Saturday, September 1, 2012

Wibbly Wobbly Timey Wimey

I just realized that I did a "Snapshot Saturday" post on a Thursday or so the time-stamp on the post says...

Life here can sometimes be very disorienting. Let me give you a few examples:

1. University students just had their commencement last week--in AUGUST. They got their diplomas handed to them by one of the royal family and had pictures of the celebrations, professional photos, flowers, gifts, etc all on Facebook. Liz wrote a post about one of their commencement traditions here. In my mind, graduation is celebrated exclusively in May/June. Disorienting, right?

2. Setting up Skype dates is a huge hassle (a worthwhile hassle but nevertheless) because I have to figure out the time difference with friends/family scattered all over the place--Wyoming, Texas, Germany, Virginia, etc. I almost missed a Skype date yesterday evening because I confused the time difference...thankfully she was late too.

3. The weather here gives no hint as to the season. According to some, Thailand has three seasons--hot/dry, rainy, hot and humid. To me though, it just feels hot all the time and less hot after it has rained. Sometimes though I feel convinced that it's mid-January, or springtime, or the beginning of June. I think it's just deja vu triggered by bright flowers, gray skies, a particular outfit. Who can explain deja vu anyways??

4. It's the first of September here which is the beginning of my fourth month in Thailand. The next term begins next week at which point I can develop some semblance of a routine. I think the lack of routine is the most disorienting thing. I have these patterns that are so easy to follow back home--patterns that center around time of day (most of my ministry is done in the evenings), time of year, holiday seasons, etc. Those patterns are somewhat removed here.

Alright, those are four examples of ways in which life here is confusing, disorienting, and always somewhat of an adventure.

Per the title of this post, let me insert a short Doctor Who clip:


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