20 days

So I am sitting here realizing that I have 20 days until I come home. While I am very excited to see everybody, I honestly don't want to come home. I love Thailand. I love its people, its food, its attitude....its culture. I have been surprised by how fast and how deeply I have come to love this place.

Have I accomplished everything that I set out to do? Have I really taken advantage of my time here? I am pretty sure I have grown up in a lot of ways...and I am pretty sure I won't even realize just how much Thailand has changed my life until I am back in the States trying to reconcile what I have learned and experienced with normal life. One of my students told me today that he thought that after I have been back in America for a month, I will have forgotten all about Thailand. I told him that it was impossible, that Thailand has changed my life. I hope he believed me. I am so grateful that I got to come here. It has definitely been the hardest thing I have ever done....and the most rewarding. Its funny how often those two coincide.

Livin' it up

Here are a few pictures from my bike ride last night:

Happy 4th of July!

This weekend was probably my favorite so far. Oh, I loved it! We started it off with elephant riding (my new favorite animal). We then went hiking through the mountains through different hill tribes. We ended up at a beautiful waterfall where we camped for the night. It was so fun to sit around the campfire singing random American songs that one of our guides knew on the guitar. Our guides were from the Karen hilltribe, where we stayed. They were born and raised in this little village and they were so excited to show us their home. I loved it because I didn't feel like it was the typical touristy zoo thing. They weren't in it just to make money. They honestly loved their job and we loved the experience. The next day we took off again, saw a few more waterfalls, played a soccer game with another hilltribe, and ate lunch out of banana leaves. That is hilltribe backpacking food for you. Forget Chunky soup, stick some fried rice in a banana leaf! We hiked about 10 miles all together and it was some pretty steep terrain. I am definitely sore today. After our hike we rafted down the river on bamboo rafts. We might have stopped to do some cliff jumping and swimming too:) To top it off, we went and got pizza and root beer and some more delicious Swenson's. As we were finishing our sundays, we saw fireworks in the distance...somebody else was celebrating too:) Oh happy day. I have never felt so patriotic than when celebrating my country's birthday somewhere else. I love Thailand. But it has really made me appreciate the freedoms and opportunities that I have as and American. We are truly blessed.

Tut Tut Tut

And so it begins....across the rickety bridge #1

beautiful terraced rice fields

Rambo: one of our guides (check out his awesome machete)

the waterfall where we camped

where we slept

our lunch

Jenessa and I playing in the waterfall

Margo and I LOVING a delicious sunday from Swenson's!

(Dad you would have loved this weekend. I kept thinking of you the whole time, pretty sure I even dreamt about you being there:) We will have to do it again, right?)