🌌 Wishes, Floating Lanterns, and Thai Tuk-tuks

From Paper Prayers to Purple Thursdays (letter 237)

Sawadee ka fellow learn-it-all 👋

Greetings from Chiang Rai, Thailand!

This is me and my new roommate Emily, fellow English teachers wearing traditional Thai tops yesterday because teachers wear purple on Thursdays.

I’m sharing this letter earlier than I usually do because I’m heading to my coworker Saipin's family’s village somewhere in a jungle off the grid after school today. There will be lots of bowing, body language, and smiling since Saipin told me her village speaks their own dialect of Thai that even our other coworkers don’t know.  I am excited to be surprised by everything. Her village consists of coffee farmers next to blooming indigo hydrangea balls; they also go to a Christian church on Sundays. I’m soaked in zest for this experience to learn.

Now, let’s dive into letter 237 from a learn-it-all. Enjoy!

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🇹🇭Thailand Updates

Nine random noticings in no specific order:

1. Many people think routines make life boring, but I’ve never craved one more.

2. I feel like I’m been oscillating between being a fun, goofy teacher playing hangman, giving out chocolates, and a serious one that assigns speeches that students dread. Feeling inauthentic as a bad cop and good cop is confusing.

3. My 144 seniors in high school gave mini-informal speeches on their favorite cuisine in foreign countries. I heard everything from French escargot and Frankfurt sausage to Chinese Mala and Indian kebab. I love the creativity of students. (although another part of me wanders about what teaching was like pre-ChatGPT). 

4. I’ve been running at a stadium several times a week and almost made it there without using Google Maps.

5. Some of my 8th-grade students brought me a chocolate bar and candies on Monday. My co-teacher Boom says it took 4 years for students to buy her treats. I feel loved. 

6. A handful of first times this week of after school adventures:

   1. Finding a pool 30 minutes north of my home. It’s a 50-meters long at a university, and it’s glorious. It’s the most meditative I’ve felt since landing in this country three weeks ago.

   2. I played tennis with some Thai teachers for the first time since middle school, and it wasn’t awful. It’s pretty fun, honestly. Just felt good to get out on the court and get after it. It looks way more simple than it is. 

   3. Muay Thai is something I want to get better at. I took my first hour long course, and went all in with a package. I need to get used to punching someone. It’s not in my nature to put all my power straight at someone’s face. Also the five minutes of jump rope was dizzying.

   4. Running on a track is fun! This is yet another activity I haven’t done since high school gym class. I sprinted six laps and got a new PR for my 400m sprint in 1:36. I didn’t know my legs could move that fast! 

   5. I made a running friend named Puna, who likes to run at my pace. Instead of plugging in AirPods, she’s teaching me Thai, I’m teaching her English. 

7. I’ve been drinking Ovaltine in my afternoons. It’s a hot drink that looks like cocoa but has vitamins. I’m here for it!

8. I ate dinner with my friend Kelsey, whom I met in Hawaii, who’s been solo traveling Southeast Asia for six months. It’s comforting to hear how Thailand and Vietnam have been among the top countries she loved.

9. Getting a motorbike has been a blessing, allowing me to gain freedom. I taught my roommate how to ride one, too.

📜 Poetry Corner

🛺 Tuk-tuk in Thailand 

6:04 pm 
Saturday night.
In a tuk-tuk.
My first tuk-tuk in Thailand.

Sitting next to my driver,
Le Spok smiling.
44 minutes to Doi Saket.
Stopped at a red light,
typing Big booty remix 14 into his YouTube
Body by Loud Luxury
Disco lights blazing
Black Eyed Pees bumping.
"Tonight's gonna be a good night."
Oh, that it is.

✉️ Paper Prayers

7:24 pm
Face burning up—
cheeks flushed, tomato red,
warm and alive.
I don’t care—
my smile won’t stop.

The rice paper and bamboo frame
floated from my sweaty fingers.
Into the sky, she rose,
drifting like a balloon loose from a child’s hand.
Whispered prayers, carried by the wind to the heavens—
each one, a wish longing to come true.
And there it goes:
my prayer, on paper lit in flame.

🌌 Dang, Yi Peng

Dang, Yi Peng
You are a black sky 
Peppered with light—
Flickering candles,
Full of intentions,
like a birthday cake full of candles
The wind blows out these blessings.

Dang, Yi Peng
Chicken skin rose on my arms 
At the thought of the silence 
and of the beauty in the world
to stop 
and pause 
and praise 
the light in the sky together
On this full moon night.

Dang, Yi Peng
You set my intention:
Letting go of last loves,
healing my heart—
Missing people and places
Attached to the past. 
Letting go of seriousness in the present,
Expectations to succeed.
Letting go of pressure to know the future. 

Dang, Yi Peng,
You're a bucket list item, 
I never knew I had.
You are a festival of light,
watching lanterns brighten overhead, 
like fireflies on a summer day night sky.

Dang, Yi Peng,
You’re leaving me 
with a zing, 
A spark that lingers,
a glow that won’t fade.
Your light floats on,
a quiet reminder
to let go.

🌝 Moon Magic

Full moon,
You radiate
and make me swoon.
I yearn 
for zest
for sillies 
and love.

🇹🇭 Dear Thailand

Dear Thailand,
You are spicing up my life.
With khao soi
That brings me such joy. 

Here’s to 
Embracing new beginnings
To teaching,
To Thailand,
To becoming filled and full.

❓Question to think about

How can I put myself in the shoes of those around me without feeling guilt?

🎧Listening

“I See the Light” by Mandy Moore and Zachary Levi

All those days watching from the windows
All those years outside looking in
All that time never even knowing
Just how blind I've been
Now I'm here blinking in the starlight
Now I'm here suddenly I see
Standing here it's all so clear
I'm where I'm meant to be

And at last I see the light
And it's like the fog has lifted
And at last I see the light
And it's like the sky is new
And it's warm and real and bright
And the world has somehow shifted
All at once everything looks different
Now that I see you

🔍Word to define

Som Tum: also known as a Thai green papaya salad. A beloved dish in Thailand known for its bold, tangy, and spicy flavors. Made with shredded unripe papaya, chilies, garlic, lime, fish sauce, palm sugar, and peanuts, it balances sweet, sour, salty, and spicy notes. Originated from the Isan region in northeastern Thailand.

I still need to find the best spot to eat this in Chiang Rai.

Here are some other favorite Thai dishes from my seniors in high school:

🌟Quotes to inspire

“It is impossible to get better and look good at the same time. Give yourself permission to be a beginner.” —Julia Cameron

📸Gif of the Week

Celebrating Loy Krathong with some of my seniors in high school last Friday.
(I was too cold to dress up and was freezing after my motorbike ride and cold shower after my Friday night run.)

Here are some other photos:

🙏Shoutouts

• to my students who I am trying my best to inject them with confidence in their words and make English more fun.

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I appreciate you reading this!

If ideas resonated, I’d love you to press the heart button, leave a comment, reply to this email, or reach me at vermetjl@gmail.com.

Keep on learning 😁

Ka poon ka 🌺

Jen

PS - If you’d like to support my work, feel free to buy a curation of some of my best work in my book here.

PPS - If you missed last week’s letter, I shared a bunch of silly selfies and film from 💖 My Extraordinary October

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