"Silver White Winters That Melt Into Springs..."

Hey folks,

So in the past week, based on a myriad of different emotions and thought processes, and some circumstances beyond my control, I have decided that I am heading home earlier than originally anticipated...

My original plan was to keep traveling until early July. My time would be made up of traveling to Laos for ten days, Cambodia for two weeks, back to Thailand for three weeks to volunteer teaching English, and then to meet up with two friends from Israel on my birthday and enjoy some island hopping in Southern Thailand for one week before heading home. But plans are made to change and be broken, and this time the alteration has a little to do with my own feelings and a little to do with events outside of my control...

I finally had a time-line figured out and so I applied to the volunteer program ISARA in Thailand to be a teacher for three weeks in a little, sleepy village in the North called Nong Khai, right on the border of Laos. However, I got an email back within in a day explaining that due to rising popularity, there was no room for more volunteers for the whole month of June! This now meant that I had an extra three weeks in June to fill up whilst waiting for my friends from the homeland to arrive. If I was still in super-excitement mode like I was when I arrived two months ago in South East Asia, this change would not have altered my plans... But after traveling for over a month on my own, and almost eight months away from Vancouver, days when I am not participating in an activity or part of a tour (like transit days on buses/trains) get me contemplative and incredibly homesick. The thoughts don't take long to become all-encompassing to the point I can't sleep at night and I long for my bed back in the city I know best, never-to-be-taken-for-granted, good ol' Vancouver!

Don't get me wrong, I'm fortunate for all the opportunities I have had over here! And I don't plan on going home just yet, I'm still having fun on 75% or more of my days in the Far East. But now that I don't have as much of a schedule to follow, I'm basically going to head home when the time feels right. I know for sure I'm going to head to Laos sometime in the next few days and will spend around ten days there, give or take. After that, I might still go to Cambodia for two weeks, but that decision will be based on whether or not I am still enjoying myself. I don't want to go simply because I am over here and it's accessible. After all, what's the point if I'm miserable while I'm there?

This puts my arrival time back in Vancouver anywhere from 2.5-5 weeks from now! I know my family is excited to have me back in close proximity and I already have a place to live and an almost sure thing for a summer job, so that takes a huge weight off of my mind! I feel content with the past eight months and the progress I have made as an individual, learning from my experiences and gaining strength in independence. I feel much more capable of handling smaller problems back home now with a greater insight into how things work in another part of the world and I consider myself fortunate to live in a city in which I don't encounter too much hardship or stress on a daily basis...

I leave you with a list of fifteen things that I miss most about life in Vancouver, or that I am looking forward to having/experiencing when I finally do return!

Ciao for now,

Max

P.S. As always, guess the song from which I got the blog title!

TOP 15 THINGS I AM LOOKING FORWARD TO:

1. Seeing my family, especially my niece Nevada!
2. A night out (or several) with all of my close friends
3. A home-cooked meal provided by each one of my parents
4. Toilets that properly flush without the use of manual bucket flushing and accessible toilet paper in every bathroom I go into
5. Sleeping in my own comfortable bed, with two pillows and a comforter!
6. Playing my guitar and working on new songs about the last year of my life
7. A nice long, hot shower, sans worrying about how long the water is turned on
8. Going to a movie without subtitles, heckling, interludes, or bad popcorn
9. Having my entire music collection at my disposal
10. Not dealing with any more mosquitoes whatsoever and leaving the house without lathering myself in bugspray
11. Going to a concert
12. Running along Kits Beach with a view of Downtown Vancouver and the mountains across the water
13. Eating a piece of Terra's French bread (you win Dad, it is my favourite!)
14. Cars driving on the proper (ie. right) side of the road
15. A game of beer pong with my fellow K-Sigs