It was only a matter of time - I got into my first motorbike accident on Saturday night. It wasn't actually the worst part of the night, but it's worth a mention here.
I was on the back of a motorbike taxi going through old town. We went through an intersection - I have no idea if there was a stop sign or who had right of way... those things just don't quite mean anything here. Anyway as we were going through I looked to my right and saw a woman on a motorbike, with her toddler sitting in front of her. If you've been in an accident you know that slow motion feeling you get when you see it happening but you don't really think it's going to happen until it does. CRASH - she crashed right into my foot!*
Neither of us were going particularly fast and it's motorbikes - not cars - so there's not nearly the same force of impact. Nevertheless, her little girl slid off her lap and kind of half fell and started crying. All the bags the mom was carrying on her handlebars spilled everywhere.** My taxi driver stopped, and I hopped off immediately. He ran to help the lady, who had at this point set her daughter down on the ground properly. The little girl starts wandering around in the street while the mom was straightening up her bike (it had only tipped off balance, not fallen over completely) and telling her daughter "mai bpen lai, mai bpen lai" (nevermind / don't worry). The taxi guy picked up her bags and got her sorted again. The mom gathered up her little girl and was on her way again.
The whole thing happened so fast I just kinda stood there dumbfounded for a minute. None of the traffic on the streets stopped - cars and motorbikes just kinda swerved around us and the little girl. It was surreal, absolutely surreal. Once the mom & daughter were off, the taxi guy got back on his motorbike, as did I and we were off as well. He said repeatedly "Maaa lao" (came fast) in refrence to the other driver, and was still a bit shaken up when he dropped me off. But like, that's that. No checking for damage or taking pictures, no exchanging insurance information. And really, no one was injured. My foot hurt, but it's fine. It was so bizarre.
I think there's something to be said for driving smaller vehicles. I've been in a slow speed crash in a car that gave me whiplash and did some fairly expensive damage to the car. This was probably about the same speed, or possibly faster but because there's not so much weight going into it, there was less damage. It's just not as dangerous. Americans tend to think bigger cars are safer... but I just don't think that's true. Safer for the person in the bigger car maybe, but then before you know it we're all driving tanks down the street. Something to think about.
TAG: Code Fish Sauce.... I'm still having stomach troubles, but my student this morning canceled so I got to come back home to rest.
* Had I been wearing a skirt, both feet would have been on the other side of the bike, one vote in favor of riding side saddle.
** Bags are nothing - I saw a motorbike earlier that night with three people on it - one of whom was carrying a 27" TV.
Showing posts with label Code Fish Sauce. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Code Fish Sauce. Show all posts
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Why you do like that?
You know, the only thing worse than the isolation of being the only native English speaking woman in this town* is having everyone point it out to me.
Every day I ask my classes what they did the day before, or over the weekend. And sometimes ... in the more advanced classes at least... they ask me the same question in return. So I was telling my pre-intermediates that I had gone to the beach ... or maybe it was Bangkok, I can't remember. They asked me who I went with and I said "Just me." and seriously - everyone is scandalized.
To reassure them that I'm not completely pathetic I tell them that there were two women who taught at the school and we did everything together while they were here, but now that they've left it's just me, so I do things alone. But they go on to ask "You have a boyfriend?", "Um.... no." "You have a boyfriend in America???" (they're getting desperate now) and I tell them that "If I had a boyfriend in America I would not be in Thailand alone." and now my favorite part... I actually get this one a lot "Oh... I don't believe you." GAH! I don't know if it's meant as flattery, or a joke, or what... but it's just annoying.
In about half my evening classes, when they find out that I walk home alone at night, one of the men is scandalized enough to insist that he drive me home.... the entire 1/2 mile of well occupied road. It's fine, I'm lazy enough to appreciate the ride. One of my students has been driving me home on Tuesdays and Thursdays and actually took me out for mango & sticky rice the other day. It was nice to sit and chat with him... but I got the quiz about being alone again.
Then, yesterday I was walking to the food court to get dinner and I ran into him. As though we had not JUST had the quiz he started in on me again
"Where are you going?"
"To get some dinner."
"Alone?"
"Yes... just me."
"Why you do like that?"
GAH!!!
I think for a Thai person, there's nothing worse than being alone. Seriously... the culture tends to have the attitude of "the more the merrier" and most restaurants & bars are set up with long tables to accommodate large parties. In the home, meals are served on mats on the floor, usually outside. There doesn't seem to be the concept of needing to set another place at the table, it's normal to have a lot of people at a meal and since everyone serves themselves from several communal dishes in the center - an extra person or two is no big deal.
My students concern for me is genuine, and I do appreciate it. But it's hard not to feel that much worse about being on my own here. Part of me feels like a failure for not having made friends. I get along well enough with the Filipino women at the school. But when I hang out it's rarely fun or interesting enough for me to want to go out of my way to encourage the friendship. We have virtually nothing in common with regard to passions or interests or priorities in life. I spend enough time in bland & polite conversations with my students that I'm just not all that enthusiastic about doing it again over dinner.
It's not like the movies kids. I had this idea that I would be surrounded by all these interesting and adventurous people from England or Australia or wherever... but that just hasn't happened. The western guys who come here do so for the Thai women** and western women don't seem to find their way into Rayong. I imagined being surrounded by other foreign teachers would mean intelligent conversations about worldly topics. Nope. I have never in my life heard so many openly racist jokes and comments about people from different countries.
And it's the kind of thing that I was able to overlook or at least keep a balanced attitude about for a while. Especially while Bunny was here - she tended to steer every conversation towards the silly and ridiculous - evenings out with the group were fine, they were fun. But after a year, and without any buffer personalities to even out the group it's really grating on me. And I'm sure I've grated on the others. It's not fun anymore.
The other day I mentioned to Jeb that I had picked a location for my going away dinner on Saturday night. His response... "Oh - I'm having a party at my place that night... you can come if you want." He'd already invited half the teachers in Rayong... just, you know... not me. And that's fine. It's just my last week here. Why should that matter? I really wouldn't care if he didn't come to my going away thing... but I'm not about to try to compete with his party. I really just need to get out of here.
TAG: Code Fish Sauce
*Marie is technically a native English speaker in that it is her first and only fluent language... but she has a Swiss mother, Filipino father and was born in Thailand.
**I knew this would be the case before I got here, and I've gone back and forth between feeling like I'm being prejudiced and should give the guys a chance, and having those prejudices confirmed over and over and over again. One of these days I will post aaaaaaall about this topic.
*** Edited to add that it happened AGAIN just after I wrote up this post. I substituted for another teacher and was asked "Are you married?" not once, but twice (the second guy was out of the room when the first guy asked) and "Do you have a friend in Rayong? A buddy?" Do you even know what it's like to have to stand in front of a room full of strangers and have to answer "No." while smiling?
Every day I ask my classes what they did the day before, or over the weekend. And sometimes ... in the more advanced classes at least... they ask me the same question in return. So I was telling my pre-intermediates that I had gone to the beach ... or maybe it was Bangkok, I can't remember. They asked me who I went with and I said "Just me." and seriously - everyone is scandalized.
To reassure them that I'm not completely pathetic I tell them that there were two women who taught at the school and we did everything together while they were here, but now that they've left it's just me, so I do things alone. But they go on to ask "You have a boyfriend?", "Um.... no." "You have a boyfriend in America???" (they're getting desperate now) and I tell them that "If I had a boyfriend in America I would not be in Thailand alone." and now my favorite part... I actually get this one a lot "Oh... I don't believe you." GAH! I don't know if it's meant as flattery, or a joke, or what... but it's just annoying.
In about half my evening classes, when they find out that I walk home alone at night, one of the men is scandalized enough to insist that he drive me home.... the entire 1/2 mile of well occupied road. It's fine, I'm lazy enough to appreciate the ride. One of my students has been driving me home on Tuesdays and Thursdays and actually took me out for mango & sticky rice the other day. It was nice to sit and chat with him... but I got the quiz about being alone again.
Then, yesterday I was walking to the food court to get dinner and I ran into him. As though we had not JUST had the quiz he started in on me again
"Where are you going?"
"To get some dinner."
"Alone?"
"Yes... just me."
"Why you do like that?"
GAH!!!
I think for a Thai person, there's nothing worse than being alone. Seriously... the culture tends to have the attitude of "the more the merrier" and most restaurants & bars are set up with long tables to accommodate large parties. In the home, meals are served on mats on the floor, usually outside. There doesn't seem to be the concept of needing to set another place at the table, it's normal to have a lot of people at a meal and since everyone serves themselves from several communal dishes in the center - an extra person or two is no big deal.
My students concern for me is genuine, and I do appreciate it. But it's hard not to feel that much worse about being on my own here. Part of me feels like a failure for not having made friends. I get along well enough with the Filipino women at the school. But when I hang out it's rarely fun or interesting enough for me to want to go out of my way to encourage the friendship. We have virtually nothing in common with regard to passions or interests or priorities in life. I spend enough time in bland & polite conversations with my students that I'm just not all that enthusiastic about doing it again over dinner.
It's not like the movies kids. I had this idea that I would be surrounded by all these interesting and adventurous people from England or Australia or wherever... but that just hasn't happened. The western guys who come here do so for the Thai women** and western women don't seem to find their way into Rayong. I imagined being surrounded by other foreign teachers would mean intelligent conversations about worldly topics. Nope. I have never in my life heard so many openly racist jokes and comments about people from different countries.
And it's the kind of thing that I was able to overlook or at least keep a balanced attitude about for a while. Especially while Bunny was here - she tended to steer every conversation towards the silly and ridiculous - evenings out with the group were fine, they were fun. But after a year, and without any buffer personalities to even out the group it's really grating on me. And I'm sure I've grated on the others. It's not fun anymore.
The other day I mentioned to Jeb that I had picked a location for my going away dinner on Saturday night. His response... "Oh - I'm having a party at my place that night... you can come if you want." He'd already invited half the teachers in Rayong... just, you know... not me. And that's fine. It's just my last week here. Why should that matter? I really wouldn't care if he didn't come to my going away thing... but I'm not about to try to compete with his party. I really just need to get out of here.
TAG: Code Fish Sauce
*Marie is technically a native English speaker in that it is her first and only fluent language... but she has a Swiss mother, Filipino father and was born in Thailand.
**I knew this would be the case before I got here, and I've gone back and forth between feeling like I'm being prejudiced and should give the guys a chance, and having those prejudices confirmed over and over and over again. One of these days I will post aaaaaaall about this topic.
*** Edited to add that it happened AGAIN just after I wrote up this post. I substituted for another teacher and was asked "Are you married?" not once, but twice (the second guy was out of the room when the first guy asked) and "Do you have a friend in Rayong? A buddy?" Do you even know what it's like to have to stand in front of a room full of strangers and have to answer "No." while smiling?
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Just so you know...
I'm still totally freaking out.
Everyone keeps asking me what I'm doing next, and I have an answer... "I'm going to head up towards Chiang Mai, then visit Laos & Vietnam before flying back to the states." but the fact is, I don't have a single hostel booked, I have made no idea when the bus leaves for Chiang Mai or from which station. I have some vague plans of visiting an island before I start traveling in earnest but I still don't have a clue which island to visit. And this is all the easy fun stuff!!
I don't even know when I'm checking out of my apartment. I gave my landlady a vague wave at the calendar indicating the first or second week of October, and she seemed more or less okay with that. Or possibly she was cussing me out for my indecision in words I have no hope of understanding.
I'm not looking forward to YET AGAIN going through every item in my apartment and determining it's value to me in the long and short terms, evaluating whether it will be thrown out, mailed to the States, packed up to be stored for six weeks, or dragged along with me through three countries. Every time I lug my laptop around in my backpack I tell myself there's no way I could deal with traveling with it. Every time I think about leaving my laptop behind for six weeks I break into a panic - there's no way I could survive without unlimited access to the internet!
Once I leave this apartment I'll be living out of some combination of suitcases for like.... indefinitely, with a bare minimum of two months. The nomadic lifestyle does NOT appeal to me. All the declutterers of the world tell you that getting rid of your stuff frees you. But it's not true. Or rather, it's only true to a point. No, you probably don't need twice as many TVs as the number of people in your household, nor do you need the keychain some extended cousin gave you for your 15th birthday just because it reminds you of that one time you went rollerskating together. But as humans, we need stuff. We don't have fur or claws or shells... we can't go naked through the world. We have big brains & nimble hands. We make stuff and we use that stuff to create the environments in which we live.... this is what humans do. Take away my stuff and you're taking away my world.
TAG: Code Fish Sauce
Everyone keeps asking me what I'm doing next, and I have an answer... "I'm going to head up towards Chiang Mai, then visit Laos & Vietnam before flying back to the states." but the fact is, I don't have a single hostel booked, I have made no idea when the bus leaves for Chiang Mai or from which station. I have some vague plans of visiting an island before I start traveling in earnest but I still don't have a clue which island to visit. And this is all the easy fun stuff!!
I don't even know when I'm checking out of my apartment. I gave my landlady a vague wave at the calendar indicating the first or second week of October, and she seemed more or less okay with that. Or possibly she was cussing me out for my indecision in words I have no hope of understanding.
I'm not looking forward to YET AGAIN going through every item in my apartment and determining it's value to me in the long and short terms, evaluating whether it will be thrown out, mailed to the States, packed up to be stored for six weeks, or dragged along with me through three countries. Every time I lug my laptop around in my backpack I tell myself there's no way I could deal with traveling with it. Every time I think about leaving my laptop behind for six weeks I break into a panic - there's no way I could survive without unlimited access to the internet!
Once I leave this apartment I'll be living out of some combination of suitcases for like.... indefinitely, with a bare minimum of two months. The nomadic lifestyle does NOT appeal to me. All the declutterers of the world tell you that getting rid of your stuff frees you. But it's not true. Or rather, it's only true to a point. No, you probably don't need twice as many TVs as the number of people in your household, nor do you need the keychain some extended cousin gave you for your 15th birthday just because it reminds you of that one time you went rollerskating together. But as humans, we need stuff. We don't have fur or claws or shells... we can't go naked through the world. We have big brains & nimble hands. We make stuff and we use that stuff to create the environments in which we live.... this is what humans do. Take away my stuff and you're taking away my world.
OK - perhaps I'm being slightly melodramatic here. But seriously... I hate this part, I really hate this part. Anyone want to come over and help me?
TAG: Code Fish Sauce
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
WTF was I thinking?
I've decided that there's nothing wrong with my life that the judicious application vitamin V won't cure (Vodka that is). Nevertheless, I have decided to go forth with more whining.
WTF was I thinking? Seriously folks... what was I thinking? Can anyone tell me why I thought I'd enjoy spending a YEAR abroad? And in fact, I don't have my plane ticket yet, but if I stick to my current plan, I will have spent a full 15 months abroad. Basically I left when I was 33, I'll be returning when I'm 35. WTF?
Half my (female) friends have either had babies or will have babies by the time I get back. I'm not talking one or two... at last count there will be something like EIGHT new babies in my various circles of friends when I get back. EIGHT!!! One friend started grad school, two got married and another one just got engaged. (edited to add... my point is not that I'm jealous or that I wish somehow I were doing this instead of being here.. my point is that my friends are having important life events and I'm missing them. I would have liked to have gone to the baby showers etc. Sorry I was totally unclear in my whining here. ;) )
While I absolutely needed to go abroad, and I wanted to go for long enough to really get a feel for a place... a year is seeming like a mighty long time. I think I hit my stride at about the 8-9 month mark...I was looking good, feeling good, drinking a LOT, basically having a good time of things. It's been dragging a bit since then... mostly because Bunny & Bobby are gone. They were replaced by two guys who don't seem the least bit interested in making friends with anyone. One is a fairly young American guy who's basically lived in Thailand since he graduated from college. He's quite settled, speaks Thai fluently and is barely cordial. He comes in five minutes before his class, grabs his folder and off he goes. The other new teacher is a middle aged German guy whose conversation skills leave quite a bit to be desired. He seems nice enough but I get the impression that he's one of the guys who came to Thailand because he couldn't get laid in his homeland.
With such an unsatisfactory potential social circle, things have gotten fairly boring. As one office gal's boyfriend so aptly put it when the girls first left "You're sad. You have no friends."
I know if I really needed to, I could break my contract and just leave... but I don't really have anything specific waiting for me in Portland so it's not like there's any real rush for me to return either. I'll stick it out. I'm just going to need a lot more vodka.
TAG: Code Fish Sauce
WTF was I thinking? Seriously folks... what was I thinking? Can anyone tell me why I thought I'd enjoy spending a YEAR abroad? And in fact, I don't have my plane ticket yet, but if I stick to my current plan, I will have spent a full 15 months abroad. Basically I left when I was 33, I'll be returning when I'm 35. WTF?
Half my (female) friends have either had babies or will have babies by the time I get back. I'm not talking one or two... at last count there will be something like EIGHT new babies in my various circles of friends when I get back. EIGHT!!! One friend started grad school, two got married and another one just got engaged. (edited to add... my point is not that I'm jealous or that I wish somehow I were doing this instead of being here.. my point is that my friends are having important life events and I'm missing them. I would have liked to have gone to the baby showers etc. Sorry I was totally unclear in my whining here. ;) )
While I absolutely needed to go abroad, and I wanted to go for long enough to really get a feel for a place... a year is seeming like a mighty long time. I think I hit my stride at about the 8-9 month mark...I was looking good, feeling good, drinking a LOT, basically having a good time of things. It's been dragging a bit since then... mostly because Bunny & Bobby are gone. They were replaced by two guys who don't seem the least bit interested in making friends with anyone. One is a fairly young American guy who's basically lived in Thailand since he graduated from college. He's quite settled, speaks Thai fluently and is barely cordial. He comes in five minutes before his class, grabs his folder and off he goes. The other new teacher is a middle aged German guy whose conversation skills leave quite a bit to be desired. He seems nice enough but I get the impression that he's one of the guys who came to Thailand because he couldn't get laid in his homeland.
With such an unsatisfactory potential social circle, things have gotten fairly boring. As one office gal's boyfriend so aptly put it when the girls first left "You're sad. You have no friends."
I know if I really needed to, I could break my contract and just leave... but I don't really have anything specific waiting for me in Portland so it's not like there's any real rush for me to return either. I'll stick it out. I'm just going to need a lot more vodka.
TAG: Code Fish Sauce
Monday, July 20, 2009
blah blah blah
I have a lot I want to talk about but I just don't know what to say.
My internet access ran out again today.... so much for the unlimited plan I fairly *begged* to have reinstated last week. After nearly breaking down in tears in the middle of Starbucks I called the call center and figured out how to (in theory) have unlimited access for the next four months (as long as I intend to be in Thailand). I nearly had an anxiety attack walking back up to the DTAC office upstairs. You have no idea.... no idea (I mean, unless you've tried to do something beaurocratic in another country where you don't speak the language) how stressful this whole thing has become for me. But I think *I THINK* I've got it sorted now. We'll see. And now I've officially spent TWICE as much as I pay in rent on internet access this month. Ahhh... the price of addiction.
I'm having intestinal crisis #478 this week. Not entirely sure what I did this time since it's the opposite of my usual problems. I've got myself a couple liters of water and a box of All Bran though, so wish me luck. =/ And honestly I do know what the problem is. I've been more than a little irresponsible with my prescription drugs lately. Somehow I feel like old medical problems don't count in Thailand and stopped taking my thyroid meds when they ran out a couple months ago. No lectures... I went and got some more today.
I hate that everything is a chore here. The first time I tried to get my thyroid meds filled the motorbike taxi guy took me to something like five different pharmacies before we found one that actually had them. And the next time I failed pretty hard at trying to pronounce the name of the pharmacy and ended up walking quite a ways to get there. This time I got lucky... sort of. I showed the taxi guy my empty pill bottle and asked for the "kah yah" (pharmacy) and magically they knew which one I needed.
Once there, I showed the pharmacists the bottle, one of them grabbed the box of meds and consulted with each other for a minute.* They asked me how many pills I wanted... so I asked how much they cost. They said 10 baht, but I wasn't sure if that was 10 baht per pill or 10 baht per sheet of 10... I'd neglected to go to the ATM before we got there so I wasn't sure how much money I had on me and I just about had a math anxiety attack trying to figure the whole thing out. It ended up being 10 baht per sheet, so I could have stocked up... but I just got enough for the month. I don't want to think about next month.
I'm having food hallucinations. Every once in a while I smell something like fresh made bread, or bacon and eggs. I'll be sitting in the middle of class and can almost taste a corn muffin. The most common hallucination is toast.... like *good* toast, homemade sourdough bread toast with butter. It's so odd. They *have* bread here... it's just not that good. If it's not plain white sandwich bread (ala Wonder Bread), it's too soft and too sweet. Oh man... I don't even want to talk about it.
My hair is growing out... slowly but surely. I still hate it. I hate it almost every single day. It's just so.... bizarre, so unevenly cut. Even after two attempts at repairing it. Ugh. Half the volume of my hair is just below chin length, most of the remaining amount is somewhere between chin and shoulder length... then I've got like this scraggily thin layer of fairly long hair in the back. It all bounces up into ringlettes once it dries. It is hands down the most bizarre haircut I've ever had. God I hate it.
I've been watching pirated copies of Battlestar Galactica. Is it just me or did the whole thing go to hell in season 3? And has anyone listened to the podcasts / commentaries? I have never heard such a bunch of self-congratulatory egomaniacs in my life! My lord and if I hear them talk about the 'texture' of the show again I'll scream!**
I managed to convince my bank to reactivate my debit card and I actually tested it the other day. So I'll be buying my plane ticket soon... still trying to figure out exactly when. I haven't saved nearly as much money as I'd hoped (see internet fiasco above) so I'm not sure how long I can afford to travel. Given my current mental state, I'm not sure how long I *want* to travel.
Um... yeah. So that's life in Thailand.
TAG: Code Fish Sauce
*One thing I love about Thailand is the way pharmacies work. You can't buy much more than throat drops or Tylenol in the grocery store. But several maintenance-type medicines that would require a prescription in the States are available without a prescription at official pharmacies. I've been able to get both my thyroid meds and my asthma inhaler without seeing a doctor or worrying about an expired prescription. And when I had foot fungus I just showed my foot to the pharmacist and she gave me a good anti-fungal cream. So you can't just pick a bunch of meds off the shelf and try to self-medicate. But neither do you need to pay for unnecessary appointments with a doctor for routine ailments. It seems like just the right amount of control to me.
**Naturally I will be picking up season 4 next time I get paid. Don't judge me! I need to know how it all ends.
My internet access ran out again today.... so much for the unlimited plan I fairly *begged* to have reinstated last week. After nearly breaking down in tears in the middle of Starbucks I called the call center and figured out how to (in theory) have unlimited access for the next four months (as long as I intend to be in Thailand). I nearly had an anxiety attack walking back up to the DTAC office upstairs. You have no idea.... no idea (I mean, unless you've tried to do something beaurocratic in another country where you don't speak the language) how stressful this whole thing has become for me. But I think *I THINK* I've got it sorted now. We'll see. And now I've officially spent TWICE as much as I pay in rent on internet access this month. Ahhh... the price of addiction.
I'm having intestinal crisis #478 this week. Not entirely sure what I did this time since it's the opposite of my usual problems. I've got myself a couple liters of water and a box of All Bran though, so wish me luck. =/ And honestly I do know what the problem is. I've been more than a little irresponsible with my prescription drugs lately. Somehow I feel like old medical problems don't count in Thailand and stopped taking my thyroid meds when they ran out a couple months ago. No lectures... I went and got some more today.
I hate that everything is a chore here. The first time I tried to get my thyroid meds filled the motorbike taxi guy took me to something like five different pharmacies before we found one that actually had them. And the next time I failed pretty hard at trying to pronounce the name of the pharmacy and ended up walking quite a ways to get there. This time I got lucky... sort of. I showed the taxi guy my empty pill bottle and asked for the "kah yah" (pharmacy) and magically they knew which one I needed.
Once there, I showed the pharmacists the bottle, one of them grabbed the box of meds and consulted with each other for a minute.* They asked me how many pills I wanted... so I asked how much they cost. They said 10 baht, but I wasn't sure if that was 10 baht per pill or 10 baht per sheet of 10... I'd neglected to go to the ATM before we got there so I wasn't sure how much money I had on me and I just about had a math anxiety attack trying to figure the whole thing out. It ended up being 10 baht per sheet, so I could have stocked up... but I just got enough for the month. I don't want to think about next month.
I'm having food hallucinations. Every once in a while I smell something like fresh made bread, or bacon and eggs. I'll be sitting in the middle of class and can almost taste a corn muffin. The most common hallucination is toast.... like *good* toast, homemade sourdough bread toast with butter. It's so odd. They *have* bread here... it's just not that good. If it's not plain white sandwich bread (ala Wonder Bread), it's too soft and too sweet. Oh man... I don't even want to talk about it.
My hair is growing out... slowly but surely. I still hate it. I hate it almost every single day. It's just so.... bizarre, so unevenly cut. Even after two attempts at repairing it. Ugh. Half the volume of my hair is just below chin length, most of the remaining amount is somewhere between chin and shoulder length... then I've got like this scraggily thin layer of fairly long hair in the back. It all bounces up into ringlettes once it dries. It is hands down the most bizarre haircut I've ever had. God I hate it.
I've been watching pirated copies of Battlestar Galactica. Is it just me or did the whole thing go to hell in season 3? And has anyone listened to the podcasts / commentaries? I have never heard such a bunch of self-congratulatory egomaniacs in my life! My lord and if I hear them talk about the 'texture' of the show again I'll scream!**
I managed to convince my bank to reactivate my debit card and I actually tested it the other day. So I'll be buying my plane ticket soon... still trying to figure out exactly when. I haven't saved nearly as much money as I'd hoped (see internet fiasco above) so I'm not sure how long I can afford to travel. Given my current mental state, I'm not sure how long I *want* to travel.
Um... yeah. So that's life in Thailand.
TAG: Code Fish Sauce
*One thing I love about Thailand is the way pharmacies work. You can't buy much more than throat drops or Tylenol in the grocery store. But several maintenance-type medicines that would require a prescription in the States are available without a prescription at official pharmacies. I've been able to get both my thyroid meds and my asthma inhaler without seeing a doctor or worrying about an expired prescription. And when I had foot fungus I just showed my foot to the pharmacist and she gave me a good anti-fungal cream. So you can't just pick a bunch of meds off the shelf and try to self-medicate. But neither do you need to pay for unnecessary appointments with a doctor for routine ailments. It seems like just the right amount of control to me.
**Naturally I will be picking up season 4 next time I get paid. Don't judge me! I need to know how it all ends.
Sunday, July 19, 2009
love is in the air
Last night I was at a fellow teacher's house - not one of my usual haunts - so when I got a motorbike taxi home, I wasn't totally sure he knew where my apartment was. As we were driving there was some 'discussion' about where I lived. And by discussion I mean I told him the wrong way to go and with much pointing and appologizing got him turned around again. The whole time he was asking me questions telling me something to which I could only respond "mai cow jai" (don't understand).
As we got near my apartment he said (in Thai):
"You stay here?"
- "yes"
"Do you stay here asdfaoiyuiy ?"
- "what?"
"Do you stay here with aoiyuiy?" he repeated, pulling over beside the gate.
- "Oh, no, no, stay here one person." I replied as I climbed off the bike.
"Do you have a boyfriend?"
- "No no no... don't have a boyfriend, only one person." I said fishing through my purse for some money. As I handed him his fare he made his move.
"I love you." he said (in English) and smiled hopefully, bringing his hand up to his ear in the universal sign for 'call me'.
Gah. I really need to learn to lie... or at least how to say "Yes, I am married and my husband is at home polishing his gun collection right now." in Thai.
TAG: Code Fish Sauce
As we got near my apartment he said (in Thai):
"You stay here?"
- "yes"
"Do you stay here asdfaoiyuiy ?"
- "what?"
"Do you stay here with aoiyuiy?" he repeated, pulling over beside the gate.
- "Oh, no, no, stay here one person." I replied as I climbed off the bike.
"Do you have a boyfriend?"
- "No no no... don't have a boyfriend, only one person." I said fishing through my purse for some money. As I handed him his fare he made his move.
"I love you." he said (in English) and smiled hopefully, bringing his hand up to his ear in the universal sign for 'call me'.
Gah. I really need to learn to lie... or at least how to say "Yes, I am married and my husband is at home polishing his gun collection right now." in Thai.
TAG: Code Fish Sauce
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
I'm siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiick
Gah!!!
I had a plan.
I looked at my schedule and the easiest day I had was Tuesday, a class from 3-5pm and another from 5:30-7:30pm. I thought - this will be a good day to spend the morning at the coffee shop and update my blog, do a little more work on my exit strategy, and basically be productive in a non-work kind of way. Well, the best laid plans...
I got up at around 6am (sunrise, roosters crowing, dogs barking -sleeping in rarely happens). And after hanging out on line for a little while I started to feel sick. That's odd I thought - I really feel like I'm going to puke.
You know, it always feels a little unreal. Like - I'm not really going to puke am I? But sure enough... I spent the better part of the day running in and out of the bathroom. For a while I pulled a pillow in with me and just passed out on the floor. I hate hate hate that feeling when you're sick and you don't even know which end to point towards the toilet. Gah!
By about 11am I realized I wasn't going to be feeling better any time soon so I called in sick. That's one of the lousy things about my job. If I call in sick, it matters. Either my class gets postponed or another teacher has to cover my class at the last minute. It sucks. But I've done enough covering of other people's classes that I don't feel too guilty. And having tried to teach while sick before I knew I just wouldn't be able to handle it.
So I spent the day moaning and groaning and spending quality time in my bathroom... you know, wishing I'd cleaned more recently and all. In the afternoon things were quieting down, so I just went to sleep. Unfortunately when I woke it was nearly 11pm and after finish the water bottle I'd brought to bed with me, I realized I didn't have any more bottled water in my apt. Gah!
I got up, got dressed, and headed out in search of water. There's a little restaurant and a couple mom & pop shops near my apartment but I was worried they'd be closed and I'd have to walk all the way to 7-11. Fortunately the restaurant nearest my building was still open. I bought 4 bottles of water and I must have looked pretty pathetic because she threw an extra one in for free.
I managed to sleep all night but I'm still feeling pretty crummy this morning. And the worst part is, I honestly don't know what made me sick this time. You know, if I could figure it out, I'd have half a chance at avoiding it in the future. I know I didn't eat any raw seafood this time. But I did try a new fruit (custard apple), I've been eating a lot of fruit actually. But I've been gorging myself on mangosteen for at least a week or two and they hadn't made me sick before. I've been eating more veggies though... so this is added evidence against the Dive and their sketchy cleaning practices. ugh. Ok... no more veggies at the Dive, and we'll see how it goes.
Next time you think "I'd love to live abroad!" just remember - it's only glamorous in retrospect!
TAG: Code Fish Sauce
I had a plan.
I looked at my schedule and the easiest day I had was Tuesday, a class from 3-5pm and another from 5:30-7:30pm. I thought - this will be a good day to spend the morning at the coffee shop and update my blog, do a little more work on my exit strategy, and basically be productive in a non-work kind of way. Well, the best laid plans...
I got up at around 6am (sunrise, roosters crowing, dogs barking -sleeping in rarely happens). And after hanging out on line for a little while I started to feel sick. That's odd I thought - I really feel like I'm going to puke.
You know, it always feels a little unreal. Like - I'm not really going to puke am I? But sure enough... I spent the better part of the day running in and out of the bathroom. For a while I pulled a pillow in with me and just passed out on the floor. I hate hate hate that feeling when you're sick and you don't even know which end to point towards the toilet. Gah!
By about 11am I realized I wasn't going to be feeling better any time soon so I called in sick. That's one of the lousy things about my job. If I call in sick, it matters. Either my class gets postponed or another teacher has to cover my class at the last minute. It sucks. But I've done enough covering of other people's classes that I don't feel too guilty. And having tried to teach while sick before I knew I just wouldn't be able to handle it.
So I spent the day moaning and groaning and spending quality time in my bathroom... you know, wishing I'd cleaned more recently and all. In the afternoon things were quieting down, so I just went to sleep. Unfortunately when I woke it was nearly 11pm and after finish the water bottle I'd brought to bed with me, I realized I didn't have any more bottled water in my apt. Gah!
I got up, got dressed, and headed out in search of water. There's a little restaurant and a couple mom & pop shops near my apartment but I was worried they'd be closed and I'd have to walk all the way to 7-11. Fortunately the restaurant nearest my building was still open. I bought 4 bottles of water and I must have looked pretty pathetic because she threw an extra one in for free.
I managed to sleep all night but I'm still feeling pretty crummy this morning. And the worst part is, I honestly don't know what made me sick this time. You know, if I could figure it out, I'd have half a chance at avoiding it in the future. I know I didn't eat any raw seafood this time. But I did try a new fruit (custard apple), I've been eating a lot of fruit actually. But I've been gorging myself on mangosteen for at least a week or two and they hadn't made me sick before. I've been eating more veggies though... so this is added evidence against the Dive and their sketchy cleaning practices. ugh. Ok... no more veggies at the Dive, and we'll see how it goes.
Next time you think "I'd love to live abroad!" just remember - it's only glamorous in retrospect!
TAG: Code Fish Sauce
Monday, May 18, 2009
Prawns by a nose!
Well... do prawns even have noses? Yeah, it probably was the raw prawn. My antibiotics helped, sort of. I've still got some digestive issues, but I think those are diet related. Of course what am I doing? Sitting here eating candy, I'm sure that's not helping the situation.
Gah!
I'm teaching a ton, I was at work from 9am to 9pm today, and thought I'd have all tomorrow morning to write long post, but found out that I'll have a 9am class tomorrow... and on Wednesday I'll be working another 9am - 9pm day.
GAH!
TAG: Code Fish Sauce
Gah!
I'm teaching a ton, I was at work from 9am to 9pm today, and thought I'd have all tomorrow morning to write long post, but found out that I'll have a 9am class tomorrow... and on Wednesday I'll be working another 9am - 9pm day.
GAH!
TAG: Code Fish Sauce
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Again?!? Really?!?
I've managed to pick up yet another intestinal bug. YUMMY! Gah! It's not as bad as the first two, but I'm definitely not happy about the constant tummy ache. I'm not entirely sure how I got it this time either. What do you think:
1. For the past few weeks I'd been seeing all these tables set up outside... literally everywhere. They'd be covered in plastic and have all these brown circles on them - about maybe 5 inches in diameter, a thin layer of who knows what. They were just out there in the sun, out with the flies and the motorbike exhaust etc. Well, my laundry lady has been giving me mangoes from her tree. Apparently they're in season, and it's like zucchinis here. Everyone's giving them away. One day, as she was handing me mangoes she also handed me one a rolled up brown thing - one of the circles I'd seen. Homemade mango fruit leather! It was really yummy. But now that I'm sick... I wonder.
3. I usually eat at the Dive... the dingy nasty fly-infested restaurant near the school. It's a nasty nasty place I promise you. But the food is awesome, seriously tasty! And cheap! It's 35 baht ($1)for a plate of fried rice, or my favorite, the garlic fried pork. These dishes would go for easily $7 - $10 in the states, and probably not taste as good. So it's where we all eat. And usually I'm fine, but lately I've been trying to eat more vegetables. And my eating vegetables has coincided with this recent digestive unpleasantness. Ordinarily I wouldn't blame nice wholesome veggies... but I've recently learned that they wash the veggies in what passes for the 'toilet' (bathroom) here. I've yet to venture into the toilet...it looks something not unlike a porta-potty off on the corner of a building. One hopes that they are merely using the sink to get water and washing the veggies in a nice clean area using soap and all. But now my stomach cramps started right after a nice big plate of stir fried veggies & noodles, so I wonder....
Bunny at the Dive
TAG: Code Fish Sauce
1. For the past few weeks I'd been seeing all these tables set up outside... literally everywhere. They'd be covered in plastic and have all these brown circles on them - about maybe 5 inches in diameter, a thin layer of who knows what. They were just out there in the sun, out with the flies and the motorbike exhaust etc. Well, my laundry lady has been giving me mangoes from her tree. Apparently they're in season, and it's like zucchinis here. Everyone's giving them away. One day, as she was handing me mangoes she also handed me one a rolled up brown thing - one of the circles I'd seen. Homemade mango fruit leather! It was really yummy. But now that I'm sick... I wonder.
Free mangoes... most assuredly *not* the culprit
2. As part of Bunny & Bobby's farewell bash the teachers and even some of the school staff all went out to dinner together. It was more or less family style, and the Thai gals did a lot of the ordering. Someone handed me a plate of Som Tam (spicy papaya salad) with seafood in it. I took a bit with a prawn in it and had it in my mouth before I realized the prawn was raw. I, foolishly, ate it anyway thinking what the heck - I eat sushi! But my last intestinal battle was brought on by eating Som Tam with raw crab. So... I wonder.
3. I usually eat at the Dive... the dingy nasty fly-infested restaurant near the school. It's a nasty nasty place I promise you. But the food is awesome, seriously tasty! And cheap! It's 35 baht ($1)for a plate of fried rice, or my favorite, the garlic fried pork. These dishes would go for easily $7 - $10 in the states, and probably not taste as good. So it's where we all eat. And usually I'm fine, but lately I've been trying to eat more vegetables. And my eating vegetables has coincided with this recent digestive unpleasantness. Ordinarily I wouldn't blame nice wholesome veggies... but I've recently learned that they wash the veggies in what passes for the 'toilet' (bathroom) here. I've yet to venture into the toilet...it looks something not unlike a porta-potty off on the corner of a building. One hopes that they are merely using the sink to get water and washing the veggies in a nice clean area using soap and all. But now my stomach cramps started right after a nice big plate of stir fried veggies & noodles, so I wonder....
Bunny at the Dive4. Then of course, there is the Swine Flu, which you know, hasn't actually been transmitted from swine to humans and turns out to be only about as dangerous as the average flu. Which... you know... still kills a lot of people every year. But hardly the apocalyptic pandemic the media would love to be reporting on at the moment. Nevertheless, I have been eating a lot of pork fried with garlic lately, so I wonder....
5. Finally, not that this is a blatant cry of self pity or anything... but perhaps my recent bout of malaise is due to a serious lack of correspondence. One can never be too sure about these things.
What do you think? Cast your vote in the nifty little poll thingy on the side ------>
In any case I started a course of anti-biotics this morning and will hopefully have this bug kicked by the end of the week. Aren't you glad you tuned in today?
TAG: Code Fish Sauce
Saturday, April 18, 2009
Untangling everything
I'm finally back from our rather eventful Songkran holiday, and I'm just starting to sort everything out. I don't even know where to begin. Well, that's a lie. I'm a pretty sequential kinda gal, so I'll begin at the beginning. But man... the past week has been intense in so many different ways, I'm still mentally processing a lot of it. Hopefully by unloading it here I'll come to some kind of clarity. I just wanted to let everyone know that I'm home, I'm safe and I'll be posting a LOT of pictures and stories very soon. =)
TAG: Code Fish Sauce
Phuket
TAG: Code Fish Sauce
Sunday, March 22, 2009
not-quite-live-blogging Sunday
Inspired (as usual) by Michael5000's antics, I decided to give you all a rundown on how *I* spent my Sunday. And to be fair I'll start it at around midnight.
12:01 - 12:20am I'm at a bar - sitting at an outside table, waiting for a boy to show up. MUCH whiskey (and beer, and vodka) has been consumed. Most of my friends have left, LeBlond, Bunny and I are the last ones standing. There's a table of Korean engineers and their Thai friends/girlfriends right next to us and we start chatting with them. The drunkest of the Korean guys comes over and starts hitting on LeBlond. Our waitress is a katoey. We discuss, in limited English, the fact that homosexuality is not culturally acceptable in Korea. To LeBlond's dismay I inform the Korean guy that he's no longer in Korea, he's in Thailand, so mai bpen lai!
An elaborate plan is covertly hatched (ie in English) that LeBlond and I will switch seats. I walk over to his side of the table. But instead, he takes my hand and we start dancing in the parking lot. The Korean guy grabs Bunny to dance with her (I'm not sure if I ever mentioned this, but Bunny is a lesbian). After a few minutes of this, the Korean guy edges over like he wants to dance with LeBlond... I run interference and dance with him for a while, Bunny & LeBlond dance for a minute then sit down. After another minute or two I deposit the Korean man back at his table, where his friends start appologizing. I'm like "Mai bpen lai" I mean, I'm pretty shit-faced myself.
Sitting back down at the table, I begin to doubt whether boy will ever show up so we pay the bill, finish up the whiskey and head towards the taxis. It becomes important that Bunny decide who does the best cartwheels - me or LeBlond. I was the clear winner, but suddenly become very very sad that we're going home and start crying all over Bunny.
12:20-12:25 Crying all over the back of a motorbike taxi driver on the way home. Bunny is wedged in behind me trying to make me feel better by saying the taxi driver probably gets cried on all the time.
12:25-12:30 Phone call from boy who *finally* made it to the bar. Rebel practices a few Thai swear words.
um.... 12:30 - ??? Hystrionic texting and messaging on facebook. Eventually pass out.
7:30am - wake up to the @$%ing chickens down the street crowing. Hung over... mortified by previous night's behavior. Decide that life will improve greatly with the application of western food and salt water.
8:30 am - catch songtheaw to Ban Phe
9am - attempt confess to waitress at Christie's pub, in Thai, that I'm hung over. She asks what I drank last night and I say "whiskey" she looks surprisingly judgemental given her place of employement. I order, and fully enjoy a bacon cheeseburger with fries.
9:30 am - wander through used bookstore and pick up Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, and the Jungle Book.
10am - ferry to Ko Samet. I get the good boat with the beach chairs on the top deck and am rocked comfortingly by the ocean and soothed by a warm breeze for the next 45 min.
11am - arrive on Ko Samet and check into my room.
11:20am - am parked in a beach chair under an umbrella and have liberally applied sunscreen to my face and neck. Swim, nap, read, swim, nap, swim, stare at the horizon, notice a smaller island that I swear wasn't there when I came in February, nap, read, swim. Decide life isn't quite so bad afterall.
1:30pm - lunch, crab fried rice... rather crunchier than I'd like, I wish they'd do a better job removing the shells. After lunch, read, nap, swim, nap, swim, read. At around 4pm watch the local kids set up a couple of soccer nets and play a game on the beach as the tide goes out.
5 pm - dinner, high hopes for a western sounding ham and cheese baguette... not horrible, but just not quite right. Watch the sun go down, feel a bit sad. Does not help that they're playing cheesy covers of depressing western ballads.
6:30pm - pop into the internet cafe to feed my addiction.
7pm - off to bed. Read, try to sleep, read, try to sleep. Think very seriously about going back to the states, actually contemplate going to live with my family in Tennessee. Miss my mommy.
9pm - much welcomed text from Bunny- call her and chat for a while.
9:30 - 10pm - read, try to sleep, read, try to sleep.
10ish - even more welcomed call from Mistress J. Feel significantly better about life the universe and everything.
11ish - finally fall asleep for reals.
TAG: Code Fish Sauce.
12:01 - 12:20am I'm at a bar - sitting at an outside table, waiting for a boy to show up. MUCH whiskey (and beer, and vodka) has been consumed. Most of my friends have left, LeBlond, Bunny and I are the last ones standing. There's a table of Korean engineers and their Thai friends/girlfriends right next to us and we start chatting with them. The drunkest of the Korean guys comes over and starts hitting on LeBlond. Our waitress is a katoey. We discuss, in limited English, the fact that homosexuality is not culturally acceptable in Korea. To LeBlond's dismay I inform the Korean guy that he's no longer in Korea, he's in Thailand, so mai bpen lai!
An elaborate plan is covertly hatched (ie in English) that LeBlond and I will switch seats. I walk over to his side of the table. But instead, he takes my hand and we start dancing in the parking lot. The Korean guy grabs Bunny to dance with her (I'm not sure if I ever mentioned this, but Bunny is a lesbian). After a few minutes of this, the Korean guy edges over like he wants to dance with LeBlond... I run interference and dance with him for a while, Bunny & LeBlond dance for a minute then sit down. After another minute or two I deposit the Korean man back at his table, where his friends start appologizing. I'm like "Mai bpen lai" I mean, I'm pretty shit-faced myself.
Sitting back down at the table, I begin to doubt whether boy will ever show up so we pay the bill, finish up the whiskey and head towards the taxis. It becomes important that Bunny decide who does the best cartwheels - me or LeBlond. I was the clear winner, but suddenly become very very sad that we're going home and start crying all over Bunny.
12:20-12:25 Crying all over the back of a motorbike taxi driver on the way home. Bunny is wedged in behind me trying to make me feel better by saying the taxi driver probably gets cried on all the time.
12:25-12:30 Phone call from boy who *finally* made it to the bar. Rebel practices a few Thai swear words.
um.... 12:30 - ??? Hystrionic texting and messaging on facebook. Eventually pass out.
7:30am - wake up to the @$%ing chickens down the street crowing. Hung over... mortified by previous night's behavior. Decide that life will improve greatly with the application of western food and salt water.
8:30 am - catch songtheaw to Ban Phe
9am - attempt confess to waitress at Christie's pub, in Thai, that I'm hung over. She asks what I drank last night and I say "whiskey" she looks surprisingly judgemental given her place of employement. I order, and fully enjoy a bacon cheeseburger with fries.
9:30 am - wander through used bookstore and pick up Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, and the Jungle Book.
10am - ferry to Ko Samet. I get the good boat with the beach chairs on the top deck and am rocked comfortingly by the ocean and soothed by a warm breeze for the next 45 min.
11am - arrive on Ko Samet and check into my room.
11:20am - am parked in a beach chair under an umbrella and have liberally applied sunscreen to my face and neck. Swim, nap, read, swim, nap, swim, stare at the horizon, notice a smaller island that I swear wasn't there when I came in February, nap, read, swim. Decide life isn't quite so bad afterall.
1:30pm - lunch, crab fried rice... rather crunchier than I'd like, I wish they'd do a better job removing the shells. After lunch, read, nap, swim, nap, swim, read. At around 4pm watch the local kids set up a couple of soccer nets and play a game on the beach as the tide goes out.
5 pm - dinner, high hopes for a western sounding ham and cheese baguette... not horrible, but just not quite right. Watch the sun go down, feel a bit sad. Does not help that they're playing cheesy covers of depressing western ballads.
6:30pm - pop into the internet cafe to feed my addiction.
7pm - off to bed. Read, try to sleep, read, try to sleep. Think very seriously about going back to the states, actually contemplate going to live with my family in Tennessee. Miss my mommy.
9pm - much welcomed text from Bunny- call her and chat for a while.
9:30 - 10pm - read, try to sleep, read, try to sleep.
10ish - even more welcomed call from Mistress J. Feel significantly better about life the universe and everything.
11ish - finally fall asleep for reals.
TAG: Code Fish Sauce.
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
preparing the appropriate sacrifices
Savage Chickens say it best.
I have angered the gods of the internet again.... I don't even want to talk about it other than to say that trying to get technical issues fixed in a foreign country is it's own special brand of hell. Fortunately the abundance of internet cafes are keeping me from going completely insane.
I have angered the gods of the internet again.... I don't even want to talk about it other than to say that trying to get technical issues fixed in a foreign country is it's own special brand of hell. Fortunately the abundance of internet cafes are keeping me from going completely insane.
.
However I also seem to have angered the gods of sleep. I had insomnia for like two years before coming to Thailand and after the first month I was sleeping like a normal person - it was awesome. But for the last two nights I simply haven't been able to sleep. On Tuesday I'd gone out drinking... but got home at around 10pm and still couldn't fall asleep until wll after 2am... and this after taking (my last) 2 benedryl. Last night I was in bed by 11pm and probably didn't fall asleep until about 4am. And of course I wake up at 7am with the cocks crowing and tropical sun pouring in through my shutterless windows. Ugh. I feel like the walking dead here. I cannot believe it's possible to be this tired and yet not be able to fall asleep. My brain is about to implode. =(
.
TAG: Code Fish Sauce
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Too much of a good thing
My internet access from home is wonky. I tried to download an update and have had problems ever since. Everytime I run the repair utility it tells me it can't do the repair because I'm not connected to the internet. AAAAHHHGGGG!!!
Anyway I went on my third trip of the month to Ko Samet on Sunday. It started auspiciously enough. The last time I'd been to the book store I found HP - The Half Blood Prince and had almost finished it. I stopped in to the book store again, and they had HP - Dealthly Hallows in paperback (which I don't think they had previously). Awesome!
It was not until I got onto the island and started unpacking my things that I realized that I'd forgotten to bring my beach-bag. My beach bag always sits by my front door and contains my sun hat, sunscreen, sunglasses and a stack of postcards. =( My tan had gotten somewhat out of control...people were commenting on it regularly... and I'd been meaning to be better about using sunscreen. So I went to 7/11 to pick some up and was shocked at the prices - 300 baht for a small bottle! I put my faith in my existing tan to protect me and skipped it entirely.
I spent the day swimming and reading on the beach crying on and off from the moment Harry started his own coastal excusion with Dumbledor to the end of the book. And then, I couldn't help it, I skipped to the end of book 7 - picking up from when Harry re-enters the forest & opens the Snitch. OMG! Yeah. It was awesome, reading a good book on the beach is one of my ultimate joys. The sun, the sand, the warm water & gentle waves.... all of it was perfect. It wasn't until I'd finished the end of book 7 that I decided to call it a day, satisfied that I'd gotten my fill of the beach.
Back in my room I knew I was in trouble. My face was not just dark it was dark red... bad red. Burgundy red. There was not much to do for it though. I went out again the next morning and tried to stay in the shade. Ultimately I went home early because I realized I was beyond stupid for not getting the sunscreen when I had the chance. I was burned and it HURT!
On Monday of course everone who looked at me was shocked and commented, literally adding insult to injury. I wasn't able to get to Tescos that day, and the pharmacy near my school didn't have aloe. It wasn't until Tuesday that I made it to Tesco and picked some up. My skin felt better as soon as I used it... and by Wednesday I was feeling and looking a bit better.
But today... ugh... today is bad. For one the sunburn on my lips cause a couple of cold sores to pop up. And now my skin is peeling in lots of little flakes and some larger peels if I scratch my forehead. Disgusting. The aloe keeps things mellow for a while, but as soon as it dries I start flaking again. My skin underneath the sunburn is pale & pinkish - a pretty strong contrast to the burgundy of my sunburn. Not beautiful.
And the Thai girls from the office, proper sun-shy asian girls that they are, can't quite understand what's happening. They look vaguely horrified. It is horrible. And I have class in an hour - I really dont' know how I'm supposed to show my face. Ugh. =(
I've learned my lesson! I promise I have! I'm never going to the beach without sunscreen again!
TAG: Code Fish Sauce
Anyway I went on my third trip of the month to Ko Samet on Sunday. It started auspiciously enough. The last time I'd been to the book store I found HP - The Half Blood Prince and had almost finished it. I stopped in to the book store again, and they had HP - Dealthly Hallows in paperback (which I don't think they had previously). Awesome!
It was not until I got onto the island and started unpacking my things that I realized that I'd forgotten to bring my beach-bag. My beach bag always sits by my front door and contains my sun hat, sunscreen, sunglasses and a stack of postcards. =( My tan had gotten somewhat out of control...people were commenting on it regularly... and I'd been meaning to be better about using sunscreen. So I went to 7/11 to pick some up and was shocked at the prices - 300 baht for a small bottle! I put my faith in my existing tan to protect me and skipped it entirely.
I spent the day swimming and reading on the beach crying on and off from the moment Harry started his own coastal excusion with Dumbledor to the end of the book. And then, I couldn't help it, I skipped to the end of book 7 - picking up from when Harry re-enters the forest & opens the Snitch. OMG! Yeah. It was awesome, reading a good book on the beach is one of my ultimate joys. The sun, the sand, the warm water & gentle waves.... all of it was perfect. It wasn't until I'd finished the end of book 7 that I decided to call it a day, satisfied that I'd gotten my fill of the beach.
Back in my room I knew I was in trouble. My face was not just dark it was dark red... bad red. Burgundy red. There was not much to do for it though. I went out again the next morning and tried to stay in the shade. Ultimately I went home early because I realized I was beyond stupid for not getting the sunscreen when I had the chance. I was burned and it HURT!
On Monday of course everone who looked at me was shocked and commented, literally adding insult to injury. I wasn't able to get to Tescos that day, and the pharmacy near my school didn't have aloe. It wasn't until Tuesday that I made it to Tesco and picked some up. My skin felt better as soon as I used it... and by Wednesday I was feeling and looking a bit better.
But today... ugh... today is bad. For one the sunburn on my lips cause a couple of cold sores to pop up. And now my skin is peeling in lots of little flakes and some larger peels if I scratch my forehead. Disgusting. The aloe keeps things mellow for a while, but as soon as it dries I start flaking again. My skin underneath the sunburn is pale & pinkish - a pretty strong contrast to the burgundy of my sunburn. Not beautiful.
And the Thai girls from the office, proper sun-shy asian girls that they are, can't quite understand what's happening. They look vaguely horrified. It is horrible. And I have class in an hour - I really dont' know how I'm supposed to show my face. Ugh. =(
I've learned my lesson! I promise I have! I'm never going to the beach without sunscreen again!
TAG: Code Fish Sauce
Monday, February 9, 2009
Something's gotta give
Your good pal Rebel is a bit melancholy today. Was not quite able to recapture the glory of previous trips to Ko Samet last night. I did thoroughly enjoy the beach thought and spent hours and hours and hours in the ocean. I also spent hours and hours and hours on the beach with minimal sunscreen. Bad Rebel!
Being abroad is, in some ways, a bit like an intervention or rehab or something. You're taken away from all your normal comforts and escapes and forced to deal with life (both the things that come at you day to day, and the things you bring within yourself) in completely different ways. I'm having a day when all I really want to do is stay home and mope on the couch watching bad TV and eating cheese. Now, I don't have a couch or a TV and I don't even want to talk about the cheese situation. The thing is, sitting on the couch watching bad TV and eating cheese wasn't exactly getting me what I wanted out of life. Unfortunately I still haven't quite figured out what will get me what I want out of life.
Any ideas on that?
Being abroad is, in some ways, a bit like an intervention or rehab or something. You're taken away from all your normal comforts and escapes and forced to deal with life (both the things that come at you day to day, and the things you bring within yourself) in completely different ways. I'm having a day when all I really want to do is stay home and mope on the couch watching bad TV and eating cheese. Now, I don't have a couch or a TV and I don't even want to talk about the cheese situation. The thing is, sitting on the couch watching bad TV and eating cheese wasn't exactly getting me what I wanted out of life. Unfortunately I still haven't quite figured out what will get me what I want out of life.
Any ideas on that?
Friday, February 6, 2009
I think I'll go for a walk...
I'm feeling much better today. In fact today I'm famished. Understandable considering I'd barely eaten more than a handful of crackers and a little chicken & rice since lunchtime Tuesday (it's Friday night). I don't know what it was, I ate the same thing I always do for breakfast, and then Bunny and I split a "pizza" (It really wasn't pizza, I can't describe it, the bile starts coming to my throat just thinking about it) and she was fine. Who the hell knows why I keep getting sick. And yes, I need to pick up some of that whatever it is that people keep recommending to me. Someone recommend it again and I promise I will write it down and go to the pharmacy at lunchtime tomorrow and buy some.
Today I ate a bunch of crackers for breakfast, and was starving by noon. For lunch I had a big ol' plate of garlic fried pork & rice, and then for dinner, about two hours ago I went to McDonalds for a double cheeseburger, fries and a sprite.... supersized - DON'T JUDGE ME - YOU DON'T KNOW!!! And I'm already hungry again. I should probably eat an actual vegetable at some point. Hmmm.
I had a mini-meltdown at work last Saturday. Saturday is, as you may recall, the day of my dreaded kid classes... and I'd gone head-to-head with my manager again about how inappropriate the book was for that level and how if I could just go to a different book at a different level I might actually be able to teach them something. Alas, no dice... the course was ending but I'd be have to use a different, but equally inappropriate book. I was not happy.
In addition, I'd gotten my February schedule on Friday and noticed that for once I didn't have a Monday morning class. I'd been keeping my eye out for another opportunity to go to Ko Samet and jumped on it. I thought about heading out immediately after my Saturday class to try to make two nights and a full day of it, but decided I'd rather go out to dinner with B & B and head out first thing in the morning. So I was hanging out in the teacher's room planning for the three afternoon/evening classes that were scheduled on Monday and waiting for Bunny to finish up class so we could eat. One of the staff came in, and told me "problem with your schedule" and proceded to tell me that one of my students had to cancel their Wednesday class so she rescheduled them for Monday morning.
I didn't exactly *yell* at her, but as the English say, I was "quite cross" about it. I mean, I already had three classes scheduled, and was desperately in need of a day away. The additional class would have had me going from 9am to 8:30pm, and I'm sorry, but I'm just not a machine. On another day, in a better mood, I might have just sucked it up and said fine, but after yet another hellish Saturday, there was no way and I told her so. And proving, that here in the land of smiles you actually do get more flies with vinegar than with honey, she agreed to ask the manager if someone else could fill in for me. Which they did, and I got to go to Ko Samet.*
I absolutely hate that I had to throw a hissy fit in order to get something to go my way, and I feel bad for ducking out of a class on a day that is my scheduled work day. The staff only get one day off a week, and there are several days when I only have one or two classes; leaving the bulk of my day free. I felt like a spoiled brat. I hate feeling like that. I felt amazing at the beach though... so I can't quite regret my tantrum. Especially since it made me do some real thinking and I figured out the source of some of my unhappiness here. The problem is two-fold... well three-fold, the overarching issue is not having a two day weekend. But I think I could adjust to that were it not for the other two problems.
One - transportation. I don't have a car or a motorbike here. I've pretty much given up on the motorbike idea as too expensive and too much of a hassle. During the day, I have no problem getting where I want to go, between the songthaews and motorbike taxis I can get around Rayong quickly and easily, and there are also reasonably cheap & convenient buses & minivans to Bangkok. But once evening falls, it's much more of a challenge. The taxis run until 11pm or later on the main bar street... but that's it. The songthaew to & from the beach stops running at around 5pm, as does the ferry to Ko Samet. Which means I could only even attempt a run to Ko Samet on a Saturday if my 5-7pm class cancels, and I thought ahead to pack up all my beach stuff on Friday night, and I miraculously caught a songthaew between about 4:00 and 4:15 in order to get to the dock on time. In other words... never gonna happen.
Bunny and Bobby encountered a similar problem today. They had the day off and wanted to go to Pattaya - which is only about 45 minutes away by car. But the bus schedule leaves something to be desired. The first bus is at 5am (which requires waking at about 4am to walk to the bus station - no motorbike taxis available at that hour)... and the next is at 1:30 in the afternoon. Coming home, the last bus is at about 6pm. They have an entire day free, but unless they want to wake up pre-dawn, (either coming or going) they won't be able to spend more than an afternoon there. And you don't go to Pattaya for it's "afternoon-life". =/
The second problem, which might not bother me at all if the transportation & scheduling allowed for more exploration, is that my home is not cozy. I don't have a couch, or a TV, or a DVR, or a kitchen, or a sewing machine, or any of those things that kept me pleasingly occupied for many rainy day in Portland. Seriously, back in my dinky little apartment (giant & luxurious compared to my current studio) I had everything I needed to keep me entertained for days.
Sorting this out is good, because it's putting a finer point on what I do want. I'd like a little more coziness in my living space, because downtime is inevitable, and do enjoy sitting on a couch... or even a comfy chair, and knitting. I can do without a TV as long as I have my computer and some DVDs. I don't need a kitchen, in fact not having a kitchen, although hard, has helped me lose quite a bit of weight.
So the real issue is transportation... if I'm going to continue to live in Rayong, I'm either going to need a motorbike, or a two-day weekend. If I'm going to have a schedule with only one day off each week, I'm going to need to live somewhere with better public transport... or more to do in town. I've already been toying with the idea of moving to Bangkok when the rainy season gets here... but until then, maybe I do need to re-evaluate the motor-bike plan. The expensive, complicated motor-bike plan. =/
Ok... in other news, I do actually get two days off together this week, there's a holiday of some sort on Monday. So I'll be going to Ko Samet on Sunday on my own, and a bunch of other people will come on Sunday night. Should be fun. I know it seems whiney to complain that I only get to go to an island resort twice in one month instead of every weekend. But seriously, I'm giving up a lot to be here, and the giving up was so that I could do things like that. I don't know... I'm afraid I've become whiney and entitled. But then, I spent about 5 un-paid hours today writing up progress reports... and have a couple more un-paid hours of lesson planning to do tonight... so maybe I'm not so whiney and entitled afterall.
*Getting back in time for my 2pm class was a bit tricky as I missed the 11am ferry and couldn't actually leave the island until noon. It's a 45-50 min ferry ride back to Ban Phe, and a 40 min songthew ride back to Rayong, and a good 10 min. walk back home. But an expensive (200 baht) and absolutely terrifying motorbike taxi ride later ("go fast" is a recent addition to my Thai vocabulary) I managed to get home, showered, changed & back to school right on time.
Today I ate a bunch of crackers for breakfast, and was starving by noon. For lunch I had a big ol' plate of garlic fried pork & rice, and then for dinner, about two hours ago I went to McDonalds for a double cheeseburger, fries and a sprite.... supersized - DON'T JUDGE ME - YOU DON'T KNOW!!! And I'm already hungry again. I should probably eat an actual vegetable at some point. Hmmm.
I had a mini-meltdown at work last Saturday. Saturday is, as you may recall, the day of my dreaded kid classes... and I'd gone head-to-head with my manager again about how inappropriate the book was for that level and how if I could just go to a different book at a different level I might actually be able to teach them something. Alas, no dice... the course was ending but I'd be have to use a different, but equally inappropriate book. I was not happy.
In addition, I'd gotten my February schedule on Friday and noticed that for once I didn't have a Monday morning class. I'd been keeping my eye out for another opportunity to go to Ko Samet and jumped on it. I thought about heading out immediately after my Saturday class to try to make two nights and a full day of it, but decided I'd rather go out to dinner with B & B and head out first thing in the morning. So I was hanging out in the teacher's room planning for the three afternoon/evening classes that were scheduled on Monday and waiting for Bunny to finish up class so we could eat. One of the staff came in, and told me "problem with your schedule" and proceded to tell me that one of my students had to cancel their Wednesday class so she rescheduled them for Monday morning.
I didn't exactly *yell* at her, but as the English say, I was "quite cross" about it. I mean, I already had three classes scheduled, and was desperately in need of a day away. The additional class would have had me going from 9am to 8:30pm, and I'm sorry, but I'm just not a machine. On another day, in a better mood, I might have just sucked it up and said fine, but after yet another hellish Saturday, there was no way and I told her so. And proving, that here in the land of smiles you actually do get more flies with vinegar than with honey, she agreed to ask the manager if someone else could fill in for me. Which they did, and I got to go to Ko Samet.*
I absolutely hate that I had to throw a hissy fit in order to get something to go my way, and I feel bad for ducking out of a class on a day that is my scheduled work day. The staff only get one day off a week, and there are several days when I only have one or two classes; leaving the bulk of my day free. I felt like a spoiled brat. I hate feeling like that. I felt amazing at the beach though... so I can't quite regret my tantrum. Especially since it made me do some real thinking and I figured out the source of some of my unhappiness here. The problem is two-fold... well three-fold, the overarching issue is not having a two day weekend. But I think I could adjust to that were it not for the other two problems.
One - transportation. I don't have a car or a motorbike here. I've pretty much given up on the motorbike idea as too expensive and too much of a hassle. During the day, I have no problem getting where I want to go, between the songthaews and motorbike taxis I can get around Rayong quickly and easily, and there are also reasonably cheap & convenient buses & minivans to Bangkok. But once evening falls, it's much more of a challenge. The taxis run until 11pm or later on the main bar street... but that's it. The songthaew to & from the beach stops running at around 5pm, as does the ferry to Ko Samet. Which means I could only even attempt a run to Ko Samet on a Saturday if my 5-7pm class cancels, and I thought ahead to pack up all my beach stuff on Friday night, and I miraculously caught a songthaew between about 4:00 and 4:15 in order to get to the dock on time. In other words... never gonna happen.
Bunny and Bobby encountered a similar problem today. They had the day off and wanted to go to Pattaya - which is only about 45 minutes away by car. But the bus schedule leaves something to be desired. The first bus is at 5am (which requires waking at about 4am to walk to the bus station - no motorbike taxis available at that hour)... and the next is at 1:30 in the afternoon. Coming home, the last bus is at about 6pm. They have an entire day free, but unless they want to wake up pre-dawn, (either coming or going) they won't be able to spend more than an afternoon there. And you don't go to Pattaya for it's "afternoon-life". =/
The second problem, which might not bother me at all if the transportation & scheduling allowed for more exploration, is that my home is not cozy. I don't have a couch, or a TV, or a DVR, or a kitchen, or a sewing machine, or any of those things that kept me pleasingly occupied for many rainy day in Portland. Seriously, back in my dinky little apartment (giant & luxurious compared to my current studio) I had everything I needed to keep me entertained for days.
Sorting this out is good, because it's putting a finer point on what I do want. I'd like a little more coziness in my living space, because downtime is inevitable, and do enjoy sitting on a couch... or even a comfy chair, and knitting. I can do without a TV as long as I have my computer and some DVDs. I don't need a kitchen, in fact not having a kitchen, although hard, has helped me lose quite a bit of weight.
So the real issue is transportation... if I'm going to continue to live in Rayong, I'm either going to need a motorbike, or a two-day weekend. If I'm going to have a schedule with only one day off each week, I'm going to need to live somewhere with better public transport... or more to do in town. I've already been toying with the idea of moving to Bangkok when the rainy season gets here... but until then, maybe I do need to re-evaluate the motor-bike plan. The expensive, complicated motor-bike plan. =/
Ok... in other news, I do actually get two days off together this week, there's a holiday of some sort on Monday. So I'll be going to Ko Samet on Sunday on my own, and a bunch of other people will come on Sunday night. Should be fun. I know it seems whiney to complain that I only get to go to an island resort twice in one month instead of every weekend. But seriously, I'm giving up a lot to be here, and the giving up was so that I could do things like that. I don't know... I'm afraid I've become whiney and entitled. But then, I spent about 5 un-paid hours today writing up progress reports... and have a couple more un-paid hours of lesson planning to do tonight... so maybe I'm not so whiney and entitled afterall.
*Getting back in time for my 2pm class was a bit tricky as I missed the 11am ferry and couldn't actually leave the island until noon. It's a 45-50 min ferry ride back to Ban Phe, and a 40 min songthew ride back to Rayong, and a good 10 min. walk back home. But an expensive (200 baht) and absolutely terrifying motorbike taxi ride later ("go fast" is a recent addition to my Thai vocabulary) I managed to get home, showered, changed & back to school right on time.
Friday, January 30, 2009
25 Random Things About Rebel
I was tagged to do this on Facebook. Although I've recently been schooled on the difference between 'arbitrary' and 'random', so I actually wrote out 50 arbitrary things about myself then used a random number generator to create this list. And yes, I agree, I *should* have gotten first place in Dorktoberfest... take it up with Michael5000.
1. The beach I frequented in California is often featured in movies / TV / ads. I take personal pride in knowing that "my beach" is so photogenic.
2. I'm terrified of snakes... absolutely terrified. I've been known to run screaming from little 8" garden snakes. It's not funny... it's a phobia.
3. I miss Knit Night on Thursdays at Abundant. Yarn, gossip, chocolate... life was good!!!
4. I'm extremely sensitive to pain, I bumped into a door today, not even especially hard, and it hurt for like 5 minutes.
5. Drop Top Amber rocks my world.
6. Havarti makes me happy.
7. I'm a very tactile person and I love touching things... when I go to the store I just have to touch things as I walk past.
8. I had a crush on one of my students (so cute... sooooo cute!) but forgot to get his number before the course ended. =( He gave me really high marks on my evaluation, though. =)
9. I regularly ride side-saddle on the back of a motorbike with no helmet.
10. I went to Knollwood Elementary school, in Lake Hiawatha New Jersey.
11. I am the world's worst liar. Half the time I can't even come up with anything that's not true.... and when I do, it's absurdly easy to tell. I'm pretty good at omitting the truth though, and subtle misdirection.
12. I'm an unappologetic carnivore.... I'll eat fried chicken while staring down the chickens in the next yard.
13. I got drunk enough to try escargot one time but regretted it as soon as the snail was in my mouth. I didn't know what to do so I swallowed it whole and downed another glass of white wine.
14. Opiod-based pain medications give me disturbing hallucinations and make me go more than a little crazy.
15. I think Marquam Hill (Portland) is incredibly beautiful when it's misty and foggy.
16. I love optical illusions.
17. I'm a little bit of a drama junkie and love good gossip.
18. I hate Thai beer.
19. I suck at math and once nearly broke down in tears in the grocery store because I couldn't figure out which was the better deal 2 for $3 or 3 for $5. I love that my phone has a calculator on it for just these occasions.
20. My shoe size is 5 wide... it's incredibly difficult to find shoes that fit well, so when I find them, I'm not opposed to buying several pairs or spending a lot of money on them.
21. My sister and I have the same birthday, 6 years apart.
22. I'm not very good at telling when other people are lying, and I don't always get sarcasm. If I start staring at you like I'm retarded, it's because I honestly don't understand if you're being serious or joking.
23. One autumn, around my birthday I had a bad cold and wanted nothing more than those Dutch sugar cookies to have with my tea. I scoured the stores and couldn't find them anywhere. I was so excited when the Christmas displays appeared (the day after Halloween), and the stacks of cookie tins. I bought five tins.... just in case. I only managed to finish two before moving though.
24. I heart decoupage.
25. Every time I drove down Terwilliger I was overwhelmed by the beauty of the trees & moss & ferns. It's so otherworldly.
And now for the not so random analysis. I noticed that the things I wrote generally fell three categories 1. likes/dislikes about external things 2. completely neutral facts about myself or 3. things I don't like about myself. While the 'neutral' category outweighs the 'things I don't like about myself' 12 to 5... there's still nothing in the completely positive column. And in the 50 item list it was 19 neutral to 12 negative. Is this fucked up? Or is it just modesty? Or is it false modesty because the things I'm counting as neutral are really positive? I don't know.
Bunny is just about my polar opposite in some respects. When we were at the beach I made an off-handed comment appologizing for making them look at my thighs (and I hate making comments like that - I don't know where they come from, they just come out sometimes) she commented that the beach was really gorgeous and whenever she was in a beautiful place it made her feel like she was beautiful too, because she was a part of it. She's also said that her father told two things "One, I never lie, and two, you are absolutely perfect." Which explains a lot about her.
When I came home for the summer after my freshman year of college, my dad noticed that I'd gained the 'freshman 15' and called me a walrus. Ten minutes later he offered me ice cream. I think that explains a lot about me.
TAG: Code Fish Sauce.
1. The beach I frequented in California is often featured in movies / TV / ads. I take personal pride in knowing that "my beach" is so photogenic.
2. I'm terrified of snakes... absolutely terrified. I've been known to run screaming from little 8" garden snakes. It's not funny... it's a phobia.
3. I miss Knit Night on Thursdays at Abundant. Yarn, gossip, chocolate... life was good!!!
4. I'm extremely sensitive to pain, I bumped into a door today, not even especially hard, and it hurt for like 5 minutes.
5. Drop Top Amber rocks my world.
6. Havarti makes me happy.
7. I'm a very tactile person and I love touching things... when I go to the store I just have to touch things as I walk past.
8. I had a crush on one of my students (so cute... sooooo cute!) but forgot to get his number before the course ended. =( He gave me really high marks on my evaluation, though. =)
9. I regularly ride side-saddle on the back of a motorbike with no helmet.
10. I went to Knollwood Elementary school, in Lake Hiawatha New Jersey.
11. I am the world's worst liar. Half the time I can't even come up with anything that's not true.... and when I do, it's absurdly easy to tell. I'm pretty good at omitting the truth though, and subtle misdirection.
12. I'm an unappologetic carnivore.... I'll eat fried chicken while staring down the chickens in the next yard.
13. I got drunk enough to try escargot one time but regretted it as soon as the snail was in my mouth. I didn't know what to do so I swallowed it whole and downed another glass of white wine.
14. Opiod-based pain medications give me disturbing hallucinations and make me go more than a little crazy.
15. I think Marquam Hill (Portland) is incredibly beautiful when it's misty and foggy.
16. I love optical illusions.
17. I'm a little bit of a drama junkie and love good gossip.
18. I hate Thai beer.
19. I suck at math and once nearly broke down in tears in the grocery store because I couldn't figure out which was the better deal 2 for $3 or 3 for $5. I love that my phone has a calculator on it for just these occasions.
20. My shoe size is 5 wide... it's incredibly difficult to find shoes that fit well, so when I find them, I'm not opposed to buying several pairs or spending a lot of money on them.
21. My sister and I have the same birthday, 6 years apart.
22. I'm not very good at telling when other people are lying, and I don't always get sarcasm. If I start staring at you like I'm retarded, it's because I honestly don't understand if you're being serious or joking.
23. One autumn, around my birthday I had a bad cold and wanted nothing more than those Dutch sugar cookies to have with my tea. I scoured the stores and couldn't find them anywhere. I was so excited when the Christmas displays appeared (the day after Halloween), and the stacks of cookie tins. I bought five tins.... just in case. I only managed to finish two before moving though.
24. I heart decoupage.
25. Every time I drove down Terwilliger I was overwhelmed by the beauty of the trees & moss & ferns. It's so otherworldly.
And now for the not so random analysis. I noticed that the things I wrote generally fell three categories 1. likes/dislikes about external things 2. completely neutral facts about myself or 3. things I don't like about myself. While the 'neutral' category outweighs the 'things I don't like about myself' 12 to 5... there's still nothing in the completely positive column. And in the 50 item list it was 19 neutral to 12 negative. Is this fucked up? Or is it just modesty? Or is it false modesty because the things I'm counting as neutral are really positive? I don't know.
Bunny is just about my polar opposite in some respects. When we were at the beach I made an off-handed comment appologizing for making them look at my thighs (and I hate making comments like that - I don't know where they come from, they just come out sometimes) she commented that the beach was really gorgeous and whenever she was in a beautiful place it made her feel like she was beautiful too, because she was a part of it. She's also said that her father told two things "One, I never lie, and two, you are absolutely perfect." Which explains a lot about her.
When I came home for the summer after my freshman year of college, my dad noticed that I'd gained the 'freshman 15' and called me a walrus. Ten minutes later he offered me ice cream. I think that explains a lot about me.
TAG: Code Fish Sauce.
Saturday, January 17, 2009
Technical Difficulties
My camera is broken again. I hate this camera. I need to try to get my old Kodak fixed - that thing was awesome.... not indescructable, but awesome. This Sanyo has given me nothing but grief.
And the other day right in the middle of a chat, my phone decided that I didn't *actually* need to be connected to the internet anymore. It's still not working - something about no packet data. I don't know what that's about but I'm going back to the store. I signed up for "unlimited access" not "intermittent access". Thank maude for internet cafes, even if I am surrounded by boys playing FPS games.
Oh, and my sink is broken. It's been broken for a while, in one of my first showers I made the mistake of putting my foot up on the sink so I could shave my leg, and it kinda dislodged from the wall a bit. D'oh! Not the highest of building standards here. Everything was fine for a while, but then it started leaking from the pipe where it connects to the basin. Everything's off set and it's gradually been getting worse - gravity and all. It's not a crisis since the shower drain is immediately below the sink - so it's not like it can flood. That's one advantage of the all-in-one bathroom design. But I finally got sick of it so I had someone at work write a note about it in Thai which I delivered to my landlord. She responded "I will tell my maid about this." - so apparently she speaks English! How did I not know this? I guess usually I deal with the receptionist/book keeper gal. Anyway, that's good.
TAG: Code Fish Sauce
And the other day right in the middle of a chat, my phone decided that I didn't *actually* need to be connected to the internet anymore. It's still not working - something about no packet data. I don't know what that's about but I'm going back to the store. I signed up for "unlimited access" not "intermittent access". Thank maude for internet cafes, even if I am surrounded by boys playing FPS games.
Oh, and my sink is broken. It's been broken for a while, in one of my first showers I made the mistake of putting my foot up on the sink so I could shave my leg, and it kinda dislodged from the wall a bit. D'oh! Not the highest of building standards here. Everything was fine for a while, but then it started leaking from the pipe where it connects to the basin. Everything's off set and it's gradually been getting worse - gravity and all. It's not a crisis since the shower drain is immediately below the sink - so it's not like it can flood. That's one advantage of the all-in-one bathroom design. But I finally got sick of it so I had someone at work write a note about it in Thai which I delivered to my landlord. She responded "I will tell my maid about this." - so apparently she speaks English! How did I not know this? I guess usually I deal with the receptionist/book keeper gal. Anyway, that's good.
TAG: Code Fish Sauce
Saturday, December 27, 2008
The Plan
Bunny, Bobby & I are heading to Cambodia for New Years. The original plan was to go to Chiang Mai - but the busses were booked and at the time the airport was closed (as far as we knew - indefinitely). So somehow the plan evolved to going to Cambodia to see Angkor Wat. Much of the 'detail' work was conducted in an internet cafe surrounded by kids playing online war games. We planned this trip entirely without the aide of a guidebook and with only moderate amounts of help from people who'd actually *been* to Cambodia. To say we're freaked out would be an understatement of grand proportions. When we've told our students they reply only "dangerous" or make a face and shake their heads. I emailed one of the guys from the CELTA course and he said "it had a squalid shittiness about it." So yeah... sounds fun!
But Angkor Wat is supposed to be one of those things you should see before you die... and we're here so... why the heck not! We leave for Bangkok first thing in the morning. From Bangkok we'll take a bus to the border with Cambodia. From the border we'll......... um....... somehow find transportation to Siem Reap, where we have a hostel reserved for two nights. Hopefully we'll actually get to see Angkor Wat. It's the number one tourist draw, so I imagine it'll be pretty farang friendly.
From Angkor Wat / Siem Reap, we'll....... um.... somehow find transportation to Phnom Penh - the Capitol of Cambodia where we have another hostel reserved for two or three nights. This is where we'll spend New Year's Eve. We're hoping to just find some fellow travelers to hang out with. We've gotten mixed responses about what there is to do in Phnom Penh - one guy said it was boring and the only thing to do is go roller skating in the mall. But the other guy said it was raging parties every night. Something in the middle is what we're looking for, but who knows.
After New Year's we'll actually fly back to Bangkok (that flight is our big splurge of the trip - we figure we'll be tired of being on ground transportation by then). And from Bangkok we're meeting up with a French-Vietnamese guy Bunny & Bobby met on Koh Samet. Mexican food is on the agenda... but beyond that we'll just be hanging out that day, and the next day we'll go to Ayuttaya (just an hour north of Bangkok)... the site of some pretty fantastic Thai ruins. Then, if we have air in our lungs and strength in our legs we'll hop on yet another bus back to Rayong... to be home on the 4th, and teaching again on the 5th.
Insane? Absolutely. Dangerous? Probably. Exciting? A little bit. But we're totally going to do it and just see what happens. Wish me luck!
But Angkor Wat is supposed to be one of those things you should see before you die... and we're here so... why the heck not! We leave for Bangkok first thing in the morning. From Bangkok we'll take a bus to the border with Cambodia. From the border we'll......... um....... somehow find transportation to Siem Reap, where we have a hostel reserved for two nights. Hopefully we'll actually get to see Angkor Wat. It's the number one tourist draw, so I imagine it'll be pretty farang friendly.
From Angkor Wat / Siem Reap, we'll....... um.... somehow find transportation to Phnom Penh - the Capitol of Cambodia where we have another hostel reserved for two or three nights. This is where we'll spend New Year's Eve. We're hoping to just find some fellow travelers to hang out with. We've gotten mixed responses about what there is to do in Phnom Penh - one guy said it was boring and the only thing to do is go roller skating in the mall. But the other guy said it was raging parties every night. Something in the middle is what we're looking for, but who knows.
After New Year's we'll actually fly back to Bangkok (that flight is our big splurge of the trip - we figure we'll be tired of being on ground transportation by then). And from Bangkok we're meeting up with a French-Vietnamese guy Bunny & Bobby met on Koh Samet. Mexican food is on the agenda... but beyond that we'll just be hanging out that day, and the next day we'll go to Ayuttaya (just an hour north of Bangkok)... the site of some pretty fantastic Thai ruins. Then, if we have air in our lungs and strength in our legs we'll hop on yet another bus back to Rayong... to be home on the 4th, and teaching again on the 5th.
Insane? Absolutely. Dangerous? Probably. Exciting? A little bit. But we're totally going to do it and just see what happens. Wish me luck!
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Don't put fish sauce on that!
Bunny's a vegetarian, and one of the things she's had to learn to say is "Mai sa naam plah" - "don't put fish sauce on it" because a lot of times they'll make a 'vegetarian' dish with fish sauce, which kinda defeats the purpose - well as far as she's concerned. Yesterday was another mysterious holiday (sometimes it's better not to ask... just enjoy the day off) so the three of us went to Ko Samet. "Don't put fish sauce on it" became the all purpose phrase for the trip.*
The room I'd reserved was not spectacular. In fact, it's right at the bottom of what I would call acceptable lodging. There were other places to stay on the island, but since it was a holiday every place had jacked up the prices and we were being cheap. The room was small, but the bed was clean. The bathroom was the all-in-one shower over the toilet deal I've come to expect from Thailand, but there was no plastic covered TP holder so it had to be stored up high wedged into the towel rack. Also the toilet didn't have a lid so the seat (which was only marginally attached) would get all wet if you showered.... or used the water at all actually, since there was no sink. We had to use the shower to brush our teeth or wash our hands. Ugh. It was on the borderline between 'clean enough' and 'kinda gross'; so like I said, it was right at the bottom of what I'd consider acceptable, and certainly not a place I would recommend to anyone. In fact - in the future, I'd be willing to splurge for a nicer room even if it meant paying for all three of us myself.
But... we didn't go to the island to hang out in the room, we came for the beach. And the beach was phenomenal. I hope you guys aren't getting tired of beach pictures... because every time I go I just want to take pictures... it's so gorgeous I can't help myself. I spent as much time as I could in the water, only coming out to rest and rehydrate, and once to get a pedicure.
Remember, I'm still recovering from a traumatic haircut.Eventually the sun started heading towards the horizon and tummies started growling, so we went back to the room to shower & get ready for dinner. And by 'get ready for dinner' I mean adding a healthy dose of vodka to some juice boxes so we could save a little money on drinks. We walked along the water down to the next beach and found a nice place for dinner. It's such a treat to get a menu in English, and we had an English speaking waitress to boot. As much as I like going to Ko Samet though, I really couldn't imagine living or working there... I'd go nuts with all the crazy tourists (such as myself).
After dinner we went back to the Ploy Bar which seems to be the most happening place there ... they keep saying that high-season is starting... but once again there really weren't all that many people around, some of the restaurants were positively empty. We watched the fire show... which was awesome. And had some Rhoti...which was almost equally awesome.
From there the night just got weird. I'm apparently far more outgoing when I'm in a group (and exceptionally drunk), and I started chatting randomly with everyone; an Australian banker, two of the tallest Dutch people I've ever seen, a German couple who it turns out spoke far less English than I had assumed, etc. We started talking to a Thai woman from Chiang Mai, and when I said I'd been there she hugged me, then later bought us all a round of tequila shots. Someone else bought a bucket (a kid's pail, filled with a lot of alcohol and, I don't know, soda?) and well... it just got weird.
I don't feel comfortable going into all the details online... but at one point I was dancing with a Jamacan/Australian (?) guy. Let's just say his behavior was highly correlated with the proximity of the woman he'd come with. When she left to go to the bathroom I got quite a lot of attention. Mai sa naam plah!
We headed inside to the other bar for a while. Hardly anyone was in there, so we rocked out to the Filipino 80s cover band for a bit before braving the beach again. Actually, Bobby (tired of being hit on) went back to our room, and Bunny had lost her shoes at some point and had gone off to look for them. So I was temporarily on my own.
Somehow, and I don't really know how, I ended up at a table with a bunch of Thai people. The guy next to me was telling me it was his family. I'm sure he must have been speaking some English, but I think there was also a fair bit of Thai, and of course the universal language of alcohol. I remember asking everyone's name & telling them how old I thought they were... but getting the numbers wrong saying "12" instead of "22" etc. And then I tried telling them I had two sisters & asking them who was the older sister/older brother etc. One of them was spoon feeding me some kind of noodle soup she was eating and we agreed it was "delicious but a little spicy". Another woman at the table kept trying to say she was the mom but I kept telling her "mai chai" (not correct!). There were almost pictures of the event, but either I'd used up my entire memory card, my batteries were dead, or there's sand in my camera. I'm not sure which one it was, but I got to say "broken" again, and "can not."**
All of this sounds like good clean fun, and it would have been, except eventually the guy next to me became extra friendly and gave me a line I hope never to have to teach my students:
"Have sex with me - five minutes."
The lack of preposition in this sentence leaves it open to a variety of interpretations. Initially I took it as "Have sex with me for five minutes." and just burst out laughing. Come on! I couldn't even get undressed in five minutes. So then he amended his suggestion "Have sex with me - one hour." It occurred to me later that he might mean "in one hour".... but that didn't make the proposition any more appealing.
I should point out here that I did not find the guy even remotely attractive despite my advanced state of intoxication (I don't even know how old he was... but I'm guessing quite a bit older than I am)... so I never entertained the idea of going anywhere with him for five minutes, let alone for an hour. I am however, happy to report that I was able to decline his offer in Thai with a clear but polite "I don't want that, thank you." Ugh.... Mai sa naam plah!
Laying in the sand, looking up at the tree.
Bobby and I had to teach today, so we got up early (I was positively coated with sand), ate a solid hangover-breakfast on the beach and headed home. We left Bunny uncomfortably passed out in bed. She later sent us the text message "Never.Drink.Anything!" But I think 'mai sa naam plah' covers it too.
*I've updated my TAG codes to better reflect the kinds of experiences I'm having here. Yesterday was definitely a Code Sweet Chili Sauce kind of day, but today is more of a Code Fish Sauce as I try to recover from it all.
**Of course there's always the indeterminable gap between what I think I'm saying, and what I'm actually saying, and how much of what I think I understand is actually correct. It's entirely possible that I was just asking them not to put fish sauce on me.
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