Hua Hin, you're no match for Compass Girl (Taking suggestions for superhero name)

After a morning of lesson-giving practice, half of my group made our own way back from school to the hotel.  This was a significant moment because it meant that I am able to navigate through certain parts of Hua Hin.  Learning a new city is always a milestone that I doubt ever being able to reach, but somehow two weeks after arriving and I can do it!  It's a great feeling.

Even before we got to class this morning on our sawngtaw there was a moment when the driver made a wrong turn.

"Wait a minute..." I said snapping my head in the other direction.  "Weren't we supposed to go the other way?"

"The driver surely knows how to get to where we need to go."  Someone snapped, but sure enough, a little way down the road, we turned all of the way around and went the way I thought we had to go in the first place.

This is huge progress!  I can't stress enough how delightful it is to not feel like a lost sheep all the time, getting merely carted from place to place.  Apart from the deep satisfaction, there is also a economic element to knowing how to get around on your own.  Most everywhere you go in the whole world there exists for you the safety net of a taxi, or in this case a tuktuk (if you'll remember, this is what we hired to take us home from the Khao San market we went to in Bangkok).  When you are hopelessly, tearfully lost you can always flag one of these guys down and beg them to magically understand your English directions.  That's worst case scenario because if you're alone, or even if there are only a few of you, that option is not usually a cheap one.  When you can walk everywhere or you at least recognize landmarks, you're in such a safer, happier place.  I'm halfway there now in Hua Hin, mere weeks before I leave to go learn somewhere else!

The weekend before last, we went to the Phraya Nakhon Cave.  It was a super beautiful but surprisingly difficult hike.  We were up and down on the side of a mountain, with a beautiful view of the ocean when we got to the beach.  My first thought (and I immediately shared it with my group members) was, "That wasn't so bad!"  But, the thing about assuming is how you make yourself look and sure enough, no sooner had I spoken the words before we arrived to the last leg of the hike.  Let's just say our necks hurt from looking up.

View from the first leg of the journey overlooking the ocean.  Me and Tara.

It turns out the key to trudging along is stubbornly focusing on the step you are actively taking instead of giving in and peeking at what is to come.  Good metaphor for life you could say, but bottom line you gotta eat the whale one bite at a time.

When we arrived to the shrine in the cave I was so glad we did, and not just cause at this point I don't know how I'd produced so much sweat or how my legs could keep going after having been so sedentary for the weeks leading up to this.  When we got there the first thing that I thought this time was, "Well, that was worth it."  Just like before I didn't keep it to myself and everyone around me nodded in awed agreement.  It was one of the most beautiful but surprising placed I'd ever seen.  Imagine a giant cave with a sky light that made room for a perfect little microcosm to grow underneath.  I just usually think of the inside of caves as being cold and dark and, well, generally void of life.  This one was not.

Inside the cave!  Look at all that green. 

Me, Dominicque (my awesome opossum roommate), and Emily in front of the shrine.

There has been so much to do during the TESOL course we are taking.  Let me just say it's not just elephants and puppies since we finished orientation week.  We have written so many overnight lesson plans and next week we will have a chance to teach real lessons in front of real kids at the "camp."  I'm excited and just feel kind of ready to get started.  That being said, camp is supposed to be one of the most frightening reality checks of a the whole ESL Teaching Overseas experience and come the moment I will probably be singing a completely different tune.  Either way, I have about a week to prepare and I'm sure I'll have some crazy kid stories when I do.