Do you ever wish you could know exactly how another person experiences something? I do. Maybe cause life has been so foreign here, but I’ve had that on my mind a lot lately.
The other day Juan and I were shopping and found a wonderful grocery store that actually sold real cheese. We bucked up the cash and splurged on a taste from back home. I cannot explain the excitement I got from our purchase, I felt like I was walking home with a bag full of gold. I also found Ritz crackers in this store so as soon as we got back I promptly made a plate of crackers with melted cheese. After my masterpiece was pulled from the microwave, an Austrian staying with us asked if he could try one. The moment he put it in his mouth, his face twisted up and it took everything he could to not spit it out. He was appalled that I would eat this as a snack yet earlier through the trip he was munching down on Thai fried cockroaches. At that moment I wanted to have his taste buds, I wanted to know how that could be so foreign and gross him. I didn’t get it and quite frankly I don’t believe him, can anyone seriously hate crackers and cheese that much?
In Thailand we are staying in a neighborhood called Nonthaburi and in the few weeks we have been here I have yet to see one foreigner. When you walk down the streets they are packed with people. Vendors every few feet lining the edges, and tables set up in between where everyone just SITS, relaxes, visits and works all day. When I go for my morning walk or head out to the city and walk past these streets most people stop what they are doing and just smile and stare. I wish I could be in their head, to know the curiosity they are feeling or the questions they have. It would be nice to speak the language and talk to them about those questions but more than that, I want to be in their minds, to know their thought process.
Its this obsession I have lately. I want pictures of what my eyes see at some exact moment, yet I can never quite capture that same image on film. I want to know what the people I am traveling with think about when we go for a walk or sit in an enchanting temple. I want to know what goes through the locals minds when I walk by or say thank you in Thai. I wonder where this came from? Why this fascination of understanding everything and relating to all just suddenly appeared. I just want to KNOW. I watch a TV show and I wish I knew what was running through the actors mind as they rhapsodically rehearse their lines. I walk past the dogs filled with rabies and diseases and wonder if they have feelings, I wonder if they know they are dirty and missing out on love because of it. I wonder what runs through a child’s mind when they intently stare at me like I am the latest and discovery their eyes came across.
There isn’t much point to my ramblings, just thought I would share where my mind is at. We have been still for quite a while now, not traveling much and not doing too much sightseeing. I am loving this life. I have not had the opportunity to sit still for a long time now, even while traveling around India and Europe, life goes fast when you’re on the road. But here, it is slowing down…I am allowing it to slow down. Im not rushing about, trying to accomplish things, or see this or that. Im doing a lot of thinking, a lot of relaxing, spending a lot of time with myself. I have no complaints, not one, and THIS is what I was looking for.
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