Right now

Written 2/17/14

These last few days have seen a dramatic change in my travels. I've stepped into another country, another continent, this one far more different from home than the others. I've stepped from solo traveling to group travel. It's been a big change of pace.

I left New Zealand on Feb 13 and 20 hrs of travel later, landed in the Chiang Mai airport. But, I was alone. Before leaving Auckland, I'd received the message that due to unfortunately timed delays, the group of people I was to meet in the airport weren't going to arrive until 8 hours after their original arrival time.

Two months ago, the prospect of arriving in Thailand on my own would have made me real nervous. 6 months ago, the prospect of arriving in Thailand alone would have terrified me. But a few days ago, I stepped off the plane all by my lonesome, passed through customs, picked up my  bag and stepped out of the airport zone. Alone. I caught a taxi to the hostel where I would be joined by the rest of my group eventually. I had 6 hours or so to kill and (this is how you can tell that I don't quite wear the title of "seasoned traveler" yet.) spent the time settling into the hostel, blasting through my book, catching up on writing, and resisting (unsuccessfully) the advances of jetlag.

At 8 pm, I was woken up from a jet lad induced nap by the swing of the dorm door. I heard Annie, the owner of the hostel say, "Yes, here she is," and suddenly, the room filled up with people and faces. Conversation filled the room in a jumble of excitement and exhaustion.

Since those first few moments, I've had a few days to start to get to know my group. There are 10 of us. 2 leaders, 8 students. 8 girls, 2 guys. We all come from different places, different backgrounds.

4 days into the trip, my transition from solo traveler to group member has been...not as easy as I anticipated. Perhaps, it's the rule book coming back to haunt me, perhaps it's just that it seems to take me 2 weeks to really get  comfortable with new surroundings. I'd gotten used to people traveling alone, or in pairs. Four people together at most. Group travel seems big and clumsy and loud coming from what I saw in NZ. Not to mention in takes me a loooong time to get comefortable with new people.

But there is something wonderful about not traveling alone anymore. There is something wonderful about being surrounded by thoughtful and inspiring people (see my LOTR post for exactly why I love it) So now I think I'm used enough to it.

So. What have I been up to? these first 3 days have been devoted to a sort of orientations. Us getting to know each other, getting to know the city, getting to know a bit more about the country and its culture. We've talked over health and safety stuff, and laid down some ground rules. I've also gotten the chance to seriously explore Chiang Mai, eat some real cool stuff like cat fish, curries galore, fried bananas, and so much wonderful fruit, you won't believe it. and has some wonderful conversations with the Thai people.

It's pretty much been go go go from sun up to sun down, so I've been falling into bed, exhausted and asleep in an instant. That means my journal isn't being kept up with as much as I'd like, but oh well. Sometimes the present is too wonderfully important to want to take time out of it to record the past for the future. Right now, my focus is not on the future remembrance, but on what is here, right now.