Running out.
Saturday will be one of the most emotional days of my life.
I am in complete denial that, until today, has been unwavering.
The plan was to stay for Songkran and then leave shortly afterwards. This is what I'll do, but it's made the leaving that much harder. Songkran is my favourite festival in Thailand. I know it's dangerous, and people can get out of control, and it does get annoying after 5 days of not being able to go to the store without getting soaked, but it's so... sanook. Everyone. Everyone gets into it. From the babies to the grandaddies you can't walk 2 feet without seeing someone with a huge smile on their face. And as long as you understand the spirit of the festival it's hard to go wrong.
That said, I have had moments of 'enough is enough' over the past few days. But I've been walking around with a huge grin on my face for most of the time. In the spirit of Thailand it's pure fun. I think I forget that I live in the land of smiles and not everywhere is like this. I have always said that I don't want to live anywhere for very long, especially at this point in my life, but it's so much easier said than done. Not in the particulars, I think that's the easy stuff. Pick a place, check out visa requirements, find a job, and make the decision. That's fine. But the getting in, getting set up, finding people to make you laugh and whose presence you crave, then ultimately leaving all of that behind for something else. That's the shitty part of this. And I reduced it to a sentence. Then it couldn't be that bad, could it? It's at this point of the whole ordeal that I want to just stay here. I don't want to to live anywhere else. I want to get a 2 year teaching degree, get a job at an international school, and live here. I don't really, but I love this city. I love my friends.
I'm savouring now. I mean not right now at this minute. At this minute I'm joining hi5 and wasting time I don't have laying around the house. But these days. These last 5 days I am savouring. Last night Rach and I were wet after playing water so we went shopping at the market for going out clothes. We ended up with entire new outfits and looked pretty hot. Then we rocked out at Riverside for a few hours, failed in the mission of getting P'Oh to come home with me, but in the end I'm happy about that. Somehow I ended up at Jacky's in the corner talking to Jade, one of the Riverside band members I always say hi to but never chat with. I guess I didn't realize how good his English was, or at least how willing to try he is. He was all alone so I went to say thanks for tonight, the band was really good, and asked why he was all alone at Jacky's, the cocktail van with loads of people around. He ended up talking about his ex-girlfriend and how he's still sad about it. We talked about all kinds of things- music, cultural differences, Songkran, violence in Thailand, more music, our jobs. I love that I meet new people every day here, but it gets harder when I get down to the point when it's possible I'll never see them again. I didn't manage to get into the conversation that I have a huge crush on his dorky lead vocalist friend... but maybe I will. I'm going to try and see them play at Discovery this afternoon. I don't know what it is about all those guys, I think part of it is that they're professional musicians in Chiang Mai and therefore local legends, and I love that they're part of my city, but part of it is that they're just ordinary people. It seems to me whenever I meet musicians, even amateurish wankers in other settings they're pretty self-involved. But who knows. I'm sure there's more to their personalities than what I've seen on our few nights out.
Ok, this is silly. I have a whole room of shit to pack up and I'm running on 3 hours of sleep. It'll be nice to dry out after Songkran. Literally and figuratively.
I am in complete denial that, until today, has been unwavering.
The plan was to stay for Songkran and then leave shortly afterwards. This is what I'll do, but it's made the leaving that much harder. Songkran is my favourite festival in Thailand. I know it's dangerous, and people can get out of control, and it does get annoying after 5 days of not being able to go to the store without getting soaked, but it's so... sanook. Everyone. Everyone gets into it. From the babies to the grandaddies you can't walk 2 feet without seeing someone with a huge smile on their face. And as long as you understand the spirit of the festival it's hard to go wrong.
That said, I have had moments of 'enough is enough' over the past few days. But I've been walking around with a huge grin on my face for most of the time. In the spirit of Thailand it's pure fun. I think I forget that I live in the land of smiles and not everywhere is like this. I have always said that I don't want to live anywhere for very long, especially at this point in my life, but it's so much easier said than done. Not in the particulars, I think that's the easy stuff. Pick a place, check out visa requirements, find a job, and make the decision. That's fine. But the getting in, getting set up, finding people to make you laugh and whose presence you crave, then ultimately leaving all of that behind for something else. That's the shitty part of this. And I reduced it to a sentence. Then it couldn't be that bad, could it? It's at this point of the whole ordeal that I want to just stay here. I don't want to to live anywhere else. I want to get a 2 year teaching degree, get a job at an international school, and live here. I don't really, but I love this city. I love my friends.
I'm savouring now. I mean not right now at this minute. At this minute I'm joining hi5 and wasting time I don't have laying around the house. But these days. These last 5 days I am savouring. Last night Rach and I were wet after playing water so we went shopping at the market for going out clothes. We ended up with entire new outfits and looked pretty hot. Then we rocked out at Riverside for a few hours, failed in the mission of getting P'Oh to come home with me, but in the end I'm happy about that. Somehow I ended up at Jacky's in the corner talking to Jade, one of the Riverside band members I always say hi to but never chat with. I guess I didn't realize how good his English was, or at least how willing to try he is. He was all alone so I went to say thanks for tonight, the band was really good, and asked why he was all alone at Jacky's, the cocktail van with loads of people around. He ended up talking about his ex-girlfriend and how he's still sad about it. We talked about all kinds of things- music, cultural differences, Songkran, violence in Thailand, more music, our jobs. I love that I meet new people every day here, but it gets harder when I get down to the point when it's possible I'll never see them again. I didn't manage to get into the conversation that I have a huge crush on his dorky lead vocalist friend... but maybe I will. I'm going to try and see them play at Discovery this afternoon. I don't know what it is about all those guys, I think part of it is that they're professional musicians in Chiang Mai and therefore local legends, and I love that they're part of my city, but part of it is that they're just ordinary people. It seems to me whenever I meet musicians, even amateurish wankers in other settings they're pretty self-involved. But who knows. I'm sure there's more to their personalities than what I've seen on our few nights out.
Ok, this is silly. I have a whole room of shit to pack up and I'm running on 3 hours of sleep. It'll be nice to dry out after Songkran. Literally and figuratively.