I am approaching the six week mark here in this new city of mine, though there are days when I feel as if I've been here for eons. The eternal buzzing of the city combined with an ever present hot, muggy malaise can blur the senses - at once overstimulated and numb. Some days I think I have adjusted better to the crushing humidity and other days I nearly pass out at yoga because I stupidly decide to walk to the studio and then take a 90 minute class without air conditioning. Whoops.
[Thailand 1, Tillie 0]
My consolation prize was homemade passion fruit kombucha, a pork sticky bun, and a dip in the pool with $2 corner-store goggles that leak.
[Thailand 1.5, Tillie .25]
The six week mark also means that I am entering a familiar phase in my own personal cultural transition timeline. At about this time, approximately two to three months in, I start to take a dip. The highs don't feel so high and lows feel lower. My voice of doubt shouts a little louder about my decision to come here, my decision to start this line of work. In the past week I learned that a distant but much admired friend from high school died very unexpectedly. I wept and wept for Michael, for his family, and for the loss of a man who was one of the first in my life to set the bravest of examples by insisting on staying true to himself. In that same week, however, I learned that one of my oldest friends became engaged on a gondola in Venice (I am not kidding), and that another of my closest friends is expecting her first child in February. Once again I felt my senses blur - helpless heartbreak and extraordinary joy. I yearned to be hugged and held by a loved one.
I do try to acknowledge the small victories, like forming longer sentences in Thai - dichan rian pha saa Thai tuk wan (I study Thai everyday), dichan ja pay Phuket phrung nii (I will go to Phuket tomorrow). I took my first true vacation, heading to the rainy but peaceful southern island of Phuket for three long, lazy days. I strolled empty beaches, ate fabulous mangoes and sticky rice, and read voraciously. One of my responsibilities at work is doing "Reading/Writing Counseling" with students, helping them to improve the aforementioned skills through discussions of great books. I just finished Capote's In Cold Blood and read Sherlock Holmes for the first time. I think I have two years of blissful literary indulgence ahead of me and I hope I never think of all the reading as "work." For those interested in learning a bit more about what I'm doing at Top Scholars, here is a very kind blog feature on me as a new TS Educator. My colleague Mike wrote the feature, and I wrote a series of posts about making the most out of a college visit.
I will pause here, mostly because I need to sleep (there is no rest for the weary who work on weekends). I teach the first lesson in my first full length Essay Fundamentals course tomorrow, so wish this brand new teacher good luck! Enjoy the photos and know that I am thinking of you, friends near and far.
