Fall*

*I’m not sure what to call the season, but it’s the one that’s just hot, instead of unbearably hot.


I’m so alive.

Since October, I’ve had a lot on my plate. I’ve been frustrated by studying for the GRE and preparing applications for grad school, but this week I finally managed to relax about it. It helps knowing that there’s very little left I can do. It’s time to just take the test, submit my applications, and see how things play out.

I’ve been going out quite bit, and am really enjoying some new people in my social life. Brenda has become a wonderful partner in crime – we bring out the 20-year old partiers in each other (in a good way, mostly). We go dancing a couple times a week, which is great because we’re meeting interesting salsa/zouk/bachata-obsessed people. Kate also started to join us for Weds night dancing. I’ve had a good time learning zouk and salsa from some of the guys. All the dancing has been a fun way to shake up my normal Hua Mak routine. But on the other hand, I’ve had really nice dinners and chill nights in Hua Mak with my best buds here, and those relaxing local nights have perfectly balanced all the time I’ve spent at Ekkamai, Saxophone, Temples, Khao San and even sketchy Silom. It’s been a very social month, to say the least.

Last night my stated goal was to be a social butterfly and bring together as many people as possible. So I brought Brenda to dinner with my college friends D.J., Alan and their friends. Then, after meeting Jeffrey, Russell and Em for drinks on Sukhumvit, I rallied everyone around the idea of checking out Rain Dogs, an art gallery/bar/funk club that hosted a great house party. There we met Lauren, Jane, Marisa, Big, Kate, Ale and Joke, and I even ran into a guy I’d met months ago at the Bangkok freeze. Social butterfly mission accomplished, I had an excellent time talking to all these different people and doing something quite different from the average night out in Bangkok.

Each semester there are a few students who really grab my attention, and this semester they’re a pair of guys who are attached at the hip. Smith and Nat are hilarious, smart, very sweet and adorably lost without one another. They were in my grammar class from day 1 and shortly thereafter transferred into my convo class as well. So now I teach them 4 lovely times a week, and they truly brighten my day. Their band played last night, so I watched Nat rock out on the bass guitar while Smith crooned Thai pop songs dressed in purple pants, a giant bowtie and a green sequined top hat.

I take the GRE on Wednesday, turn a dreaded 25 years old on Thursday, and will submit all of my applications before I go to Chicago the following Wednesday (23rd). Busy weeks coming up! But it’s nice that Chicago is right there at the finish line. I’m looking forward to the snow, though I’m sure I’ll be over it by the 24th. Sledding, anyone?

First week back

The semester's off to a great start. I got back to Bangkok this weekend and was welcomed by a lovely schedule IN Hua Mak, and I may even get away with having Wednesdays off! Classes are going well, and I enjoy the more relaxed, cooler vibe here (compared to the less personal admosphere of Bang Na/the rice paddies). I have two sections of English 1 (writing and grammar) and four sections of Eng 1 Conversation. I may teach another night convo class for graduating seniors (the class I loved so much last year), but that's still up in the air. Overall, I'm very happy with the semester so far.

Last night I played ultimate frisbee with my official league team for the first time, and it was actually pretty frustrating. The BKK Ultimate Soidawgz (one of the best tournament teams in Asia, apparently) have been trying hard to recruit new players recently. So I've played with them a couple of times, trying to learn as I go. Most players are patient with us newbies and are very helpful in explaining the rules, but a couple get caught up in the competition and get visibly frustrated that we don't cut or clear at the right time. Last night my team was short half our players and Arsenal had double-booked our field, bumping us to the 9:30-11:30pm game slot. Everyone was understandably exhausted, and unfortunately the Blue Nutts argued a lot among ourselves. I had a hard time keeping up with all these plays and terms I'd never heard before. It was a little rough on both my pride and my patience, I guess. Hopefully next week will be better.

This morning I sat at the Burmese restaurant eating a spicy tofu breakfast salad and listening to the guys all sing different Thai ballads simultaneously. Life here has some pretty awesome moments like that.

Planting trees in Khao Yai

I spent the weekend in Khao Yai National Park with the Plant-A-Tree-Today foundation (www.plant-a-tree-today.org). I had done a one-day volunteer outing with PATT a few months ago, and was excited to get a spot on this weekend trip. So about 30 volunteers and PATT staff spent the weekend camping on the grounds of a fancy resort just outside of the park. On Saturday, we went "whitewater" rafting (I doubt these qualify as whitewater rapids, but okay...), followed by an awesome BBQ with plenty of drinking and socializing.

Then on Sunday the 30 of us volunteers planted 800 TREES! It was hard work and we baked under the midday Thai sun, but it was really fun. Also, stunning views of the surrounding mountains and forrests more than made up for the uncomfortable heat.

There are a million reasons that I love activities like this (it's environmental, outdoorsy, volunteer-sy, and I get to play in the dirt!). But one of the best reasons is because I always enjoy meeting awesome, inspiring people with similar interests. One guy, for example, used to work for some industrial company, but decided there was too much waste and now he sets up projects all over Asia in which he teaches companies to be waaaaay more energy efficient, reduce and off-set carbon use, etc. A really amazing guy. He was this big business dude, but then turned all tree-hugger and now is doing really amazing things to show other people that our businesses do not have to be run at the expense of the environment. I love meeting people like that.

About the 800 trees, though. Let's do the math. As Andy put it: It took 30 people about 3 hours to plant 800 trees, which will each take many years to grow and mature. Meanwhile, every minute of the day the earth loses about a football field of trees. Something is not right about this.

Class that makes it worthwhile

I had such a great Basic Eng class this afternoon. I left smiling, as I so often after that class finishes. They're so motivated to learn and extremely appreciative of the work that I do for them. I tutor some of them for a few hours a week outside of class, and one of those tutoring sessions was the main thing that made me reconsider going home.

Jorge teaches some of them in convo, and he said that once he saw them drawing an anime version of me and saying how much they like me and my suwaaaaayy hair. I really enjoy the relationship I have with this class (obviously). It makes it worth it to know that I'm reaching these 30 students, especially since 2 of my other classes are definitely not as positive. Anyway, I know I'm not being very eloquent here, but I guess the point is that this particular class makes me feel like I'm actually doing some good as a teacher. They reassure me that I made a good decision to stay here awhile longer.

So, to Maprang, Kwan, Puone, Om-Am, Nack, A, Pat, Cheng, NungNing, Milk, Pop, Ham, Mark, Jub and ALLLLLL the rest, I secretly send you a little thanks for being such good students and brightening my teaching days. Kap khun kaa.

Pat, Puone, Om-Am & Mark
from Basic English (grammar) class

Eng I Convo students
Their assignment: Make a poster
telling/showing me why you're so cool.

My favorite Eng I Convo class

I swear this blog won't completely turn into a duplication of my students' writings that make me laugh, but for now, here are some excellent excerpts from their opinion paragraphs:

• In my opinion, the best musician that I like is Wannasigh Prasertkul. The first reason is because he is dead sexy. (bonus points for using some of my personal favorite vocabulary)
• In my opinion, I think everything is all the biggest problem in the world.
• People in the world use many battery and after that it must burn a battery and then it must have bad air. Sometime I see in the canal has many junk and it has a smelly. Factory exhausts a smoke on the sky. People are smoking every place. People use spray can. Finally the buffalo must fart and it has metain [methane] gas. For all of reason it will make a global warming.
• But I will try to learn and pay attention to learn. In the next class, I will find mp3 to listen to in this subject. It will make me feel good and not too boring. :)
• Sixth reason this promble [problem] make animals don't have abode.
• Finally, I think that Math doesn't useful for my life, such as when I sell something, I don't need to use trigonometry for counting the price or I don't need to factor the number for buying something.
• Another reason I like her, because she sings the international songs. For example: Dhoom-Dhoom, Sexy Naughty Bitchy, etc.
• Do you think so? If one day have many pollution, the world will hot and hot, and how can you stay in the world? Hmm?

Now it's time for me to actually grade the papers and see if I still like them as much after I'm blind and the ink in my green pen runs dry...

with Nat from Basic Eng Convo

Thai ghost stories

I find myself using ghost stories a lot in my conversation classes. Many SE Asians have strong beliefs in ghosts and spirits. They surround us in our everyday lives, and that's not a bad thing. I like the spirit houses in front of residences and businesses - they're there to satiate the spirits with incense, candles, Buddhist figurines, and, more often than not, orange flavored Fanta. The belief is that this will please the spirits, pay respect to them, but also hope that they will have everything they need without going into the house.

My absolute favorite fun fact about Thai ghost beliefs is that they can only travel in straight lines. That explains why traditional Thai houses have winding paths leading up to their doorways. It's also why many homes have all of their door frames raised about 3-4 inches off the floor: ghosts are not able to step over this hurdle, and therefore they can't bother the family inside.

There are a lot of ghost stories specific to ABAC. Here are the stories I can rattle off about the 3 buildings I've lived in this year: There are children ghosts who run up and down the halls of King David. Also, I had a man speak to me one night in my room in King David, but I'll admit the possibility that I'm insane and was just hearing things that night.

There are ghosts in C building who close doors, cabinets and drawers for you. (Happened to me.) One ghost of a former teacher haunts the elevator in C building. He doesn't ride the elevator, he just presses the button to get on at various floors, and then stands there all ghost-like when the doors open to let him on. He never gets on, but sometimes after the door closes at 12 (for example), then the elevator moves on down to 11 and he's standing there as well, then on to 10... and so on. There are several floors in C building that aren't even in use anymore because both staff and students started refusing to go there. (I'm not sure why those floors were worse, though.)

One evening, I rode the elevator down from the 14th floor in C building along with a bunch of students. The elevator stopped at EVERY SINGLE floor, even though no one on the inside pressed any buttons besides Floor 1 and though no one was waiting to get on from any of the floors. The elevator even stopped at the floors that haven't been in use for years. The students were all chattering nervously in Thai as we all watched the floor numbers go down, each time hoping the elevator wouldn't stop again on the next floor. I finally asked, "Is that the ghost?" And they all started nodding their heads. "Chai, ajarn!" one girl said.

There are also ghosts in the Q building, my current residence. But I don't like the stories about this place. If any of the ABAC ghosts frighten me, it's the ones who live with me now. Luckily we haven't crossed paths so far.

Here's a link to one of the most famous Thai ghost stories if you're dying to hear more:
http://www.thailandlife.com/thai-culture/nang-nak-a-thai-ghost-story.html

A counting lesson

How to count from 1 to 10 in 10 steps

by Tum, Bang, Paint and Namp (EC1 class)

1. Try to think! How to begin counting the first no. and then…

2. Try to use ur brain before opening your mouth.

3. Try to pronounce the word correctly in a British accent.

4. Next, bring all your fingers up in the air.

5. Try to count by urself and make sure that u are not handicapped.

6. If you are not sure of ur answer, try to think it in ur language.

7. Take a deep breath and pick up ur phone.

8. After that, call your mom and ask her how to count from 1 to 10.

9. Call your dad to make sure what mom said is true.

10. Be confident and say it very loud!!!

love. my. students.

Killian's visit

Killian's been here almost a month, but I can't believe she's already leaving next week! Time has really flown.

Since she got here, we've been to Hanoi and Halang Bay in Vietnam, up to Lop Buri (monkey temple town), Phitsanulok, Sukkhothai, Chiang Mai and around Bangkok. We've ridden an elephant, gone bamboo rafting, shopped til we dropped in tons of cool markets, had a picnic in Suan Lum, gotten splashed by the rancid water of the Sansaeb Klong, gone bowling, seen a Thailand vs. Liverpool football game, and had plenty of laughs. I'm not quite ready for it to end, but glad we still have some more time.

Tomorrow Killian will tutor a young Chinese girl while I finish up a long week of classes. Then we're headed straight to Lumpini to finally see a Muay Thai fight. And we'll spend Saturday & Sunday in Koh Samet. I can't believe she's been in Thailand a month and we haven't been to a beach yet! So we'll finally fix that this weekend. We're both very excited to spend a few days in the sun and beautiful water!

“She looks like punk rocker (heart)"

This one is about nák-rian thai (“Thai students”).

This month I’ve been reminded time and again of what I managed to forget from last semester about Thai students – most enjoyably that they’re funny as hell. A little deceptive at times, often obnoxiously loud, constantly fighting ajarn’s insistence that they listen while someone else is speaking… but students’ personalities shine through in every classroom and regularly make me smile. So, here are a few of my favorite little anecdotes and observations about my students (mostly Thai, some Chinese and Korean).

First, ABAC students are hard workers. Let me qualify this by saying that their hard work and busy schedules exemplify valuing quantity over quality. ABAC students take tons of classes, usually 7-8 hours a day, with no lunch break, for 5 or 6 days a week. I’d say that less than half of students go out on weekends because they’re occupied with classes or tutors. They’re busy little bees. But unfortunately they don’t always work very hard IN their classes, which is obviously and sadly why they withdraw and fail so often.

Also, these kids will crack you up. They love joking and games (though often they’re way too cool for school and take a long time to warm up to the silliness they enjoy so much). The maturity level of university students here is much different than in the States, so classes are geared differently to better keep the interest of the students.

I love their presentation habits. Students nearly always begin any presentation (even just a short 2 min dialogue) with “Good morning, my teacher and my friends. My name is [Kittinun] but you can call me [Air]. Now I will tell you about …” I used to try to mitigate their formality, but now I appreciate and enjoy it.

Some of the students like to flirt with teachers. I have one student, Bird, who gives me wonderful compliments every time I walk into the room. One time he nearly made me blush when he raised his hand (unheard of!) to say “Teacher… hair look like very sexy today. New style. Sexy style. I like it.” Sometimes that kind of thing really throws me off because I’m not sure how to respond, especially in front of a class of 30 people. So I just say thanks and move on without giving it too much attention. No need to play into that.

One day, we were brainstorming different ways of describing people. All 30 students were at the board writing things like “She has long, black hair;” “He’s a giant man;” “She has crazy eyes and ugly smile.” But my favorite description on the board was “She looks like punk rocker. ♥”

They wear Hello Kitty watches. Have Hello Kitty notebooks. Wear bright pink headbands adorned with big bows and Hello Kitty. You get it.

Once I had a class working in partners. One set had my best student with the widest vocabulary paired with a much lower-level student. We were doing a cool activity where students sit back-to-back and each student has a cartoon drawing that (s)he describes to the partner, who then must draw the picture. It works well for eliciting detailed physical descriptions. Anyway, I overheard the girl in this pair (Bo) asking the boy (Toad) how to say this thing, as she pointed to her breast. Toad responds “breast.” Then she tried to repeat it, but missed the “r” sound. Then

Toad: Breast.

Bo: Breast?

Toad: Breast.

Bo: Breast?

Toad: Breast.

Bo: Breast?

…on and on for about 3 minutes until she got the pronunciation correct. I hope you get the humor if you just try to imagine two 18 year old Thai students repeating “breast” over and over to each other for a few minutes.

They’re obsessed with the Korean pop song “Nobody but You” by the Wondergirls. (I’m obsessed with it to, if honesty counts here.) They refer to it as much as possible. Even better is that the song’s ridiculous choreography is also pretty popular, so nearly every time someone says the word “nobody,” several students break out into song & dance. I know the goofy clapping/pointing/head-turning routine too, so sometimes I briefly venture into the dance to get a laugh. Works every time.

Finally, here’s a list of popular and interesting nicknames: Bird, Ball, Firm, Jack, Harry, Air, Ice, Lock, Big, Fai, Benz, Ploy, Pop, Pup, Pap, Maximum, Smile, Sun, Ham, Bo, Toad, Note, Jub, Neung (means 1 in Thai), Song, Cheng, NungNing, Best, O, and Tu-Yen (means the Fridge). I even met a John Lennon the other day (one of Lauren’s students). Nicknames are a big deal here, and I like them.

tangent:

I’ve started using Blackle as much as possible. It runs on the same Google search engine but uses a black background instead of white, saving 750 Megawatt-hours of energy use a year. Be like me. Say yes to Blackle. [This fabulous information brought to you by my favorite website, treehugger.com. See http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/05/black_google_sa.php. ]

Sometimes, I look around and just have to smile.

Sometimes, I look around and just have to smile. Today I left my room to go forage for breakfast at around 12:30pm, and one of the first things I saw was that the basketball bleachers were filled with students singing and dancing. There were bongo players, some hype kids with mics, and about 60 students just dancing, laughing and having a grand old Saturday. That was one of those moments when I laughed out loud, thinking 'man, I'm so glad to be here right now.' While continuing my walk to meet a friend next to the pond, I came across a Thai woman sprawled out in a really committed napping position (no way she just nodded off; this lady was fully dedicated to the task of sleeping as comfortably as possible on the marble bench). She had a plastic bag full of those hot pink eggs (don't ask) sitting atop the table near her head. Again, a great Thai sight. And finally, when I sat down to chat with my friend, I got to spy on a young boy of about 8 years old as he molded clay into large dinosaurs. He looked totally content with life, which mirrors exactly how I feel today.

At times like this, I think voyeurism should be considered a legit pastime.

Silly ABAC

I hate this university sometimes (often). Classes are okay - some good, some just all right - but let me right off the bat express my thanks that this semester is already better than the last. My bosses aer infinitely better and we finally have a clear understanding of what we're actually supposed to be doing here. So, thanks for all that.

For the past two weeks, I've been rolling with the punches. I've patiently adapted my lesson plans to fit no less than 7 schedule changes. But here's the new crisis: yesterday evening and this morning I received two emails telilng me I must vacate my room in Hua Mak and move to Bang Na by 2pm tomorrow. This after I just moved to a new building in Hua Mak 3 weeks ago and was told I could stay there for the semester. Absolute BS. Thanks, ABAC, for telling me I have less than 36 hours to move all my crap AGAIN. So... I'm refusing to move to Bang Na, which means that I need to find an apartment or room to rent ASAP. Awesome.

I just faxed a letter explaining my frustrations to the director of HRM, but I doubt that they'll reconsider my request to stay in Hua Mak. The letter was a little mouthy, so I guess there's a slight chance I'll lose my job. Wouldn't that be a shame.

Teaching again

My second semester teaching at ABAC started this week. My class schedule changed almost twice a day, making it very difficult to prepare for anything. I taught 11 or 12 different sections at 5 different levels, each time thinking that class would be mine for the semester, only to find out I’d have a new schedule again a few hours later. It was frustrating!

We’ve all had to learn to be ridiculously flexible here, and I thought that by now I was able to roll with the numerous changes sure to come my way working in this culture. But this week was a serious test of my patience and adaptability. But I got through it, and hopefully by next week I’ll be able to settle into a routine and actually prepare some lessons.

For the moment I have 8 sections – 5 sections of English I Convo, and 1 section each of Basic English I, Basic English I Convo, and Basic English II. That’s just slightly more than my contracted 18 teaching hours, and apparently I’ll get a little bit of overtime for the extra classes.

I’m looking forward to actually beginning to teach. I feel confident about the course material and how to teach it this semester. And I’m also very happy with the new department chairs. I feel like I’m receiving much better guidance now than we did last semester. So… overall, once the schedule settles down, I think I’m in for a challenging but great semester of teaching!

Asia’s not for everyone. (with guest writer Jenn)

If it’s not diarrhea, it’s constipation. If not headaches, ear infections. If it’s not bed bugs, it’s an allergy to wicker. It’s mosquito bites, it’s heat rash, it’s gastrointestinal infection. It’s motorbike accidents and questionably sanitary hospitals. Toilet paper-less bathrooms and squatter toilets. Cold showers, rock hard beds. Flesh-eating diseases. Shit-smelling streets with your choice of mystery meats, fish balls, chicken tendons, rancid fly-ridden markets. Tuk-tuk driver scams, general transportation chaos. Logiclessness. Elephants in city streets and runaway monkey thieves. Asia’s not for everyone.

Bali

Bali is SO beautiful and so amazing. I couldn't wipe this smile off my face if I tried! Jenn, Heidi and I flew here from BKK on Tuesday-ish, spent a few hours on the beach and met Lauren and Carly for dinner at an awesome seafood place in Jimbaran Bay. It was our last dinner with Lauren, but a really nice goodbye. The next day, Heidi and I took our surfing lessons and had a blast. I stood up by my third or fourth attempt and really, really loved it. With some practice I think I could be pretty good. (ha) We surfed again the next day too, and my surf instructor wants me to move to Bali with him and get a job there. He had elaborate plans for that, so he's supposed to email me when he sorts out the details, lol. Anyway, then Heidi met a really cool guy who offered to drive us farther up the island that day to Ubud, and we ended up going with him all the way to his hometown in the Kintamani/Danau Buyan area. The scenery was absolutely stunning - some of the prettiest mountains, volcanoes and rice paddies I've ever seen. Totally amazing and I wish I had a lot more time to spend here. This morning I hung out with 20-25 of the tour guides and had a great time getting to hear some of their crazy life stories. One dude is going to give me a golden retriever puppy when I come back here in five months - we even shook on it. They were all really cool and again telling me I should move to Bali. I have to admit that it's pretty tempting. There are some places that just feel like they could be home, and this is one of them. Such a perfect week.

I'm also VERY excited to see Las & Joey & Laurenskies in a few days!!! I'm leaving Bali tomorrow morning and they're leaving Chicago/Scotland tonight, so we'll all converge on Singapore by Sunday night. It'll be so good to see some of my best buds from home!

Okay, time to go back outside and see a few more things to smile about! I hope you're all doing as well at home!

Mekong River & Laos

There are some things that you can never really explain to people who haven't seen them with their own eyes, and the calm beauty of our journey up the Mekong was one of them. The mountains on either side of the river are covered with impossibly green trees and grass; single straw huts and small villages dot the shoreline; jagged rocks jut out of the calm brown water every few meters... against that backdrop, villagers bathe, children play, and adults fish using bamboo poles and hand-held nets. Cows, bulls, boar and chickens cool off near the water. There was something lovely to see at every turn.

Taking the slow boat meant a 3 day trip from Chiang Mai, TH to Luang Prabang, Laos. We had a great time on the trip getting to know our fellow travelers. I even met a Filipino guy who knows my friend Justin because their Peace Corps assignments in Burkina Faso overlapped. It was really funny to hear this guy swear up a storm because he was so surprised that we could possibly have this friend in common when we just happened to sit next to each other on a boat in Laos. I love small world coincidences like that.

So the beautiful scenery and being in good company made the journey worth the long 3 days. Jenn and I spent some time in Luang Prabang and loved it right away. Then we breezed through Viang Vien, spent a few days in Vientiane, and are currently in Pakse in the south. Laos has a much calmer, friendlier approach to tourism than Thailand. Here they set up their shops and stalls, smile at you, and let you check our their goods at your own pace (instead of chasing you down the street harassing you with rehearsed English phrases like "Hey you! Where you go!) It's nice that it's all much more peaceful here. Later this week we'll go to the Four Thousand Islands before we cross into Cambodia. As much as we've loved Laos, we're also looking forward to Cambodia, especially finally getting to see Angkor Wat. It's been great so far, and I'm not even halfway through my summer travels!

Hope everyone at home is doing well! I miss my people.

Pai & Chiang Mai

Ladky was right - Pai may be heaven on earth. I think the views, the chill people and all-around blissfulness of the place were my reward for my journey from hell to get there. On Thursday I took an all-day yoga class with Mama Mam, a 61-year old fireball with plenty of stories to tell. Friday and Saturday, Jenn and I did more yoga and went on an awesome, tough bike ride through the mountains to see an old WWII bridge and hike up to a really cool canyon ovelook.

Today, Jenn and I volunteered in Chiang Mai to help Cultural Canvas Thailand build a mud bottle wall/meditation space for a women's center called Wildflower. It was a cool day of meeting great people and playing with mud, rice, glass bottles, and small Thai/Vietnamese/hill tribe children. For the next few days we'll finally do the big sightseeing in Chiang Mai before taking the slow boat ("slow... boat..."- Jenn) to Laos. It's time to get out of Thailand for awhile.

Mae Sot & Myanmar

I was adopted by a woman in Mae Sot, who brought me to her school, drove me around town on her motorbike, and fed me constantly for a few days. I helped her record English dialogue lessons for her Thai students, and chatted with her for hours. It was nice to get more closely acquainted with this woman, meet her students, and get to see Mae Sot, a Thai-Burmese-Indian town, through her eyes. One of the highlights was meeting a student with a crush who said "I still heart you forever, teacher!" as I was leaving.

The day I spent in Myanmar was absolutely ridiculous, mostly for reasons that can't be explained on here. I crossed the Mae Sot-Myawaddy border with no trouble, although the passport control guy thought I was doign a visa run and didn't understand why I was leaving so far ahead of April 12th (which is when I'm required to leave Thailand for a sec). But I got in okay, had a Burmese man walk me over the Friendship Bridge, and then ambled around Myawaddy for a few hours. I stopped at a pretty cool Wat for awhile - similar to but not exactly the same as Thai wats. A group of young monks was splashing each other and messing around in the water. They all giggled and nodded when I asked if I could take their photo. Afterward I showed them the pics and they laughed hysterically, pointing fingers and teasing each other for their captured expressions.

A bit later I got my palm read by an ancient Burmese man. I'm to live over 90 years, have two marriages, 3 children, and be extremely lucky from 35-42 years old. Also something about Venus and Saturn, but I couldn't understand him about that part. Or he just made it all up.

Lunch was a trip. I walked into a nice-looking place back near the border and asked if they accepted Thai baht. Until I actually showed them the bills, they seemed to think I'd said something about hot coffee. The menu, of course, was unintelligible to my eyes, so I said chicken/gai to the FOUR waitresses and one young boy who were standing before me. They all excitedly nodded their heads, so I continued, "Ok, chicken.... and anything. Ok? Chicken and whatever. Mai pen rai. Ok?" No, not okay. They had no idea what I meant. So in a big gesture to help, one of them ran next door to get an interpreter, who turned out to speak no English whatsoever, but did speak a little Thai. So I thought she and I worked out that I would eat anything under the sun as long as it was paired with chicken instead of a more questionable meat.

This was what they served me: a bowl of rice large enough to feed a family of four; pickled spinach/greens; bean sprouts and tofu; an oily green soup with grape leaves; two pickled spicy eggs; a plate of herbs with a nasty sour source; and what I thought was green mango but most definitely was not. Then they stood at the end of my table and STARED at me for minutes. I finally glanced at them awkwardly and they immediately smiled and backed away. Of course the food turned out to be delicious. Chicken or the rest of that stuff? Same same.

monkey thief

since yesterday morning i've been to Lop Buri, Phitsanulok and Sukhothai. it's been a cool tour of some of the smaller ancient cities and i'm liking the few days of solo travel. tomorrow i'll go into the Sukhothai historical park (another UNESCO world heritage site) before leaving for Tak Province & Mae Sot. Mae Sot is right on the Myanmar/Burmese border and I'm looking forward to spending a day or two there. i'm still undecided about whether to cross the burmese border for a day... lots of controversy about visiting that country, and for good reason, but i wouldn't mind talking to a few locals and gaining some insight into their way of life and view on their own circumstance. promise to be careful.

while i was in Lop Buri, i visited the famous Wat San Phra Kan with a Dutch girl i met. i nicely warned her to take off her sunglasses and put her cell phone in her bag, since i'd heard stories that the monkeys ("liing") that clamor all over the Wat like to steal stuff from you. so although Astrid's goodies were all safe, one bastard monkey climbed up on my shoulder, which i thought was real cute for a second, and then yanked my earring out of my ear before i even knew what was happening. so i hope the little guy enjoys his new toy, because i really liked those earrings so he better, too.
btw, the last rule listed on the back of my train ticket says: "no animals or strange smelling foods/fruits in the air-conditioned cars." got that?

scuba: check

I’m officially a certified Scuba Steve! I finished my Open Water training a few days ago in Koh Tao. Unfortunately Jenn got super sick and had to cut her training short. The poor girl was absolutely miserable. I tried my best to take care of her, and she was a trooper, but I feel awful that she had such a shitty week. We made a few trips to the island’s clinics but ultimately decided to leave early and go to a hospital in Bangkok. So we went straight to the ER this morning, and she has a new round of medicine to take. I hope she gets better asap and meets up with us within a week to get her travel on.


I’m leaving in the morning to slowly make my way up to northern Thailand. I think I’m going to check out Lopburi, Phitsanulok, Sukhothai, and maybe Tak province along the Myanmar/Burma border. Then I should be in Chiang Mai in a week if not sooner.

Happy Spring to everyone back home!

Learning Thai

I finally started making a more serious effort to learn Thai. Since I arrived in Thailand, I’ve learned bits of the language on a need-to-know basis. I can order food in a restaurant, give directions to taxi drivers, bargain for a lower price, and handle basic greetings. But recently I finally bought a good book and have been working on learning the Thai alphabet and writing system. It’s so confusing! Not only is it a new set of sounds (not to mention tones), but also a whole new world of totally different characters. The Thai alphabet has 44 consonants and 32 vowels. (So far I’ve memorized reading and pronouncing a whopping 12 of them.) Thai is phonetic, meaning that once I know all of the letters, their classes (high, middle or low), the tone marks (low, falling, high, rising), then supposedly I’ll be able to read Thai with decent pronunciation. Learning the letters and distinguishing the tones will be the tough part. But some things in Thai are actually much simpler than English. In Thai, for example, there are no tenses (same verb for past, present, future), no conjugations for different subjects (same verb for I, you, they, we…), and no differentiation between singular and plural. So all of that should make this a simple, manageable project once I learn the other 60+ letters of the alphabet!