My 9th day in Chiang Mai, Thailand. It was August 11th, my second Sunday since my arrival. I started the day at 5 am, my usual move. I checked my clothes that I had left hanging on the balcony since the day before. Some fell on the floor, it reminded me that it was not just rainy season, but also a bit windy. I went back inside, and I turned on the TV but everything was still in Thai. I switched channel by channel until I found music-streaming channel that plays English songs, "finally!" I sighed.

I made myself a cup of coffee and I started to wonder what I was going to eat for breakfast that morning. I opened the fridge, and voila, I had nothing. I opened the Google Maps App on my phone to look for the nearest restaurants, but everything was either in Thai or still closed. I was reaching a dead end. Then I remembered that I could order something through Grab App. I opened the app and I scrolled down to check the available vendors, but still, everything came up in Thai, or something that was insanely expensive.

That morning, I realized that something was missing. It took me a week to draw conclusion that I was missing the freedom. It was freedom that I longed. Freedom to be able to go wherever I wanted riding my bike, as well as freedom to communicate with other people freely, without language barrier. For the whole week, I have traveled and communicated with limitation due to distance and language constraint. I started to miss having that small talk with the seller of the grocery store in my hometown. I started to miss that conversation that I used to have with food seller near my home university.

I started to miss all those small things that I used to take for granted.

Saturday, August 10th. The weekend that I had waited for so long finally arrived. I was not whining, but my body was just not ready with the new school routine that I had to adjust. Back in Indonesia, I used to have class at 8.40 and I only had classes usually for 4 hours per day. Meanwhile, in Thailand, I had to be ready at 7.20 and I had to stay at school until 16.30. Not to mention that I had to walk and wait for the Yellow Truck to take me to CMRU.

Now you understand why I expected weekend so much, don't you?

Within the whole weekdays, I imagined what kind of activities that I might do to recharge my energy. When the weekend came, it turned out that I had a basket full of laundry that needed to wash. Long story short, I was lucky enough because CMRU's International House has washing machines on the 6th floor. They are automated washing machines that would operate automatically after I inserted two 10-baht coins. The whole process took about 45 minutes to finish, but usually I would just leave my laundry for the whole hour just to be sure.

I should dry all my clothes by hanging them to the clothesline on the rooftop. However, I honestly thought that hanging my clothes on rooftop was very risky, considering that Thailand was having the rainy season. If the rain suddenly fell, I would have to run to the 6th floor from the 2nd floor, and by the time I got to the top, all my clothes would have been wet, therefore I hung  my clothes on my balcony. Actually, I was not supposed to do that, because there are rules that drying clothes must only be done on rooftop, but then I questioned why did they provide clothesline on my balcony, though?

And that was it, the Saturday that I had waited so long was spent on my laundry.

Waking up from a deep sleep after experiencing a 23-hour trip was really nice. It was Sunday, 4th of August. I looked around and I confirmed, that everything was different from the last time I woke up. I was in a totally different room, different country. I went to the balcony of my room, and it was raining outside. My presence was welcomed by rainy day, on Sunday. A cup of hot coffee that I had, made that rainy Sunday become perfect. My favorite part of life, indeed, is a day full of drizzle outside and a glass of coffee in my hand, while I sit on the bed.

I spent my morning listening to music while I was enjoying my coffee. I turned on the TV but everything came out in Thai. It reminded me that I was in a foreign country and had two luggage that needed to unpack. I immediately took everything out of my luggage, and I put them all on my bed. Then I started sorting things and putting them into the places where they should be.

There were two big wardrobes in my room. All the clothes that I brought could only fill up one wardrobe, so the other one was left empty. I put all my food in the fridge. A fridge! I couldn't believe that they provided students with fridge in their room, and not to mention the air conditioner. My room had such huge bathroom with everything that I had never thought I would need in the future. Compared to my dormitory in Indonesia, CMRU's International House was a major upgrade for me.

CMRU's International House