Leaving my village and my closest Thai friends and family was bittersweet, full of tears, hugs, love and many good luck celebrations. these celebrations consisted of tieing white strings to whisk away the bad spirits and to bring on the good ones to provide luck, health, money and happiness. Everybody wished for a boyfriend for me....and they made sure to wish for it quickly!! It's a very emotional ceremony in which you really feel the love and good wishes. It was a wonderful last 2 weeks at site making my favorite Thai desserts, eating my favorite thai dishes, sharing good memories and enjoying the people who've become a significant part of my life over these last 2 years. I've officially COS'ed, which means I've closed my service, although PC Thailand staff considers the acronym to mean " continuation of service " instead, encouraging us to consistently live our lives as volunteers who provide for our communities. I like that thought process as well, but I've decided to hold off on that for a few months and take advantage of being in SE Asia to travel.
As Americans, the typical lifeline goes as follows: school, job, marriage, house and kids. Very rarely do you meet Americans who take time to travel before/after school or work. Largely because of the typical way of American life I described above, but also for other reasons including: Americans work too hard, cost of living is higher and so finances are often tight, too tight for extensive travel, and because we are so far away from most of the rest of the world. Americans are very fortunate in many ways and I feel lucky and blessed to be a citizen of a wonderful country, but this is one aspect I think puts us at a disadvantage, and something I hope changes.
PC has exposed me to tons of opportunities I've been oblivious to and backpacking is one of them. I've backpacked the appalachian trail and have travelled prior to PC but for short periods of time due to work and money restrictions. Most of these travels included stuffing an over-sized suitcase with every pair of heels I own and too many outfits....."just in case!" Traveling like that is fun and a good work-out, but being a PCV I had to master the art of traveling light. Travel in Asia is not as developed/ advanced and planes don't fit my volunteer budget, so lugging my crap all over the place in janky buses for 12+ hours on the regular taught me the lighter the better. I've learned to travel for long periods of time with 3 shirts and 2 pairs of pants (of course one cute dress as at least one good night of dancing gets thrown in the plans) and some other basic necessities. Dealing with a little body odor becomes par for the course because there's no deodorant in the world that can control the sweat or its smell and a good shower isn't always available.....a hot shower being almost non-existent. All this to save a few extra bucks to splurge on food as that is my priority! I mean, I'm blessed that your tax dollars have supported my ass for 2 years but it certainly doesn't support anything lavish. And so this is how I've learned to backpack, revel in the grossness and the fact that everybody else you associate with, both travelers and locals, are often just as gross and smelly as you!
So with that, im taking the next 3.5 months to travel before returning to 10% unemployment rates and being a 32 year old, unemployed woman living with my parents. My first stop is the philippines, then vietnam, laos, burma and turkey for a good friends wedding. I'll return to America on July 8th. I'll be with my volunteer friend Erin in the Philippines and Marjie will join me for most of the travels. We have no set plans because we have the beauty of flexibility instead. I am quite self aware of my desire to plan, but I'm going to be winging the next few months and see what adventures come. I'm so excited I can practically burst! Until then.....
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