Two Months in Chiang Mai: The Highs were High, the Lows were Low

Two months living in Chiang Mai, Thailand. This month was particularly insane. Like the title suggests, the highs were so very high, and the lows were so very low. One of my best friends from college, Sydney, made the trip out to visit me for what was supposed to be two weeks. She loved it so much that she extended her trip another week, so most of my second month was hanging out with her, traveling to the beaches of Phuket in the south of Thailand and the hippie mountain town of Pai in the north of Thailand. Sounds dreamy, right? It was, mostly.

I also had to work during the weeks, and wore myself thin doing activity after activity with her in the evenings and weekends. It was so much fun, don’t get me wrong, but I was freaking exhausted. Enter: the poison. I got hit by two types of poison this month: sun & food. Food poisoning was objectively much worse, though sun poisoning was a close runner-up. My body was revolting against Thailand, and there was nothing I could do about it.

I always joke that evolutionarily, I was never supposed to live in Thailand, but instead was meant to work on a potato farm with mostly cloudy skies somewhere in Ireland. I am so fair-skinned, which is something the Thai people love to point out, telling me how “white” I am during massages or while getting my nails done. It’s actually pretty funny, until I spent one day on the beaches of Phuket and got severe sun poisoning. Nausea, chills, the whole nine yards. I wore sunscreen, how could this have happened?? My skin always finds a way to burn, always. So, although that did set me back a bit, I pushed through it and we still had the most incredible trip. I am going to write a travel guide for Phuket that will tell you everything we did, so keep an eye out for that blog coming up soon.

Although I am trying to block out the memory of my experience with food poisoning, I can tell you one thing: it was miserable. So freaking miserable. I did not know what I ate that triggered the poison, but whatever it was, it had a vengeance against me. I have always had a weak stomach, so I think I expected this day would come eventually, but naively, I didn’t think it would be that bad. I was wrong. I’m sure you can imagine my symptoms, and the worst of it lasted three full days. I eventually went to the Thai hospital near my apartment to get antibiotics. Thankfully, there are 7/11’s on every corner of Thailand, and they sell blue Gatorade. That blue Gatorade saved my life, and my sanity. It sounds stupid, but I felt so homesick when I was ill, and the blue Gatorade reminded me of home.

I did so much this month, and I still haven’t fully processed it all. It was all kind of a blur. While Sydney was here, the first long weekend we went to Phuket (got the first poison), the second we stayed in Chiang Mai (then I got the second poison), and the third I mustered everything in me to go to Pai for the weekend. It was the best decision ever. Pai was INCREDIBLE. Me and Sydney learned how to ride motorbikes and cruised through the stunning mountain landscape, riding our bikes, loving life. The first ride through the mountains felt like a movie. The wind in my face, the stunning views laid out before me like a present. I couldn’t believe my eyes … it was euphoric.

Teaching Update: I feel like I’m finally getting into the routine of teaching. I’m learning that there are some classes that go great, and I feel so accomplished and fulfilled. Then there are other classes that don’t go as well, and that’s part of the process of education. I’m slowly learning to let it roll off my back and keep going. I have 17 classes a week, so of course some will be better than others! It can be frustrating when you feel like you’re not making a difference in the kids lives, but I have to remind myself that I am. Even if they aren’t fluent in English by the end of the year with me, I’m helping lay a foundation. So much of education is foundational, letting the content build and build until it becomes something solid. I’ve been thinking a lot about my own teachers, how much respect I have for them. So much of my classes I don’t remember, but they helped lay a foundation for the rest of my life.

Quick little funny story … so I walk into one of my classes the other day and this tiny, adorable little boy comes up to me and yells “Mamma Mia” in an Italian accent, complete with the Italian hand gestures. It caught me so off guard that I laughed and did it back to him. The whole class we kept saying “Mamma Mia” in an Italian accent and laughing. This stuck out to me so much because it brought flashbacks to me being that age, doing silly stuff like that, and how much it would have meant for a teacher to be silly with me. Kids are kids in every country, in every language. These kids are reminding me of my inner-child, how so much of life is silly and meant to be taken lightheartedly.

I’m having less moments where I think “holy shit I’m living in Thailand” but they definitely still come occasionally. Actually, at the moment I’m feeling really grateful to be here. I’m finding hidden gems all over Chiang Mai. There are so many bars, cafes, restaurants, bakeries, and parks scattered all over this amazing city. I’m enjoying exploring them and meeting new people. I feel like an adult in every way, paying bills and working 5 days a week and thinking about my future. But on the flip side, I also feel like the young person that I am, living in Southeast Asia, exploring and traveling and meeting interesting people. Juxtapositions.

Okay this was a lengthy blog post but I hope you enjoyed. My life is pretty wacky at the moment, and I love writing about it. Writing helps keep me in the moment, and allows me some perspective on my own life. I’m so grateful for all the support I’m receiving from home. Love you all!

xx Gracie