... that it's been over 2 months since my last blog post. Again, I am so sorry. This semester has been crazy because my boss fired two teachers and Janet and I had to cover all of the classes until the vacancies were filled. Also, being that I have adjusted to this as my day to day life, things no longer seem exciting enough to share with you. So, my apologies all. For this entry I am going to write about something I have been thinking about a lot. Exactly one month from today I will be leaving Thailand, and there will be things I miss a lot, and things I don't miss at all.
The Top 10 Things I Will NOT Miss About Thailand
* Thai drivers. No joke, the average Thai driver is worse than the worst American driver. I am often scared for my life. I have seen many accidents.
* Being called "Farang" (or foreigner) by many people... who also think they have the right to laugh at me, point at me, touch me, etc. because I am so different.
* Thai bluntness - being called fat, or being laughed at when I want to try on clothes and being told they don't have "big size".
* Being 99.99% illiterate. It's really frustrating to not know what any signs, magazines, newspapers, or storefronts say.
* Never being anonymous. I always stick out, no matter what.
* Mosquito bites. My legs look like they probably did during the summers when I was a little kid. The things are vicious. I'mma be scarred for life. By them and by the god damn ants.
* Not being able to flush toilet paper down the toilet, and having to put it into a trash can. 'Nuff said.
* A bathroom that has no shower stall - just a shower head that pours out onto the floor so that you're showering next to the sink and the toilet. America has the one up on bathroom set up. Although the drain on the floor does make it really easy to clean the bathroom.
* Thai fashion. Fugly. I mean, there are a few cute things here and there, but overall it's just ghastly. Yet somehow Thai women can make it look cute. What's with that, anyway? There are so many Asian women who can put on the ugliest thing in the whole world and look effin' adorable. Even sexy. If I put on the same thing you'd laugh at me and ask me if I'm crazy. It's just not fair.
* Being lonely. Yes, I have made wonderful life long friends here. But I really miss my boyfriend, my friends, and my family. It's not easy to be away for so long. I have a new found respect for immigrants, I don't know how they do it. I just want to go home. I just want to hug my mom.
The Top Ten Things I WILL Miss About Thailand
* Thai food. Oh my god food here is soooooo good. It's ridiculous. I am going to have some serious withdrawal.
* Thai prices. Everything is so cheap here, and in comparison to my paycheck the cost of living is beyond affordable. I live the life here, guys, the life.
* Thai children. They're cuter than American children, by a LOT. I don't know how they grow 'em so darned adorable, but they do.
* Thai students. Let's just say they're the exact opposite in the area of respect in comparison to (most of) the students I had in Philly. They stand up when I walk in the room and say "Good Morning Teacher." They don't sit down until I tell them they can. They are sweet, they do their work, they want to learn (for the most part) and they never ever talk back. Also, best part: as soon as I arrive at school, it's like I'm everyone's favorite pop star. Kids start screaming "JESSICA!!!!!!" and giving me high fives and hugs. They love me as much as I love them. It's amazing.
* No winter: It has been really nice to skip winter and snow all together. It's awesome
* Proximity to tropical beaches: within 3 hours I can be on a secluded tropical beach at a hotel that only costs me $10 a night. Can't beat that for a long weekend.
* Being immersed in a different culture and language. Don't get me wrong, my Thai is still pathetic, but immersion is definitely the way to learn a language. It's amazing what you can learn when you don't really have a choice.
* All of the Thai and Farang friends I have made here. Such awesome people, and I am going to miss them a lot.
* Riding a motorbike. Ahem, sorry, a scooter. Driving in Thailand is terrifying, but driving a scooter is ridiculously fun. It's easier than driving a car. And just more fun. It's so much fun.
* The general landscape. I look out my window and I see palm trees, banana trees, just green everywhere. Just a thriving jungle of plant and animal life. It's beautiful. I'm going to miss it a lot.
In addition to these things, I have been thinking about actually coming back to America.
The Top Seven Things I Am The Most Scared About
* Number one is definitely getting a job. I am so scared about this. What if I can't get a job? What if I can't even get a job at McDonald's? There are so many jobs here, and so few at home. I am really scared about this.
* Getting really fat. There's such a long list of food that I miss and want to binge on immediately that I'm pretty convinced I might gain 20 pounds.
* Being really depressed at the attitude of American students - if I manage to even get a job teaching them. Knowing that there's a place in the world where students don't curse me out is going to be really hard.
* Readjusting. I read online once that when you go home you have culture shock all over again. That actually being able to understand everyone around you is in fact really distracting and annoying.
* That I might spend all my money at Starbucks, TJMaxx, the mall, or any of the other consumer conglomerates that I miss so dearly. I am afraid of American materialism and spending. Because I love both of those things, a lot.
* Winter. Ahhh! And being cold in general. I might just wrap myself in a blanket cocoon and not come out 'til Spring.
* WOW. I can't think of any more things I'm scared of. That's awesome. I'm a little scared that I'm not scared of anything else. Is that bad?!
The Top Ten Things I Am The Most Excited About
* Seeing my handsome boyfriend for the first time. And then moving into our new apartment!
* Seeing my family and friends for the first time. Yay Mom! Yay Dad! Yay Broseph and Sarah and Danny and Bujak and Ben and Mal and Ancharski and Chasan and Downs and Adams and BClark and EVERYONE!!!!!!!! When are we hangin' out, y'all?
* Being able to read everything around me.
* Being able to understand people completely when they talk to me.
* American food. Mmmmmm. And good cheese and wine and bread. And the supermarket.
* Being able to get places easily because I can read and understand people... oh, and public transportation. I even miss SEPTA, and they're a hot mess.
* Spinning class and American yoga. My yoga teacher here (who I love) is perpetually confused as to why I'm not as bendy as her and does really dangerous things like push my knees down to the ground.
* American communication - cell phones that have voice mail, if I'm going to get specific. I'm still not sure if Thailand just doesn't have voice mail or if the directions are all in Thai and no Farang has figured it out yet.
* HOLIDAYS! Halloween! Thanksgiving! Christmas! YAY!
* American restaurants, cafes, museums, movies... everything, everywhere. I used to think that America was totally devoid of any culture, but now I know that's not true. I want to go to the Philadelphia Museum of Art and then eat at Honey's. I want to go to the Boston Museum of Science and then walk around the North End and eat dinner.
So, that's all for now. I will try my best not to make this the very last entry of my time here. And I know I probably forgot a lot of things in my lists, and that I will want to amend them at some point. Like, things I am excited about... BAKING AND COOKING! Oh god, I can't wait to bake some cookies. Also, I forgot how much I will not miss Thai music. And how much I do miss American music. And TV. So, if I forgot anything or anyone important, please don't be offended. I love you.
Sunday, September 4, 2011
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
I went to the dentist today...
... and got a filling. And my teeth cleaned. It was actually really awesome because the lady was the best, most gentle dentist that I've ever seen. I have to go back in two weeks... my mouth is still swollen with lidocaine right now. If I thought people looked at me funny before when I walked around town today was a whole new thing. One lady actually cringed when she saw me. Anyway, I got a checkup, a cleaning, and a filling for the equivalent of $77... not cheap but certainly cheaper than in the USA with no insurance and at the nicest private dentist's office in town. Why did you want to know that? I don't know.
I guess I just haven't written about every day life in a really long time. I moved into a brand new Super English house with 5 other teachers. This house is a SERIOUS upgrade from the other two houses I have lived in. Let me count the ways... (1) there is always running water, (2) there is a water heater--there is always a hot shower, (3) it's brand new, (4) there are screens on my windows so I can actually open them without letting in half of the insects in Thailand, (5) we got brand new beds (glory be to God), (6) we got brand new armoir/closet things, (7) it's a lot more secure, and (8) any day now we are getting internet. So overall, the house is great. Also, all five of my roommates are super cool so that makes it good too. Anneliese and I have the entire third floor to ourselves with a little common area between our bedrooms. In addition to movin' on up in the housing department, I got a motorbike. And oh my god does this make my life soooooo much easier. Walking to Super English took about an hour, riding a bike took about 25 minutes; riding my motorbike takes about 7 minutes. And it runs on about $4 in gas per week. And also, it's wicked fun to drive. At first I was super paranoid, but now I am more comfortable with it and it's just great. And it makes my life so much easier. For instance, if I wanted to I could leave the office right now and do whatever I want for 4 hours before class starts.
Instead of doing something fun like eating (not that my swollen mouth would allow that) or taking a glorious nap, I've got to prepare an arts & crafts project for tomorrow. My boss' son (Solo) is 3 years old, and I have been spending four hours a week with him just so that he can practice his (American) English. Thursdays are now going to be arts & crafts day, which I'm wicked excited about. I just bought a whole bunch of construction paper and I am going to make all different kinds of noses, mouths, ears, and eyes and we are going to make silly faces. What's more fun than that? So, life is back to normal. I have really long days on Tuesday and Friday, but every other day is pretty easy and relaxing. I'm back into my teacher mode. It's funny... after you're anywhere for a while things just fall into the same old pattern. I go to work, I lesson plan, I eat, I hang out, I watch TV. It's the same as life in America in a lot of ways. At some point things stop being foreign and amazing and different and scary and just become normal. I have different eyes for it now. The one big difference that I am going to miss for sure is the food. Oh man, Janet, John, Brittany and I had the BEST dinner last night. We had green curry, spicy catfish salad, morning glory, and fried shrimp in coconut milk. It was amaaaazing, maybe the best food I've had in Surat. And all for under $4 a person. That is going to be hard to leave.
Speaking of leaving, I am doing just that in about 105 days. I fly out of Bangkok on October 5th and land at JFK on October 6th. I am so excited to see everyone!!! I am a little nervous about it, since it will have been such a long time. I feel like I might have reverse culture shock for a bit. I know I am going to have change shock, as my father and my mother are both selling their houses before I get back. My dad finally got that job in Florida and he and Lorraine bought a house. They leave on July 2nd. That's in like 10 days... so that's where he'll be when I get back. Not a bad place to visit, I guess. My mother is also selling her house, and has leased a really sweet apartment in Quincy Center right on the red line. I can't wait to come home to the Boston area... sooo exciting!
In other exciting home news, my boyfriend Joe found us an apartment in Philly that I am SUPER excited about. It's in Fox Chase, a neighborhood about a million times nicer and safer than anywhere I lived before. Also... just exciting! We are going to be roomies and I can't wait! I am so glad because it makes me look forward to real life when I get home and not just the initial exciting homecoming part of it. I am pretty scared about getting a job though. For real. I turned in my application to be reinstated as a teacher for the School District, but they're in the midst of firing tons of teachers so I don't really imagine that working out for me. At this point I will be happy with whatever I can get. I keep joking about working at McDonald's or the mall, but I might be lucky to get either of those things. The job market is so much easier here! After my appointment today my dentist was chatting me up about how her cousin opened a bilingual school in town (I had already told her that I was a high school history teacher in the US and that my boyfriend was still there and a math teacher) and she propositioned me on the spot.... said I should tell him to come out here and we could work at the school starting in October. A bit heartbreaking. A lot heartbreaking. But I'll get over it. Anyway, I have to go prepare some crazy face arts & crafts stuff. I miss and love you guys! xoxoxoxoxoxoxo
I guess I just haven't written about every day life in a really long time. I moved into a brand new Super English house with 5 other teachers. This house is a SERIOUS upgrade from the other two houses I have lived in. Let me count the ways... (1) there is always running water, (2) there is a water heater--there is always a hot shower, (3) it's brand new, (4) there are screens on my windows so I can actually open them without letting in half of the insects in Thailand, (5) we got brand new beds (glory be to God), (6) we got brand new armoir/closet things, (7) it's a lot more secure, and (8) any day now we are getting internet. So overall, the house is great. Also, all five of my roommates are super cool so that makes it good too. Anneliese and I have the entire third floor to ourselves with a little common area between our bedrooms. In addition to movin' on up in the housing department, I got a motorbike. And oh my god does this make my life soooooo much easier. Walking to Super English took about an hour, riding a bike took about 25 minutes; riding my motorbike takes about 7 minutes. And it runs on about $4 in gas per week. And also, it's wicked fun to drive. At first I was super paranoid, but now I am more comfortable with it and it's just great. And it makes my life so much easier. For instance, if I wanted to I could leave the office right now and do whatever I want for 4 hours before class starts.
Instead of doing something fun like eating (not that my swollen mouth would allow that) or taking a glorious nap, I've got to prepare an arts & crafts project for tomorrow. My boss' son (Solo) is 3 years old, and I have been spending four hours a week with him just so that he can practice his (American) English. Thursdays are now going to be arts & crafts day, which I'm wicked excited about. I just bought a whole bunch of construction paper and I am going to make all different kinds of noses, mouths, ears, and eyes and we are going to make silly faces. What's more fun than that? So, life is back to normal. I have really long days on Tuesday and Friday, but every other day is pretty easy and relaxing. I'm back into my teacher mode. It's funny... after you're anywhere for a while things just fall into the same old pattern. I go to work, I lesson plan, I eat, I hang out, I watch TV. It's the same as life in America in a lot of ways. At some point things stop being foreign and amazing and different and scary and just become normal. I have different eyes for it now. The one big difference that I am going to miss for sure is the food. Oh man, Janet, John, Brittany and I had the BEST dinner last night. We had green curry, spicy catfish salad, morning glory, and fried shrimp in coconut milk. It was amaaaazing, maybe the best food I've had in Surat. And all for under $4 a person. That is going to be hard to leave.
Speaking of leaving, I am doing just that in about 105 days. I fly out of Bangkok on October 5th and land at JFK on October 6th. I am so excited to see everyone!!! I am a little nervous about it, since it will have been such a long time. I feel like I might have reverse culture shock for a bit. I know I am going to have change shock, as my father and my mother are both selling their houses before I get back. My dad finally got that job in Florida and he and Lorraine bought a house. They leave on July 2nd. That's in like 10 days... so that's where he'll be when I get back. Not a bad place to visit, I guess. My mother is also selling her house, and has leased a really sweet apartment in Quincy Center right on the red line. I can't wait to come home to the Boston area... sooo exciting!
In other exciting home news, my boyfriend Joe found us an apartment in Philly that I am SUPER excited about. It's in Fox Chase, a neighborhood about a million times nicer and safer than anywhere I lived before. Also... just exciting! We are going to be roomies and I can't wait! I am so glad because it makes me look forward to real life when I get home and not just the initial exciting homecoming part of it. I am pretty scared about getting a job though. For real. I turned in my application to be reinstated as a teacher for the School District, but they're in the midst of firing tons of teachers so I don't really imagine that working out for me. At this point I will be happy with whatever I can get. I keep joking about working at McDonald's or the mall, but I might be lucky to get either of those things. The job market is so much easier here! After my appointment today my dentist was chatting me up about how her cousin opened a bilingual school in town (I had already told her that I was a high school history teacher in the US and that my boyfriend was still there and a math teacher) and she propositioned me on the spot.... said I should tell him to come out here and we could work at the school starting in October. A bit heartbreaking. A lot heartbreaking. But I'll get over it. Anyway, I have to go prepare some crazy face arts & crafts stuff. I miss and love you guys! xoxoxoxoxoxoxo
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
Oh My...
... would you believe me if I say I SWEAR that I have been meaning to do this forever? I have. The other day I spent nearly two full hours writing a blog entry. The entire thing is about Cambodia. Or it is until I read my last blog entry that I made, that was about Cambodia, so I stopped writing. I am going to include this incomplete repeat of information below so that you know I'm for real. Sometime this week I am going to do a complete entry on my two week adventure in Vietnam. I also owe you the week the boy was here as well as the week I went to detox on an island. Coming ASAP.
Work has begun again, so I am back to normal life and a normal schedule and teaching adorable little Thai kids some English. During my second class at Super English (M-F 5:30-6:30) I have little kids, ages 4-6. On Monday and Tuesday of this week one of them (but not the same both days) shit his pants in class. For real. On Monday it was this adorable little one named Java (pronounced Jawa) who didn't even blink after said event. He went on as if everything were normal while the 4 girls in class gagged and gave me pleading looks for the last 20 minutes of class. He didn't want to go to the toilet and even volunteered to come up to the board, visible load in pants and all. This was terrible, because it was obvious and very very stinky. Yesterday, it was not as apparent. Burn asked to go to the toilet, and after his second time asking I said yes. He was in there, no lie, for 15 full minutes. I figure, the kid's four years old. He probably took off all his clothes to poop and then had to navigate the butt hose himself. He came back in the room and continued on as if nothing were the matter. After class ended and all of the students were sent to go home, I was sitting at my desk in the Teacher Office. Burn's older brother Pleum came to the door and said "Teacher Jessica," then pointed to the band of his underwear and said, "Burn, no." I told him to go look in the toilet. Sure enough within 5 minutes the cleaning lady was up here with a bucket, a sponge, and a pair of gloves. I didn't have the stomach or the heart to examine the scene. I just felt lucky that they had remained in the bathroom. Brian had Burn for summer camp and he did the same thing, but was throwing his soiled underwear at the other kids, who were running away screaming. So, win on that one I guess. I am hoping that we don't go 3 for 3 today. Amazing enough, it's still waaaay less stressful to have a kid shit himself in class than it is to have a teenager curse you out. So, Thai students still winning.
That lovely story being told, I have to go and prepare for today's classes. As I said above, I will include what I did write about Cambodia below. And I will try to do Vietnam ASAP. I'm sorry!!!!
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Work has begun again, so I am back to normal life and a normal schedule and teaching adorable little Thai kids some English. During my second class at Super English (M-F 5:30-6:30) I have little kids, ages 4-6. On Monday and Tuesday of this week one of them (but not the same both days) shit his pants in class. For real. On Monday it was this adorable little one named Java (pronounced Jawa) who didn't even blink after said event. He went on as if everything were normal while the 4 girls in class gagged and gave me pleading looks for the last 20 minutes of class. He didn't want to go to the toilet and even volunteered to come up to the board, visible load in pants and all. This was terrible, because it was obvious and very very stinky. Yesterday, it was not as apparent. Burn asked to go to the toilet, and after his second time asking I said yes. He was in there, no lie, for 15 full minutes. I figure, the kid's four years old. He probably took off all his clothes to poop and then had to navigate the butt hose himself. He came back in the room and continued on as if nothing were the matter. After class ended and all of the students were sent to go home, I was sitting at my desk in the Teacher Office. Burn's older brother Pleum came to the door and said "Teacher Jessica," then pointed to the band of his underwear and said, "Burn, no." I told him to go look in the toilet. Sure enough within 5 minutes the cleaning lady was up here with a bucket, a sponge, and a pair of gloves. I didn't have the stomach or the heart to examine the scene. I just felt lucky that they had remained in the bathroom. Brian had Burn for summer camp and he did the same thing, but was throwing his soiled underwear at the other kids, who were running away screaming. So, win on that one I guess. I am hoping that we don't go 3 for 3 today. Amazing enough, it's still waaaay less stressful to have a kid shit himself in class than it is to have a teenager curse you out. So, Thai students still winning.
That lovely story being told, I have to go and prepare for today's classes. As I said above, I will include what I did write about Cambodia below. And I will try to do Vietnam ASAP. I'm sorry!!!!
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So I have been REALLY bad at this. I know that. I am really sorry. There was just so much travelling and so little internet access, that I never got the chance. And as time went by and the experiences piled up it became more and more overwhelming to think about updating the blog. A new school year has begun, however, so now my life is back to normal. Now that the busy summer vacation has ended I am attempting to make up for what was lost, and then to continue on a regular schedule of updates. I am going to start with Cambodia… as with the last blog entry, I am so so sorry for how long this is! It’s kind of ridiculous; I know that. But I just really want to tell you about Cambodia.
CAMBODIA – A really late recount 2 months later…
I must start this entry with a short story about how small the world is and how crazy life is. When I was getting my TESOL certification in San Francisco during the summer of 2009, I met a friend named Christine from Long Island. Christine moved to Thailand shortly after we completed the course. She lives in a town about 2 or 3 hours North of Bangkok, so since I have been in Thailand I have been talking with her here and there trying to figure out a time when we could visit with one another. Just before my trip to Cambodia, when Anneliese, Liz and I were in Bangkok, I was meant to see Christine but it just didn’t work out. I had no idea of her summer vacation plans.
I was not meant to go to Cambodia at all. I was meant to go to an island called Koh Phangan to do a 10 day detox. Because of the severe flooding in the South of Thailand, I was unable to get to said island, and unable to get back to Surat Thani. I literally decided the day before leaving that I would go to Cambodia with Anneliese. So pretty much no one but Liz, Anneliese, Joe, and my parents knew that was the plan. So anyway, that next day we go to the airport and we’re waiting in the international terminal for our flight to leave. I’m sitting at this bomb little bistro eating a delicious Caprese sandwich when I look up and walking into the café is Christine. It took a minute to register, then I was like “CHRISTINE?!?!?!” And alas, it was her. It was amazing. We were on the same flight to Phnom Penh. The same freaking flight. So I got to meet her boyfriend and hang out with her a bit in Cambodia. I met her in San Francisco, we both live in Thailand, but we finally got to hang out in Cambodia. Life is crazy.
● Sunday, April 3rd: flew Air Asia from Bangkok to Phnom Penh. Getting off of the plane was my first shock. You hand $25 (US dollars) and your passport to a guy behind a counter. As does everyone else who just got off of the plane. As they finish placing visa stickers they just hold up the passports and when you see yours you go up and get it. Anneliese had arranged for the hostel we were staying at to send a tuk tuk to the airport to pick us up. Phnom Penh is the wild west; driving from the airport to the hostel was totally insane. I couldn’t believe it. By the time we got there we had been traveling all day, so we just kind of hung out at the hostel and went out for dinner at a hotel nearby. I was pretty excited because I got to eat a Greek salad, which was amazing. There was a house band playing; a couple from the Philippines who spoke English and took requests. The lady was totally a sassy diva. We were almost the only people in the restaurant, so they gave us free dessert; some weird pumpkin-egg thing which looked and sounded totally weird and possibly gross but was actually really good. Our hostel had some good TV channels, but no windows at all. The cave.
● Monday, April 4th: We started with the serious stuff straight away. First, we went to the Killing Fields; one of the places in Cambodia where the Khmer Rouge murdered thousands of Cambodian people and threw their bodies into mass graves. It’s about 15 km outside of the city, and the grounds themselves are eerily pleasant. There were lots of trees and plenty of grass; truly ‘fields’. The very first thing we saw was the small building with the multi-tiered glass case of bones. All of the bones were found in the field, but did not include every excavated body. Which kind of baffled me, as there seemed to be an endless amount of them. They’re all organized by sex and age, and bone type. There’s little labels that might read something like “the femurs of 50-67 year old males”. Probably the most infamous and disturbing part was all of the skulls. So many skulls. And at an American museum that stuff would be in a sealed glass case, roped off with a guard posted up next to it. But not here. You could literally put your hand into the glass case and touch the bones and the skulls if you wanted, which I would never imagine to do but a Cambodian guy next to Anneliese and I seemed to find great entertainment in doing. He had his cell phone’s video camera running and was poking the skulls and recording them rock back and forth while saying God knows what in Khmer.
After that disturbing display we went on to the little museum / informational part of it. It was really sad and interesting. It had all of these really crazy paintings of what happened at the killing fields, which at first I just found a bit morbid and strange. But then I found out they are by this really famous man (I feel terrible for not remembering his name, but he’s written a book about Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge) who was an artist but was kept alive by Pol Pot in order to paint renditions of the events and accomplishments of the Khmer Rouge. There was one painting depicting how on one of the very large, beautiful trees outside the soldiers used to kill babies and small children by slamming their bodies against it. It was horrible. It was even worse to see the tree, and to find it looking normal and pretty, like any other tree. We then walked outside and saw the fields themselves. There’s all types of large ditches, which by now are naturally filled in a bit with grass, that were the mass graves that were excavated at the site.
The whole experience of being at the killing fields was just kind of unreal. It didn’t really sink in at all at the time. I don’t think I wanted to let it sink in. It was like I imagine it might be like if you were to visit Auschwitz or someplace like that. You know what happened, you see the proof, but your brain still doesn’t want to totally believe it. After that we decided to continue on the tour of misery and went to the S-21 Museum. This is the place that used to be a school but was turned into a prison for holding, imprisoning, torturing, and killing various Cambodians and enemies of the Khmer Rouge. It was odd to see, because it is in the exact architectural style of the Thai school where I work. It really looked like a school, until you went into any of the many classrooms that had been converted into prison cells. A lot of information and photographs there, all as serious and unbelievable as at the Killing Fields. So sad.
After this nearly full day tour of the destruction brought on by Pol Pot and his ‘clique’, we went to the Russian Market for lunch and to check it out. It doesn’t have anything Russian there; it’s just called that because I guess there were a lot of Russian tourists there in the late 80s and 90s so it took on that name. It’s all right – kind of like all of the covered / indoor day markets that I have seen in Thailand and Vietnam—a lot of stuff, a lot of crap, a lot of people trying to sell you crap. After that we went back to the hotel and decompressed for a little while. Then we went to this rooftop restaurant for dinner, which had a legit pizza oven and views of the river. From up there one could almost say that Phnom Penh was pretty. Phnom Penh, by the way, might be the least attractive city I have ever been to. Unless you’re intent on seeing the Killing Fields and the S-21 Museum, you could skip it all together. After we ate dinner we found a frozen yogurt place… like Phileo! I was in heaven. And that was Monday.
● Tuesday, April 5th: In the morning we walked to the Royal Palace. I think I have been too spoiled by the Grand Palace in Bangkok, because I was just kind of like meh about it. I mean, don’t get me wrong, it was nice, but it doesn’t have anything on the Grand Palace. That night we saw a movie about Pol Pot and then ate dinner. There’s a really long story about an asshole German guy sitting at the table next to us that I’m just going to leave out, because it’ll just make me angry and probably bore you. Instead, let me take a minute to describe the level of harassment in Phnom Penh. First of all, tuk tuk drivers are incessant to the point of being ridiculous and making me livid. They follow you and ask you about 500 damn times if you want a tuk tuk. They make the Killing Fields and S-21 sound like Disney World and promise cheap prices. They list off everywhere they could possibly bring you. It’s kind of amazing. Like, maybe if you follow me and don’t stop I’ll suddenly want to go somewhere?
They start training the kids young too. There’s tons of street children everywhere, selling anything from bootleg books to bootleg DVDs to bracelets or water. They will harass you just as strong as the tuk tuk drivers. They are, of course, harder to ignore because they are small, adorable, poor children with no shoes on. It’s terrible. Even if you buy something off of one of them, there’s 50 more where that kid came from and they want a dollar too. Most all of them are working for some adult and don’t see the money anyway, but they make it so hard to say no. They’ll come up to your table while you’re eating at a restaurant and not even say a word—just give you the most pathetic stare with their huge brown puppy dog eyes. It’s terrible.
● Wednesday, April 6th: We left Phnom Penh in the morning to take a bus to Siem Reap. This bus ride was really long, and made even longer by the fact that it hosted one of the most annoying (although really cute) 3 year old boys in all of Cambodia. The kid was a little terror. Anyway, we finally did end up in Siem Reap.
Thursday, April 7, 2011
Hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii from Cambodia!!! (on Eddie's birthday! Happy birthday Dad!!!!!!!!!)
Hello Everyone!
I am in Cambodia!!! If you have been keeping obsessive track of my plans you know I am meant to be in Koh PhaNgan doing a ten day detox. This was made impossible, however, by the crazy severe flooding that happened in the South of Thailand. When Liz came and visited me we actually got stuck in Koh Samui for three extra days because all flights were cancelled and we were in a hotel with no electricity, running water, or food. Clearly that's all a story within itself that I won't go into detail about now. I felt bad though because Liz finally came all the way here and then we had zero beach days and we didn't even get to Phuket. But anyway, the unusual and extreme flooding caused an emergency situation where I live and also in Koh PhNgan, so it turned out I couldn't get home nor to the island. While contemplating what the hell to do with myself, my good friend Anneliese said... "You could come to Cambodia with me tomorrow!...." and the idea was planted and so the seed grew into a plan.
And now I am in Siem Reap. Today we went to Angkor Wat all day and it was amaaaazzzing. It is incredible to see these temples in the middle of the forest that were built over 1,000 years ago. As soon as we are back in Thailand i will be able to put Anneliese's photos on my computer and share them with you. I left my camera in Thailand, as Cambodia does not have the best reputation in terms of theft of expensive objects. Yesterday we took a bus here from Phnom Penh, where we had been since Sunday. Let me start with my first impressions of Cambodia.... it's CRAZY. There seem to be a million more motorbikes than in Thailand, people drive like maniacs, and the tuk tuks here and just glorified wagons hooked onto the back of motorbikes. There is chaos all around, and they use the American dollar. It's crazy to be using American money for the first time in 6 months and to have it be here in Cambodia. There are also a lot more people who speak English here... so it's about as close to home as I've been since October.
There are also adorable small children EVERYWHERE selling everything from postcards to bracelets to water; everything for $1. And they define persistence. "You buy postcards lady? One dollar... Ten for one dollar.... 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9,10.... One dollar lady you buy them". Constant. It's really unsettling because first of all, they're clearly dirt poor and desperate. And second of all, the only English word they seem to not understand is "no". I said "No thank you!" in a pleasant tone about 574 times before I ended up with bracelets I never wanted. But it's strange to be here, because in Thailand poverty is not so in your face. Actually I've never been anywhere that poverty is so in your face. The good thing is that there seem to be heaps of really good people doing really good things here... all kinds of orphanages and things like that. Speaking of people who come to Cambodia to do good things.... today we were at Angkor Wat and there were Americans in a tour group ahead of us. There was a really pretty girl who in an instant exemplified everything that is wrong with Americans... she says to the tour guide: "Oh yeah, I know Angkor Wat, because I think this is where Angelina Jolie adopted her baby from." Yes, American, that is EXACTLY why it's important and why you should know about it. Oy vey.
But anyway, when we were in Phnom Penh we went to the Killing Fields and to the S-21 Museum, which is the former school-turned-prison where Pol Pot's people interrogated and tortured many Cambodian people. And at the Killing Fields is where they have the giant glass case with all of the skulls and other bones that they dug up from the mass graves, as well as the mass graves. The entire experience was really strange and sad and sobering. It was strange to be at a place where genocide took place. It was really spooky in a way, but I still don't think I actually fully absorbed the significance of it. It was hard to do. It is hard to imagine that in the very room you are standing someone was tortured and murdered. And that an entire country was paralyzed by the insanity of one man and his "clique". Today we had a tuk tuk driver that showed us all around Angkor Wat. At lunch he sat at our table with us and we got to talking. He told us that his father and his oldest sister were both killed by Pol Pot, and that his mother went insane and hasn't been right since. It was the saddest story I have ever heard, and there was such great sadness in his eyes. I just can't even imagine... can't even imagine putting myself in his place. And he wants so badly to go to University but he can't afford the $500 a year to go because all of his money goes to his mother and other members of his family. I wish I had $500.
I think if Cambodia has taught me anything, it has taught me how very very lucky I am. To have a family that loves me, to never have been the victim of such violence, to have money and education. It has also taught me that people who have been subjected to these hardships can still be so beautiful and kind. It's amazing. I think I should never ever again complain about anything. Anyway, tomorrow we will go to the national museum and to a Cambodian dance show, so I am very thrilled about that. I hope that you are all well and happy. I miss America but I am having the BEST time. 6 months down and 6 to go....
<3 xoxoxxoxoxoxxoxoxo
I am in Cambodia!!! If you have been keeping obsessive track of my plans you know I am meant to be in Koh PhaNgan doing a ten day detox. This was made impossible, however, by the crazy severe flooding that happened in the South of Thailand. When Liz came and visited me we actually got stuck in Koh Samui for three extra days because all flights were cancelled and we were in a hotel with no electricity, running water, or food. Clearly that's all a story within itself that I won't go into detail about now. I felt bad though because Liz finally came all the way here and then we had zero beach days and we didn't even get to Phuket. But anyway, the unusual and extreme flooding caused an emergency situation where I live and also in Koh PhNgan, so it turned out I couldn't get home nor to the island. While contemplating what the hell to do with myself, my good friend Anneliese said... "You could come to Cambodia with me tomorrow!...." and the idea was planted and so the seed grew into a plan.
And now I am in Siem Reap. Today we went to Angkor Wat all day and it was amaaaazzzing. It is incredible to see these temples in the middle of the forest that were built over 1,000 years ago. As soon as we are back in Thailand i will be able to put Anneliese's photos on my computer and share them with you. I left my camera in Thailand, as Cambodia does not have the best reputation in terms of theft of expensive objects. Yesterday we took a bus here from Phnom Penh, where we had been since Sunday. Let me start with my first impressions of Cambodia.... it's CRAZY. There seem to be a million more motorbikes than in Thailand, people drive like maniacs, and the tuk tuks here and just glorified wagons hooked onto the back of motorbikes. There is chaos all around, and they use the American dollar. It's crazy to be using American money for the first time in 6 months and to have it be here in Cambodia. There are also a lot more people who speak English here... so it's about as close to home as I've been since October.
There are also adorable small children EVERYWHERE selling everything from postcards to bracelets to water; everything for $1. And they define persistence. "You buy postcards lady? One dollar... Ten for one dollar.... 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9,10.... One dollar lady you buy them". Constant. It's really unsettling because first of all, they're clearly dirt poor and desperate. And second of all, the only English word they seem to not understand is "no". I said "No thank you!" in a pleasant tone about 574 times before I ended up with bracelets I never wanted. But it's strange to be here, because in Thailand poverty is not so in your face. Actually I've never been anywhere that poverty is so in your face. The good thing is that there seem to be heaps of really good people doing really good things here... all kinds of orphanages and things like that. Speaking of people who come to Cambodia to do good things.... today we were at Angkor Wat and there were Americans in a tour group ahead of us. There was a really pretty girl who in an instant exemplified everything that is wrong with Americans... she says to the tour guide: "Oh yeah, I know Angkor Wat, because I think this is where Angelina Jolie adopted her baby from." Yes, American, that is EXACTLY why it's important and why you should know about it. Oy vey.
But anyway, when we were in Phnom Penh we went to the Killing Fields and to the S-21 Museum, which is the former school-turned-prison where Pol Pot's people interrogated and tortured many Cambodian people. And at the Killing Fields is where they have the giant glass case with all of the skulls and other bones that they dug up from the mass graves, as well as the mass graves. The entire experience was really strange and sad and sobering. It was strange to be at a place where genocide took place. It was really spooky in a way, but I still don't think I actually fully absorbed the significance of it. It was hard to do. It is hard to imagine that in the very room you are standing someone was tortured and murdered. And that an entire country was paralyzed by the insanity of one man and his "clique". Today we had a tuk tuk driver that showed us all around Angkor Wat. At lunch he sat at our table with us and we got to talking. He told us that his father and his oldest sister were both killed by Pol Pot, and that his mother went insane and hasn't been right since. It was the saddest story I have ever heard, and there was such great sadness in his eyes. I just can't even imagine... can't even imagine putting myself in his place. And he wants so badly to go to University but he can't afford the $500 a year to go because all of his money goes to his mother and other members of his family. I wish I had $500.
I think if Cambodia has taught me anything, it has taught me how very very lucky I am. To have a family that loves me, to never have been the victim of such violence, to have money and education. It has also taught me that people who have been subjected to these hardships can still be so beautiful and kind. It's amazing. I think I should never ever again complain about anything. Anyway, tomorrow we will go to the national museum and to a Cambodian dance show, so I am very thrilled about that. I hope that you are all well and happy. I miss America but I am having the BEST time. 6 months down and 6 to go....
<3 xoxoxxoxoxoxxoxoxo
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
This is for Ancharsk, Jen Louie, and everyone else who's mad at me ;)
Hiiiiii! I am so sorry it has been over a month since I have written anything. That means that this is going to be painfully long and some of you may not make it through the entire post. I would like to start by saying a big THANK YOU to the Fels crew, who sent me an incredible video of all of them saying hello and sending their love. Thank you thank you thank you. That just made my day. It was amazing. I love you guys and I miss you guys. Anyway, I know there are no real excuses, but let me try on a few anyway. The rest of February was a bit crazy because it was the end of the school year and we had a lot of teachers leaving and Anneliese and I had to move house. It was a whirlwind and then suddenly it was the last week of classes and the last real week of February. On the last day of classes at Super English we had a party day for the kids during which it was the responsibility of Mitch and I to dress them all up in ridiculous outfits and take pictures of them. It was a lot of fun and the pictures are all on Facebook. Again - I have not been able to resolve the fact that Blogger will not let me post any more photos and now this is a boring text only blog. There are loads of pictures on Facebook and I will work on getting them all onto Flickr... it's just a matter of me actually doing it because Flickr's upload time is annoyingly and unbelievably slow.
So anyway, the last week of February into the first week of March saw a lot of action. First I had to say goodbye to Mitch, who is moving to Japan. This was really sad for me, because he was one of my favorite people here and it's just not going to be the same without him. But I played tough guy and I didn't even cry. Then Anneliese and I began our Malaysian adventure. On Sunday, February 27th, Anneliese and I took a god damned minibus to Hat Yai, which is a major city about 4 or 5 hours south of Surat. I say god damned because first of all, whoever designed and then bought the thing was a total moron. It had no trunk space and no storage space whatsoever. This meant that after all of us humans were crammed into the bus like sardines the luggage was stacked up, effectively blockading us in the van and totally screwing us in the event of an emergency. And the guy didn't even stop one time. So, it wasn't the most pleasant of rides, but eventually we did get to Hat Yai. Hat Yai was actually a whole lot cooler than some people claim, and we had a pretty good time just walking around the downtown area. I was a stupid, fat American and bought McDonald's for dinner. What can I say? My body was craving saturated fats. The exciting thing for me was that they still have the chicken sandwich we had when we were little! Remember when the chicken sandwich was just one huge chicken nugget, and they slapped some lettuce/mayo mixture on top? Yeah? Yum.
The next morning we left for Kuala Lumpur. I am going to try to give you a pretty brief rundown day by day of what we did. Again... all of the pictures are up on Facebook but I can't put them on here... sorry.
*Monday, February 28, 2011: Fly from Hat Yai to Kuala Lumpur. Take the bus from the airport to the central subway station and then the subway to the stop nearest the hostel. Thank god I had Anneliese with me because somehow my directional capabilities (as limited as they are) were not working at all. She navigated us to the hostel, which was really nice. It's called The Back Home Hostel and it's for sure the nicest I've ever seen. We got there in the late afternoon and we were starving, so we immediately went to eat dinner. To our delight, there was a Vegetarian Chinese restaurant directly across the street from the hostel. This was especially exciting for Anneliese, who is a vegetarian, because they had all of the fake meats and such that they masterfully craft out of soy somehow. She got fake mutton, which might sound weird but tasted amazing. After we ate we went and wandered around their enormous Chinatown, which had a whole bunch of different little shops selling pretty much the same stuff the markets do here; sandals, fake pocketbooks, teeshirts, etc. We had known that Amy and Jeehon would be arriving that night and also staying at Back Home, but we were completely surprised when we literally walked right into them walking down the street. They had been looking for the hostel but hadn't had Magellan Anneliese with them, so they were happy to have found us. After they dropped their stuff off we walked back to Chinatown and they ate dinner. Then we went Back Home and slept in a room with four strangers, one of whom had incredibly smelly feet.
* Tuesday, March 1, 2011: Anneliese, Amy, Jeehon, and I all took one of the public buses to the Batu Caves. The Batu Caves are a really popular tourist destination about 45 minutes or so outside the city center. They are holy to the Hindu population of the area and have temples in them. There's an enormous gold statue and 272 stairs to climb. I can't do it any justice in words, and I so wish this stupid blog would allow me to put up some pictures of it, because it was amazing. After seeing all that there was to see, we had some really excellent Indian food for lunch and then took the bus back to the city. We then decided to walk around KL and to go see the Petronas Towers. On the way my pocketbook almost got stolen by two guys on a motorbike. It was partially my fault, because I was walking close to the road with it on my outside shoulder. Luckily (thank you whoever is watching over me!) I held on tight in the moment and they couldn't get it. Because of this quick little struggle they swerved and actually hit Amy... not a lot but they did hurt her arm. All in all we were lucky, though, and that was the only bad thing that happened in KL. (Side note: there is one more bad thing but I don't want to sound like a spoiled brat. I saw my first flying cockroach in action and it freaked me out a lot. It was wholly unnatural and I don't know why God thinks that's okay. What was evolution thinking???) Anyway, after that little incident we did in fact make it to the Petronas Towers, two of the tallest buildings in the whole world. They call them the Twin Towers, but that kind of weirds me out. Anyway, they were cool. After that we went out for more Indian food, because why not??? We are deprived of it in Surat so we decided we should take it while we could get it. That night Chris and Brittney arrived, as well as Brittney's brother and his girlfriend. They were all staying at a different hostel in the city, one with a roof top deck. We sat up there for a while looking at the city. I met this British woman named Julia who is a lawyer and was on a 9 month sabbatical with an around-the-world ticket. She told me about all of her adventures and I wish I was her. Eventually we walked home and passed out.
* Wednesday, March 2, 2011: Amy and Jeehon left for London, and Chris and Brittney left for India. It was sad to say goodbye to Amy and Jeehon, who are both moving to Japan, in fact about only an hour away from where Mitch will be living. So it was back to me and my girl Anneliese. We decided to walk to the city parks. First we went to the Butterfly Sanctuary. This place was actually really cool and they had butterflies and frogs and turtles and fish and such. Again - better said through pictures. We then went to the Islamic Museum of Art which was also really amazing and full of beautiful things. After that we had been walking for hours and needed to refuel, so we went and had Indian food again, why not? After that we went back to the hostel and set our minds to finding out about some movies in English, of which we are also deprived in Surat. We were told there were plenty, and it was just a matter of what we wanted to see. We went online and decided that we would go to the movie theater at the Pavilion Mall and see "True Grit". First, I will say that "True Grit" was really good. I enjoyed it and I would recommend that you see it as well. Next, let me say that Asian malls are AWESOME. In Bangkok and in KL. Asian malls just put American malls to shame. The Pavilion was so great. And they had a Forever 21. And I totally bought a dress. And I also bought a delicious frozen yogurt with fresh strawberries. It was definitely a successful trip.
* Thursday, March 3, 2011: First we walked around the Central Market. This place was really cool and had a lot of shops with Indian and Malaysian crafts. Then we took a public bus to Putrajaya, which seemed like a good idea at the time. Putrajaya is the government city of Malaysia, kind of like a preplanned Washington, DC. It was pretty lame, unfortunately. The upside was that they had a Middle Eastern restaurant called D'Arab Cafe and we got to eat hummus, cucumber salad, falafel, and olives. That kind of made everything else okay. The trip to Putrajaya ended up being an entire day trip. It was clear we needed our spirits lifted, and Anneliese came up with the best idea ever. We went back to the Pavilion and had Mexican food for dinner. (Again, Middle Eastern and Mexican food are two things you cannot get in Surat.) It was a great idea and the Mexican food was actually really good. I think I would have even thought it was good if it hadn't been the only tacos to touch my lips in months. After dinner we walked around for a while before we caught the subway back to the hostel.
* Friday, March 4, 2011: We traveled for 10 hours getting back to Surat. I don't want to talk about it.
So, that was our trip to Malaysia. All of the food I ate might make it sound like I missed out on the culture of KL, but that city is a funny place. First off, it's super modern. There's almost nothing old there, as KL itself is less than 200 years old and Malaysia as in independent nation is not even 100. Because of its newness, it has been able to create a metropolis that is very modern while still reflecting the cultures of its inhabitants. KL has many Muslim Malaysians, but it also has a huge population of Chinese and Indian. So, when we were eating all of that Indian food we were eating Malaysian food. It seems from an outside perspective that these three major cultural groups get along and that they work together to make Kuala Lumpur the success that it is. A lot of people in KL speak English, almost everyone I met. This made it really easy to get around and to order food, etc. Many of the people I met seemed to be trilingual--English, Malaysian, and Mandarin, or Malaysian, Hindi, and English, etc. It was more expensive than Thailand, but still really really cheap if you were working with an American or European budget. It was a pretty cool city and overall I really liked it a lot. I would definitely like to go back and to see Penang.
So then I was back in Surat. I spent much of Saturday moving the rest of my things into our new (awesome!) house and packing for a month away. Then on Sunday, I flew to Bangkok to meet my mother. I am happy to say that she arrived safely from America, even though her luggage never made it out of London. Luckily they sent it to our hotel here in Koh Samui so by the time we got here yesterday it was waiting. So on Sunday we just hung out at the hotel and talked and got room service. Then on Monday we flew into Surat Thani, which I tried to warn her isn't very impressive and doesn't need a full day but she really wanted to see where I live. Then yesterday we took the ferry here to Koh Samui, and now we are at Lamai Beach. We have a bungalow on the beach and right now I am sitting on our little front patio. I am looking at the ocean, which is full of angry waves due to some crazy wind that's been acting up since we got here. I hope that it calms down a bit so that we can take a leisurely swim without the risk of being killed by the undertow. Today we just sat around in the sunshine, read our books, and ate some good Thai food. We are here in Koh Samui until the 13th, when we will go to Phuket. We will be in Phuket until the 17th, which we will spend in Bangkok before my mother leaves late that night. I am so happy to have her here and I feel so lucky that she traveled 9,000 miles just to see me. Then Liz will be here for two weeks! Yay! Anyway, I will not let it go so long again... I'm SORRY!!!!
I love you guys!
So anyway, the last week of February into the first week of March saw a lot of action. First I had to say goodbye to Mitch, who is moving to Japan. This was really sad for me, because he was one of my favorite people here and it's just not going to be the same without him. But I played tough guy and I didn't even cry. Then Anneliese and I began our Malaysian adventure. On Sunday, February 27th, Anneliese and I took a god damned minibus to Hat Yai, which is a major city about 4 or 5 hours south of Surat. I say god damned because first of all, whoever designed and then bought the thing was a total moron. It had no trunk space and no storage space whatsoever. This meant that after all of us humans were crammed into the bus like sardines the luggage was stacked up, effectively blockading us in the van and totally screwing us in the event of an emergency. And the guy didn't even stop one time. So, it wasn't the most pleasant of rides, but eventually we did get to Hat Yai. Hat Yai was actually a whole lot cooler than some people claim, and we had a pretty good time just walking around the downtown area. I was a stupid, fat American and bought McDonald's for dinner. What can I say? My body was craving saturated fats. The exciting thing for me was that they still have the chicken sandwich we had when we were little! Remember when the chicken sandwich was just one huge chicken nugget, and they slapped some lettuce/mayo mixture on top? Yeah? Yum.
The next morning we left for Kuala Lumpur. I am going to try to give you a pretty brief rundown day by day of what we did. Again... all of the pictures are up on Facebook but I can't put them on here... sorry.
*Monday, February 28, 2011: Fly from Hat Yai to Kuala Lumpur. Take the bus from the airport to the central subway station and then the subway to the stop nearest the hostel. Thank god I had Anneliese with me because somehow my directional capabilities (as limited as they are) were not working at all. She navigated us to the hostel, which was really nice. It's called The Back Home Hostel and it's for sure the nicest I've ever seen. We got there in the late afternoon and we were starving, so we immediately went to eat dinner. To our delight, there was a Vegetarian Chinese restaurant directly across the street from the hostel. This was especially exciting for Anneliese, who is a vegetarian, because they had all of the fake meats and such that they masterfully craft out of soy somehow. She got fake mutton, which might sound weird but tasted amazing. After we ate we went and wandered around their enormous Chinatown, which had a whole bunch of different little shops selling pretty much the same stuff the markets do here; sandals, fake pocketbooks, teeshirts, etc. We had known that Amy and Jeehon would be arriving that night and also staying at Back Home, but we were completely surprised when we literally walked right into them walking down the street. They had been looking for the hostel but hadn't had Magellan Anneliese with them, so they were happy to have found us. After they dropped their stuff off we walked back to Chinatown and they ate dinner. Then we went Back Home and slept in a room with four strangers, one of whom had incredibly smelly feet.
* Tuesday, March 1, 2011: Anneliese, Amy, Jeehon, and I all took one of the public buses to the Batu Caves. The Batu Caves are a really popular tourist destination about 45 minutes or so outside the city center. They are holy to the Hindu population of the area and have temples in them. There's an enormous gold statue and 272 stairs to climb. I can't do it any justice in words, and I so wish this stupid blog would allow me to put up some pictures of it, because it was amazing. After seeing all that there was to see, we had some really excellent Indian food for lunch and then took the bus back to the city. We then decided to walk around KL and to go see the Petronas Towers. On the way my pocketbook almost got stolen by two guys on a motorbike. It was partially my fault, because I was walking close to the road with it on my outside shoulder. Luckily (thank you whoever is watching over me!) I held on tight in the moment and they couldn't get it. Because of this quick little struggle they swerved and actually hit Amy... not a lot but they did hurt her arm. All in all we were lucky, though, and that was the only bad thing that happened in KL. (Side note: there is one more bad thing but I don't want to sound like a spoiled brat. I saw my first flying cockroach in action and it freaked me out a lot. It was wholly unnatural and I don't know why God thinks that's okay. What was evolution thinking???) Anyway, after that little incident we did in fact make it to the Petronas Towers, two of the tallest buildings in the whole world. They call them the Twin Towers, but that kind of weirds me out. Anyway, they were cool. After that we went out for more Indian food, because why not??? We are deprived of it in Surat so we decided we should take it while we could get it. That night Chris and Brittney arrived, as well as Brittney's brother and his girlfriend. They were all staying at a different hostel in the city, one with a roof top deck. We sat up there for a while looking at the city. I met this British woman named Julia who is a lawyer and was on a 9 month sabbatical with an around-the-world ticket. She told me about all of her adventures and I wish I was her. Eventually we walked home and passed out.
* Wednesday, March 2, 2011: Amy and Jeehon left for London, and Chris and Brittney left for India. It was sad to say goodbye to Amy and Jeehon, who are both moving to Japan, in fact about only an hour away from where Mitch will be living. So it was back to me and my girl Anneliese. We decided to walk to the city parks. First we went to the Butterfly Sanctuary. This place was actually really cool and they had butterflies and frogs and turtles and fish and such. Again - better said through pictures. We then went to the Islamic Museum of Art which was also really amazing and full of beautiful things. After that we had been walking for hours and needed to refuel, so we went and had Indian food again, why not? After that we went back to the hostel and set our minds to finding out about some movies in English, of which we are also deprived in Surat. We were told there were plenty, and it was just a matter of what we wanted to see. We went online and decided that we would go to the movie theater at the Pavilion Mall and see "True Grit". First, I will say that "True Grit" was really good. I enjoyed it and I would recommend that you see it as well. Next, let me say that Asian malls are AWESOME. In Bangkok and in KL. Asian malls just put American malls to shame. The Pavilion was so great. And they had a Forever 21. And I totally bought a dress. And I also bought a delicious frozen yogurt with fresh strawberries. It was definitely a successful trip.
* Thursday, March 3, 2011: First we walked around the Central Market. This place was really cool and had a lot of shops with Indian and Malaysian crafts. Then we took a public bus to Putrajaya, which seemed like a good idea at the time. Putrajaya is the government city of Malaysia, kind of like a preplanned Washington, DC. It was pretty lame, unfortunately. The upside was that they had a Middle Eastern restaurant called D'Arab Cafe and we got to eat hummus, cucumber salad, falafel, and olives. That kind of made everything else okay. The trip to Putrajaya ended up being an entire day trip. It was clear we needed our spirits lifted, and Anneliese came up with the best idea ever. We went back to the Pavilion and had Mexican food for dinner. (Again, Middle Eastern and Mexican food are two things you cannot get in Surat.) It was a great idea and the Mexican food was actually really good. I think I would have even thought it was good if it hadn't been the only tacos to touch my lips in months. After dinner we walked around for a while before we caught the subway back to the hostel.
* Friday, March 4, 2011: We traveled for 10 hours getting back to Surat. I don't want to talk about it.
So, that was our trip to Malaysia. All of the food I ate might make it sound like I missed out on the culture of KL, but that city is a funny place. First off, it's super modern. There's almost nothing old there, as KL itself is less than 200 years old and Malaysia as in independent nation is not even 100. Because of its newness, it has been able to create a metropolis that is very modern while still reflecting the cultures of its inhabitants. KL has many Muslim Malaysians, but it also has a huge population of Chinese and Indian. So, when we were eating all of that Indian food we were eating Malaysian food. It seems from an outside perspective that these three major cultural groups get along and that they work together to make Kuala Lumpur the success that it is. A lot of people in KL speak English, almost everyone I met. This made it really easy to get around and to order food, etc. Many of the people I met seemed to be trilingual--English, Malaysian, and Mandarin, or Malaysian, Hindi, and English, etc. It was more expensive than Thailand, but still really really cheap if you were working with an American or European budget. It was a pretty cool city and overall I really liked it a lot. I would definitely like to go back and to see Penang.
So then I was back in Surat. I spent much of Saturday moving the rest of my things into our new (awesome!) house and packing for a month away. Then on Sunday, I flew to Bangkok to meet my mother. I am happy to say that she arrived safely from America, even though her luggage never made it out of London. Luckily they sent it to our hotel here in Koh Samui so by the time we got here yesterday it was waiting. So on Sunday we just hung out at the hotel and talked and got room service. Then on Monday we flew into Surat Thani, which I tried to warn her isn't very impressive and doesn't need a full day but she really wanted to see where I live. Then yesterday we took the ferry here to Koh Samui, and now we are at Lamai Beach. We have a bungalow on the beach and right now I am sitting on our little front patio. I am looking at the ocean, which is full of angry waves due to some crazy wind that's been acting up since we got here. I hope that it calms down a bit so that we can take a leisurely swim without the risk of being killed by the undertow. Today we just sat around in the sunshine, read our books, and ate some good Thai food. We are here in Koh Samui until the 13th, when we will go to Phuket. We will be in Phuket until the 17th, which we will spend in Bangkok before my mother leaves late that night. I am so happy to have her here and I feel so lucky that she traveled 9,000 miles just to see me. Then Liz will be here for two weeks! Yay! Anyway, I will not let it go so long again... I'm SORRY!!!!
I love you guys!
Sunday, February 6, 2011
I love this crazy country
Hi Guys! I had the best weekend, and I hope you did too. On Saturday Feb. 5th I spent the day at the pool with Janet, John, Mitch, Chris, Amy, Blake, and Andrew. It was a beautiful, hot, sunny day. I know you New Englanders / Pennsylvanians don’t want to hear that right now, and I’m sorry. But it was amazing. So gorgeous. And they have showers at the pool so I got to take my first proper shower since Wednesday… ewww I know. After we went to the pool we decided to go to Pizzeria Milano, which is this place near the river that totally caters to the many foreigners passing through to catch boats to the islands and therefore has some pretty decent pizza, pasta, and burgers. Their attempts at Mexican food are far less impressive, however. Anyway, it was delicious. It was beautiful out and we walked through the huge Saturday night market and looked at all of the crazy stuff.
One of the craziest things—I can’t believe I haven’t ever mentioned this until now—is that Thai people are really into the Swastika and clearly have not a clue in the world as to what it means. When I first saw one, I thought that maybe it was the ancient Hindi symbol and not a Swastika… but I slowly realized that there was no confusing that for the black symbol on a red and white flag design seen way too often here. It’s on tee-shirts, earrings, flags, anything. At the Saturday night market there was just some Thai dude cooking up pork something or other in his little mobile street vendor hut and his back drop was an enormous Nazi flag. Which brings us to Sunday. Sunday was also a lovely day. In the evening time I went to the Don Nok Sunday market with Mitch and Blake. At this market there was a woman selling tee-shirts for 100 Baht; about $3.50. One of these tee-shirts had a design on it which was two large headphones hanging down as if the person wearing the shirt was wearing the headphones around their neck. This would have been fine if it weren’t for the fact that on the headphones were two giant Nazi flags with artfully crafted Swastikas. We were shocked. It was the only one they had, so Mitch bought it so that it would no longer be hanging there. This made me feel really conflicted. On the one hand, I was really glad that now the shirt would no longer be prominently displayed and that some Thai person ignorant to its real meaning could not buy it and wear it as some kind of a fashion statement. On the other hand, it kind of bummed me out, because the vendor probably thinks that people like the design and now that it is sold out may order more of them. I can’t figure this out. It’s so weird. I am going to have to continue to grapple with this unique situation as the year continues.
Sunday wasn’t all Nazi negativity though. Anneliese and I got some sh*t done in regards to our summer vacation plans and it all made me so very excited. As of Friday, February 25th, we have a really long time off for summer vacation—school doesn’t start again until the middle of May. I am especially excited because so many things are going to happen between the end of February and the middle of May. First of all, Anneliese and I will be moving at the end of February. We are moving into Amy and Brittney’s house, and we are both really excited. The new house is beautiful, has two bedrooms and two bathrooms, has a kitchen, a balcony in both bedrooms, and is near the other teachers. It is so nice, I am so excited! In May I will be buying Brittney’s motorbike—a Mio Fino Urban Runner—so my Surat World will greatly expand and travel will become a lot easier for the second half of my time here. What is really exciting, however, is the time between the new house and the new motorbike. I am traveling for almost the entirety of the summer break and I am so excited! Here is what the plans look like so far:
*Monday February 28 – Friday March 4 = Malaysia! Anneliese and I are going to Kuala Lumpur! Yay! I am so excited I can’t wait!
* Sunday March 6 – Friday March 18 = My mom comes to visit me, yay! We are going to Koh Samui and Phuket mostly with day adventures in Bangkok and Surat Thani.
* Saturday March 19 – Sunday April 3 = Liz comes to visit me, yay! And Anneliese is joining us for our adventures, so exciting! We are going to be in Bangkok for a few days, and also go to Chiang Mai, Surat Thani, Koh Samui, and Phuket.
* Tuesday April 5 – Thursday April 14 = I will go to Koh Pha Ngan to this place called The Sanctuary; alone. I will do a 7 ½ day detox cleanse which involves drinking fruit shakes and tea, laying in hammocks on a secluded beach, and doing yoga every day. Super excited about this one.
* Sunday April 17 – Saturday April 23 = My baby is coming to visit me! Finally! My cousin Kevin is super awesome and he’s letting us stay at his amazing condo in Phuket for free for the week. It’s going to be great. I can’t wait.
* Saturday April 30 (??) – Saturday May 14 (??) = Anneliese and I go to Vietnam! So exciting! We are unsure at the moment what days in April she will have to work, and exactly what day we start work in May, so the dates are uncertain at the moment. But we are for sure going to Vietnam and I’m thrilled. We may only go to Hanoi, or we may try to fly into Ho Chi Minh City and see that and then take the train up to Hanoi and do both. I’ll let you know once the details have been hammered out.
So yeah, that’s my amazing plans for summer vacation. Right about now I am as excited as a four year old on Christmas Eve! I feel so very blessed. I can’t really believe I am going to have the opportunity to do all of these incredible things with all of these incredible people. I’m pretty sure it’s going to be the best 10 weeks I’ve had in a really long time. I feel like Karma is just flooding me with positivity and the Gods are smiling down on me. I am the luckiest. And I love all of you and I miss you. I hope that everything back home is wonderful. Xoxoxoxoxoxoxo.
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Trying to resolve the photo-stupidity
http://www.flickr.com/photos/57772764@N05/
Soooo I think that this should work... right now it is kind of a mess because I haven't organized or labeled or anything like that, but until I figure out how to get Blogger to let me post more pics, this is all I can do...
Soooo I think that this should work... right now it is kind of a mess because I haven't organized or labeled or anything like that, but until I figure out how to get Blogger to let me post more pics, this is all I can do...
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