If you don't think elephants are cool then you will probably find this blog very boring today, or at least the pictures at the end.

Anyway, school is officially out, the summer is officially underway and I am officially home for 6 weeks. But what is home anyway? Is it where my family lives? where I grew up? where my people are? where my heart is? or something totally not of this world? Deep thoughts have been going through my mind since I got home, but we will save that for another blog post.

This is about my self-cation to Chiang Mai! Yes, an adventure for 1 if you will.

If you know me at all you know that I LOVE PEOPLE. I CRAVE QUALITY TIME. I am definitely an extravert and need people in my life. Even though I moved overseas by myself "technically" I haven't ever travelled or vacationed alone, which is something I wanted to do before I wrapped up my first year in Thailand. So I booked a little adventure by myself to northern Thailand for 2 nights. I figured 2 nights was the maximum amount of time I could be without people! It was hard, eating meals by myself, khao soi for 1 is not as much fun as sharing it with a friend...but I did it and im actually quite proud of myself! It was the epitome of independence like more independent than building an ikea dresser, which I am very capabale of!

One of the best decisions I made in planning my unplanned self-cation was booking a day at The Elephant Nature Park. This place was a sanctuary for elephants and other animals that have been abused and mistreated in the country, especially that of animal tourism, aka riding elephants, circus', and trekking. Now, Im not a super animal lover, and I've definitely ridden elephants in Thailand before but this was way cool. We got to spend time with the elephants. Like walk around and have elephants walk up to you, close enough to see their sweet eyes and touch their cool trunks. We got to even bathe an elephant in the river. It was pretty sweet and the elephants were such magnificent creatures all the while we were nestled in the valley of some beautiful Chiang Mai mountains that took my breath away. I learned that elephants are like humans and crave quality time with each other. They make families and create packs, unless of course they have been too hurt to trust any more, which sadly, one elephant actually secluded himself to be alone at the park. They are awfully like humans in that way! It was actually quite fascinating!

But one of my favorite parts of that day was the people I met in my group. (yes this place is a tourist trap, lots of people, lots of waiting, lots of elephants though make it worth it) But the people I met were from all over the world. One girl from India, a couple from Canada on their honeymoon, a couple from Australia that quit their jobs and have been traveling for 7 months, a guy from San Francisco, a couple from Taiwan and 2 other girls from Canada. We were all from all over, and have nothing in common except for the desire to travel and see the world. The conversations were good and afterward I realized that everyone in our group was all on a journey looking for the same thing, purpose and meaning.

This self-cation was not only a fun little empowering adventure for me it was a deep theological answer to the one thing God has been teaching me all year. TRUST. God has been whispering ever so softly to my heart and asking me "Erin, do you really trust me" and in Chiang Mai I got to let go of everything that was holding me back and finally answer with hope, "Yes God, Yes I Do". I experienced such freedom, such joy since then. I am blown away by all that the Lord has been teaching me this year and am still working on getting all my thoughts down on paper...so until then let these pictures of my elephant day hold you over!