In Which I Describe a Typical Day

The craziness of the conference this week aside, I have managed to create a schedule for myself here. It helps keep me feeling secure, you know?

Here's a typical day at the wat for me:

6:00 AM - Wake up, shower, dress all in white.
6:45 AM - Leave the Trina House to walk to the wat, taking the shortcut through the coconut plantation (unless it rained a lot the night before, in which case I stick to the roads to avoid the mud)
7:00 AM - Breakfast
7:30 - 8:30 - Meditation Class
8:45 - 10:45 - Intermediate English, co-teaching with Eunice (usually with grammar/vocabulary for the first half, then Buddhist English the second half)
11:00 - Lunch, then drop off leftovers at the fridge in the women's dorm for dinner
12:30 - 1:30 - Meditation Class
1:30 - 3:30 - Internet, plus a snack from the mini-mart (cold water and a popsicle, usually)
3:30-4:30 - Meditation Class
4:30-5:45 - Varies. Sometimes more internet, sometimes wandering around the wat, sometimes finding a place to sit and read
6:00-7:00 - English Class with the Community Kids (Paul and I co-teach this one, although he's leaving this weekend, so I might be on my own next week)
7:15 - Walk back to the Trina House
7:45 - Shower
8:00 - Reheat lunch leftovers for dinner
8:45 - Laundry
9:30 - Read in bed for a while before going to sleep.

It's not a bad schedule, but it's certainly filled with a lot more free time than I'm used to. And a lot less air-conditioned/fan-circulating places than I like, too.

I also try to give myself things to look forward to. The internet is certainly a daily highlight. Monday we took a tuk-tuk into town to go to the grocery store (exciting! I got Oreos, a little bottle of soy sauce, some Cup-o-Noodles for when there's no food for dinner, and a 6-liter jug of water that was a lot of fun to carry back to the Trina House last night). This Saturday Eunice, Sean, Oscar, and I are going to take the bus to Bangkok for a day-trip. Eunice and I both want to do some serious souvenir shopping, since there haven't been that many chances for it so far. Also, one of these days I'm going to stick around the wat for evening chant (7:30-8:30). I'm usually pretty tired and hungry by the time I get out of class at 7:00, so I haven't done it yet. Sometime.

P.S. This is my 800th blog post!