I love this crazy country

Hi Guys!  I had the best weekend, and I hope you did too.  On Saturday Feb. 5^th 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 25^th, 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.