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
Thursday, April 7, 2011
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...
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Amazing Thai Birthday Time!
So today was my birthday, and the people here in Thailand made it SO amazing. Last night Anneliese gave me a beta fish that her and Mitch bought me... amazing! I have been saying for the past two months how I want one and I haven't found one and they bought me one! I decided that the little guy should have a totally American name and I am taking votes for what it should be... Anneliese voted KFC Double Down, but call him Doiuble Down for short. I love it and I can't really think of anything more American than that... but I'm open to all suggestions.
Now on to today. First, I woke up and we had running water... it was a birthday miracle! Then I put on my new awesome birthday dress, grabbed all my project making stuff, and headed to Noonoy for a full day of classes. As soon as I got there, Prathom 4 saw me and immediately broke out in an adorable 9-year old Thai kid version of the Happy Birthday song... it was awesome. I had prepared poster/drawing/art projects for all of my classes so that all I had to do all day was walk around and look at kids drawing, which was great. After Noonoy I went to Super English where I had a birthday card from my mom waiting for me, as well as a card and a present from Mitch. They were awesome... then I went to Mister Donut and bought a bunch of donuts for my students. Then I had them color for their entire classes and gave them donuts at the end; I really needed an easy Super day.
After Super English I went to Baan Sateak, where Anneliese had arranged for everyone to meet for my birthday dinner. Hilarious side note--for whatever reason Thai people seriously struggle with saying words that begin with the letter s and are followed by a consonant. For example; Star. They pronounce it sitar. Or square, they say saquare. And Baan in Thai means home. So the name Baan Sateak means Steak House, but Steak got lost in mispronunciation translation. Amy, Brittney, Chris, Janet, John, Blake, Mike, Mitch, Brian, and Anneliese were all there. It is a great place to go because they have cheeseburgers. And they're good cheeseburgers. I got one and loved it until it was over, when I felt like a sloth that should go into hibernation. Janet and Brittney made an awesome cake that was delicious in taste and inappropriate in shape, and that was good and extra fatty too. Also, everyone gave me the cutest presents! Anneliese gave me an awesome Hello Kitty laptop case, and John and Janet gave me a Hello Kitty tee shirt. Brittney gave me some beautiful incense in a cute bag, and Amy gave me some cute earrings and some nice lotion. Mitch gave me a sweet teeshirt that says "Old Skull" on it, rad. And Chris did such a cool thing... he had three photos that he had taken in Thailand printed in a large size. Man, I have such awesome friends here... THANK YOU!!!!!!! It was a great night.
As if Anneliese wasn't already my favorite person in this country... what is happening right now is just making my birthday so much better. We are at this hotel downtown called My Place. We have air conditioning, TV, a shower with hot water, comfortable beds, and free internet. Five things we never have at our place. Oh wait, 6; it is clean. Hahaha. Awesome. I am so excited to go to sleep! Anneliese, I love you boo. <3 Tomorrow night Kru Ying is taking me, Chris, Anneliese, On, Nan, and Gain out to eat and presumably drink a lot of wine. Kru Ying's birthday was yesterday so she figured we have to celebrate, and who am I to argue with that.
To everyone who wished me a happy birthday, and to everyone who worked so hard to make it a happy birthday... thank you. I feel so incredibly blessed on this birthday. I am so happy. Xoxoxoxxo
Now on to today. First, I woke up and we had running water... it was a birthday miracle! Then I put on my new awesome birthday dress, grabbed all my project making stuff, and headed to Noonoy for a full day of classes. As soon as I got there, Prathom 4 saw me and immediately broke out in an adorable 9-year old Thai kid version of the Happy Birthday song... it was awesome. I had prepared poster/drawing/art projects for all of my classes so that all I had to do all day was walk around and look at kids drawing, which was great. After Noonoy I went to Super English where I had a birthday card from my mom waiting for me, as well as a card and a present from Mitch. They were awesome... then I went to Mister Donut and bought a bunch of donuts for my students. Then I had them color for their entire classes and gave them donuts at the end; I really needed an easy Super day.
After Super English I went to Baan Sateak, where Anneliese had arranged for everyone to meet for my birthday dinner. Hilarious side note--for whatever reason Thai people seriously struggle with saying words that begin with the letter s and are followed by a consonant. For example; Star. They pronounce it sitar. Or square, they say saquare. And Baan in Thai means home. So the name Baan Sateak means Steak House, but Steak got lost in mispronunciation translation. Amy, Brittney, Chris, Janet, John, Blake, Mike, Mitch, Brian, and Anneliese were all there. It is a great place to go because they have cheeseburgers. And they're good cheeseburgers. I got one and loved it until it was over, when I felt like a sloth that should go into hibernation. Janet and Brittney made an awesome cake that was delicious in taste and inappropriate in shape, and that was good and extra fatty too. Also, everyone gave me the cutest presents! Anneliese gave me an awesome Hello Kitty laptop case, and John and Janet gave me a Hello Kitty tee shirt. Brittney gave me some beautiful incense in a cute bag, and Amy gave me some cute earrings and some nice lotion. Mitch gave me a sweet teeshirt that says "Old Skull" on it, rad. And Chris did such a cool thing... he had three photos that he had taken in Thailand printed in a large size. Man, I have such awesome friends here... THANK YOU!!!!!!! It was a great night.
As if Anneliese wasn't already my favorite person in this country... what is happening right now is just making my birthday so much better. We are at this hotel downtown called My Place. We have air conditioning, TV, a shower with hot water, comfortable beds, and free internet. Five things we never have at our place. Oh wait, 6; it is clean. Hahaha. Awesome. I am so excited to go to sleep! Anneliese, I love you boo. <3 Tomorrow night Kru Ying is taking me, Chris, Anneliese, On, Nan, and Gain out to eat and presumably drink a lot of wine. Kru Ying's birthday was yesterday so she figured we have to celebrate, and who am I to argue with that.
To everyone who wished me a happy birthday, and to everyone who worked so hard to make it a happy birthday... thank you. I feel so incredibly blessed on this birthday. I am so happy. Xoxoxoxxo
Monday, January 17, 2011
I'm so sorry it's been so long...
... I was all ready to post about the rest of my Christmas break and how my Dad and brother were here visiting me. In fact I spent about an hour and a half writing a blog entry and uploading all of these amazing photographs of Bangkok, Samui, and Phuket. Then my blog promptly erased all of that hard work and told me that I have already exceeded the amount of photographs that I can put on my blog in an entire year. I was pretty pissed, so I said yeah sure Blogger I'll pay you $20 to put unlimited photographs on my blog for a year. And then Blogger was like well really, you're not in the United States so I am going to refuse your payment. So I have been trying to figure this all out... I mean, what's more boring than a blog with no pictures? I have set up a Flickr account and I am slowly putting all of the pictures up there. I am also going to coordinate with my Dad so that I can pay for the extra pictures and eventually get more on here. You may have noticed that I caved and went back on Facebook... you'd think that would be a great place for me to post pictures but for whatever reason my computer refuses to let me post pictures from my computer onto Facebook. For now you're stuck with my boring old words.
I feel like my window of opportunity to rant about my Dad and brother being here has passed... so I'll give you a super short version. They got here on Christmas Eve and left on January 3rd. We saw the Grand Palace and the Temple of the Emerald Buddha in Bangkok, which is totally amazing. We shopped a lot and bought knock-off brand everything... they do it so well over here. We went to Samui and saw a really great lady boy cabaret. We also went to Ang Thong National Park and did a bunch of cool stuff. Finally we went to Phuket, where we witnessed crazy ass Patong Beach and then a more quiet, beautiful beach at my cousin Kevin's condo. It was a great trip. It was so much harder than I expected when they left. I cried the whole bus ride home from Suratthani Airport.
Since being back from Christmas break I have pretty much been focused on work. This past weekend I went to Khanom with Janet, John, Mitch, Amy, Jeehon, etc. I spoiled myself because my birthday is tomorrow and so I got this really nice room with an ocean view. It was perfect beach weather the whole time and I slept with the windows open... I have never been anything but freezing cold on my birthday so I'm pretty excited to sweat it out on Tuesday. Classes end on February 25th, and then it is summer vacation! I can't believe it... I will have all of March and April and half of May off. My mom is coming for two weeks in March, Liz is coming for two weeks in March, and then the boy is coming for a week in April. Then in May Anneliese and I are planning on going to Vietnam... so hopefully with the combination of these trips and me getting some photo-capability on here this blog will get more interesting for you soon enough. Much love.
I feel like my window of opportunity to rant about my Dad and brother being here has passed... so I'll give you a super short version. They got here on Christmas Eve and left on January 3rd. We saw the Grand Palace and the Temple of the Emerald Buddha in Bangkok, which is totally amazing. We shopped a lot and bought knock-off brand everything... they do it so well over here. We went to Samui and saw a really great lady boy cabaret. We also went to Ang Thong National Park and did a bunch of cool stuff. Finally we went to Phuket, where we witnessed crazy ass Patong Beach and then a more quiet, beautiful beach at my cousin Kevin's condo. It was a great trip. It was so much harder than I expected when they left. I cried the whole bus ride home from Suratthani Airport.
Since being back from Christmas break I have pretty much been focused on work. This past weekend I went to Khanom with Janet, John, Mitch, Amy, Jeehon, etc. I spoiled myself because my birthday is tomorrow and so I got this really nice room with an ocean view. It was perfect beach weather the whole time and I slept with the windows open... I have never been anything but freezing cold on my birthday so I'm pretty excited to sweat it out on Tuesday. Classes end on February 25th, and then it is summer vacation! I can't believe it... I will have all of March and April and half of May off. My mom is coming for two weeks in March, Liz is coming for two weeks in March, and then the boy is coming for a week in April. Then in May Anneliese and I are planning on going to Vietnam... so hopefully with the combination of these trips and me getting some photo-capability on here this blog will get more interesting for you soon enough. Much love.
Thursday, January 6, 2011
Christmas Eve at Noonoy School
I spent Christmas Eve day at Noonoy School... here are some photos:
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| Kru Ying... the owner/director of Noonoy School; impossibly beautiful, classy, and smart. |
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| The kiddies waiting for the Christmas show to begin... |
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| Ha I love that kid with the camera. He's in 6th grade and his name is Vote... which is pronounced "Wote" |
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| 1st year preschoolers... kid in the blue is named GLUR-GLUR (!!!!) and he's so awesome. |
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| Hiiiiiii Glur-Glur |
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| More preschoolers. Aw. |
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| Haaaa |
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| Kid in the center is named Ikkue. He's pretty rad. |
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| Aw. :( They made the fattest teacher be Santa. She's so awesome. |
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| Thai teachers dancing for our entertainment |
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| I need that outfit |
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| Gang (how's that for an awesome nick name?), Aom, and Nan |
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| On, Nan, and Gang. |
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| 2nd grade cuties |
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| Hah! My favorite babies! 2nd year preschool! |
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| Some of the many many presents we gave out throughout the course of the day... |
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| This kid (grade 1) is clearly cooler than you. |
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| yoda. |
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| this kid looks just like a dinosaur. or like he's on the show "Dinosaurs" |
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| Spirit House at Noonoy |
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| Prathom (grade) 4 |
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| Ah! This picture is amazing... the only 2 boys in Prathom 5, Mew and Ban. Photo shoot time! |
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| The 7 girls of Prathom 7... that's right, there are NINE students in my Prathom 5 class. Amazing. |
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| Awesome Prathom 3 girls. The one on the right is going to be an astrophysicist or something comparably intelligent. |
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| I love this. They're the bikes outside of the preschool building. |
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| The lunchroom |
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| The preschool building... |
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| Prathom bulding |
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| Prathom 3 Holiday Party! |
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| Fried chicken and french fries. |
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| The third world-esque hell hole behind the ritzy Noonoy... |
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| My food gifts from the Prathom 3 party... |
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| Long Live the King |
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