Off to India!

   
     With midterms in the next few days (I know- I can't believe I'm at midterms either.....) I don't think I'll have time for another post before I leave for my midterm break. So- I will be leaving Bangkok on Friday (July 20th) to go to India for 16 days....crazy!! I, along with two of my friends, will fly into New Delhi on Friday, stay for two days, then head up to Jaipur for two more days to take part in the Teej Festival. This particular festival celebrates the arrival of the monsoon season, but also focuses on celebrating the women of India. It should be awesome to see! After two days in Jaipur, we are heading to Agra for a day to see the Taj Mahal.....this is something on my bucket list- can't believe I will actually be there! Then, from Agra we will head back to New Delhi and fly out to Goa to see some beautiful beaches and rest up for a few days. From Goa we fly to Calcutta, where we will serve with the Missionaries of Charity (Mother Teresa's order of nuns) for 4 or 5 days. Finally, on Saturday, August 4th we will fly back to Bangkok.

     It's pretty surreal to me that this trip is happening...and so soon! I knew right from the beginning when I applied to go to Thailand that I wanted to go to India while I was abroad. I definitely feel as though I'm being called there, and although I know this trip will probably be the biggest challenge I have faced so far in my life, I am looking forward to it. I view this as kind of a test for myself- to see if I can be adaptable and adventurous...let's hope it works! 

"The truth is that our finest moments are most likely to occur when we are feeling 

deeply uncomfortable, unhappy, or unfulfilled. For it is only in such moments, 

propelled by our discomfort, that we are likely to step out of our ruts and start 

searching for different ways or truer answers." 

-Unknown

Fourth of July in Bangkok- "Happy America Day!!"

    

"God bless America, land that I love...."

       I have never experienced such a great sense of pride in my country and my freedom then I did celebrating Independence Day outside of America. While living in the U.S., the Fourth of July wasn't a huge deal to me. I always took it for granted that we would have a barbecue, swimming and of course, some fireworks! This year we did not have that guarantee, but we certainly showed our pride in our own country over here in Thailand! When we were on campus at Bang Na with our American flag bandannas on our heads, a Thai student walked over and asked us if we were, in fact, Americans. When we said yes, he replied with a giant grin on his face with, "Happy birthday!!" Later, when I went to Grandma's for dinner, she wished us a "Happy America Day!" It was great to see how happy the Thais were to see us celebrating our own country.
      On the Saturday after July 4th, our entire group went to the American Chamber of Commerce Independence Day party. Our tickets were paid for through our program, and we all got to have a day full of the typical American Fourth of July things- hot dogs, hamburgers, Dairy Queen ice cream, and even some American beer and wine (a big improvement from what we've found in Thailand) We had such a fantastic day meeting other Americans living in Bangkok, and showing our American pride. It's also probably the first and last time we will ever see that many farangs (white people) in one place in Thailand, too....

Barack and Michelle made an 

appearance in Bangkok....

     

Kanchanaburi Part 2: Hellfire Pass

      So after leaving The River Kwai Jungle Rafts, we headed out on the bus for Hellfire Pass. Hellfire Pass is a portion of the "Death Railway" I mentioned in my last post. It is an area where there was a heavy loss of life and extremely difficult conditions for the Allied POW's and laborers. It was named Hellfire Pass because the emaciated men worked by torchlight most of the time, and it was described as what Hell must look like...
     We reached the Visitor's Center and looked around the at museum for a bit, and then headed out to the trail. I (inconveniently) forgot my raincoat, so of course it rained the entire day, but we still were able to get in a great hike on the trail! We were able to get headsets that gave us a more detailed account of what went on in each part of the trail. It was somewhat eerie to walk on this pathway, knowing that so many men were brutally treated and died here. At the same time, it was incredible seeing how deep the rock cuttings were, particularly because they were cut by hand. Pretty surreal. 
     After about a three hour walk, we made it back to the bus and headed towards the Allied cemetery- our last stop before headed back to Bangkok. Despite how tired I was from the hike, I wandered around the cemetery for about an hour, just looking at row after row of young soldiers who had died during their work on the railway. It truly was sobering to come to this cemetery directly after being on the trail itself, and it definitely made it more real to us. One aspect of the cemetery that struck me was the unidentified soliders' graves. There was even a spot where the ashes of 300 unidentified soldiers were buried together. It just struck me how so many soldiers could be left without any identity and buried without anyone knowing who they were- very, very sad.
       The second half of our trip to Kanchanaburi was pretty somber, but I was so happy I was able to go and experience a bit of history that I knew nothing about prior to this weekend. I would definitely recommend anyone coming to Thailand to visit it! 


     P.S. My camera completely broke mid-hike to Hellfire Pass, so I apologize for the lack of pictures. I successfully bought a new camera and now am taking much cooler pictures :)

Walking the trail! 

 Poppy flower in memorial of veterans.

 Hellfire Pass

Incredible view from the trail 

The trail (Also, the last picture my camera

took before it broke....)

Kanchanaburi Part 1: Bridge Over the River Kwai, River Kwai Jungle Rafts

"Delight in the beauty that surrounds you."

        Two weekends ago, our group took an overnight trip to Kanchanaburi, a province outside of Bangkok. Friday morning, we woke up bright and early (this seems to be a trend on days when we should be able to sleep late.....) and got on the bus at 7:15 am. We drove about 3 hours on the bus, and were dropped off at a train on the outskirts of the city of Kanchanaburi. These train tracks were a part of the Death Railway- built by Allied POW's and Asian laborers during World War II. We all got on the train, and took a two hour ride through some of the most beautiful scenery I have ever seen in my life. We crossed over the bridge made famous by the movie The Bridge Over the River Kwai. I haven't seen the movie yet, but I've heard wonderful things and after seeing it in real life, I would love to watch the movie!
        This train ride was the first time since I've been in Thailand that I truly have felt like I'm in a totally different part of the world. For the past six weeks, I have definitely felt like I was far away from home, but Bangkok never really gave me a huge culture shock. It wasn't until this train ride that I really realized that I am, in fact, half a world away from home. In addition to that, this train ride filled me with an incredible sense of peacefulness. I remember one specific moment watching the scenery go by, and just closing my eyes and feeling the wind on my face. I absolutely felt God in that moment and in that sense of peace.
  

View from the Bridge Over the River Kwai

Goodbye, train!

        Eventually, we got off the train and got back on our bus to go to boats that would bring us to our "floatel"- a floating river hotel. We pulled up to these little river boats, and I was so excited to see the floatel that I hopped right in the first boat. We had the most exhilarating 20-minute ride up the river...the entire time I was just in awe of the fact that this is truly my life- where I can be jetting up this river surrounded by the most beautiful scenery and feeling completely, 100% free. 
        Once we got to our floatel and explored a bit, we decided to go for a swim. The current in the river was pretty strong, but we all jumped in and lazily drifted down the river. One of the coolest parts about this was that we could just float down to our cabin, and then swim over to the ladder and get out right at our own doorstep. We spent the rest of the evening and night eating dinner on the river, and then just sitting on the docks with great conversation and lots of laughs. 

The boats that took us to our "floatel"

The River Kwai Jungle Rafts- where we stayed

View from my hammock!

        The next morning, I had one of the best experiences of the trip so far. I woke up early, and at around 7:00 am, I heard the unmistakable sound of an elephant trunk trumpeting. I sprinted out of my room and ran down the line of cabins until I reached the end. There, I saw two magnificent elephants walking out of the forest down to the river. Two men from the local village were with them to give them a bath and feed them breakfast. I could not believe my eyes and started taking as many pictures as I could. I stood there for a good 45 minutes, just watching these beautiful animals until they disappeared back into the forest. I could've stayed there all day! That is definitely one moment I will never forget.

AND THEN THE ELEPHANTS CAME.

Love.

        After that, we had breakfast and headed out to hike at Hellfire Pass, but I'll save that for the Kanchanaburi Part 2 post! 

"Oh Jesus I Love You, and I Love Buddha, Too......"

      This probably won't be a very long post, but I just wanted to write something very quickly about my experiences of being a Catholic and going to church in an almost entirely Buddhist country. About 95% of the people in this country practice Theravada Buddhism, while only about 0.5% of Thais are Roman Catholic. Now, this was not unexpected. I knew very well that I was going to be living in a Buddhist country- in fact, it was one of the things I was most excited about! As any of my friends from home can attest to, I am fascinated by and obsessed with Buddhism. In fact, I had a giant poster right over my bed at Loyola with the quote from Buddha that said, "The secret of health for both body and mind is not to mourn for the past, worry about the future or anticipate troubles, but to live in the present moment wisely and earnestly." I feel very connected to many aspects of Buddhism, and I am looking for ways to incorporate Buddhist philosophy in my Christian life. 


     Now, going to a Catholic Mass once a week was always something I took for granted- At Loyola, I would go to the chapel every week at 6 pm with my friends and participate in a Mass that was geared specifically for us as college students. It always renewed and refreshed me for the week that was ahead, no matter how stressful it was going to be. I have gone to about 3 Masses here in Thailand so far, and I've had a very mixed reaction to them. In one respect, the Masses can make me feel both extremely homesick for what is familiar at home, but also makes me feel unified with those around me- like I am a part of something larger than myself.
     At the end of Mass this past Sunday, the closing song was "I Am the Bread of Life." I've heard this song thousands of times before, but for some reason, hearing it this Sunday really struck me. It brought me back to countless Sundays at my own church, and it just got me very emotional. I never realized this until now, but there is something so comforting about hearing the same words at Mass in Thailand as I would in New Jersey, or at Loyola. It makes me feel like I am at home, if just for an hour.  


Oh, and go listen to the song "I Love You and Buddha, Too" by Mason Jennings. Story of my life! :)

Hataikarun Home

"Children are the hands by which we take hold of heaven." -Henry Ward Beecher

 New and I

      
        Last week, I visited the Hataikarun Home with a group of Thai and other international students from ABAC. Hataikarun Home is an organization run by Catholic nuns and priests that houses young children of the local area who are either orphaned, have unfit parents, or whose parents are too poor that they can no longer care for the children. I, along with about 8 other Loyola students, woke up bright and early on a Sunday morning to be on the bus at 7 am. We met up with some other students at the Bang Na campus and then began our drive out into the countryside to find Hataikarun Home. 
       Once we got there, I got felt unsure about my decision to go, because I felt extremely awkward. Sometimes I am very good with kids, but other times they tend to make me a little nervous. We arrived at the home and with countless kids running around, I wasn't entirely sure how to approach them or what to say. All of a sudden, a 3 year-old boy wandered over to me. I grabbed his little hand and asked him what his name was. He didn't say, but I saw a name tag that had "New" on it. New looked up and smiled at me, so I picked him up- that was the beginning of my love for this little 3 year old!
       For some reason, New really seemed to get attached to me, and I spent most of the morning carrying him around and speaking to him in my extremely limited Thai. New also got very attached to Vince, another Loyola student. It was so cute to watch New running around having a blast with all of us. It was also funny to have my "maternal instincts" kick in when I was with New (for a while there, I wasn't too sure if I even HAD maternal instincts....) I was having so much fun watching him on the playground, yet I always felt the need to keep an eye on him, just in case.... 


      Later in the day, I got paired up with an older boy, probably about 13 years old (I don't exactly know how to spell his name). We were supposed to practice English with our partners, so I was trying to teach him phrases and words in English while he tried to teach me in Thai. This was the first time in Thailand when the language barrier truly frustrated me to no end. I felt helpless, useless even, because I could barely communicate with this boy. My frustration mounted when I saw him struggling to find any English word he knew, because I wanted so badly to help him learn, yet I was just so unequipped to do so. I felt even more like I had failed him when I saw some of my friends interacting much more successfully with their partners. Despite how I was feeling, this boy did not lose faith in me like I lost faith in myself. He continued to keep smiling at me, and did his absolute best to make our lesson successful. 
      At the end of the day, the partners wrote letters to each other. We didn't get to read them to each other because one was in English and one was in Thai, so I guess I'll never know for sure, but I can only hope that based off of the smile on that little boy's face, that it must've said something good in it- because mine certainly did! 

It never fails to amaze me that those who have so little, can teach us so much. 

This is what happens when college

students wake up early.....

 This is New, a 3 year-old living 

at Hataikarun Home

 The kids formed a tunnel when we left.

Everyone came out to say goodbye!

Goodbye, New.... :(