*There are pictures of most of these things on my facebook page, so feel free to friend me if you want to see them….it takes super long to upload a single photo on this blog!*
I have a really obnoxiously long, detailed, ever-growing, and largely unrealistic bucket list at home that I began about two years ago. Pardon the unoriginal idea, but if you have never made one, you definitely should. Take the pressure off of yourself to add items that you feel like “should” be on it….if you have never had a desire to see the Great Wall of China, go skydiving, eat escargot, or paint a picture, then don’t include them. My bucket list has everything from places I want to see, recipes I want to try/create, books I want to read, events I want to attend….and about 100 other random personal desires.
I had originally thought about making a bucket list for this trip, but given the unpredictability of the whole year, I feared it would become impossible to actually do anything on it.
So here is the next installment of my “Reverse Bucket List”: crazy, random things I experienced in any given country that I never could have known or predicted.
Visit Thailand and…
-ate delicious pad thai for less than $1, and fresh fruit smoothies for $0.70.
-watched and laughed hysterically as team mates tried to eat the hottest food they could imagine, while sweating and hyperventilating the whole time.
-laughed hysterically as people tried to speak Thai for the first time…unsuccessfully. Huge change from Central America and the trusty Spanglish!
-slept in an extremely awkward forced position on the floor of a 16 passenger van for an overnight van ride.
-spent a month sleeping above a cafe in a dorm-style setting with several other Thai students and YWAM missionaries.
-spent a month hanging out with new friends from Chiang Mai University.
-work in a coffee shop, Won Gen Kafe, with women no longer being prostituted.
-learned that Thai people don’t appear to eat breakfast, unless you count pork flavored oatmeal.
-eaten sticky rice with mango and coconut milk…a new favorite!
-made friends with a Chinese tourist and spent the afternoon hanging out with her on the campus CMU.
-participated in the rehearsal for a CMU Thai student flash mob.
-played in the 3 day long water festival New Years celebration of Song Kran!
-walked and shopped on Chiang Mai’s Sunday night walking street market, surrounded by incredibly beautiful clothes and souvenirs, and weird foods like fried grubs.
-made new friends with some lovely ladies from Indiana, Germany, and Norway on a YWAM outreach trip. So grateful to have new friends like them!
-climbed The Temple on the Mount to see the gorgeous structures and views of the city.
-learned what kind of noises barnyard animals make in Thailand…the ones we have in the state are not universal, by the way!
-fell asleep in a chair in the mercifully air conditioned library of CMU.
-had my ATM card eaten by the ATM machine, officially making me card-less for the second time on this trip.
-celebrated my team mate Chris’s birthday at McDonalds and the movies.
-rode an elephant through the Thai countryside…a rather delinquent elephant that kept veering off course and blowing its nose on us.
-cliff jumped and played in a beautiful waterfall.
-ate the best thing I have had on the race so far: delicious, creamy, spicy, rich pumpkin curry.
-learned to sing along to a new favorite song, Just Fine, with my new friend Kwang as she played the ukulele.
-got a $6 traditional Thai massage…limb-slinging and all.
-took awkward family photos with my team…hilarious.
-slept on the roof of the cafe to escape the sweltering heat of the room inside, often staying awake and giggling with Melissa and my new YWAM friends for hours.
-skyped my lovely LifeGroup church girls from home!
-danced in the rain with my new friend Katharina during a harsh rain storm.
-had a piece of my heart stolen by three little boys I cared for as their mother took a step forward in leaving the bars.
-was with a Becki as she found her beautiful wedding dress in a Thai boutique!
-saw entire pig heads and piles of organs for sale on the side of the road.
-sand Lean of Me at open mic night at the cafe.
-spent a day playing in a beautiful river, cliff jumping and letting little Roung fall asleep on us. (I miss that sweet boy!)
-discovered the “Marble Arch”, one of the coolest (and cheapest) coffee shops I have ever been to.
-rode everywhere in a Song Tau…kind of like a modern-day covered wagon/pickup truck.
-lived in Chiang Mai, walking distance to the university and tons of local markets, and made friends with several new Thai people. Love them!
