Tag: home

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#WeekendCoffeeShare–In Which I Unpack, Adjust, and Find Home

If we were having coffee, I’d be soo excited to see you!

It’s been ages since I’ve joined the Coffee Share and it feels so good to be back.

After five weeks of living out of a suitcase, I finally have a home. A month of TESOL training left little time for adequate blogging (I don’t do this blogging business for the stats but let me tell you, my stats have been terrible).

Now, though? Now, my suitcase is unpacked, my shoes are lined up by the door, and I’m sitting on my new bed in my new apartment and it feels so good.

If we were having coffee, I’d tell you about how crazy this week has been. It has been emotionally and physically exhausting. If you read this post, you’d know that I am no longer placed in Nong Khai, a province in Northeastern Thailand, where I was supposed to be teaching at a secondary school. I hadn’t even been there a week when I knew it just wasn’t right for me. This knowledge wasn’t necessarily something I could explain. It wasn’t culture shock. It was just this inborn knowledge that something wasn’t right about me being there.

If we were having coffee, I’d tell you about how on Friday, while visiting friends in Bangkok, an opportunity came up for me to accept another job…this time in Nakhon Pathom Province in Central Thailand. When I was offered the position, I didn’t hesitate. Everything about this new Continue reading “#WeekendCoffeeShare–In Which I Unpack, Adjust, and Find Home”

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CHANGES. They Happen Sometimes.

Do you ever get the feeling that something is just off? That something is off and you can’t necessarily put a finger on why. That something is off and you know that, even if it’s not necessarily convenient or easy, you have to make a change?

Today I should be heading to my first day of school at Teacher Britta at a secondary school in Nong Khai.

But…I’m not.

Instead, I’m catching a flight to another part of Thailand to settle into a new placement, to a new life.

— — — —

There is absolutely nothing wrong with Nong Khai. It’s a bustling town. There’s actually quite a lot to do here. It’s in a cool location, right on the border of Laos. There is absolutely no reason to not like Nong Khai.

It’s not you Nong Khai, I promise. It’s me.

From the moment I got here, I had a fleeting sense that something wasn’t right. I pushed it aside, though. This is my placement, after all. I shouldn’t question it. Right?

Still. I found myself avoiding it. I had already had a two day trip to Laos planned when I got here Continue reading “CHANGES. They Happen Sometimes.”

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Discovery; Or, a Love Long Ignored

This weird thing has been happening to me this summer.

This summer living with my parents in my hometown in the suburbs of Minneapolis and St. Paul. “The Cities,” as us locals call them. You don’t just go to Minneapolis or St. Paul when you make a visit to the Minneapolis-St. Paul Metropolitan area–you go to “The Cities.”

“The Cities,” as if one can’t exist like they other. As if they depend on each other for a mutual and comfortable existence.

— — — —

Well, they don’t. We locals lump them together for convenience. We know that going to “The Continue reading “Discovery; Or, a Love Long Ignored”

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Location and Geography: Where I Call Home and Where I Want to Be

I think I have become a geographically stuck up.

Wait, what? What does that even mean, Britta?

Okay, okay, let me explain:

A few weeks ago in my Minnesota History class, my professor was talking about how prevalent a dichotomy between provincialism and cosmopolitanism has become in Minnesota in the last half century or so. While, in many ways, Minnesota as a whole has been struggling to maintain its provincial roots, we have also been trying our darnedest to avoid becoming what we wholeheartedly fear other people perceive our state as already: fly over land

Fly over land. a.k.a. a space between two interesting and cosmopolitan regions, the space people fly over to get from cosmopolitan region 1 to cosmopolitan region 2. In our case, these two regions are the East Coast and the West Coast. In our Continue reading “Location and Geography: Where I Call Home and Where I Want to Be”

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Home

I was that college freshman who couldn’t wait for move in day. I couldn’t wait to get out of the house. To leave my family behind and start anew. When my freshman floor mates complained of homesickness, I thought they needed to grow up…isn’t college for meeting new people and experiencing new things? Home is the exact opposite of that, so why would I want to go home? Homesickness was silly in my mind. As a first year college student, I went home over breaks because I had nothing better to do (stay in Morris when everyone else is gone? How boring!), though I didn’t necessarily jump with excitement at the thought of it.

Now, as a senior in college, I look at home differently. I am trying to enjoy the moments at home as best as possible because I don’t know if I’ll be close enough to visit home on a regular basis come this time next year. I may very well be back home for a little while, but I could also be across the country for all I know. Only time will tell. I’m also an over exhausted college student with a work load that would have made my freshman self cringe and home has become a place of comfort and relaxation. Home is a place where sleep can happen and where good food awaits.

I’m thankful to be able to come home to a nice comfortable place in the midst of a busy semester. I’ll be even more thankful when I come back in around three Continue reading “Home”

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