It’s Gonna Be May (in Thailand!)

By:

Published:

Countries

Demographics

Regions


Sawasdee-khrap!

This is now my last month here in Thailand, and the countdown has begun. Itโ€™s funny, I remember back in July, before I came to Thailand, I was counting down the days until I got here. And now, the opposite has happened, but funnily enough, I am feeling the same exact feelings as I did before โ€“ a strange mixture of happiness, excitement, anxiety, and regret. After spending a year in Thailand, I am ready to go homeโ€ฆ but at the same time, Bangkok has become my home. And I feel like Iโ€™ve gotten out-of-touch with my life back in California, simply because I have been away for so long and I am completely out-of-the-loop in a lot of things that have happened in my friendsโ€™ lives. Sure, we talked as often as we couldโ€ฆ but there are some things that text messages and Skype calls canโ€™t fully do justice.

Next week, I am going to fly to Malaysia with some of my friends to go on one last trip. One last hurrah, as it were, since the rest of our time here is most likely going to be consumed by schoolwork and finals. I am super excited to just backpack one more time, soaking in this experience as much as I can. Hostels, trains, night-buses, street foods, chaos. I love that about traveling in this part of the world, and I will miss it.

A few days ago, my friend and I went over to this cool little food court area in Bangkok known as the W-District. It was situated in a weird juxtaposition of modern and dilapidated buildings, which gave the market some sort of unique charm to it, I guess! The food was great, but the only problem was, it started raining about halfway through! And rain in Thailand doesnโ€™t just sprinkleโ€ฆ when it rains, it rains. So we ended up just huddling under a table with an umbrella for half an hour, maybe more, waiting out the downpour! I think that itโ€™s these random little moments that Iโ€™m going to remember the most out of this trip, which just goes to show that when youโ€™re traveling, really the only thing you need is good company. Once you have that, everything else will fall into place.

Man, time is really slipping through my fingers right now. I said my hardest goodbye the other day, to someone very special whom I had the lucky fortune of meeting during my time here. But moments (and people) come and go, I suppose. Thatโ€™s just the inevitability of life. Regardless of what happens in the future, I am glad that I got to spend the time that I did with this person, and I know that I am better off because of it. But with any luck, our paths will hopefully cross again very soon. Itโ€™s the blessing and the curse of meeting people when you travel โ€“ you get to spend time with some truly amazing people but the very nature of the encounter forces an end to come sooner than you want.

Best,

Jae

Jae Yu

<i>Hello in your host country language</i>: เธชเธงเธฑเธชเธ”เธต (Sawatdee kaap) <i>University</i>: University of California Santa Barbara <i>Expected graduation year</i>: 2019 <i>Destination</i>: Bangkok, Thailand <i>Program Provider</i>: UC Education Abroad Program <i>Major / minor</i>: Political Science <i>Demographic background</i>: Asian-American <i>Future career aspirations</i>: Film director and producer <i>Top 3 goals for study abroad</i>: shoot a documentary; speak conversational Thai, try every Thai dish