Halfway Point!!

Hi everyone!
   
I wanted to write this post to explain a little bit about how I'm feeling now that I am halfway (or more than halfway at this point) through my study abroad experience. 

It seems that at major milestones during this trip, I end up getting kind of homesick. This happened when I reached the one month mark in June, and it's happening now that I've reached the halfway point in August. I think most of the homesickness I'm feeling now has to do with the fact that all my friends are moving back into school, and I am really missing Loyola right now!! I definitely don't want to rush this experience, and I really am having a wonderful time here, but I can't help but want to get back home and be reunited with my friends and family there. So here's a shoutout to all my friends at home and at Loyola: MISS YOU GUYS!!

I know that these next 10 or 11 weeks will really fly by though, with the amount of traveling I will be doing! Here are my plans for my remaining weeks in Thailand

Now - Sept 24th: School and finals!! Can't believe my semester is almost over!
Sept 25th - Sept 30th: Trip to northern Vietnam
Oct 1st - Oct 6th/7th: Trip down to southern Thailand to Phuket, Koh Phi Phi, etc.
Oct 9th - Oct 17th: Trek up in Chiang Mai with all 40 people in my program
Oct 19th - Oct 29th: Trip to Malaysia and Indonesia
Oct 30th- Nov 5th: My last week in Bangkok..........not okay.
Nov 5th- Nov 11th: Our whole program goes to Hong Kong on the way back to America
Nov 11th: Home to America!!

So I will definitely be kept busy during my last weeks in Southeast Asia! It's so bizarre to think about how fast these past three months have gone, and how fast these coming weeks are going to go! I'm just trying to keep my head in the present moment and enjoy everything surrounding me in Thailand :)

Cambodia: Angkor Wat and Siem Reap!

Hello everyone!

This blog post should be much easier and happier to read after my last India post! So last weekend, a few friends and I decided to take a long weekend and go to Cambodia. Ever since we realized that we're more than halfway through our study abroad experience (with only a few weekends left in Bangkok itself), everyone has kicked it into high gear and is going out to see all the things left to see in Southeast Asia!

We figured Cambodia would be an easy weekend trip, considering it's only next door to Thailand. Turns out, however, getting there was a little more complicated than we thought. After a six hour train ride (starting at 6am), a three hour bus ride and almost 15 hours of traveling in general, we made it across the border and to Siem Reap, Cambodia. Luckily for us, we found a nice hotel almost immediately and got to set out and explore Siem Reap a little bit! We found an awesome nighttime art market and checked out the beautiful items they were selling.

The next morning, we woke up and got some breakfast at a restaurant called Red Piano, in the popular backpacking area of Pub Street. Then, all five of us crammed into a tuk tuk and drove out to see the temples of Angkor Thom, just outside of Siem Reap. We spent the first day driving around, exploring lots of different ruins. That night we hung out around Pub Street, and got a "fish massage", where you put your feet in a giant tank ,and the fish eat the dead skin off your feet! Kinda gross, but fun!

The next morning after a delicious breakfast on Pub Street, we rented bicycles at a stand across the street for only $1 per day. We rode our bikes 3 or 4 miles out of Siem Reap to the temples of Angkor Wat. Angkor Wat is the most recognized and famous of these Cambodian temple ruins. We biked around all day, and even though we didn't get to see as many temples as the day before, we really got to appreciate the beautiful scenery and had lots of fun. 

 View out the back of our train from 

Bangkok to the Cambodian border

The border of Cambodia 

Pub Street (backpacker district) in Siem Reap 

Angkor Thom 

 Jason, me, Katie, Lauren and John

Getting our "fish massage"

Lisa, a 2 year old Cambodian girl we met in the temples 

Sunrise at Angkor Wat 

Angkor Wat sunrise

"There are some parts of the world that, once visited, get into your heart and won't go. For me, India is such a place."

*Warning- this is a very long blog post- a very long post for a very crazy trip. 
But I hope it will be worth the read! :)

"Perhaps the only thing more difficult than to be indifferent to India 

would be to describe or understand India."

    I wanted to start this blog post with that particular quote because this, in fact, seems to be my biggest struggle with India- how to describe both the country and my experience there to others, or even how to understand it myself. I have already had countless conversations with people since I've been back about how India was. They usually go something like this: 

    "Oh my gosh how was India??? Was it amazing???" To which I respond with a long pause and then, "Um.........I don't know."

     I'm sure this isn't exactly the riveting tale of action and adventure people expected to hear upon my return from India. It's certainly not what I expected to be telling people, that's for sure. But sitting here, two weeks after my return from my trip, I still don't know what to say about it. This seems to be a story best told face-to-face, but since that is virtually impossible with many of you reading this right now, I will do my best in this blog post!

     I guess the best way to describe this country I wandered through for 16 days is to say that India is India. It is a country full of contradictions. I saw not only the most beautiful and spectacular sights, but also the worst and most horrible things I have ever witnessed there. In my mind, that makes it difficult to attribute one particular adjective to my trip. Was it great? No. But was it horrible? No, not at all! How can I use just one word to describe what it was that I saw there? Still trying to figure that one out. I do feel like I've given everyone in our program the wrong idea that we had a terrible time though, because whenever I get asked about it, I sort of just clam up and go "Uhh.....yeah...it was......yeah."

     One thing I have noticed since I've returned is how many people seem to have a romanticized view of India- I can't blame anyone, I had it too before I left! In fact, as I write this, I am listening to a playlist of Indian music I found online and it's called "Let's drink some chai." Is there anything wrong with that? No, not really I guess....But it's important to know that just because women walk around in beautiful saris, that doesn't necessarily mean everything must be beautiful and Indian culture is oozing out of every surface in India. Not the case. Although it is undeniable that between the colors, the people and the vibrant nature of life, India is a country full of incredible culture- but much of that gets covered up by the bad stuff. Namely, the poverty.
      The poverty in India is unlike anything I have seen in my entire life. It is truly indescribable. Unfortunately, I don't really have any pictures of Delhi or Kolkata that can truly show the extent of the poverty that is there- while we were in the middle of it, it just never felt right to stop and snap pictures of people in the slums, so now I have no photo proof. The best way to give you an idea of what it's like is to imagine a National Geography documentary. The naked children climbing on mountains of trash? It's there. I've seen forms of suffering in my life, but I'm not sure anything will ever come close to comparing to the suffering I saw in India- particularly in Kolkata.

       My week in Kolkata (previously known as Calcutta to the Western world) was definitely the most difficult and most wonderful part of my trip. Lauren, Jason and I spent a week volunteering with Mother Teresa's order of nuns, the Missionaries of Charity. We woke up every morning at 4:45 am to make the 30-45 minute walk to the Mother House for Mass at 6 am with the sisters. The Mother House was built by Mother Teresa. It is where she lived for fifty years, where she died, and where her body is buried. I was able to visit and pray by Mother Teresa's tomb every day, which was just an indescribable experience. I felt such a sense of peace next to her tomb, and it became a source of comfort for me in the midst of the insanity that is the city outside. On Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday, we spent the mornings volunteering at Prem Dan, a long term care center for women who are very sick or disabled in some way. In the afternoons, we worked at Kalighat, which was a home for the dying. Both Prem Dan and Kalighat are located in the middle of the slums surrounding the Park Circus train station, which made for an interesting walk every day. More often than not, we were swarmed by the children of the slums saying hello to us, but also trying to grab anything they could off of us- namely our water bottles or any pocket change we may have had. On our day off on Thursday, we went with the sisters to a center outside of Kolkata for people being treated for leprosy. Each one of these centers were just incredible, and getting the chance to serve there was amazing- very, very difficult, yet very amazing.  

     Despite how challenging our service was, I believe one of the most challenging parts about this whole experience was coming back to my "old life" in Bangkok. It has been very hard for me to go back to living a "normal" life here. Now that I have seen all of this beauty mixed with suffering, I'm not sure what to do with it. Sometimes, it catches me by surprise. I'll be sitting in class or back in my room, and suddenly get completely overwhelmed with memories and feeling about what I saw. It's a very strange feeling because as hard as it was to be there, I can't help but feeling like I miss it in a way.

     An older man we met while volunteering told us, "You have to look at India as parts, and as a whole. The parts aren't so great when you are up close, but when you look at it as a whole, it is magical. There's something about it that draws you in." I think I understand this now. You hate and you love India at the same time. No matter how many problems it has, there still is something about it that brings you back in. That must have happened to me, because I just cannot seem to get India out of my head.

    

     If I get into any more detail about what we actually did or experienced in India, this blog post will absolutely never end. So I'll start to wrap this up. For any of you interested in a more eloquent description of what India is like, please read the following article. It is one of the most accurate descriptions I have found since my return. The one thing I did not agree with in this article is the statement that the author never felt unsafe....I think it's fair to say I felt unsafe a good amount of the time I was there. But still, this article provides a brutally honest look into what India is truly like- both good and bad, and I think it's important for people to read and understand!

http://postmasculine.com/a-dust-over-india 

I'm sure I will go back to India someday (much to the dismay of my parents, I'm sure). But like I said, there is something about it that continues to intrigue me. I can't help but want to go back to this country that completely took me off guard, pushed me to my limits, and truly changed my life!


Here are some pictures of different parts of my trip:

At the train station in Delhi- one 
of my favorite pictures. 

Beautiful saris of Rajasthan 

At the Teej Festival in Jaipur! 

Breathtakingly beautiful animals. 

 Amber (pronounced Amer) Fort in Jaipur

View from Amber Fort 

 Overlooking the city of Jaipur from Amber Fort...I was 

playing with some of my camera effects!

Classic. 

Calangute beach in Goa! 

It is monsoon season, after all... 

Flight from Goa to Kolkata 

At Haldiram's, an Indian fast food 

restaurant in Kolkata 

All of the cabs in Kolkata were like this! So cool. 

One of the streets we walked down every 

morning to get to the Mother House

   

The Kanes take BKK!

Hello everyone!!

     I can't believe it's been so long since I last updated my blog. A lot has happened in the month since I last updated you all, saying I was off to India for 16 days. That trip (which I will write a separate post about soon) was certainly....an experience. But enough of that for now. I'll save that for my other post.

     In other news, Mama and Papa Kane have finally reached Bangkok!! They left Newark airport on Wednesday, August 8th, and arrived at Suvarnabhumi airport on Thursday night (Bangkok time), where I met them! I was so excited to see them and show them around Bangkok. This is the longest amount of time I've ever gone without seeing my parents, so I was really looking forward to being reunited with them- if only for a little bit! On Friday morning, I met them bright and early and took them to the Grand Palace and Wat Pho (see my previous post about Wat Pho for pictures) during the day, and at night we went to one of my favorite places, the jazz and blues pub called Saxophone. They- especially my dad- loved it!! Saturday, I took them to Chatuchak market and back to Hua Mak to give a tour of my neighborhood. Saturday evening we went to one of my favorite Hua Mak restaurants, Coconut, for dinner and we walked over to the night market to watch the sunset. Yesterday, Mom and Dad left Bangkok to fly off to Phuket (an island down south) and will be there till Friday, when they fly up to Chiang Mai. They will be there until Wednesday the 22nd, when they will either go to Kanchanaburi or possibly even Cambodia. Then on Friday the 24th, they will return to Bangkok to spend two or three more days here before flying out to Beijing. I'm really looking forward to seeing them then and hearing about all their travels and adventures!

Mom at the Grand Palace!

 Sunset at the night market

     Speaking of which, next Saturday (August 18th) marks the halfway point of my study abroad experience........WHAT?!?! I'm still trying to figure it out in my head how I could possibly have been in Thailand for three months already. In a way, I feel like I have accomplished and seen a lot in three months, but at the same time, I feel like I have seen NOTHING in Southeast Asia. So, this is when we kick it into high gear. Now that I have conquered traveling in India for 16 days, I feel as though I can travel anywhere and do anything- so that's the plan! I am off to Cambodia for a long weekend in a few days, and then after that, I plan on traveling as often as I can to see the rest of what I've missed in the past three months.

     I have begun looking at plans for my second ten day break (which in all likelihood will be more than ten days). It seems that immediately after finals, I may be traveling to the Phillippines, Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia. Then, we will come back to Thailand to go on a group trip to Chiang Mai, where we will do a four day trek through the jungle and a three day retreat. Then after Chiang Mai, I will most likely go up to Laos for a few days, then end my traveling in Vietnam. After that, I will come back for my last week in Bangkok before we depart for Hong Kong on the way back to America! Thinking about all there is left to see still, I get completely overwhelmed. But I have a feeling this may not be my last trip to Southeast Asia, so we'll see........

Check back for my blog post about India soon!! I promise I'll write it as soon as I can! :)