Jacobjourneys

I remember the day that I first decided I wanted to spend this past winter in Thailand - it was June of last year (2013) and it was the beginning of my third year working as a seasonal bartender in the summer resort town of Provincetown, Massachusetts.
After already serving one season of indentured servitude in Ptown and spending the last winter in cold and boring New England I could feel myself needing some adventure and a change of scenery around me. I had backpacked Europe for a month the previous year and found it to be a very eye opening and life changing experience so i decided that spending more time abroad and allowing myself time to immerse myself into a culture so foreign to what I am already used to would be not only a great experience, but a challenge nothing like i have ever experienced in my life.
i have had friends that had gone abroad to either study for a semester or teach english for a year and felt like i had missed out on those types of experiences when I had the chance earlier on in life. Having studied anthropology in school I have always been eager to learn the ways of another culture first hand instead of reading it in a book or watching it in a documentary. The idea of abandoning everything I have ever come to know about my way of life was very exciting as well as dangerous and nerve racking to me, but I felt as though it was exactly what I needed at this point in my life.
My family thought I was nuts (but most of them don't even have passports so what do they know?) but to me nothing could have made more sense. The second I arrived in Bangkok I couldn't help but ignore the jet lag or the uncertainty of being in Southeast Asia for the first time alone and just focus on what an exciting and wonderful place Thailand is - the excitement and energy around me kept me on a high for weeks.
I began a four week intensive TEFL course where I formed relationships with people from all around the world who I stay in touch with to this day. I got to teach at an international kindergarten and absolutely fell in love with my students as well as teaching. Watching these students grow and develop made me feel like I was making a real difference.
The main thing that I got from my 5 months in Thailand was that the world can be your oyster if you want it to be, all it takes is will and being open minded to new experience and relationships and you can be anywhere and acclimate to any type of environment no matter how foreign or strange.