The Travel Gap

In terms of “exciting adventures,” this week has been pretty devoid. No mountains were climbed, no rivers were crossed, and no lands were discovered. However, despite the lack of my traditional exciting exploits, this has already been a more formative week than most.

Introduction This week was largely a continuation of the last (and I imagine that will be consistent until I leave). I mostly worked on the website, lesson planning, teaching, and my online TEFL course. Things here are going quite well and I am steadily learning and improving.

Once again, I’ve collected a trove of stories this week. For starters, the nightly heavy rain has caused the river in the village to flood. I was told that this is only the second time that it has ever been this bad.

This week has been full of education. From my experiential learning with monks to trying to teach English to children, I’ve been learning nonstop. The Ariya Center After the conclusion of last week’s Buddhist ceremony in the local jungle temple, Pa Lam enthusiastically informed me that I was invited by a panel of high ranking monks to join her in a five-day stay at a Buddhist monastery called the Ariya Center.

Unquestionably, the feature piece of my week (and arguably of my entire time here in Thailand) is that I spent the weekend at a Buddhist monastery. From sleeping in a 7’x10' shack to watching over 250 monks receive their morning alms, it was truly the adventure I needed to get over last week’s dry spell.