Tidbits

I'm finding it harder and harder to summarize everything that I've been experiencing in a few paragraphs. There's so much happening at all times, and I have so many thoughts and reflections to make...how do I pick and chose what to tell you?

I could tell you about the open water diving course I completed, or the bar run by a pirate ladyboy (seriously a pirate...complete with parrot. it was cool). Or I could try to describe a few of the incredible people I've been hanging out with...and how bizarre it is to say goodybe knowing I will never see most of them again. Or I could tell you about the pollution and lack of education and poverty in Thailand; the fact that most people need a calculator to add 40 + 30, that last night at the bar there were three children under the age of 8 trying to sell me flowers until 3 a.m. (we just picked them up and started dancing with them instead), and that it is impossible to find a garbage can anywhere. I could try to describe the lush tropical beauty of the landscape here, so you could picture the bamboo bungalow that I'm staying in right now (situated on the edge of a little river, surrounded by jungle and rolling hills, and completely smoked in at the momen - the farmers are burning all their fields to fertilize them so there's a heavy layer of haze over everything north of Chiang Mai). I could try to compare the different cities and towns I've visited - the south where everyone sits on the beach drinking beers and watching sunsets, the north where we have amazing coffee and zoom around on scooters in little towns like Pai....

But even if I told you about all those things in detail (which would require a post of epic proportions, so I'll spare you)...it still wouldn't even skim the surface of what I'm living right now.

I think that's pretty amazing.