My journey through Pai, Chiang Mai, and Phuket Thailand were wonderful. Traveling alone was a good experience, but it is so much more fun to travel with friends. Of course that means I made friends while traveling. Some people try to live by the saying that you're not lonely, just alone. Sometimes that can be true, but shoot, I got lonely. I filled my time in Pai exploring the local sights, going to a yoga class led by a hilarious 68 year old racist (against Chinese and Russians) Thai woman, and eating delicious food. In Chiang Mai, I went to a flower festival, haggled my way through some markets, and went to an elephant rescue site. In Phuket, I spent most of my days at the beach, but also explored around the town and took a cooking class! It was a lot of fun and a great precursor to India.
India was such an amazing experience. Dirt and sand were everywhere, as we were on the beach, but with the yogic mindset, none of it mattered. I met and practiced with 5 amazing, strong women and learned so much from each of them. We went swimming in the ocean every day and I came back to the US in March as dark as my white skin ever gets. We went sea kayaking and saw dolphins, watched the local shop-owners play cricket at low tide with the sunrise, and went on a cobra-dodging waterfall-swimming hike through the jungle. It was hard to leave at the end of 5 weeks, but also felt like time to do so.
When I first arrived back in the US, I spent a week with some good friends in Brooklyn. This made the transition back to American life a little easier. I was hanging with one of my best friends who was fresh back from living in S. Korea herself, so we could commiserate about what it felt like to leave.
In April, I made it back to Texas. I lived with my wonderful parents for a while, but moved out into a nice apartment later. I have been driving for Lyft, which is a lot of fun. I visited family in Ecuador in May and that was a really awesome experience. The national dish of Ecuador is cuy, or guinea pig. We tried one and the skin was incredibly tough, there wasn't much meat, but the meat we did eat tasted like (as you could guess) chicken.
As for reverse culture shock, I have only really had one episode of it. I was out with some friends at a bar and there was generic club music playing, but there was a light show that you might find at some underground hippie arts/music festival, and some people were hula hooping on the dance floor. I had no idea how to act or what to do. I think that wasn't totally from being abroad though- that was just a weird place.
These days, I am driving for Lyft and applying for other jobs that have more of a steady income. Most jobs I apply for are in Austin, some are elsewhere in the US, and a select few are branching out to other countries and continents. I'll keep ya updated.
I've been thinking about blogging about my time driving for Lyft or maybe if my new job - when it comes - is blog worthy, I'll write about that.
Anyway, I hope everyone out there in the internet world is happy or finds a way to be so.
Ps: I got a fish! His name is Kaji-San, which means fire. I usually call him dragon fish though.
I like your blog, I read the whole thing as I am interviewing with coco juku. welcome home
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