Day Three - Tara Update

“I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore Toto’

I remember at camp we always use to say that it was the staff that grew the most in a summer experience. WELL…that has nothing compared to the learning that I am going to have about myself in the next six months!

Here are some lessons that I have learnt in only THREE days:

1. Organization is going to become a way of life; not just the typical-pick-up-later Tara anymore….
2. With two kids and one small villa the mantra of “everything has a place and everything in its place” runs through my mind every hour
3. Waking up at 4:00 am every day is not such a bad thing…we have hit the local market three days in a row.  Sydney and I are getting good at being the only non-locals on site and bartering over bunches of bananas and lychees. 
4. Going to bed at 4:00 might not be that bad either
5. It is going to be the small stuff that creates the wonderment of this trip.  Looking at rocks in a sidewalk or fish in a pond or ants crawling up our bed. . . 

 

So, for those who may have thought that we would be touring everywhere...here is the news…we are getting acclimatized in every sense of the word (weather, money, family dynamics, individual new likes and not so much likes, culture).  We have yet to make it off of Monkey Forest Road (which is about 5 blocks long).  We now are just starting to learn  the priorities….good, cheap bottled water, popsicles for 25c., market bartering,  and benefits of swimming in the pool at least twice a day.  Rice paddies and temples can wait and the beach may be a distance third.  Yoga and meditation??? …damn, how about sleep?  Maybe, just maybe, tonight...