It is totally mind blowing that my time here in Bantan as a teacher is actually coming to an end. It is nearly impossible to put into words how amazing these last four months here have been. It was a time filled with extreme high points as well as extremely low ones where life was simultaneously the easiest and hardest it have ever been. Just looking back at how far I have come, I definitely have never been so proud of myself. I think with any experience similar to this, it is impossible to come out the other side the same person that entered, but I have been shocked by the amount that I was able to learn in the little time I was here. Aside from learning to adapt to the odds and ends of Thai culture, such as waiting at a 120 second long red light, stoping every morning at 8am sharp to stand and listen to the King's Song, or having no one "bless me" after a sneezing fit, I’ve learned a few other things that will likely be more beneficial to me when I return home.
Patience.
It’s a virtue for sure. Everything in Thailand seems to move in slow motion, aside from cars and motorbikes. All of my students saunter through the halls and are 10-15 late to every class, meeting times are merely suggestions and bus schedules are just rough guidelines. Urgency is not a word in the Thai language. As the start it was the most infuriating thing for me because I am such a punctual person. It would bother me to be out for food with my friends and have to wait 20 min just for one dish and then have the rest come out one by one with a 5-10 min window in between each. I would be at a bus station for a bus that was said to arrive at 3.30 but it would arrive at 4.45 instead. Everything is so inefficient, yet Thai people just did not care. They would just sit and wait because they knew eventually their food would come or the bus would show. They live life with so much more ease and relaxation than I ever have seen and being around it so often, it has thankfully rubbed off on me. I have learned to just breathe and realize that everything will work out in time, even if it is not in the amount of time you initially anticipated. Being in Thailand has showed me that being patient and giving everything time to run its course, is the best thing you can do for yourself. It might not always seem like it, but everything happens for a reason and you just have to be patient and wait for that reason to show itself. It will eventually.
Different Folks, Different Strokes.
It is no secret that Thailand and it’s culture is very different from what I am used to. There have been times where I honestly feel like I am living on entirely different planet with the way things are done here. It can be so confusing and seem to be so counterintuitive, but I have to remember that that is my own opinion, aka that does not mean it is right. There are so many things about this culture that frustrate me, like the students “no-fail” policy or the constant need to put harmony over efficiency, but I have learned that does not mean it is necessarily the wrong way to live. Thai people are some of the happiest people I will ever meet, and although they live in a way that may not be the most beneficial to them, they could not care less. Some of them have no problem not voicing an opinion, or giving every student a passing grade because, for them, that is just the way things are and they do not feel it is necessary to change it. Just because someone does not see things the way I do, or they do things that frustrate me because I know they can achieve much more if they change it, it’s their culture and I am their guest. Live and let live, different strokes different folks, however you want to phrase it, being here has helped solidify the fact that as long as you are happy and treating others with acceptance and kindness, it should not matter what things you choose to value or how you choose to value them.
People > Places.
It goes without saying that traveling and experiencing new places is my favorite thing in the world. The rush of excitement and unfiltered joy I get is a feeling I have yet to find in anything else. However, living in Bantan has proved to me that places may make people, but it is the people that will always make the place. When I found out that I was going to be living in a small town with nothing for me to do that could occupy my free time, I panicked thinking there was no way I would survive. Well here I am 4 months later, alive, and so sad to be leaving and I give all the credit to the people who have welcomed me here. The sadness that I have about leaving has nothing to do with Bantan the town, and everything to do with having to leave my Bantanwittaya family and all of my remarkable students behind. I’ve realized as fun and amazing it is to see and experience all these new places, it is the people who you are sharing those places with that make it all the more special. My time in Thailand will forever be defined mostly by all of the friends that I made and the people I met in Bantan and not by all of the cool and amazing adventures that we shared. Although those places and adventures were remarkable, they just will never compare. The same can be said about my excitement about going back to Shrewsbury. The town itself does nothing for me, but being in Shrewsbury means I can be with my Mom and see my Dad at any point I please, therefore I am overjoyed to head back there.
Thinking that I would stop seeing new places is an actual nightmare of mine, but Bantan has put so much more value on the people that are in my life and shown me just how important it is to have and maintain relationships with the people who matter, and feeling “at home” has nothing to do with geography.
Now that I’ve rambled on enough about Thailand, I will let you know what I have coming up next. Starting Monday night, I will be headed off to Vietnam to kick-start my next adventure and hop around Southeast Asia for 7 weeks. I’ll be going through Vietnam, Southern Thailand, Bali, parts of Malaysia, Cambodia and then finishing back in Northern Thailand before heading to Boston.
I plan on keeping up do date with this as best I can, and share the last two months of this experience before my life returns to watching Ellen and walking my dogs, so until then you can look at my final batch of Bantanwittaya pictures.
Note: every single class photo is actually quite an accurate representation of the kind of class they were..
Patience.
It’s a virtue for sure. Everything in Thailand seems to move in slow motion, aside from cars and motorbikes. All of my students saunter through the halls and are 10-15 late to every class, meeting times are merely suggestions and bus schedules are just rough guidelines. Urgency is not a word in the Thai language. As the start it was the most infuriating thing for me because I am such a punctual person. It would bother me to be out for food with my friends and have to wait 20 min just for one dish and then have the rest come out one by one with a 5-10 min window in between each. I would be at a bus station for a bus that was said to arrive at 3.30 but it would arrive at 4.45 instead. Everything is so inefficient, yet Thai people just did not care. They would just sit and wait because they knew eventually their food would come or the bus would show. They live life with so much more ease and relaxation than I ever have seen and being around it so often, it has thankfully rubbed off on me. I have learned to just breathe and realize that everything will work out in time, even if it is not in the amount of time you initially anticipated. Being in Thailand has showed me that being patient and giving everything time to run its course, is the best thing you can do for yourself. It might not always seem like it, but everything happens for a reason and you just have to be patient and wait for that reason to show itself. It will eventually.
Different Folks, Different Strokes.
It is no secret that Thailand and it’s culture is very different from what I am used to. There have been times where I honestly feel like I am living on entirely different planet with the way things are done here. It can be so confusing and seem to be so counterintuitive, but I have to remember that that is my own opinion, aka that does not mean it is right. There are so many things about this culture that frustrate me, like the students “no-fail” policy or the constant need to put harmony over efficiency, but I have learned that does not mean it is necessarily the wrong way to live. Thai people are some of the happiest people I will ever meet, and although they live in a way that may not be the most beneficial to them, they could not care less. Some of them have no problem not voicing an opinion, or giving every student a passing grade because, for them, that is just the way things are and they do not feel it is necessary to change it. Just because someone does not see things the way I do, or they do things that frustrate me because I know they can achieve much more if they change it, it’s their culture and I am their guest. Live and let live, different strokes different folks, however you want to phrase it, being here has helped solidify the fact that as long as you are happy and treating others with acceptance and kindness, it should not matter what things you choose to value or how you choose to value them.
People > Places.
It goes without saying that traveling and experiencing new places is my favorite thing in the world. The rush of excitement and unfiltered joy I get is a feeling I have yet to find in anything else. However, living in Bantan has proved to me that places may make people, but it is the people that will always make the place. When I found out that I was going to be living in a small town with nothing for me to do that could occupy my free time, I panicked thinking there was no way I would survive. Well here I am 4 months later, alive, and so sad to be leaving and I give all the credit to the people who have welcomed me here. The sadness that I have about leaving has nothing to do with Bantan the town, and everything to do with having to leave my Bantanwittaya family and all of my remarkable students behind. I’ve realized as fun and amazing it is to see and experience all these new places, it is the people who you are sharing those places with that make it all the more special. My time in Thailand will forever be defined mostly by all of the friends that I made and the people I met in Bantan and not by all of the cool and amazing adventures that we shared. Although those places and adventures were remarkable, they just will never compare. The same can be said about my excitement about going back to Shrewsbury. The town itself does nothing for me, but being in Shrewsbury means I can be with my Mom and see my Dad at any point I please, therefore I am overjoyed to head back there.
Thinking that I would stop seeing new places is an actual nightmare of mine, but Bantan has put so much more value on the people that are in my life and shown me just how important it is to have and maintain relationships with the people who matter, and feeling “at home” has nothing to do with geography.
Now that I’ve rambled on enough about Thailand, I will let you know what I have coming up next. Starting Monday night, I will be headed off to Vietnam to kick-start my next adventure and hop around Southeast Asia for 7 weeks. I’ll be going through Vietnam, Southern Thailand, Bali, parts of Malaysia, Cambodia and then finishing back in Northern Thailand before heading to Boston.
I plan on keeping up do date with this as best I can, and share the last two months of this experience before my life returns to watching Ellen and walking my dogs, so until then you can look at my final batch of Bantanwittaya pictures.
Note: every single class photo is actually quite an accurate representation of the kind of class they were..