Cultural Exchange

Night before last was one of those quintessential travel nights that comes to mind when you think of “international, independent travel” (well, what comes to most people’s minds, I would hope; Most of my family and friends envision a Hostel-type series of events). In any case, we were nearly a dozen people from all nationalities talking about life, about travels, just having a good time. There were Americans, Brits, Canadians,  Portguese, French, Dutch, Spanish… English was the most common language, spoken to various degrees of success by each of the non-native speakers.

I wish I had taken some pictures, but honestly, it sometimes just feels better to go with the flow of the evening and not really worry about documenting everything. Considering the amount of work I’d like to put into this blog though, I think a respectable amount of documentation still needs to occur. Traveling life just feels different here; even those individuals on vacation are here for at least 3 weeks. I think when you’re traveling for that long, staying in one place, etc, you tend to relax and go with the flow, not recollecting the event while you’re still living it. There is also the fact that most of us are strangers, meeting that night for the first time, some of us, the best of us maybe friends for a week or so.

I don’t know, I guess it just depends on the group and how things are going that night. A couple more nights on the road, and I might have a pretty good theory for you!

Training — Post 1 Follow-up

As a follow up to yesterday’s post about feeling dejected about training, today was fantastic! Not only am I developing a bit of a repore with the trainers, but I was complimented about my energy, fitness (they say fitness–I think it’s a British saying), and uppercuts 🙂 . And apparently I’m okay for my level with the kicking, too.

I had already gone about 7, 8 rounds with Tuk (owner of the gym) and then I was shadow boxing in front of a mirror for my last round. Well, this other trainer, one who works mostly with the little kids at the gym, held up his hands for me to hit. I must have done okay, because he grabbed some mitts and started holding them for me. He called over Tuk and said in Thai that I was good and Tuk replied of course, he was training me.

So maybe they see some potential. Yay for encouragement!