The Girl in the Red Rubber Boots

Category: Travel

  • More Flight Drama

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    Emily Sara Smucker
    in

    “I’m sorry, but you can’t fly through Tianjin without a visa.” “What?” “You need to call your travel agent and get another ticket home.” “But…what?” We stood at the checkin desk, bags packed, ready to go home. The lady at the desk looked sympathetic, but she really couldn’t do anything. Our ticket was from Chiang…

  • Failures in English Teaching

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    Emily Sara Smucker
    in

    Nestled in the jungle outside of Chiangmai is the Night Safari. It’s just like any other glorified zoo, except instead of viewing the animals by day, you view them at night.  Exciting, huh? When I last came to Thailand, just over a year ago, I declined the opportunity to go on a night safari tour…

  • Into the Thick of Things

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    Emily Sara Smucker
    in

    I was an angel but I had no wings. I fluttered the tails of my long white sweater, hoping the children would get the picture. “I am an angel,” I announced, in case there was any doubt. “My name is Gabriel. I have come from God with a special message for you.” I spoke slowly,…

  • Take a Sad Song, and Make it Better

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    Emily Sara Smucker
    in

    I knew that I’d figure things out eventually and everything would be fine, but sometimes my emotions don’t listen to my logic. I didn’t want to cry, but I felt the tears trickle down the side of my nose anyway. Blast. What was wrong? Let me make a list: I had been traveling for a…

  • Please Read This If You Are Mom or Amy

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    Emily Sara Smucker
    in

    Ben and I had a flight delayed four hours and couldn’t seem to connect to wifi anywhere and missed our flight to Thailand and can’t get another flight until tomorrow afternoon. Also, every single messaging service seems to be blocked. No gmail, no Facebook…so now I’m trying a blog post out of desperation cause I…

  • Abandon me in Bandon

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    Emily Sara Smucker
    in

    I will never get tired of the ocean. It gets me every time, like a whisper saying “you belong here.” Of course I’ve been to the ocean many many times, but this weekend my youth group switched it up a bit and went camping in Bandon, further south than the beaches we normally visit. It…

  • The Multnomah Falls Expedition

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    Emily Sara Smucker
    in

    Oregon is a beautiful but lonely state. It’s rare that the friends you meet in the east will just happen to stumble through. When it does happen you must not let the opportunity slip past. That is why, when I saw on Instagram that my friends Heidi and Kristi Mast were in Portland, I drove…

  • Short Bites of Thailand Life

    Short Bites of Thailand Life

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    Emily Sara Smucker
    in

    The Bathroom I love Thai food, but unfortunately Thai food does not always love me. At a restaurant the other day, while sampling a delicious concoction of liver, cilantro, and mint, my insides began protesting, and I knew that I had to find a bathroom. Now. Making hasty excuses to my dinner companions, I dashed…

  • Today I am in Thailand

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    Emily Sara Smucker
    in

    My sister Amy has a life that is far more exotic than mine. Her home has a tile roof and tile floors and tropical flowers dripping into her yard from the tree next door. She lives in Thailand, teaching English at a hole-in-the-wall university at the edge of Chiang Mai. Since travel for me takes…

  • Fifth Place and Frugal

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    Emily Sara Smucker
    in

    Yes, we did just get 5’th place in the MATE International ROV competition, beating out big fancy schools like Purdue and Ohio State, and we did it in style. (By “style” I mean “multicolored LBCC t-shirts we hastily purchased from the bookstore minutes before we left, which resulted in people getting us confused with Long…