I Remember
Posted on May 26 by Mera Delwiche
From my journal today. Remembering my year with only twelve days left in Ubon Ratchathaini, Thailand.
It seems like only yesterday I arrived here and stepped off the plane. I met so many people I didn’t know, and now I know all their names. I saw only John and Jeem and June because I was looking for them. They put my suitcases in their big black car and I sat on the left hand side of the car unsure whether to wear my seatbelt or not.All the Thai that I had learned before I came just seemed wrong and I didn’t understand, so I didn’t say anything and tried to get by in English.
And they took me to a restaurant and we had Vietnamese noodle soup that was really good. I wonder now if it was guay jap with the rolled noodles. I don’t remember. But I remember asking if it had flour in it and they didn’t understand so I just ate it.
I remember them opening up my room for the first time and walking in with my shoes on. Gasp! And John rolled my suitcases in. Two bright red suitcases, one broken from the flight. I remember unpacking and finding places for my things for the first time. I didn’t know then that I would develop a routine for moving and making each place my home.
I remember taking pictures of my room. I remember the bed that I really love the most of all my beds, though I don’t really have a reason. I remember finding out there were not four dogs but six and that someone named Joy lived with the family and that the grandmother and grandfather lived there too.
I remember getting my Thai name. I was in my room and they told me that they were changing my Thai name from Bua (lotus) to Paamai (silk) because one of the dogs was named lotus and I couldn’t have the same name as a dog.
I remember eating so many bananas. I remember drinking water from a glass water bottle. I remember every day after school coming home and writing in my journal. Reading back over those early journal entries, I laugh at how ignorant I was about everything but how accepting and willing I was to try new things. And reading it, I wonder how I even made it through some of those days because I was incredibly homesick.
But somehow I made it, telling myself I just had to get through one more day and someday I would wake up and not be homesick anymore. I didn’t believe that day would come because it was a long time before I didn’t feel even the least bit homesick, but it came. Not to say that I’m never homesick now, but not like I was at first.
I remember the night we went to Tung Si Muang for the first time and I picked up flowers and smiled and listened to the birds in the trees and then we went and ate nuua yang, the pork grilled on coals. I remember how much flowers meant to me in those early days.
I remember my first day of school. Meeting the school director who didn’t speak any English. Going with a school employee to find my uniforms. Now I wonder which employee it was. I wish I had a better memory of faces in those early days. I wish my life was movie that I could rewind and watch the beginning over again and say “Hey! I recognize that person now! I know what that food is called! I know what this person was saying here!”
I remember running errands with Jeem and learning how to “wai” to people. I remember the heat, of course. The contrast of heat and air-conditioning when you open the window of a car.
I remember meeting my classmates and having no idea who anybody was. I remember meeting Wave and Kitty, both of who spoke to me in English. I suppose my memories of people in those first days are confined to those people I could actually understand.
I remember learning the word “aloy” which means delicious. Every time I ate something: “Aloy mai? Aloy mai?”
I remember meeting my Thai language teacher, Rado from Romania. I remember sitting with him and my host dad as they talked about the rules of the house and the rule “On week nights you have to go to bed by midnight and on weekends by one a.m.” and laughing about it because at the time I went to bed at 8:30.
Moving on into the future a little, I remember the many Thai lessons I had with Rado and all the stories he told me about his life and his childhood in Romania and his time in Thailand.
I remember the first time I met the exchange students. RYLA camp that started our adventures together. I remember my first impressions of the other exchange students, some of which turned out to be true and others which turned out to be so wrong.
I remember so many things about this year. So many good times and bad. So many different emotions. So many different experiences.
But I think what I will remember most is the people that I have met and the relationships that I have formed. I will remember the many moments that brought me together with others. I wish that I could list the names of every person that I have gotten to know and love this year, but it would be such a long list.
I know that time will blur my memories faster than