Creating a Home

No one said moving abroad would be easy.  Easy was not a word I used when describing my decision to move to Thailand.  There have been very few things about this expereince that can be described as easy... it's a good thing I love challenges and am stubborn.  I rarely quit and see most things to the end.  That being said, I have spent these past few days doing my best to create a home away from home here.

Before moving here, I never realize how easy it was to make friends at home or how many opportunities I had that led to friendships.  I've never been the most outgoing person or the greatest at making friends but I can confidently say that the friends I do have are the best and I'm blessed to have them in my life.  

Think about your friendships and the closest friends you have.  Chances are you met because you have something in common.  You went to school together, played on a team together, belonged to the same club, worked together etc.  Now, no one is best friends with everyone in their school or on their sports team but these people provide familiar faces.  The similar interest is enough to be friendly and have short converstaions with.  Once you get to know that larger group of people, you relate to maybe one or two in a greater depth.  These are the ones who become your best friends.

I'm not going to school here.  I'm not playing on a sports team.  I don't have (somewhat forced) interaction with others with similar interest besides from 8am-4pm when I'm at school (even then interaction can be limited and not always positive; that's enough for whole other post or two).  At first, I was so discouraged by this that I was ready to get on a plane and return home.  I wanted to return home to what was familiar and easy.  Like I said though, I am stubborn.  It's going to take more than a few nights of feeling desperately homesick to get me to leave.

I am starting to make myself have interactions with others outside of school.  I signed up for a yoga class! I had my first one on Monday and loved it.  There were seven other people in the class, none of whom spoke English, but it was still human interaction.  It was more productive then sitting in my room alone.  I may not have spoken more than a few sentences to other people but I was physcially surrouned by other people.  Yoga class gave me something to look forward and maybe even more imporantly "killed time".  I wasn't staring at my watch waiting for an appropriate time to walk to dinner or an appropriate time to go to bed.

Yoga class is step one to Hua Hin becoming home.  Step two will be finding my own place.  Disappointingly, I was unable to look at places this past weekend like I had hoped.  I have a Thai friend who was suppose to take me but his contacts for various places didn't all get back to him.  It is a very "Thai thing" for plans to fall through and for things to get completed at the very last minute.  That's the opposite of the type of person I am so I am doing my best to adjust for this.  For now, I am staying at the retreat house and I am gracious for the Salesians hospitality but am anxious and (I think) ready to get a place I can call my own.

Yoga class may seem like a small commitment and a tiny step but for me it was more than that.  I had the option to pay for a drop in class and try it out before I signed up and paid for a month of classes.  I chose just to do the month of classes without trying it out.  I was pretty confident that I wouldn't hate yoga itself.  I was worried that if I didn't leave the class with a new friend that I would become discouraged and not go back.  And well, that happened.  I didn't leave the class with any new friends but I'll be in class tomorrow and all the classes for the next month.  I paid for it so you best believe I'll get my money's worth. (I can thank my dad for that attitude.) And like I said, I loved my first yoga class and the instructor was great. 

Just like my yoga skills will take time to grow, so do friendships, and so do homes.  I'd be lying if I said I wasn't frustrated at the fact that these things take time.  I wish I could grab my phone and text someone asking if they want to grab dinner like I was able to do during college.  I wish I ran into a familiar face at the mall.  When these things discourage me, I realize that I haven't been here long enough to make friends or become a familiar face to someone.  I want these things to come true and to happen.

I can't quite call Hua Hin home yet but I no longer feel that I am visiting.  The day will come though that I do create a home for myself here.