August 13th
Today is my third day here and I feel so at home. The transition was really easy for me and I don’t feel tired anymore. I’m having a hard time with the food partly because I expect it to be similar to what Ive had at home, and its a little disheartening when it isn’t. The struggle is also partly adjusting- the food is good but the portions are larger than what I can handle (this surprised me a lot coming from America!). I have to admit though, I really miss American food. It’s hard to find things we have in the States that are the same or even similar to what they were like there. My parents are always feeding me and the first thing my mom says to me in the morning is always “are you hungry?” My parents truly are the best. I am tearing up at the thought of how caring and kind they are. My dad doesn’t speak much english, but he always tells me if I need anything I can tell him and they really took me in just like their own. Everything here just feels so easy. I haven’t experienced any homesickness- I miss my family but I talk to them a lot and it makes me feel better. I know I have their full support and it’s not like they won’t be there when I get back. I don’t feel alone and it just feels like I belong. I expected the whole not speaking any Thai thing to be frustrating and difficult, but my parents and I are communicating well. As they learn more english, I learn more Thai and we are all working really hard to make things easier for each other.
I think school might be a little hard and maybe once I start school things will become more frustrating, but for now the only word I can use to describe my life here is blissful. My mom and I went for coffee and breakfast this morning and the coffee was just like it is at home and I could have cried tears of joy to find something just like from home. I think I definitely expected things to be much worse and since everything is much easier than I imagined I feel like I belong. A lot of people stare at me when I’m walking around, but everyone is so nice. Thailand really is the land of smiles!
Obviously there are a lot of things that are very very different. My family took me to the mall last night for food and they checked under our car for bombs. The stray cats and dogs are strange but the stray cows are really what shocked me…not only are they stray, the farmers walk them on leashes on the side of the road. The cows are huge too! They aren’t fat like they are in the US but they’re built bigger than american cows. Like Asian Texas longhorns hahaha. I don’t have any friends here yet, but I don’t feel lonely- I have my family here and back home, plenty of friends back home that I talk to everyday and I think this year is going to be really good. I’m just really really happy here and I know it will be hard to go back home…