Friday, January 23, 2015

Six Months In

Today marks 6 months since I left my home in Georgia and 5 months that I've actually been in Laos. It's been a crazy, fun, exciting, frustrating, exhausting, exhilarating 6 months. Some days are so good that I want to live in Laos forever. Then there are the days that I feel like I can't take any more and all I want is to be back in the comfort of my family and home in America. Heck, sometimes my emotions change hour by hour.

Living here is an emotional roller coaster. Take this morning for instance. My computer wasn't charging but everything else was so I knew it had to be my computer that wasn't working. I quickly ran (actually I tiptoed because people are visiting and are sleeping in my living room) and silently panicked as I tried to plug my computer into all the outlets in our house. None of them worked except one. I unplugged our washing machine (which just happens to sit inside our shower.) and crossed my fingers that it would work. Nope. But then I remembered there is a switch to turn the power on for the outlet. I flipped the switch and a magical beep sounded from my computer telling me that it was charging. So I sat in my shower/laundry room charging my computer listening to the leaking pipes drip drip drip happy as a clam because this meant my computer wasn't broken.

This pretty much sums up life here in Laos. Things don't always work and you have to get resourceful. But when thing do work you are extra grateful.

Not only have I learned to be more appreciative when even the smallest of things go right, but these past six months have held lots of adventures. 

I left the good ole peach state for the Rocky Mountains. Taking a quick pip stop in Boulder to visit my lovely cousin/best friend.


From Boulder I headed off to Greeley for TEFL training. Here I also got to meet the other teachers moving to Laos as well as soon to be teachers headed to other Asian countries. 



Me and the other Lao teachers flew to Phnom Penh for our teaching practicum 




After we finished practicum we traveled and hung around Siem Reap


My new teammates and I dipped our toes into a tank of flesh eating fish



Then we finally arrived in Luang Prabang at sunset


We explored the capital, Vientiane 




A dream came true and I went swimming and rode with elephants


After a month of living in a guest house my roommate and I finally moved into our Lao home


I started teaching and fell in love with Lao students



Got a Lao license and began driving again


Survived being away from home for the holidays and shared Christmas cheer with my students


And finally ended up sitting in my shower, charging my computer, waiting for my friends to wake up so we can show them more of this beautiful city I get to call mine. 


Now to another 6 months in this beautiful city which I am sure will be filled with just as much adventure as the first. 

1 comments:

Dani said...

I am here for a year. You should definitely come to Luang Prabang someday. It was never really on my radar before, but I love it. I think Laos in general is overlooked by tourists, but being here I am surprised that not more people are dying to come.

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