A Beautiful Art..

I just was walking down the street and saw a new restaurant being built, they were putting in concrete bricks. I just stood and watched them lay the bricks for about 20 minutes. They had no idea what I was doing, but I stood off to the side and let them work. It was so beautiful, what a craft to be able to lay brick with such precision. It amazes me that such art forms have been degraded and not as respected as they once were.

Holidays in Bangkok

Something that I will miss a ton is being home on the holidays. Halloween, Christmas, Thanksgiving, Dragon Day, and Easter are some of my favorite days of the year, and to me, holidays mean spending time with the people that you are closest with. Some of my favorite times in recent memory have been holidays.... But that is what builds character I guess, adapting and having to do things, you might not always want to do.

Being in Bangkok is sort of odd for the holidays, things just have a different feel here. (Not to mention that it is hot as a Georgia summer for all of them) But everything is a little off...people for Halloween just kind of miss the point a little bit, I don't know but it is hard to describe. We'll just have to see how Thanksgiving dinner goes tomorrow night.... if there isn't good stuffing I'll be furious.

But I haven't been homesick at all in my time here, aside from missing the occasional chicken parm, and pb&j, I have been loving the moment and really trying to do things as someone here would do. But I am starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel, and I am beginning to really start to miss home. But heck, I have already gone 6 months, so another 6 shouldn't be so bad, especially because 3 of them are paid vacation months....


PS. I love american for certain things and hate them for certain things. But honestly, nothing really gets me more upset than how stoked people get for Black Friday. It is the epitome of greedy capitalistic culture where people buy things, not because they need them, just because they are "on sale"

As Peter Griffin would say, "That really grinds my gears...."

Love City

We said we were going to send a photo a day, you clearly won't, but I already knew that and love!!!

I honestly can't contain my feelings sometimes, I go to bed thinking of the cutest girl I know, and wake up loving more than I could ever imagine. Most people dream of being with the perfect girl, but when it is actually a reality, life couldn't get much better. When someone is so caring and put you before all of their thoughts and actions, it almost makes me blush because I think, "Am I worth someone loving so much and aggressively?" (yes we certainly have aggressive love) It makes you feel good when you know the energy you put into making something like a distance relationship work, is worth is and someone on the other end is giving back the same way. I have more to say about this, especially in the week of thanksgiving, so check back later this week to see how two kids from Boston really can show their thanks and love.

Moving Forward...

You can sort of think of life as a book. Like a book, life is broken down into chapters that have pretty distinct feels and mental states. I was talking to my class today and we were doing a writing activity and I talked about how as they are currently in their ABAC chapter of their lives, it might just be starting for some of them, but what is going to happen when they turn the page and the ABAC chapter is over? A blank page will be open, with nothing on the page, and they will be the ones who get to write the first words. 

This is no different than my current state of affairs as well. I am 22 years old living in Bangkok until presumebly the end of May. This chapter might be a short one, but it certaintly very important. But what happens when I fly back home and literally have no idea of anything? Will my friends be there? What will I do for work? Where will I live? The page is blank, and anything can be written.  

Looking back on college I think I achieved many of the long term goals that I envisioned before the 4 year quest began. I wanted to become a valuable member of the Loyola community and be known and liked by everyone I came into contact with. I wanted to make awesome friends that would last a life time. I also wanted to study abroad and open my mind to the world and see that the world is a lot bigger than the east coast. And I certainly changed that by a spur of the moment decision at the last minute the abroad forms were due.

Upon arriving at Loyola I really became aware of why people say college will be the best 4 years of your life, I also realized that I didn't really relate to many people that were telling me this. Loyola is based around going out to bars..( I had  always pictured college as people sitting around drinking coffee in a nice common room)

But I spent the first 2 years of college really trying to create a space where people could avoid the rat race of Loyola and take a break and have fun. Actual fun. Not being way to drunk, standing in the corner of a bar, chain smoking cigarettes, with music that is way too loud, not talking to anyone. I wanted to avoid that and have a place with cool artwork, good music, and cool people around to share moments with. And it struck me that I had done that about 1 year ago today, when we had our first annual thanksgiving dinner at our apartment. I had all of my friends over and cooked the turkey, stuffing, rosemary mashed potatoes, and all the fixins. It was awesome, we had a wine bar and great desserts. Everyone came together and we shared our thanks, and enjoyed one of the best meals I have ever had. 

It was a great feeling to achieve a non tangible long term goal.

But that begs the question, as this chapter of my life is about half finished, what goals rest on my horizon?

For the remainder of being here in Bangkok my main goals that I had when I arrived here are still in play. Working out and getting into really good physical shape is really important to me, so I want to continue the hard work I have put in and continue working on the physical. The mental cannot be overlooked as well. I want to continue to stay informed, because sometimes I feel that I honestly have no idea what is going on. So for the remainder of my time here in Bangkok I want to work on the physical and mental aspects of my body and mind, and continuing to cherish the opportunities presented, and do some pretty cool things. 

Something that I think that most young people struggle with is find a passion. I want to do more research and find topics that I am deeply invested in. I know there are things out there that I love and want to do, but I want to take time to reflect and find the thing that I want to put all of my mental energy into. 

Most people spend this time of their lives trying to find the person they want to be with, so I am glad I have that aspect on lockdown. The girl I love isn't going anywhere, and neither am I....unless were doing something together. 

"Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world."

Flash Forward

Something that crossed my mind a few minutes ago is  that things are perfect right now in my relationship. Things are going just the way that I imagined them to. They say that once you have some experience with something, it gets a lot easier. Both Bri and I have been in LDR's before, so we both know what to expect, and we didn't go into this blind. We didn't have expectations that were through the roof, we just felt that if we stuck to the script, and Bri brought me back to Earth whenever I got "in one of those moods" things would be fine. And so far, things have been wonderful. Bri is still the girl of my dreams, and continues to impress and amaze me on a daily basis. Like with teaching and my students, it is so rewarding to see them mature and improve right in front of my eyes, and the same is true with Bri. We both came into this relationship at sort of crazy points in our lives; I was coming of the summer of the Dom, and living the college lifestyle to the fullest while balancing an internship, and a job at Loyola. Bri was doing her thing living in Baltimore, working with Hopkins and frolicing to the fullest extent. We were both wide eyed for life and looking for someone to share that optimisism with. And we found eachohter, two weird people who love to love awkward amounts. I think about everything i want to do in life and Bri is the only one i want to do everything with. 

Some people are searching for love so hard, and wanting someone to lust for. But it is so nice being settled with someone you love and would do anything for, that you can avoid this relationship rat race persay. Bri is the thing in life I would fight for and would go into battle to protect. 

I was having a conversation the other day, and we talked about being able to see into the future, and was asked if you could see 20 years into the future and see yourself, would you want to?

I really don't think I would. There was this TV show a few years back called "Flash Forward" and it had that same premise basically, where the whole world had a blackout and saw like a year into the future. It was a really well made show, on par with Lost, but then they made a 3rd season.... 

So what happened was that everyone tried to live their lives so that what happened in the vision didnt happen, but that in turn allowed for the things in the vision to occur. Crazy, right?

So I think that if I had the option to look into the future, I wouldn't want to. Whoever I was in the future is different than who I am now, and I wouldn't want to confuse the two entities and thus causing me, in this moment in time, to act differently than I normally would. I think living in the moment is the most important thing we can do. Of course it is important to think about the future and to prepare for it, but knowing too much about it would jeopardize the moment, and that is the most precious thing we have in life. 

I think the moment is so special because you have no idea what is going to happen, and that is why life is so special. I love the moment. I live for it actually. There is nothing I would rather do than be with my loving girlfriend, because I have no idea what is going to happen when us two crazy people are together, and that is why I love it so much

B, you told me the other day that you love me to the moon!!

...so does that me we can move there someday?

...maybe get a cute lil' condo on the dark side?

..how would moon sex work?...woah!