Okay. Last post for Bangkoking in its current form. I’m currently back in the 612 in my comfortable little subletted room. I arrived stateside, homeward bound, in sioux falls January 12 after 27 hours of flights (but only 12 with the time change). i made it through an outrageous amount of security checks and somehow my 5 legged journey of flights worked out, thank Shiva.

i met the ‘rentals in sioux falls, ate pizza, and passed out for the drive back home-home to Aberdeen. I only stayed home-home for 3ish days. i really couldn’t believe that i had been gone for 6 months with how stagnant life seemed.

then the 15th I came up to Minneapolis. hastily moved into my room for the semester. then i saw old friends. now i feel like i have been gone for over a year. i kind of feel like i’m floating around in limbo somewhere over the Pacific. i feel awkward walking around having done things in asia for half a year that most cannot relate to and explaining myself just takes too much effort that my tired soul doesnt want to do now.

on a brighter note, i missed things about the us that im slowly being reminded of.

• Pandora and Last.FM work here
• brewing non-instant coffee
• drinkable tap water
• 24/7 ESPN
• diversity and blending in
• grocery stores
• the sense of accomplishment associated with keeping warm. keeping cool from the heat isn’t as fulfilling.

as for things i’m really going to miss about thailand and southeast/southern asia

• eating amazing, cheap, hot food for $1 every day
• the thai “mai pen rai” culture. mai pen rai is a phrase that means no problem, dont worry, etc. people are chill and stress free. living amongst a satisfied people is pleasant.
• warm weather
• friends
• instant transportation with mototaxis and taxis

there’s a lot of other things too for both categories. re-entry culture shock is present. i think a solution would be to give me a week, a summer banking internship, and ill be good.

</bangkoking>

<reality />

India

india was, well, india. it kicked my ass every other day. i hate a gagillion eye opening/peculiar/dangerous/amazing experiences that i dont even care to try to spell out at length here. I went from Dehli to the Taj, then around Rajasthan which is a desert area in the northwest. i went about motstly by death bus since my train tickets didnt work out as planned. i say death because the ’sleeper’ seats are made compact for indians. you can imagine how comfortable they are for me when i’m sick, tired, and locked in a coffin for 30 hours (not an exageration) going between destinations.

from here i went and lazed around at beaches in Goa, then to the amazing city of Mumbai (Bombay), which was actually somewhat civilized unlike the rest of india. surely the only indian city i saw that wouldnt drive me to suicide if i were forced to reside there. (ps: dehli is my current least favorite place in the world)

during the trip i got sick multiple times, completely scammed by government workers, led into indian ghettos by rickshaw drivers (and subsequently ripped off), realized the entire country is more or less an impoverished shantytown, and went to bed at 8:00 on new years eve (following my 30 hour bus ride). i also saw my first wonder of the world (Taj Mahal, which lives up to the hype), relaxed on rooftop restaurants and in roof tents, read books, meet interesting travelers, and learned a lot about india, its people, and the Indian head bob.

Mention of the indian head bob/bobble/wobble deserved a paragraph to be by itself. this is it. as for what it is, i think you can only truly try to understand through experiences. im more or less just impressed with the strength of indian necks considering how they manage to bobble all day, every day while speaking.

overall it was enlightening and im glad i did it, but it was exhausting, uncomfortable, hard, and definitely more than i was anticipating. i survived though. will i go back again? meh. naturally i wont rule it out, but i’d say it’s at around #58 on my todo list at the moment.

bangkok

im having a lot of different feelings being back in the bkk. i was really looking forward to getting back. now i really really realize that there’s nothing here for me since my friends are gone and a new semester has already begun.

all in all, i’m tired. studying abroad has easily been the best experience of my life and i hate to see it go. but now, it’s just time to go home. the cold doesnt even sound that bad right now.

/bangkoking