Mariah Carey on my 21st birthday

This post is dedicated to Kimmy.

I spent the last hours of my 20^th year of existence doing four very simple but glorious things: eating Thai food (fried rice, to be exact) with two previous strangers-turned-friends from Texas, Nancy, and SF, Maddy; downing Singha lager beers (shout out to Tim from Singapore) and, AND (get this!!!!!!!) watching Mariah Carey concert dvd's – the volume of which was turned, I believe, to its maximum capacity, thanks to my observant and uber friendly Thai waitress. We spent over three hours at this restaurant. The name? Who knows? All I know is that there were lizards and geckos crawling all along the walls and I did not care.

Let me explain.

After a full-day of necessary orientation classes, during which I learned the vital foundations of how to be an English teacher (more on that later, of course), I conjoined with the people with whom I've basically formed a group in the past few days: Reuven, a Wisconsin U grad originally from Santa Monica, and Nancy, a Dallas, TX native who went to a liberal arts school in Mississippi and majored in Anthro. Can I just say that Nancy is fawesome and that she and I share very similar personalities.

We decided, along with a group of others who all have pointed and winked at me, saying, “Ah, it's YOUR birthday tonight” at least once within these past few days, to go into the city tonight. But then when we realized that we had to be up at 7 30am tomorrow morning and that the 1 hour ride to/from the city, not counting the fact that we had no idea what to see in the city, was not conducive to a pleasurable/functioning experience during our field trip tomorrow at the Grand Temple, we decided that the local “Bar 'R' Us” down the street would suffice for the night. Any walkable bar is good in our books, we decided.

Nancy, her roomie Maddy, and I, went to this restaurant after bypassing the bar underneath “Bar 'R' Us” as the rest of the group took a head start on the Heinekins (did you know they're brewed in Thailand, btw? A Dutch beer, but brewed in Thailand!). Because I'm sure you're dying of curiousity, let me just say that this local bar caters practically only to American tourists/suckers like ourselves who are in the beginning stages of their travel experiences, during which they/we are comfortable only with congregating at venues that remind us of home. Toys 'R' Us, Bar 'R' Us, what's the diff? A slice of home is exactly what we need during this time of cultural transition.

Well. N, M, and I get to the end of this Soi (road) and see a semi-outdoor, flourescently-lit restaurant with glorious smells wafting down the street, feeding out growling tummies. My days of freaking out over restaurant grades have long passed me (I wouldn't survive here if I still kept that mentality); the geckos/lizards crawling on the walls, the dog that was lazily strutting around the eating premises; the dirt from the street that sprinkled through the dimly lit ambiance meant little to me. I was sold. (PS did I tell you that the other day I ordered a tofu dish and before dipping it into its designated sauce, I saw the lady chef spoon a BEE – or wasp????? - out of the sauce? But what can I do. Mei Pen Rai! “Oh well/NVM/Whatever”).

Well hey, I was craving CPK but obvi that wasn't going to happen. So then I asked for Pad Thai and dangit, they didn't have it. I settled for the fried rice, which turned out to be muy delicioso (I say this in Spanish bc lately when I'm at lost for words, I resort to the default foreign language that has been stored in my lexicon – oh wait, that's all the time bc I don't know an ounce of Thai. Haha. It's been so bad that today I said “si” instead of “chai” because I forget how to say “yes” in Thai. Shoot me now.) One fried rice, four Singha (pronounced “Sing” btw) beers, and THREE hours later, N, M, and I found ourselves mesmerized by the Mariah Carey dvd's that our Thai waitress has blasted for us, mainly because she was amused by my passionate sing-alongs to MC (or MIMI as her 2009 dvd calls her)'s “Hero” and “Dreamlover” and “Fantasy” and even songs from her crappy newer albums.

I definitely was in the zone during this dinner. I mean, really. It's hours before my 21^st, I'm in Thailand with a bunch of strangers dirnking Singhas on a street in a random, small city, with a Thai waitress smiling amusedly at me, eating fried rice that was made by hopefully clean hands, after which I had used the venue's restroom that did not contain toilet paper nor soap (thank you, hand sanitizer); watching Mariah Carey's 2009 and 1990-something dvd's on full volume, analyzing with N and M the either hideousness of MC (2009) versus her natural beauty and true talent (1990 something), doing everything in my mental/physical capability to stop myself from belting full-out the lyrics with N accompanying me, and eyeing the baby lizards on the wall in this street restaurant.

MC always reminds me of Kimmy, so I got really nostalgic. But really, it was like, God's gift to me to give me a piece of home on a day that I would normally be spending with my best friends. I wouldn't have spent my almost-21^st doing anything other than what I was doing at that restaurant.

My actual 21^st was spent at the good ole Bar 'R' Us with some other CIEE folks. We had a great time chatting it up and everyone is stoked to go into the city, hopefully tomorrow, to celebrate my 21^st and Alida's 24^th (another participant from the UK whose bday is on the 21^st).

This is life. Celebrate. Meet new people. Keep the old. Move on. See new things. Travel and people are truly the biggest gifts one can give to the self. Agree?