9 months in the year 2007 narrowed down into fragments

• the smell of barely concealed belgian waffles on the train.
• wearing the colors of the day. (on mondays we wore yellow to honor the king.)
• fresh coconut juice sold by a vendor outside our apartment complex.
• memorizing thai numbers (๑, ๒, ๓, ๔, ๕, ๖...)
• early morning visits to king's garden
• tasting scrambled ostrich egg for the first time at a floating restaurant
• the random grandma who, out of nowhere, wrapped me in an affectionate hug. i remember kissing her cheek before she let me go.
• my hands gripping someone's jacket as the motorcycle sped on the slick black road (i don't remember who i was holding on to but i remember feeling free.)
• the malaysian flight attendent handing me a sheet of stickers on the plane. she was a beautiful woman sporting a pixie cut.
• coffee bun. lots and lots of coffee bun.
• sleepless red eye flights.
• my dad's colleagues coddling me. one of the moments where i truly felt like the child i was.
• alek's house warming party. an entire day spent eating food. i sat next to the grill that night, sipping on my nth glass of fanta. i smelled like seafood and i didn't care.
• when we launched a sky lantern. there were hundreds of them floating above us, the sight of it was incomparable to anything i've ever seen; it lit the night sky with warmth and magic.
• the million year stone park. the flower and rock gardens made me feel like a princess in an enchanted kingdom.
• sleeping on bedrolls. we lived in a small studio apartment, you see. us kids would roll them out every night, then in the morning we put them away.
• playing video games on our play station 2
• eating roti saimai, candy floss wrapped in sweet roti.
• my dad bringing me to his and his colleagues' bowling game.
• watching pigs do math as piyawan carried me so i could see the stage. i was maybe 7 or 8 around that time.
• betting on which pig will win at the pig races
• feeding elephants and bunnies at the zoo
• drinking lychee flavored jelly
• watching 90s tv sitcom 'the nanny' on the local english channel