Ah..relax.

This weekend was all about relaxing from the busy stressful life I have been forcing upon myself.

Yesterday I didn't wake up until 3pm! Can you say jet lag? Some of my friends I met on the ride to Phuket suggested we have dinner yesterday night in Putong beach area. So around 3:30pm, I got up, worked out, showered, and came down stairs to the kitchen at the school for water and some coffee. As I was taking my first sip, this young brunette guy came down the stairs and introduced himself. (don't remember his name..haha) We talked briefly about our plans for today, and he asked if he could walk into town with me. I said yes.

I learned he is attending the Via Linguia school here in Phuket to obtain his TESOL certification to teach English, but has already taught English for 3 years in Germany. He is from the United States up by Lake Erie, and loves to go rock-climbing and anything outdoors. He was about my age and I found it was very refreshing talking to him, since he spoke English.

When I woke up yesterday morning, and before I went to bed the night before last, I was so overwhelmed with all the culture, sights, and world I am in. Everything is foreign. All I know and held dear is gone. I felt alone for the first time, but with God. God was the only thing I knew. I didn't even know myself. I kept trying to compare Thailand with America.... landscape, temperatures, sounds, smells... and as I did so, found myself increasingly unsatisfied with my surroundings. I discovered that my personal identity for so long had been placed in my surroundings. No, my personal identity is not found in that of the world but of that which is within. I don't want who I am to be dependant on physical boundaries of space, location, and time. Who I am is a question I think I will always be trying to answer on my own apart from what God word says. Because who I am is always changing.

Anyways...back to my day.. So this guy and  I walked into town, and he walked with me to the "bus station." Which in Phuket is 2 or 3 buses parked outside some shops on the street.This station was just outside a huge marketplace. I spotted a blue bus that said Patong Beach painted on the side in white letters. An old Thai man asked me if I wanted to go to Patong Beach, and I said yes, but didn't have a ticket. "No ticket required, hop on! Hop on!" He ushered me into the back of the bus and I walked down the center isle and sat down. Basically the bus is an open produce truck with two benches on the sides, and one bench running down the middle. We started down the road, and more and more people jumped in. Some were hanging off the back of the bus holding onto just a little railing. It was nice to see the countryside of Phuket, and the breeze felt so warm and nice! I still couldn't believe how wealthy the island of Phuket is compared to the Thailand we drove through 2 days ago! There are small, but super nice car dealerships, and hotels not far from the road. We traveled along the countryside and went up this huge hill which an American roadbiker was slowly climbing with his bike. I felt like we were going to run him over as we climbed the hill at a low speed until it was safe to pass. People here don't really bike, or run, or swim for that matter. Running as a sport is foreign. No one runs, and I've only seen 3 roadbikes! I think the reason for this is the traffic is so crazy, if you were to ride a bike it would be extremely dangerous. Running is safe as long as you are on a sidewalk.

So after we crested the hill, I could see beautiful hills, almost mountains, and little villages tucked away in the country side. The bus stopped and the driver got out to collect money from the passengers. It was only 25baht, which is super cheep even in Thai money. We continued down the hill into Patong Beach area, and the surrounding buildings got increasingly bigger, and more rich. Spas, hotels, and resorts lined the road into Patong. I even saw a couple Starbucks Coffee shops. I asked a man on the bus where the beach was, and he said "one street over, you can get off the bus at any time." So the next stop, I hopped off the bus and begun walking until I saw a cross street. There were so many white people! I felt somewhat at home, knowing I didn't stick out like a sore thumb anymore. People were dressed in skimpy swimwear with towels around their shoulders walking back from the beach. I went in a nearby hotel, changed into my suit, and went down to the beach. I put my purse under a beach chair...probably wasn't the safest thing to do...and ran to the warm, clear water. Ah! The beach sand felt so good! The sky was blue, and water super warm. There were so many people on the beach sun tanning. It was warm, with a little wind, but that was warm too, so it felt great! I swam in the water for almost 10 minutes, then jumped out and walked along the shore line and laid in a beach chair. I felt like I was on vacation!

It was getting late, and all the buses to Phuket had already left. I hadn't planned to stay that long, but was here and needed a place to stay. I walked along the street, and found a travel agency. The ladies in the store said since it was the New Years, everything would be super expensive at least 1000baht per night. They gave me a suggestion on where to go, but when I went there, no rooms were avalible. The only place that had vacancy was advertised as "Cheap Rooms," and above an open bar. I didn't really care where I stayed as long as there was a lock on the door. Surprisingly, I asked for a room and it was 900baht, still super expensive, but the room was clean and really nice.

I texted my friend, and we found a place to meet. They had chosen to stay at another about 30 minutes from Patong, so they had to take a taxi. I had some time to walk around, and discovered this huge Ocean Plaza, a western style mall for shopping. I walked past, and rounded the corner to the beach side. Several bars were playing live music, which i loved! My friend called and it was rather hard to find them, but we met up and made a plan for the night. One of the guys wanted to go to the Bang La Boxing Stadium at 9pm to watch a boxing match, and so we headed over to get some tickets. It wasn't hard to find, and we rounded the corner to see the front of this huge stadium lit by tons of lights and decorated with king kong size boxers made of clay and stone. It was pretty impressive. My friend got a ticket, and then we turned around to look for a place to eat. Heinrick suggested we try a spring roll off the street from a vendor. He bought one and we all tried it. It was tasteless, except for the outer covering. There wasn't anything inside, and we all laughed since we expected it to be really good. Thai food is the cheapest at a restaurant, so we looked for some a Thai place.

Once we found one, we were seated and decided to spit two dishes. Tomie and I spit a chicken-basil stir fry with rice. It was so good! And I was starving from just the orange I ate earlier. We also ordered beer, because they didn't have bottled water. Yes, I had my first beer. Can't say I was too keen on the taste. It tasted like lemon juice and water. Everyone said Thai beer is very week as far as alcohol content. But it was fun to try something new. The guy with boxing tickets left dinner early, and we stayed and talked about language, culture, and how to say different words in our languages. It was very fun!
We then walked down the street. Heinrick (from Finland) wanted to find a bar to sit at and have a beer, so we walked the streets looking for the perfect one. While walking, we saw many stripper clubs, and tons of pole dancers, all open to the street. I lost count of the guys who came up to us with a laminated menu of girls for sale. That was pretty sad. There were two girls wearing Vegas headdress costumes, and suggested taking a picture with them then demanded we pay them 100baht. One of the ladies was really tall, and got in my friends personal space trying to be manipulative. It was weird. Kind of reminded me of the Roman Colosseum where the guards dressed in costume out front ask for money after you take their picture.

After walking for around half an hour, I had to use the restroom. Tomie and I decided instead of going to a bar, it would be much more fun to go skinny dipping in the ocean. So we proposed the idea to Heinrick, and he agreed. We walked over to the beach area, to see many couples and people enjoying the night time view of the ocean. None of us felt like going completely nude in front of so many people so we just ran in screaming with our clothes on. Haha. It was very fun! We took turns swimming around while one person stayed to watch the phones, and wallets. The ocean was lit up by the floating fire balls people would set off for the New Year. We saw fireworks, and the whole town seemed to be up. It was so cool.

After squeezing as much water from our clothes as possible, we walked back to the meeting point, and met up with the guy who went to the boxing match. He showed us a video of the which was really intense. They walked me back to where I was staying, then took a taxi back to their hotel. I went up the stair to my room, took a shower and went to sleep.

TODAY!

I woke up at 7am, put on my Chacos and ran down to the beach for a morning run.The sun had just come up, and hotel staff were setting out beach chairs for the day. There were other people runnning, and walking along the beach. It felt good to run, I love it so much. The last day I ran was when I left Colorado, Tuesday, almost a week ago. I felt safe running next to the beach, and it was absolutely beautiful! I ran back to my room, showered, then walked to the bus stop.

There was a Thai couple that introduced themselves and spoke a little English. They were really nice! Book, and Nook were their names. They live further south on Thailand's peninsula and we exchanged contact information before I got off the bus.

Back in Phuket Town, I was on a mission to find some fruit and vegetables. There are no fruit or vegetables anywhere but only fried things, or meat. People don't have a very healthy diet here. So someone showed me where to go. The local market would be very cheep and fresh. I walked 3 miles to uptown, near a ocean plaza, which was super nice, plenty of tourist. Behind all the rich buildings was a supermarket, which everything was a reasonable price. I bought a pineapple, some lettuce, and two apples. That should be my dinner and lunch for the whole week. The rest of the day I spent walking around Phuket Town and getting acquainted with my surroundings.
Phuket is actually quite beautiful, and tropical. Once I stopped trying to compare it to America, or Europe, and just accepted it for what it is, then I could truly enjoy it.
While walking around, I saw a sign that said Hope of Phuket International Church. I was curious and decided to check it out. It was inside a museum, and someone saw me looking for it and quickly ushered me in. Before I went through the doors, I asked, "English?" They said yes, it was in English, so i went in quietly and sat down.

It was in Thai. The whole sermon. Lol. I didn't understand anything, but the pastors powerpoints were in English. I just used this time to draw near to God, and pray. It was like a spiritual supper. After the service the couple in front of me turned around and started talking to me. They were on holiday from Jakarta in Indonesia. They were both Christians and offered to let me stay with them if I wanted to visit. We exchanged contact information. Can I just point out how many people are so friendly!

I started walking back to the school. It only took an hour to cross town. I didn't realize how far I had gone. By the time I reached the road the school is on, I had some very nice size blisters on my feet, and a sunburn the color of a cherry. I was tired from a big day, and got some water. I also cut up my pineapple for the week, and tasted a little. YUM! So awesome! After that, I went upstairs and went to sleep until around 10:30pm then got up to get some water and blog.

This weekend was very refreshing and besides all the fun I had, I also acquired a new perspective. All of this life is for the eternal. Sometimes I just need to be reminded of that. Classes start at 9:20am tomorrow, so I'm going to get in bed.