Exciting Times

It’s hard for me to know where to begin since it’s been so long since I’ve blogged!  But today is my Mom’s birthday, and well, the least I can do is update the blog for her!  Happy Birthday Mommy!

Right now I’m feeling excited.  I’m on my way to Bangkok as we speak and tomorrow I’ll be going to Pattaya for a birthday celebration weekend (August must be a popular month for birthdays!).  The group of friends I’m going with is a group of people I always have a good time with and this weekend will be no exception.  We’re staying in a house all together, with plans to hang out by the pool and check out the city night scene, and it’s Italian themed so there will be good food abound!! (We are excellent as a group at throwing a themed party – as in, we are excellent at coming up with theme and then making excellent food to go along with that theme!) 

I’m also excited because it’s August which means that later this month I can mark the year point since I’ve been in Thailand!  The past year has been one of the consistently happiest in my life and has absolutely flown by.  Some days it’s hard to imagine I’ve been here longer than a month!  Two years ago when I decided that living abroad was definitely something I wanted to do after graduation (well, I had decided that before then but the plan changed two years ago so that’s where we’re marking it), it was really important to me that I find something that I could do for only a year – no 2+ year contracts for me!  Now of course the idea that I would be leaving this month or in a few months is strange.  Don’t worry family and friends in the U.S. – I plan to come back eventually!  But now seems like the perfect time in my life to be unsure about next year’s plans or the year after that (or even maybe the year after that?) and that uncertainty is really exciting for me.  I’ll be honest – I have 48 new, clean, unused pages in my passport and 5 more years to fill them up with new people, new foods, new languages, new landmarks, and new adventures so adventuring is exactly what I plan on doing!  (Disclaimer: I’m not actually setting out to fill up all 48 pages in the next 5 years – but getting some new ink on those pages, yeah, that’s a goal :) )

So today’s mood is definitely Excited.  I’m excited for my mom – the best, most wonderful mom in the whole wide world – I’m excited for this weekend and others like it to come with the amazing friends I’ve made here, and I’m excited about a whole world of possibilities for living and travelling.  Who knew August would be such an exciting month?!

Love you Mommy – Happy Birthday!!! Y