Today was a good day

Today was a much better day. I was able to met up with a former teacher's former student, Joey (did that make sense?). He has been living in Bangkok for the last three years. It's always strange to be thrown into a situation where you don't really know someone but you spend the whole day with them. It was a good day and I'm glad we were able to met up.

Getting there was scary. I went off my map to get to his place. Not knowing where I was going and then having the driver ask questions when I couldn''t answer them, let alone understand them, tested my strength. I did make it though. I was slightly freaking out... but no tears.

It was so nice to have someone to really talk to. Plus, Joey has been in the same position of being freaked out in another country by himself. So, it was so nice to have someone to reflect on their experience and understand how just making it to the train station and back is a big deal. Or exploring a different street is a big deal and how you can be so proud of yourself for something that can seem so small to someone else. I really haven't seen much but doing the little that i have done has been hard. I am completely out of my comfort zone.

We didn't have a glamours day doing touristy things, we had a nice day doing small things that were big for me. First, Joey showed me the school he works in. It is a private school and because i like education and teaching, seeing a school is a fun thing to do. It reminded me of schools in Hawaii, but this one is much nicer than where my aunt works. We then went to Tesco which is a supermarket/Costco/alberson type store. This is where we bought me a phone! Joey said i needed to have one for safety and I was happy to get some help on getting a good deal. I was waiting to get to Nong Khai to get some help with buying one. We ate lunch somewhere... it was good... I'm still not eating a lot though. Then, when the thunder started, we headed back to his place to play with his dog and watch The Office. I never figured out if it rained because his places didn't have windows where we were sitting. Getting back was a little scary. When i left Joey's place, around 6:30pm, it was dark and getting a taxi was a little difficult. It took the taxi driver a little bit to figure out where he needed to go. In the process his gas light came on (which had him nervous) and the king drove by so we had to sit still for an extra 5-10 minutes. But I did make it back safely.

Tomorrow I take the night train to Nong Khai... i have no clue what to expect but I'm just hoping for a nice train mate. In a lot of ways I really do wish that I had explored Bangkok more. I will be back here and I will see it. But at the same time I am proud of myself for venturing out as much as I have. It's been hard being on my own where I don't know the language or the culture.

I might not respond back to every e-mail that i get because there is only so much time i am willing to let my self spend on the computer but know how happy I am to see that i have mail!