The Final Countdown

Sawatdee! (the Thai Hello!)
   October is here, which means...the official countdown to Thailand begins! The whole idea of moving to Thailand started a few years back after I was lucky enough to go on vacation there while studying abroad in Sydney, Australia (holla!)

I immediately fell in love with ‘The Land of Smiles’ and have been itching to get back ever since. After I graduated from BC in ’08, I was on the hunt for a job, and in my search, I kept coming across job listings for teaching abroad in Southeast Asia. As much as I wanted to apply at that instance, I knew I should gain some ‘real world’ experience and have a 9-5 job in Boston before going on a big adventure. So, for two years I worked at the most AMAZING child care center as an infant/toddler teacher. I loved every moment at my job and learned a whole lot in my time there.
    However, in May of ’09, my company was hit with some sad news- the school would be shutting down in August of 2010. That piece of information was really tough to swallow, but it got me thinking about my next step. I’ve lived in Boston my entire life and as much as I adore this place, I have been very ready to move on for some time now. But to where? To do what? I thought about maybe going back to school to get my Master’s, but I have yet to figure out what I want to do with my life, so that made planning my next step close to impossible. That’s where Thailand came back into play. The idea of teaching there never left my mind, and so my search for a good program commenced. And then...ding! ding! ding! I found the Council for International Education Exchange and everything started coming together. CIEE offers teaching positions in Thailand beginning in May and October. The May program was extremely tempting. Once I wrapped my mind around the idea of actually moving there, it become a kind of obsession. But, I was way too in love with my job to ever leave it before it reached the end. It just made the October program even more perfect. I would even have a full month of being useless and unemployed before departing (which, by the way is AWESOME)! The only problem- application dates were not for another 10 months. Oh man. I was so excited by the idea of it, though, that I told my family and friends, all of who only half-believed me (some who even laughed it off), but now here I am, 10 days away from my big adventure! It will be really hard to leave Boston, but I’ve concocted a list of things I am excited for and everything I will miss...

Get Excited!
Traveling: I have a slight travel addiction and the idea of having some sort of adventure every week is a dream come true.

Teaching: I’m super excited to be in a classroom, working with kids, but at the same time, I’m terrified. I’ll be teaching at the Sa-Nguan Ying School in Suphanburi in their English program. Let’s just ignore the fact that I don’t know a word of Thai. It’ll be okay, right?

Food: Thai food? Glorious.

Elephants: Must. Get. Baby. Elephant. My goal is to ride one to school every day.

Srall: The whole teaching abroad in the most beautiful country thing is already pretty incredible, but I’m taking it to the next level of awesomeness by doing it with my BFF, Sarah.  She had been to Thailand in her high school days and also fell in love. Lucky for me, she shares my love of traveling (and basically every other interest of mine) and will be doing the program with me, as well as 80 other participants. In the words of Tim Riggins, Let’s make some memories.

I’ll be Missing You: For real

Family: I love my family and it will be real hard to say goodbye, but they all understand that I really need to do this. Making it even harder....my sister just had a baby on Sept 15th and I have been spending all of my time with him. How am I supposed to leave this face?

I’ve already demanded that they send a picture-a-day of Cameron so I can pretend I’m watching his development. I just hope I don’t come back and he refers to me as “Auntie Computer Screen,” as my brother so kindly put it.

Cheese: I’ve heard there is a lack of cheese. Umm... what?

Sports: No BC football games. No baseball. No football. No obsessing over the BC b-ball team. No March Madness. Yikes. Maybe I can take up Muay Thai?

Friends: This is obviously going to be killer, but the Girl Scouts know what they’re talking about with “Make new friends, but keep the old.”

So, this is my blog, and if you would like to read about my travels and my struggles, feel free to follow me. I promise to have some good stories :)

Well Boston, you’ve been good to me, but it’s time to say goodbye and close this chapter and begin a new one. Suphanburi, here I come! I guess I should start packing....