Just go, C!
I'm Charity, a proud auntie, wine lover, semi-nerd, and dreamer who can't stay in one place for too long.
Life takes you to unexpected places. Love brings you home. --Melissa McClone Hello, friends! I thought I would post a quick update letting you know what I've been up to and what my plans look like for the next several months.
It's been pretty quiet here in Phayao; I haven't done a lot of traveling other than just day trips here and there to places close by. I'm still teaching until the end of April. I've sold my house back in Omaha. Oh, and I've been moving to a plant-based diet. This has definitely not been easy for me! I actually haven't missed the meat all that much, but I did eat a lot of eggs and ate more fish and shrimp once I came here to Thailand, so those have been the hardest things to cut. I'm also a sugar and coffee addict so that's a whole other battle. But, I already feel a difference just in the month or so that I've been making the changes. I'm optimistic that I'll continue down this path and eventually become 100% plant-based. Baby steps! (PS if anyone is on a similar journey, please let me know! I'd love to share tips, recipes, challenges, successes, etc. with someone!) Other than that, it's been pretty snoozy around here, honestly. Sometimes I feel guilty because now that I've been here in Thailand for (almost exactly) one year, it feels more like home to me and some of the novelty has worn off that comes with seeing and experiencing a new place. I often remind myself that I'm in freaking THAILAND, for crying out loud, and that I should find joy and excitement in those everyday routine things that were not at all routine to me a year ago. It's crazy how quickly humans can adapt to foreign surroundings. So, here is what I have planned for the rest of this year. I know by now that plans are always subject to change, but I feel pretty solid about my decisions at this point so I don't expect too much to go off course. Once my teaching contract is up at the end of April, I'll be taking a couple of months off to travel through Southeast Asia, including Myanmar (Burma), Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam. I also plan to spend up to a week or so in Hong Kong to visit a friend from high school and get a flight back to the States from there. Yes indeed, I'll be going home for a little while next summer! My first priority is to spend some time with my sister and her family in Ft Worth, TX, and to meet my baby niece who was born after I left, and who will be celebrating her first birthday in July. From there, I'll visit and spend some time back home in Omaha. I don't know for how long, yet. I'm guessing around 2 weeks. There are several people I'd like to try to visit while I'm in the U.S. so it will just depend on how things pan out, and how much money I end up spending once I'm back. The U.S. is expensive as hell, yo! Speaking of which, I'm hoping that my friends and family will understand that I definitely don't have the same kind of budget I had when I lived in the States. I've been living on a Thai salary for the past year and my living (and traveling) expenses have been quite low by comparison. This is great, of course, until you need to buy international flights and travel in countries with much stronger economies. So, please do not be offended or disappointed if I have to say no to going out to eat or drink sometimes or participate in pricey activities. I definitely will on occasion but I have to be reasonable. Unless you're buying, then yeah, let's get after it. Haha. My plan is to stick around the U.S. until sometime in August, and then I'll be heading off again, this time to South America. I plan to start in Ecuador and work my way around for a year or two, teaching English in various cities. Why South America and why Ecuador? Well, the best I can explain is that I'm drawn there. I've had dreams and other synchronistic events happen which have led me to decide that Ecuador is where I need to go. That might sound silly to some people, and that's ok. I need to learn to trust in myself and in my journey. I hope I'll have a chance to see many (or all) of you when I return this summer. I know that life is what it is and I understand in advance if it can't happen. There's always next time. Otherwise, I'll see you in July, and I can't wait to hear about what you've been up to!
1 Comment
Linda Ferreira
2/8/2018 06:23:36 pm
Hope so!
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AuthorHi! I'm Charity. I'm from Omaha, Nebraska, USA. I quit my job in October 2016 to travel the world. Archives
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