11.07.2004 ||>
So, it's all over. I am no longer a Peace Corps volunteer and have decided to detox, with my friend Dirty D, in Thailand. Believe me when I say, it's pampering time. After living on $100 a month ($140 if you count the rent) for the past two years, we are now spending about $1000 of our paltry "resettlement allowance" on Thai massages, beach bungalows and lots of yummy Thai food. Goodbye to the days of concrete Soviet architecture and people who think that bathing in winter will make you sick. Hello to... paradise!
Not that I don't still love Uzbekistan, but let me give you a picture of where I am. Today, I laid out on a clean white sand beach and looked at the most beautiful ocean I have ever seen. The water was turquoise, for God's sake. I ate a papaya for lunch that cost 25 cents and was so ripe that I could cut it with the plastic toothpick that comes with it. I drank juice out of coconuts when I was thirsty and ate my rice pilau dinner out of a pineapple. Dirty D had an $8 lobster that came right out of the aquarium and was alive about 20 minutes before it hit her plate. We have been wearing nothing but flip flops and skimpy clothes since we came as the weather is so warm: the average temperature for the day was about 87. Obviously all of this has also been helping me get over my election dejection.
Can I live like this forever?
