Life has been busy lately. I've had lots of work wrapping up the semester, like administering and grading final exams and preparing grade reports, and handling a couple extra projects before the summer begins. Another thing has been getting Biew a visa. Last year, she tried but didn't get it. This year was a success, so we'll be visiting Texas in June for about four weeks.
Now that I've had time to breathe, I realized that the trip is right around the corner, and it's making me excited because of all the things that will happen while we are there. Mostly, I'm excited because this is Biew's first time to Texas and she will meet a lot of family and friends for the first time, especially my grandmother. The next big thing is my baby sister is having a baby! We will arrive the day before he's due. What great timing! (I bought my ticket almost a year prior.) In addition to meeting my new nephew, I get to see the two I've already been blessed with. I'm looking forward to wrestling with them. I have no doubt their jiujitsu skills are better than mine, but I have an edge because they still think I'm bigger, stronger, and scarier than they are- and I am! I also get to see my puppy, Sammy. I've visited home twice in the almost four years that I've lived in Thailand, and I think he misses me the most because it's really evident when we meet. Maybe Biew will love him and want to bring him back with us. Yeah, right... :( Lastly, I'm ready for some shopping! I want to buy a few things that I can't get easily or as cheaply in Thailand as I can in the US.
Living in Thailand for so long as really made this feel like my home. It creates a weird duality, which I noticed has existed since the first visit home after a year and a half or so of living here, but it has intensified. Right now, I'm looking out of the window of a coffee shop. I see crazy bundles of telecommunication wires hanging low on concrete polls. Diagonally across an intersection is a gold pagoda shining brightly in the sun as it towers over a graying white wall, the stacked tiled roofs of a temple standing next to it. The street is busy with traffic of mostly motorbikes, "red trucks" (a local taxi), and the iconic tuktuks, while the sidewalks contain a mix of a few locals avoiding direct sunlight and tourists wandering (or wondering?) with guidebooks and/or smartphones, no doubt using Google Maps in an attempt to get their bearings. This has become the norm for me.
In three weeks the view will change. The traffic-majority motorbikes will morph into lifted 4x4 pickups. Buddhist wats will become Baptist churches. Smiling Thai faces will instead be smiling Texans, both tan, mind you, but the former because of naturally high melanin levels and the latter from working out in the sun too long. Mountainous horizons and heavy pollution will be replaced by a flat line and big skies full of fresh air. The only thing that will be the same is the temperature- hot! However the humidity will be absent.
This will be Biew's first time to experience it, and I can't wait.
