I hate this picture of me, but at the same time, I love it. I love that my eyes are closed and the wind is blowing strands of hair on my face. This was taken exactly ten years ago by my friend, H. We were on a trip to Chiang Mai together, a province in the northern part of Thailand. I was so young then and adventurous that I took a teaching job for about 9 months, away from my friends and family. H. was just visiting that December of 2002 and so I met him in Bangkok with his friends and we all went to a week long vacation to the cold province of Chiang Mai. I had lots of fond memories of the trip including good and cheap food, seeing elephants up close, trekking, flying a humongous paper lantern at night, shopping, and learning and practicing the Thai language.
The next year, I went back home, fell in love with the guy I wanted to get married with and gave him this photo of me with the words of the Chilean poet written at the back:
"Laugh at the night
at the day, at the moon,
Laugh at the twisted
Streets of the island
Laugh at this clumsy
girl who loves you,
But when I open
my eyes and close them,
When my steps go,
When my steps return
deny me bread, air,
light, spring,
but never your laughter
for I would die."
Pablo Neruda
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