I have recently come to the realization that I am cursed. No matter how hard I try, I just cannot get my Pad Thai to taste like it did from the street carts in Bangkok. For the rest of my life, I will be forced to pay $1,600 in airfare every time I want to eat proper Pad Thai.

This sad realization struck me on my way home from our local library this morning. At the library I had my first English tutoring session with my Thai student, Bee. She is incredibly sweet and her 1-year-old son is about the cutest little guy I've ever seen. And we had a wonderful time getting to know one another and talking about her goals for learning English. (Her son, Boon, meanwhile enjoyed racing around the library meeting new people. He was quite the social butterfly!)

Bee's face would light up every time I used one of the handful of words I know in Thai. "You speak Thai too?," she asked excitedly. Shaking my head no, I replied "Nit noi" which means "a little bit" in Thai.

(What I didn't mention, though, was how I knew the phrase "nit noi." As you may remember, we adopted our dog Belly from Elephant Nature Park in Thailand. And although Belly lives with us in America, he has a sister who still lives quite happily at the Park. They look quite similar, but she's about half his size. So what better name to call her than "Nit Noi" or "A Little Bit"?)

Before we got started on our English lesson for the day, Bee and I spent some time talking about Thailand. We talked about our favorite places to visit, where she's from and where her family lives now, and the classes she took while at university in Bangkok. At one point I mentioned living at an elephant sanctuary for two months. And when I referenced Lek's name in passing, she immediately said, "I think I see her on TV here in America too, yes?" (Bee has clearly been watching Animal Planet or National Geographic!) Talking a bit more about Lek and the elephant sanctuary, it was really special to hear how highly Bee thought of her.

Tim and I feel lucky to have such a special connection to the Park and to Thailand. It feels like a little bit of us is always there, while a large (and fuzzy four-legged!) part of Thailand is always here with us. And it helps that we email often with our friends who live and work at the Park. (Plus there's always the fun work we get to do on their website too.) But there is nothing that compares to being woken up in the morning when an elephant is scratching her back on your hut. Or to seeing a mama elephant play with her baby while the sun sets behind the surrounding mountains. Or to hearing a family of elephants snore (and fart!) in unison under the cover of darkness.

Because the Park is part of our day-to-day life in America, I think it's very easy for us to forget to include Thailand on our list of countries we want to visit each year. We hope to visit Colombia and India later this year (and perhaps return to Turkey), but I don't think we can swing Thailand too. I suppose there's always next year though, right?

Before leaving today, Bee mentioned she has a picture book with English and Thai words in it. And she asked if I would like her to teach me some more Thai words for the next time I go back to Thailand. Responding enthusiastically, I said I would love it if she would teach me more Thai. Of course, what I didn't mention yet is that I hope one day she'll teach me how to make Pad Thai better too. Maybe that can be our third lesson together.