Halfway

Hello! 

So I'm halfway through my time in Thailand with GVI, even though I don't actualy leave Thailand until December 26th.  I absolutely can not believe how fast time has flown.  I feel like I just arrived.  Since I've been here, we've had 2 more groups of voluneers arrive and one group leave.  I've seen people come and go yet it still feels like I just showed up! I would definitley say I'm fully adjusted to life here in Baan Nam Khem, and I have to say living in such a communal area really gets you to know people in a way you never would otherwise.  Like when I think about it, my closest friends that I have don't know me on the same level that people do here. Living with so many people in such a small house is so different than, for an example, meeting friends at school or something.  It becomes a lot more personal very quickly.  

I have my travel plans layed out a bit more officially now, on November 29th (when my Thailand GVI contract ends) I'm going to Cambodia! A good friend of mine will be there so it'd be crazy for me to miss that oppurtunity.  I'll be there until December 8th, and then I'll come back to Thailand to stay with my uncle at his house with my cousins, and my grandmother will be joining us as well through Christmas.  I'll be there till the 26th of December, when I'll go to Laos to teach for 3 months.  I'm SO excited to teach! On the conservation program here, we get to teach twice a week, but that just started back up since the kids were on vacation.  So we're just getting that going.  Most other people here are on the teaching programs so I watch them spend their free time lesson planning etc, and I just wish I got to have a class of my own!!! When I can, I ask to go to the orphanage with the healthcare program where they offer classes twice a week. It's absolutly amazing to be there, the kids are so sweet and SO incredibly smart! They love when you read with them and they'll just keep pointing to things for you to tell them what it is in english. I may have picked the program that wasn't exactly right for me, but i still love being here and I try to take every oppurtunity to work with the kids in the programs partnered with GVI (orphanage, Childcare Development Center, etc.) 

Last weekened we went to Krabi, it was amazing!!!! It's about a three hour drive, so worth it though. We spend Friday and Saturday night there.  I just don't even know how to describe it.  It's a very touristy place, yes, but it's more like a huge melting pot of young backpackers and travellers just looking to have fun and explore! I've literally never been in a place where there's so many amazing and friendly people that I can releate to so well. Everyone is just so open and they want to tell  you their story just as much as they want to hear yours. It was incredible, we went island hopping, bar hopping, got cheap massages, ate great  food... it's just the most relaxed and fun place to spend a weekend.  I even met these two girls who had just graduated from the school I'm going to in the fall, which was a really funny coincidence! 

Speaking of coincidences,  one of the new volunteers that came this weekend is from Maine! She just graduated from UMO.  There's about 8 or 9 new volunteers this week, and it was about 6 who left the same day...so it's kind of weird because the whole vibe in the house completely changed.  So many new people and so many people gone.  It's a little strange but it'll seem like normal in a few days! I'm going to go to lunch now, thank you for reading and I will try to update more often!! 

xxxxx