Homesickness

For the first time in my exchange I am really homesick. However, I am not homesick for Canada; instead I yearn for and miss my family and friends in Nakhon Phanom. It seems rediculous but being away from all my friends, my family and my city for two weeks has really put a damper on me. Not only am I missing them but I have been immersed in Bangkok and Phuket where you can barely tell you are in Thailand aside from the sweltering heat and cheap prices. The streets are crawling with falangs, food is overpriced and not the way Thai food is supposed to taste and fast food restaurants and shopping malls loom over top of you as you walk down the street. I miss chickens running around my feet, dogs lying on the sidewalks and broken sidewalks that almost break your ankles. I have left the country I have come to love behind and instead have entered a country named Thailand where nothing is the Thailand that I love so much. I miss going to P'Oom's shop for Thai tea and toast with condensed milk; riding my bike through the streets and along the riverside; watching the groups of people working out at aerobics; sitting with Suzanne at Meurang watching and making fun of falangs that enter our habitat. I miss learning the dance moves to Korean pop songs with my host sisters; letting my crazy cat in from outside when she climbs up my window screen and showering with a bucket (who knew I would come to love the bucket so much?). Bangkok is nice, Phuket is nicer, but they aren't Thailand. They aren't filled with culture, amazing sounds and delicious food that screams anything but "falang". I miss my home.