The Condo

How do you say good bye to a part of you?

As a young child my family spent half the time living in the U.S. and the other part in Thailand. Almost all of my childhood memories from Thailand were structured around the Condo. The Condo was on the second story of a large building. The balcony faced the Jappiya River, in the heart of Bangkok. It had six bed rooms and in each room there was a western style bathroom, a kitchen, a huge living room, a room with a fitness center inside, and a grand hallway that separated the bedrooms. The condo was decorated with old bamboo style furniture. Because the condo was so big my brother and I had so much space to run, and places to hide. It was any child's dream house. All of the adults would be in one of the rooms and the cousins would be as far away as possible. The condo was the place be. All of my aunts and uncles would come over and bring all of their kids. Friends and distant relatives would stop by as well. On any given day there would be at least five to twenty kids and eight to sixteen adults visiting. It was always fun when the house was full of people. There was always kids spilling out of a room or racing down the great hall or climbing all over the bamboo furniture. When it came time to eat we would all pile into the great hall where the table was located. The table fit about twenty comfortably and about thirty snug. As soon as the food was gone and we helped clean, then it was back to playing. Around this time the adults would be having coffee. We would play until it was time for bed. Sometimes my cousins would even stay the night.
Sadly, it came time to go back to the U.S. In Colorado we lived in a two bed room apartment where there was no room to really run around and play. It almost seemed as if we had no family compared to Thailand. Me and my brother were lonely until school started back up. A few years back my dad's family had to sell the condo. No one was living there and it was a waste of money to have a vacant house. We have been to Thailand only once since we sold the condo. When we were there we passed by the condo on the way to go shopping. It was bizarre not to go inside. I will always miss the condo. Every time I think of Thailand I still think of the condo. It was such a major place in my life. I will never forget the condo.