usually the "night before, just throw some stuff together" kind of packer, so this is a big deal.

I feel like it looks more like a picture out of an I Spy book than anything else. But I'll get there. Especially with the help of a certain friend who's done it all once before. --wink wink--

anyway, T- 10 days and counting.

to begin--

i stumbled upon this fun little gadget here and decided to take advantage of the space. as i am officially starting to work toward that status of "world traveller" (Deustchland, Rwanda, then France for l'année scolaire) i figured i should have a place to keep those who might be interested updated with my wanderings. hopefully i can navigate my way around this thing in order to bring you both photos and words when a telephone call might be too expensive.

i'm not sure how well this will work out... what with my procrastinator gene and all. but if you can manage that and my unorganized ramblings, then feel free to stop on by...