The following story is a retelling of an incredible experience I had early one morning at an Orphanage in Thailand.  Enjoy!

Standing in the middle of the street under a moonless night sky, I cup my hands together and blow into them for warmth.  Right now its cold, but in a matter of just a few hours all that will change as the sun rises and unleashes its harsh, tropical heat.  It can be so uncomfortably hot here during the day, so for now, I am thankful for the chill.  Releasing a monstrous yawn, I drop to the ground and begin stretching.  I literally had to force myself out of bed this morning; I didn’t really want to get up this early.  For days now I have set my alarm, ultimately sleeping through it, telling myself I was going to do it.  This is the morning; I am determined to go for a run.

Other than the twinkle of starlight, it is very dark.  The only real source of light comes from an overhead street lamp, projecting a dull yellow glow upon the pavement around me. Down the road in both directions I can make out the faint outline of neighboring homes bordering the road.  Far behind me I can still hear the fading sound of dogs barking, alarmed by my presence.  I had to quickly walk down to the street in order to get away from them in fear of waking the entire village.  After holding each stretch for 15 seconds, I take deep breaths to expand my lungs, taking notice of the sweet scent of a nearby rice field. Other than the restless dogs, all else is still.

Suddenly, subtle movement behind the bushes from the house directly across the street catches my attention.  Sitting as still as possible, I squint my eyes to get a better look, but it’s too dark, and the object is too difficult to make out.  My initial thought was that it was just another neighborhood dog, perhaps trying to get a better look at me.  Straining my eyes even more to make sense of this thing, it suddenly hits me that this thing is no dog, but a person!  Wide-eyed and completely silent, I’m stunned.  The person peeking from behind the bushes remains still.  I wasn’t sure, but I had an intuitive feeling that this person wasn’t exactly sure what I was, or what someone could be doing sitting in the middle of the street at such an early hour of the day.  Equally caught off guard and unsure of how to react to the situation, we both hold our ground waiting for the other to make a move. Finally I decide it would only make things worse if I didn’t say anything.  In the friendliest voice possible, I muster out a cheerful “hello!”  To my great relief, my greeting is returned.  Out from behind the bushes approaches an elderly lady, carefully stepping onto the pavement.  She has a friendly smile on her face, but her expression tells me she is still confused as to why I am sitting in the street in the dark.  Using what little of her language I know, I manage to tell her my name, and then ask for hers. Her name is La.

Jumping back to my feet, I begin to jog in place.  I stick out my tongue while pretending to be exhausted as my pace slows and my arms drop to my sides.  La’s expression of confusion breaks into a delightfully warm smile, and together we chuckle lightly. Then it occurs to me, jogging probably isn’t very common around here, especially not at this time of day.  Releasing a sigh of self-satisfaction, I plop back onto the ground and resume my stretching, with La looking onward with fascination.  Then out of the corner of my eye, I notice La slightly bouncing forward attempting to reach for her toes, as if she is trying to stretch with me.  Standing up right again, she then places her hands on her lower back, still smiling, as if to indicate that her elderly body wouldn’t allow such movement.

When I finished stretching, it came time to say goodbye to my new friend.  Unfortunately, we speak two very different languages.  There is no way I can tell her how much I truly admire her for her amazing attitude, and curiosity.  I only wish I could tell her how happy I am to have met her and to have had this experience.  I feel fortunate to have found the determination to get out of bed this morning at such an unreasonable hour.  For lack of better words, a simple “thank you,” would have to be enough. Turning my attention to the sky, I notice the stars have all disappeared.  With sunrise quickly approaching, I say goodbye, breathing warm air into my cupped hands one last time.  The day full of possibility is just beginning.

- Seize the day.

Hey Carpe heads!

These are some of the greats from SE Asia. Thanks for everything! And anyone who is reading this and considering the SEASIA trip, GO!!!! It is the most amazing, life changing, superman experience EVER! …seriously go!

Thanks again Carpe Diem, Rachel Parks

 

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So here are a few of my favorite videos from SEAsia.

The 1st one is this string tying ritual that Thais do when someone is leaving. It’s sort of them giving a blessing on the rest of our travels. This was after our stay in the Hill Tribes. We trekked back to Chiang Rai afterwards.

The next one was a surprise! You can kinda hear Adam explaining that Mike (the director) didn’t want to post it on the website that we were riding elephants (we thought it was cut off the trip when Laos was cut), he thought it would be a nice surprise. Adam and Heather knew the whole time but decided to keep it a secret, and I’m glad they did. Here is our reaction…

This is part of a water puppet show that we saw in Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam. It was really funny, despite the fact that I still have no clue what they were saying. And I still can’t figure out how they maneuver the puppets!

Enjoy,

Sonya Salimy

Ps-the videos are to the right on my shutter fly page

http://carpediemseasia.shutterfly.com/pictures

Here are a couple more photos that didn’t get in the last download. And for some reason the descriptions of each photo are not appearing on the blog. Oh well…my pen rai.

Here are some of my favorites from SEAsia…Enjoy!

Remember that time we sat in the airport for hella hours?…..Sinjaow from Ho Chi Minh! We arrived from Phu Quoc at around 5pm and have been sitting in the airport, patiently waiting for our next flight at 12am. Good times with good people, but not underwater this time. We cannot even begin to express the number of memories cultivated throughout this voyage abroad, but we probably should just write them because we have the time… So… Remember that time….

-We got dropped off on the side of the highway, led to a river below an underpass and loaded into sketchy canoes that almost capsized when it was pitch black and raining.

-When we read the awkward journal…..well that was awkward

-When our group at 50 squid burgers in the course of one week in Phu Quoc.

-All our stomachs gave out with a month left in the trip

-When we celebrated 7 birthdays

-When we ate all the snickers at the local market

-When Ryan drank bus water at the airport

-When there was no longer a Gareth on the trip… Where Garth thou?

-When the only three Vietnamese words we knew were, hello, thank you and rabies

-When we killed the queen termite.YES!

-When the cat pooped on Tangley…Twice

-When we couldn’t go anywhere without finding baby animals

-When Sonya told us she wears socks and crocs.

-When Rachel went crazy from too much juice.

-When we had to vote to take out the “no-hookup” rule, and stages got vetoed

-When there was only one more hour before we could check in to wait 4 more hours?

-When Josie got poked by a Vietnamese doctor and then given medicine for acid-reflux (she did not take it)

-When Adam got taught how to eat Pho by a Vietnamese grandma

-The time Heather bought a coconut

-When Roman didn’t know where we were going.

-When Roman still didn’t know where we were going.

-Italian food on Thanksgiving. Yay America!

-When Noel got bit by a rat

-The time Heather bought a coconut

-The night we watched Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows Pt. 2 and ate cereal

-When Alex said Petchara (our language teacher) would be a damn good wife

-When we ate 66 cent Pad Thai

-When Josie and Alex realized they had a mutual acquaintance… on the last day

-The time Heather bought a coconut

-The time the female janitor was using the stall next to Gareth

-The time Anna peaced

We would all like to thank everyone who has made this experience possible. From our parents and family members for supporting us to make it here and throughout our journey. Also to the Carpe Staff, Mike our amazingly tall program director, Adam Gum$ Fischer and Coconut Fiend Heather for their guidance, knowledge and good timez during these past few months. Also a very sincere shout out to Ethan for being a metaphorical and literal boss, waddup E.

Carpe Diem Roll Call (to be fair Anna and Roman were not present, they are already off on their solo adventures and Rachel was sleeping):

Nilda, David, Heather, Koji, Steve, Kathleen, Lily, Otosan, Nancy, Ross, Robert, Haigles, Petchara, Homestay Families, Marcy, Bob and Maria, Rand and Rhonda, Debbie, Phil, Phil, Nikki, Noels Lax Bros, The Academy, Drew and the entire Carpe Extended Family.

Sawadee ka/krap !!

What an amazing time our group has had on Phu Quoc island here in Vietnam. We’ve spent almost everyday learning new skills towards our scuba certifications which 7 out of our group recieved. Our digs have been quite splended with only a 10 second hop to the beach. The sea food as you would imagine has been amazing aswell and many of us stuffed our selfs silly with crab, elephant snail, tuna fillets, and shrimps last night at the local market. Delicious!

Wazzzzupp Capre Parents,

This is a story all about how the Southeast Aisa group turned Vietnam upside down. I’d like to take a minute, just sit right there,  I’ll tell you how we became the princes of vietnam.

In Ho Chi Min we started our stay in a waterpark where we spent most of the day, chillin out maxin, relaxin all cool, causein mahammm in the wave pool.

I whistled for a bus and when it came near I saw this bus was rare, the seat reclined and that’s weird. I hopped on and said take me to Mui Ne.

we spent a couple of nights chillin out on the beach and we realized scuba was just out of our reach! After our short stay we were off to ride a boats in the mekong delta.

We visited turtle island and ate coconut candys while expiriencing exotic fruits staying in bunglows and eating spring rolls.

peace,

Roman, Anna and Rachel