I have a lot of time to spend thinking and I think about a lot of things: when will I have a meal that doesn’t involve rice, where will I take my vacation to, how many mosquitoes are there in my village, how can I kill all those mosquitoes. But one thing I was thinking about recently was how much my life has changed since this time last year. And there are a lot of big things that are different (I’m not in the U.S.) but I think it’s the little things that are different that make life interesting, to say the least.
I take multiple showers a day.
I knew that I would probably be taking bucket showers (which I am) but as someone who would sometimes get away with showering every other day in the States (conserve water, yo!), it is simply not possible to function here without at least two showers a day, usually more. One in the morning, one after my bike ride home in the heat of the afternoon and one to cool me off before going to bed so I have a chance at falling asleep. I’ve attempted to not shower, to hold off and maybe wait until later or the next day; not possible. I just end up being a sticky mess. So many showers it is!
Camp does not mean what I think or want it to mean.
I love camping, like with a tent and hiking in several miles and sleeping outside. I also went to summer camp the majority of my childhood summers. Heck, I’m even pretty well-versed in the concept of camp in notice small details in the dramatic. But camp here is something that I see as just a little bit soul killing. It’s usually meant to be a two-day event of workshops, but really is taken as an opportunity to have a vacation and half pay attention to the workshops and drink bad coffee and eat snacks. If you told me I’d be involved with lots of camps a year ago, I would have been excited. Now I just know it means a lot of work.
When it rains, it rains on a tin roof.
This is something that I love. I love the sound of the rain as I fall asleep. Now when it rains, I hear it beating again the tin roof of the kitchen, the neighbor’s tin roof, the metal covers on the rain collecting cisterns. Hearing the steady beat of the water drops against metal is so relaxing. It’s possibly more relaxing than reading a book inside under a blanket when it’s raining.
I still really dislike grocery shopping, but for different reasons.
I really disliked grocery shopping in the States. Instead I would decide what I wanted to eat and go buy the things to make that item. I was terrible at figuring out things that I needed beyond what I wanted in the moment and so grocery shopping was never a priority for me. Now I don’t like grocery shopping because I have to plan what I want to eat because the market only comes twice a week and I have to bike 2 kilometers to go in the heat that is Thailand and I don’t have a basket or panniers to put my stuff in.
I don’t text as much as I used to.
Each outgoing text costs me 2 baht. I have typed up texts to friends (which is a chore because I’m back to using T9Word after having a smart phone/phone with a QWERTY keyboard for years) and then just said forget it, it’s not worth the baht. So friends out there who are reading this, know that I’m thinking about you. But it is free for me to think, it costs me to let you know.