Before I Go

I don't think anyone out there knows what a weird week it's been.  With finals over and only eight days until I go on my great adventure, things in the here and now don't feel normal.  Mentally I've checked out and I'm already overseas, but physically I'm still in America.

Around April I remember sitting down to eat some larb I cooked (find recipe here ) and then I imagined myself eating the food in the middle of a crowded night market lined with vendors selling everything from silk scarves to fried fish cakes, and customers clogging up the street and trying to avoid the motorcycles that would honk and cut through traffic.  Sounds and scents I had all but forgotten returned to me.  I realized, "Gee, this is really going to happen––and really soon!"

Now about once every hour I have such an episode.  Though now it's becoming more focused.  Instead of random moments I'm thinking of that first week when I get off the plane, find my apartment, and spend a few days settling in before beginning my work in the prison.  I'm already planning out a weekend trip to Sukothai from June 10th through the 12th.

As for the here and now, I've been spending the week saying goodbye to peeps.  Everybody wants to see me once before I leave, and regrettably I can't get to see everyone.  So for those who I failed to see once more, I'm sorry.

There were so many people and so much i wanted to do before I left, but that won't happen now.  Other than not seeing more peeps one last time, my other big regret is I never finished a novel I began writing last March.  I was hoping to get the thing done, but there are only so many hours in a day.  It'll have to sit at 200 some pages unfinished for at least three months.