Friends and Serendipity

FRIENDS, they're great. Today, I got to speak with Kathleen, one of my best friends from home, whom I've known since 9th grade, on the phone for like eight minutes this morning. Those eight minutes were amazing. Oh, to hear her voice! =)

Then, I spent the day with Linnea, someone who is quickly becoming a friend who has experienced with me all the ups and downs of living in a foreign country. We have bonded as we've gotten lost, butchered the beautiful language of Thai, hopped on the wrong buses, and shopped for essentials together. And we've shared many of our creature-comforts from home together, like walking and shopping with iced coffees hand-in-hand – something common mostly only in America.

One of the most exciting parts of the day was meeting up with Chelsea Laun for dinner, one of my sorority sisters from USC who is here in Thailand teaching English on a Fulbright Scholarship.

[with chels in bkk by the siam paragon ctr]

She and I went through this whole process of applying for teach-abroad programs together – only a few months ago, really (wow, how time flies!) – and it's exciting to finally be here together, carrying out the dreams we had previously only spoken about in class together. She and I dined on the most delicious fish-n-chip dinner at the Siam Paragon Center “food court”, if the fancy place can even be called that, and caught up on our most recent adventures. She is wonderful, wonderful, wonderful. And it was so amazing seeing a familiar face in this new place.



THEN, Chels and I went to the bathroom in the center, where I ended up running into some of my dear CIEE friends who are also teaching in Samut Prakan, across the river from me. This was random. We've all departed and have gotten settled in our respective towns, and to run into Lauren, Choua, Regan, and my lovely Tina, in the bathroom of the big freakin' Paragon Center, was plain nuts!

Finally, after saying bye to Chels, Linnea and I made a (potential) new friend today. As we stood at a bus station, confused yet again as to what bus we were to take home, a guy in his 20s asked us if we needed help. After assisting us with directions and making small talk with this Thai 20-something-year-old, who was maybe 5'6”, had laid-back fashion, really nice skin, and was pretty darn good at English, we hopped on the bus and waved goodbye to him, grateful for his help.

When we got off the bus and were busy being stunned by the beautiful light festival that has been set up on the river, the dude popped up out of nowhere and told us that he's studying to be a pilot for Thai Airlines and needs help practicing English. In exchange for our help/conversation (he said he needs to hear and practice speaking with American people because he's only been tutored by a Kiwi), he'll take us around Thailand, or wherever we want to go (don't worry, he's not shady, he's so cool! And harmless! And he's in a band! And he has four German Shepards!). Tor is his name, and we saw his Thai airline badge. We're wondering if he got in a taxi and followed our bus just to catch up with us, which is a wee bit weird (??), but also cool in a serendipitous way...

PV friend – check.
CIEE friends – check.
USC friend – check.
New Thai friend – check.

Good day. Plus more shopping, but at MBK. However, that's a different story and another hole in my wallet.