A new life?

Of course, you can't really prepare for a moment like this. 

Yeah, you can get your visa. Plane tickets. Pack. You can tell all your friends. But it never really sinks in that you're moving to Thailand until you're sailing over India at 5 am witnessing a truly Eastern sunrise...(yet in a round world what does east even mean?)

I awoke 2 days ago at the same hour in a dark house in Virginia with my stomach juggling the previous night's ceviche, imploring me, really forcing me, to spring up and hit the head. I guess intense nausea was my body's way of telling my mind to relax--ah, the wonders of distraction. 

I slogged through bus rides, city traverses on foot, and DC rush hour traffic with my pack (a bit heavier this time around, but I don't have to walk nearly as far...) holding my stomach and trying not to collapse. I appreciated my extended family's presence en route to the airport--the Indian restaurant we stopped at simultaneously tickling and torturing my taste buds--and before I knew it I was descending into Abu Dhabi 12 hours later munching on the last homemade granola I'll eat in a long time and smiling like a goddamn ghost. 

And looking out over the rivers and palms through the billowy clouds of the Asian Sky (again: round world--Asian Sky? Sky is just all encompassing! We think these things are owned...a sensation dispelled via round world sky travel, yaas) I thought that wow, I really am changing my life pretty drastically. Everything I know is dissipating and all that comes hence shall be new...I was gripped with fear, excitement, and a deeper knowledge that that is simply not true. 

Stepping into Bangkok I first noticed heat. Not so much air. Thickness of heat. And smiles! And different colored people. And Subway, 711, Burger King, and English everywhere. 

I am grateful for my ease of movement thus far--traversing Thailand's capital at 8 am would have been much harder without the help of the American Presence. But I couldn't help feeling a little sad. It's true that Thailand has never been colonized--at least militarily. In other ways? 

I already feel good vibrations all around me. I've been here 6 hours and it IS different. I know this. I have so much to absorb! For example: to my dismay Thailand does not support Netflix. But ah--a handy google search on how to acquire a US IP address...and it's like I never left home. 

Hell, I still haven't even gotten home yet. 

Where is home?

My new apartment in Surat Thani, the City of Good People? Boston, my hometown? Charlottesville, the city I chose to live in as an adult? 

Here's the point: I am changing locations.  Traversing. My life will be very different. But I ain't leavin' anything behind. Just adding to the pile. Traversing. Inside. Same old Bootsy. 

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