so here i am, back in england, the cold and wet country.

although it hasn't been that wet and cold at all. the sun has been coming out, greeting me with its light and warmth. and i made myself at home.



i did indeed. same place, different people, different feelings. i'm still in leeds, and still go to the same university i did last year. but so much has changed.

i have been so much happier than last year. and it all started here; home.


yes, i have a home now, not just a house but a home. i rent this place with two other (rather international) vegetarian girls who do yoga, meditate and are as obsessed with food as i am. we wake up early and get excited about breakfast, we love cooking and we eat together. we go food shopping and make food plans and meditate. and we would sit on the sofa in our lovely garden, reading books.


it's just so nice to know that you'll come back home to find lovely people who will tell you their stories and listen to you, be so kind and comforting to you.




and i went back to the bread bakery again, meeting the familiar faces and spent my night kneading bread in a very relaxed environment.


i might have said this ten times already, but it's so true.
it's all about people and not places after all.

isn't airport the best place for a thoughtful reflection?

at least when you're going back home i supposed.

so here i am, 5 hours at heathrow, waiting for the flight that will bring me back home. after almost 9 months away from the boiling climate and exotic food. it was about time to go back again.

looking back to the beginning of the year, the excitement i felt a few weeks after i arrived, the shock (of having to feed myself from scratch), the struggle (of horrible flatmates) and the need to get away, to be in a family, in any family at all.

i thought i could never live in this country. the thought of living here for for 3 more years horrified me.

just take me to europe! to good bread, mouthwatering food, great transportation and not-so-complicated visa application! anywhere in europe would be fine as long as didn't need a different visa to cross the border.

yes, i felt trapped here and i just want to travel and never stop travelling.

which probably wouldn't please my dad as much, he thought my focus was on studying

well, but i studied hard too...

anyway, i started to build relationships with locals around here and spend a considerable amount of time volunteering. i did green action food co-op, the real junk food project and leeds bread co-op, which later landed me a weekend job selling bakery with one of my favourite bakers, sarah and her inventive bakes from noisette bakehouse. through all those people i have met, i could see so many opportunities await next year. so many experience to get excited about that would be almost impossible to find in thailand. and even though i would rather do something i like voluntarily (like baking and taking photos) than get a paid job in a posh thai restaurant, the amount of new thai street food businesses opening up in leeds this year wouldn't make such a bad work environment. and if i want to travel, i better try to find a job next year.

this year abroad gave me an overwhelming passion for food and taught me that everything is possible. and i was beginning to love what i thought i would never did.

like living here.

it's all about people and not places after all.

it's been three weeks...and i'm getting used to living here, little by little.
one big change is that i'm not starving myself to dead anymore!
...and am probably eating a bit too much bread and dessert at the moment.

i'm starting to think that every place really has its own perk.
even though leeds is quite metropolitan and not really my kind of historical old town city kind of thing, but it has a few good places i really like as well.

for an instance, the corn exchange was beeeeautiful.