Nha Trang, Vietnam

I have arrived. The city is gorgeous. The beach lines the entire area. There are bars and restaurants to cater to anything you are in the mood for. I got a little motor bike tour. It seems to be very easily navigable, even without any type of bike.

I am staying in a hotel. I have a two bed hotel room to myself.

There are 5 other volunteers here, two of them are leaving. It seems like a very different atmosphere from Nongkhai, and I am constantly starting sentences with, "well in Nongkhai..." I should probably stop that soon.

I really miss Nongkhai already! I'm getting very anxious that I had so much fun there, that I won't be able to enjoy Nha Trang as much. Sorta like what happened in Australia. I had so much fun in Disney that I had such high epectations for Australia, that it did not even remotely measure up. The volunteers seem all disconnected and I feel like I am going to be very lonely here most of the time. We'll see though, I haven't met everyone yet. Even Kimmy the coordinator said the volunteers on a whole are pretty boring. I want Surreal and Barnana back!!!

I had a great last few days in Nongkhai. Wednesday night we went to the famous Mut Mee's Guesthouse, the only real backpacker location in Nongkhai. The food was ridiculously overpriced(good thing Jennie paid for me) but the ambiance was amazing. We then went to Surreal, where I played pool and didn't too bad. I got the best shot ever in, where it took four balls to sink one in. I even won a baht against Sam(although I also lost 5 Baht, because we decided to "make the game interesting). We wound up being out until 1am ish.

They all made such a big deal about my last night and let me pick where to go and what to do and I felt that out of all the things I could do, I just wanted to be with them, so we went to Jessica(the coordinator's) boyfriends mexican restaurant and then Surreal-ed it. The new girls + eddie had all left earlier that day, so it was just the core we began with there, plus all the office people. It's amazing in such a short time how close I got to all of them!!! I played some pool and the girls had me sign their books(sorta like a yearbook). That took most of the night. Then the girls headed to bed and tearfully(ok, exaturation) said goodbye. It hadn't quite set in yet that I wouldn't see them again soon. Sam and Anke stayed up with me and we headed back around 2am. Sam decided he would get up at 730am so he could say goodbye to me, and I thought that was really sweet, especially since he is not a morning person. I really appreciated that. If him, Anke and Anne Ruth weren't leaving with me, I would have really considered staying in Thaialdn instead of heading off to Vietnam. I miss them soo much. Thank you guys for such a great experience!!!!

Ok enough sap. I have to do a few more things on the computer and then I think I am going to try to befriend some people. Thought that might be a good idea, since I am here for 3 weeks.

i'm not a backpacker

I love to travel, I hate getting there, especially in South East Asia. Everything is so close but such a pain in the ass to get to.

Stuck in Ho Chi Minh City tonight. I have spent more in the past 2 hours then I have all last week.

Missin' my Nongkhai friends.

Hopefully the next time I write I will have just come from the beach!!!

Geeeeeranimoooooooo......SPLAT

So Anke and I headed off to our day of water fun.

We first went to a cave where the tour guide told us some Laos folklore. Then we went to another cave to go tubing. One of the most scariest experiences of my life. We went in a tube with a flashlight on our heads and a battery pack on our necks. We were supposed to believe that there was nothing in the water and nothing in the cave. There actually wasn't. After paddling in the virtual dark for 200 Meters and we had to turn around, that I finally stopped holding my breath and trusted that something like the lochnessmonster was not going to come out from under me.

Then we had lunch. Right on the river. It was gorgeous. I have been waiting for four weeks to see a waterfall and this was soo much better then a waterfall!

Then we kayaked. 10 kilometers. I don't know how to convert it still, so don't ask. Half way through we stopped at an organic farm that our friend Bart worked at and we got to see some Laos travel to teach volunteers. Then we went to the jumping off point. It was pretty high up. You had to grab onto a swing as you jump and swing on the swing a few times and then fall into the water lightly. I apparently did not understand the "hold onto the swing" concept, and as soon as I left the platform, I let go of the swing as well and fell about 25 feet maybe into the water. Back first. My back has been purple ever since, and painful as hell. It immediately knocked the wind out of me, but of course I couldn't cry in front of other people so I held it in, and tried to encourage Anke to jump by putting on a happy face. She went and loved it. (the picture captures me about to hit the water, back first. I kept it big so you could see exactly what happened. I won't put pictures of my back up for fear that my mother will fly to South East Asia herself and retrieve me. Honestly I'm fine. Just a little scratch!!)

We still had to paddle 4 more kilometers to the end which was miserable. We decided to return to Nongkhai the next morning. We went out to dinner and were in bed by 10pm.

Viettiene which is the capitol is a dreadful city. Think Albany, minus the skyscrapers, add alot of dirt, keep the pointlessness, and you've got Viettiene. We wound up staying as little as possible there and were back in Nongkhai by dinner.

All in all, I was not a fan of Laos. Vang Vieng, where we did the water sports was cool. If I could have brought all my friends there to Spring Break there, it would have been amazing. There were so many people tubing down the river, going from one waterside bar to the next. It was very touristy. It was entertaining to be a backpacker for a few days. We volunteers consider ourselves much better then tourists because we really get to know the places we stay in, and we are giving back....haha. But yeah, I'm glad I went but I'm equally as glad to be back.

Instead of writing my last day away I am going to enjoy it by spending time with the others. I will write again I'm sure when I go to Vietnam. I am leaving tomorrow morning and should be there the next morning? Maybe? Alot of it is still up in the air. Oh South East Asia.

See ya on the flip side!

Vang Vieng

It's getting better, much better.

We took the VIP bus, which cost $7USD and headed up to Vang Vieng. We were promised air, and there was. However, it was blowing hot air and not cold. That was fun. We stopped for a while and I talked to this guy who was Israeli. That was kinda cool. Then talking to more people on the bus I found out that almost everyone was either Israeli or Swede. So that was exciting.

They dropped us off at a guesthouse(convenient huh?) which had little isolated bungalows. Fine on a honeymoon, not on this trip though. They had another location, so we went there and got a 3 person room with private hot/cold shower and toilet for $4USD a night combined. Laos in general is alot cooler then Nongkhai, so although I wanted air, it didn't really seem like we even needed it.

After settling in we booked a kayaking trip, and headed out the find some dinner. The street we are one, which I assume is the backpacker's hot spot(since I hardly see any Laotian people), has guesthouses on top of guesthouses and restaurants on top of restaurants. We see this narrow little place that looks like someones living room, with a big screen TV, and tables japanese style, with short legs, yet they are pretty and colorful like a teenage girls room. The movie Just Married was starting, and while its not a classic, its one I never saw and we decided to stay. Then I notice that the table in front of us is speaking Hebrew, as is the table behind us, and there are Hebrew letters all over the wall. We stumbled upon a restaurant geared towards Israeli's. So that was really cool. When I'm homesick, and there are no American's around, Israeli's are the next best thing!!!

So now Anke and I are off to ride the rapids in a Kayak.

This city is gorgeous, albeit a little dirty, and my frustrations have all subsided. So now we have to decide if we want to stay here for 3 days or just two. Either way, I'm sure I'll be writing soon!!

Peace

Laos-in the beginning

Maybe it's because I was in a bad mood already yesterday. Maybe it's because I had a nightmare last night. Maybe its because I have a potential life altering decision to make in the next few days. Maybe its because I am very inflexible.

Whatever the reasons, so far I am not enjoying myself.

We woke up around 7am, took showers, got a tuk-tuk(taxi ish thing) and headed for the border. We got a really good price on the tuk tuk, usually they try to scam farangs.

The border is about a 5 minute drive and everything went smoothly. Then we took a bus over the bridge and got our Laos visas. They were $36 USD. Oh yeah, everything is in Kip, the local currency, and USD, they accept either. 10, 000Kip=$1USD. Unfortunately, I just had Baht, and not that much of it. Then we took a tuk-tuk to Vietenne. The people here speak alot more English then in Thailand, which is nice. They also go out of their way to help you get places. Mostly because they want your money.

We went straight to the Vietnam embassy. My visa will be ready on Wednesday, which is good, because then we can go back on Wednesday and hang out with everyone again, before I leave on Friday.

After the embassy, we took another tuk-tuk, that tried to charge us 100 Baht to go to the bus station, we wound up paying 40Baht. It's ridiculous that they think we will pay that much.

So instead of bringing us to the bus station we requested, he brought us to the local bus station, so after realizing we were in the wrong place, we had to take another tuk-tuk to the right place. Yet instead of bringing us to the station, he just brought us to a travel agent. Which was a little more, but nothing too extreme. They also accept credit card almost everywhere which is great.

We leave for Vang Vieng at 130, where we will stay on a farm for two days and go kayaking/caving tomorrow, probably.

So we had some time before the bus left, so we went to the bank, where I got 960, 000 kip. I'm almost a millionare!!! Then we went for some lunch. We had egg sandwiches on a bagette for 7, 000kip(so 70cents basically). Its amazing to see all the French influnces here, as Laos was once a French colony. Alot of the food is French, and alot of the writing is in Laos, English and then French. I might try my hand at some French, see if I can do better then in English.

Then Anke had to make a phone call, so here we are.

Its just really frustrating to be somewhere that I have no clue about. I have no way to really communicate except for pidgeon English(although, like I said I might try the French). I feel ike I am getting ripped off right and left, and I dont' feel settled. Maybe it's my suburban upbringing, but I like to feel settled all the time. While I am definately settled in Nongkhai, coming here was a very extreme culture shock. There is western infrastructure. There are a lot of people in the same boat as me. Here its only anke and I and she speaks German. It's already starting to get better, so I'm hoping its just my inflexible nature rearing its ugly head, and my need to feel in control of what I'm doing.

Well at least I have a 3 hour airconditioned bus trip to get used to Laos, before Anke throws me out the window...haha.

Be careful what you wish for....

So I have been here three weeks now and I absolutely love it. Everything seems to be going great. Yet, part of me is still unsettled and still a little unhappy. You all must think I'm a little manic depressive since my last entry was all about how much I love it here and that was less then 24 hours ago. Yeah, this might be a concern....

Just kidding. I think.

It seems like once I hope for something, like to have a great time, or to be in the middle of it all, if I get it, I'm even more unsettled then when I don't get it.

For example, we went out tonight to a river cruise on the Mekong, then out to dinner, and finally a stroll around the night market. A great night I'd say. There were 7 of us. Yet, everytime everyone started to stay in one place, all I wanted to do was walk away and be alone. Yet, as soon as I was alone, all I wanted to do was find everyone else and be with them. Then, if people try to hang out with me when I don't want them too, I actually get physical anxiety. Yet, if I feel them pulling away I get upset.

It doesn't make any sense and its so silly, but when I'm in one of those kinda moods that is how I feel. I think I'm just going through the otherside of the culture shock. Basically there are three stages; love, hate, and then compromise. I fell in love with this place and this experience and everything about it. For three whole weeks, (although it faltered a little at the beginning of last week) I was completely in love with everything. I loved that I had to bike everywhere, I loved the healthy food, I loved everyone on top of each other and around all the time, I loved the partying on the weekends, I loved the country, I loved...well tolerated the food.....I think you get the idea.

Now, I feel the opposite. Everyone wants to do everything together and all I want to do is be alone, even though at the beginning of my stay everyone did everything on their own and I craved togetherness. I can't stand the food, and after eating an asian dinner, ran over to the pizza place to grab a bite of something western. I can't stand how I can't communicate with anyone except the other volunteers. Even the volunteers are hard to communicate with, even the British speaking ones. I overheard three American girls talking earlier today and I had to bite my tongue to stop myself from going over and talking to them, just so I could have that American connection.

Maybe, I'm just feeling a little homesick, maybe the culture shock is going on the downswing, maybe I'm just having a bad day.

I am definately learning alot about myself and how I react to things on this trip. I have a weird notion that others can make me happy or sad, and that is not the case. When I depend on others to make me happy instead of myself, by hoping that something will happen, or hoping something will go right it doesn't give me the desired result. I'm still unhappy, or even worse mad or angry because whatever it was didn't meet my expectations.

The buddhists have it right. I've been learning about Buddhism alot. All the answers are from within(although what are the questions exactly??). They have no external force, from up high or on the earth that can help them, they can only help themselves. They are trying to achieve Nirvana, which we are taught means "the state of wanting nothing", but its a little different that that. You can still have, and still enjoy, but not want anything so bad that it hurts you or makes you angry that you don't have it. You can still have desires, but have them be something that would be nice to have, not something that you NEED.

I do have alot of desires, alot of expectations, alot of things that I think should happen. I think I need to stop that. That's where the suffering comes from. Not that I am going hungry, or wanting in any real way, but just the little struggles I go through are driven by an experience, a person or an idea not meeting the high bar I have set for it.

Luckily on this trip, I haven't set many expectations, and its been amazing. It rivals Disney in its bliss. (and I hope I come back as skinny as I did when I came back from Disney) I am nervous about Vietnam, because its going to be completely different, and I'm worried I'm already forming expectations, but we'll see.

Ok enough rambling. You probably won't hear from me again until Wednesday or Thursday, depending on the Laos trip. Yeah, we really have no set itenerary, we'll just see where the wind blows us I guess.

why I love Nongkhai

Well, before I discuss why I love Nongkhai and Thailand, I want to tell you that not everything is perfect, obviously. However, my biggest frustrations I have found are internal, except communication. If I could change the fact that I don't speak Thai and the townspeople don't speak English, I would move here, I think. But when getting mail from the post office, requires a lot of pantimiming, lots of tears, two phone calls to the office, and a sweedish woman living in Thailand for 5 years to come rescue me, you know everything is not honky dory.

Ok, but now on to the good stuff.

I think my favorite part of Thailand, and specifically Travel-to-teach in Nongkhai, is the family that is created. The first few days I didn't really know anyone, because I was soo busy getting acclimated, when all the new people had been there for a few days already. Pretty soon though, I was already accepted into this little family. It's great, because people come and go, and yet the family still exists. For example, we were Thai dancing one night after the camp and we had all gotten some ice cream. I had gotten the chocolate chip one, and my friend Eddie had gotten this rum Rasin one. I asked him how it was, and without batting an eye, he put some icecream on the spoon and put it right into my mouth. I know that sounds funny to write it out in a blog, but its just a testament of how close we all are. If there is a water bottle around, you just drink it, because you know everyone would allow you to anyways. When you are in a hammock, someone is above you to push you. People share cigarettes, food, clothes etc. Everyone just takes care of everyone else. It's amazing.

Another example occured last night. Although in telling you the story I am going to basically explain the whole night. It's not necessary, but I just want to.

It was Bass's last night. We all wanted to go out and celebrate, so we decided to go to Karaoke. You might think that Karaoke would be at a bar, with lots of people around. Yeah, not so. First of all its at a hotel. You tell the people at the hotel, that you'd like to "rent a Karaoke room", and then you wait in this air conditioned lobby for a while, with other groups waiting for a room. Finally, you are allowed into the room. It is a lot smaller then the lobby and literally has a few couches on one side and the karaoke equipment on the other. So we sat around and sang our hearts out to classic 80s songs, some pop music and we even tried a Thai song. It's rather entertaining though, because the lyrics are not exactly correct. They just kinda make up whatever they think the lyrics are. For example in the Spice girls song 2 become 1, "you can achieve it", became "you can A chive it", with A and chive being two separate words. Either way, it was great fun. I wound up with the microphone most of the time, which was pleasant for all I'm sure, since my throat has been sore for over a week. It was just another one of those amazing evenings.

Then we went to Barnana. Barnana, is one of the Thai disco's. They have a live band until 1am ish and then just a DJ until they close, which is whenever they feel like it. It's very dark and loud. You aren't really allowed to dance with each other, you instead stand around tables and everyone dances separately. It's a little weird. Especially because most people don't really dance well on their own and use dancing as an excuse to rub up on someone else. You also bring your own alcohol to Barnana. You buy soft drinks from the club, but you bring your own alcohol, so Sam and I split some Sam Song Whisky for 110Baht. It's traditional crappy Thai Whisky. With some coke though, you hardly taste it and it did the trick. So basically you stay there, dance around and dance some more. The music is too loud to have any meaningful conversations, so I have to say that I get pretty bored after a while. Either way, its great fun when we all go and enjoy ourselves and let loose. We go there, because my roommate Yvette is dating the lead singer of the band.

Ok, so now that the scene is set, I will bring you back to the premise of my blog. So a Thai guy that we would call a "lady-boy"( a transvestite, or someone who is extremely feminine) came over and started dancing with us, see picture to left. While this isn't completely out of the ordinary, as Thai people are very interested in our culture, it surprisingly does not happen as often as I would have expected. So he starts dancing with all of us, but then starts to put the moves on Sam a little, and of course the typical male freaks out a little. Well, a few minutes later he comes over to me and starts asking me questions. This was troublesome for many reasons that I have already explained; loud music, dark(so I can't even read lips) and he spoke pidgeon English. I have enough trouble understanding the English people speaking British English when I'm sober, so this was just impossible. Yet he would not give up. So he brings me over to the side. I still cannot hear him at all. Then he grabs my arm and takes me up to the stairs outside(which is also where the bathrooms are). My friends all look at me quizically and I knod that it is ok. Finally, we get to the bathrooms, and I can hear what he is saying, although I still can't understand. I see my friend Eddie and he comes right over to where we are talking and pretends not to know me, but is kinda making sure everything is ok. THe Thai boy asks me something about "what is important to me as a foriegner?" I didn't know what he meant really, or know how to answer so I called Eddie over, who knows a fair amount of Thai and had him interpret. Finally, we piece together, that he's telling us that we shouldn't leave our bags anywhere, because Thai people will take them. Oh, and he also tell's Eddie he is a homosexual. Phew, what an experience. So when I went back down to the club, everyone was so worried about me, and wondering what happened and making sure I was ok. It was so nice to know that they were all there for me.

I feel really included and loved here. When we left, a bunch of people went back to the other dorm, but since I had stayed there the previous night, and then been at the camp the week before, and spent most of the previous weekend at the other dorm, I felt that tonight I wanted to sleep in my own bed. Many of my friends were upset that I wasn't going to stay up and party on. I've never been known as the party girl, and not that i really am here, but people want me to be there, and people count on me as part of the group. It's a great feeling.

So tomorrow to Laos, so I will be incommunicato for a while. I also have to decide about Oakland by next week. I'm pretty sure I am accepting. Thoughts and comments appreciated!!

The rooster crows at midnight...

Actually, the rooster crows at 5am, 530am, 6am and so on. No lie. Plus add the fact that you wake up just to take a thai shower and a thai crap, and it is not a pleasant morning.

I was in a village the past week so small, that the travel books do not even consider it worthy of mention. Me and 14 other volunteers headed to Nongolampoo for a homestay summer camp experience.

We stayed in different houses throughout the villages. I stayed with Anne Ruth, Anke and Sandra. I was so glad to be with them. After we got home every night from whatever we were doing, we'd sit around in our underwear(i kid you not!!---they are European) and have girly talks. It was great!!

Our responsibilities included spliting up into four groups of teachers and teaching the same topic four times for an hour each, with a break in between each class. We also had to lead group games and songs and the like, which was basically the stuff you would do at summer camps. Once I get my pictures and videos up I will provide a link for those. There is some great stuff.

Our responsibilities ceased after dinner(oh by the way they fed us all our meals!), around 6 pm. We lucked out that we had a great facilitator, Mongkut, who was also the principal. He was great fun, really entertaining and a great English speaker! He took pity on our circumstances and "was single" for the week, as many thai's often are when they here Westerners are in town, and took us all over town each night. The only problem was, we had one truck for the 15 of us. Well, we improvised, drove really slow and stuck us all in the one truck. It's so funny that we all thought it was so great and took all these pictures and was "roughing it" when this is the life of a Thai person. One of those grass is greener sort of things.

Two of the evenings, we spent with the locals. Every night, different parts of the village practice their Thai dancing for the San Kran festival coming up in April. Long story short, San Kran is the Thai new Year, that lasts for about 3 days and everyone throws water on everyone. Like a week long water fight. As Sam kept saying, it was a priveledge to be able to join them as they practiced their dancing. How many other tourists can boast that accomplishment? It was truly amazing!

I am more and more infinately amazed at how little verbal communication occurs between us and the Thais and yet how bonded we feel with them. Throughout most of the camp, the students began to write us little notes telling us how much they appreciate us. Although if the grammer in the notes is testament of our teaching, then we might not want to pat ourselves on the back so quickly. Either way, they really loved us being there. One student gave me the bracelet off of her wrist in gratitude. At the end of the camp they covered us in yellow and pink flowers, pictures, diplomas, and more notes.

Although it wasn't all work and no play. While we didn't really drink that much, we did find other ways to pass the time, such as...

It was a great experience and a lot of fun. Now, I have got one more week in Thailand, although I think Anke and I are going to Laos for a few days so I can get my Vietnam Visa, and then I fly over to Nha Trang, for some lazy relaxing in the sun!!

the trials and tribulations of teaching with others...

First things first, I GOT THE OAKLAND JOB!!!! I'm not positive I want it, but I am pretty sure. Either way, just wanted to share. I'm sure I will disect later.

Oh, and next. I will write about my week once I situate my pictures and stuff but for now, I just need to write.

Before I left, I had a talk with my cousin David who told me that traveling is a way to get to know yourself better. This is definately the case this week.

15 of us went on this trip. 4 Native English speakers, 5 veteran(more then one week) teachers, and the rest newbies. We had to create 4 different groups to teach 4 simultaneous classes. We tried to split up the groups so that there would be no groups of all new teachers, and that we would spread out the natives and veterans.

I naturally lead the group. I can't help it, its just in my DNA I suppose. Yet, at the same time that I lead, I also hate making decisions. It's a weird dichotomy.

We spent most of the time teaching with 3-4 teachers and groups of 20-35 students. Yet, we also spent about an hour each day doing stuff with the whole group. This is where I lead the most. I will explain a song or game, simply because I am impatient and don't like standing around. I don't like the students to be idle, and well I like leading. I like being the one in charge. It was nice having everyone depending on me.

We also had daily meetings where we would discuss how the day went, both good and bad, and then plan for tomorrow. I kinda lead here too. I just do it naturally. I also had a good repore with the principal, who was our main facilitator, so he would usually come to me so I could discuss whatever was going on, with everyone. (He spoke very good english and was really funny).

Yet, I was still very frustrated and pushed to my limits alot. Like, I love to lead, but I had dissenting opinions, even though I encourage them. When someone disagrees with what I say, its like I feel like they disagree with me as a person. I get very angry and frustrated and retreat like a wounded puppy. I think that no one wants me to lead, so I back off. Yet then somehow I'm thrust to the lead position again.

I also got very frustrated teaching with 4 other people. The first day or two it was fine, because they basically sat back and let me take over. I was then able to assign parts to people, but still basically maintain control. As long as I was in control I was happy. Yet, as we loostened up the structures of the groups and other "leaders" were teaching with me, I felt very unsure of my role. I tried to back down and felt as though I was doing nothing. I tried to take charge and felt like I was taking over.

I know most of this doesn't make alot of sense, but well, this blog is for me just as much as it is for you. Either way, I am trying to deal with my perfectionist frustrations. It takes me alot to get angry, but it doesn't take me much to get frustrated.

It was nice though, whatever fight or issue I thought I was getting in with people, didn't seem to matter. I actually had some of the volunteers ask me to be in their group. People wanted me to lead, not just so that they could sit back, but I think because I was good at it. Yet, I still fit in. I wasn't the boss or anything.

It was a surreal experience. It defiantely taught me alot and at times really pushed me to my limits. The first two weeks were amazing. Some of the funnest in my life. This past week was also very fun, but even more valuable because I understood more about myself and hopefully grew as a person.

Ok, have to be social. Will write about my actual experience and put up pictures...well when I get around to it really.

It's good to be back.

best weekend ever.

No lie, this was probably the most fun weekend I have ever had in my entire life. Nothing of note really, mostly inside jokes and things not worth to share, but it was amazing. In a 72 hour period I had about 6 hours of sleep. It was ridiculous!

Part of the weekend's existence was to say goodbye to a few of the volunteers. By Saturday, there was a whole where they used to be. It's amazing how quickly and strong those bonds can be.

I will tell you that I brought the concept and hand motion of the "shocker" to Nongkhai, and they are obsessed!!! Since everyone is from Western Europe, it will disseminate there within a few months. So if you start seeing it in European publications, now you know why. If you don't know what the shocker is consider yourself blessed. I will post pictures from the weekend when I return.

Oh right, I'm going to a summer camp this week with 15 other people, 8 new girls and my little group, but no Bass or Jeroen, but add Sam and Eddy!! Either way, it should be fun, but I wish everyone else was going. Today is my last day to see Jereon, and Johan and Charlotte already left :(. I'm going on and on about nothing now.

So I probably won't post much this week, but if there is a way, Lacy will find it!

The first rule of the roads; there are no rules.

Getting around Nongkhai is about as crazy as bungee jumping. Everytime you get on the road you are taking your life in your hands. I think it would be similar to driving in Massachusetts with the "masswholes" who don't use blinkers and only look out for themselves. Or is that New Jersey? Either way, its rather treacherous.

Ok, first things first, they drive on the left side of the road. Apparently almost every country in the world except America drives on this side. Something to do with the side that you mount a horse on. This already handicapps my ability to get aruond over the volunteers from the other parts of the world.

Second, there aren't many cars on the road. I haven't done any counts or scientific experiments of any kind, but I would say that the majority of "motorists" chose motorbikes as their vechile of choice. They are erratic drivers. It's common practice to see two or three people on a motorbike. I once saw a man holding three small children including a baby, while driving a motorbike. This practice worries many of the travelers. Some motorbikers are forms of taxis. You can hop on and pay a set amount of money and get wherever you need to go. I've never done this save(except) on the back of the travel to teach directors bike and that was already scary enough.

Speaking of taxis, the main way to get around without a vechile is on a contraption called a tuk-tuk. A tuk-tuk is the closest thing they have to a taxi. A tuk-tuk is essentially a motor bike in the front and a truck bed in the back. Most of them are covered but not all. It putters and mutters and strains under the pressure. It's actually pretty smart though, since it is soo hot out, its a way to travel and be cool without airconditioning, like opening your window while on the highway. If any of you watch America's next top model when they were in Thailand with Joannie, and Danielle they had to use Tuk-Tuk's to get around alot. (*note, I do not watch the show, but was bored and saw a few episodes on the plane, only because they were on location in Thailand).

Sometimes enterprising Thai's use Tuk-tuk's as a way to sell food and bring the food to you. Think like the icecream man, but a little more primitive. They literally drive around on the roads with the other motorists and stop whenever someone flags them down, so that they can get a meal or snack or whatnot.

Third, Bikes are the next most frequent vehicle on the road. I have one. (By the way for those of you that are concerned, by bike turned up a few hours after I couldn't find it.) Most of the other volunteers do to. I'm convinced this alone will get me into very good shape. Even though bikes and motorbikes are so prevelant, they have no separate lanes for them, so they are on the same roadways as the cars. So if you know anything about physics, or have any common sense, you will think "well don't cars go so much faster then motorbikes and motorbikes go faster then bikes, how does that work". Yeah, it doesn't. Essentially who ever is slower has to yield to whoever is faster. SO when traffic is moving normally, cars trump bikes. However, if traffic is slow, bikes have the luxury of darting around whoever they want and can usually get somewhere faster then the cars. If the road is wide enough the bikes just stay to the extreme left and the cars can easily pass by. Yet, when someone parks on the side of the road, or stops or has to turn it is chaos. That also means that two people can't bike next to each other, which seems rude to me and doesn't allow bikers to converse with one another. Since I love to talk, I usually bike next to someone anyway, unless its very busy on the roads.

While most of the streets are paved, its not done very well, and most of the roads are a combination of rock and mortar(?) I guess. Either way, the bike does not absorb the road very well which makes for a rocky road.

The roads are also the market place. There are little food stands and other shops all over the roads. It's a place for social time and buying things!

On a personal note, when I first arrived in Nongkhai I was given a bike and immediately went off to this bar on the river with my roomate. I was lagging very far behind her and blamed it on my lack of shape and my lack of riding experience in the past 10 years or so. For the next few days, I kept having a similar problem. I was thinking that I just must be so out of shape that I had to work twice as hard to go half the speed as everyone else. A few days ago, another volunteer Jennie wanted to go to the bike shop and invited me along. I wasn't sure if I needed to, but I had noticed that my back wheel was a little flat. Yeah, that was an incredible understatement. After looking around for the bikeshop for half an hour, we finally got directions and found out it was right accross the street from the green dorm(where I live, but we left from the Meechai dorm which is about a 10 minute ride, so while we were misguided we weren't that misguided). I got my tires filled up. All of a sudden I was biking like a pro. It wasn't me at all, it was my bike. I can now bike with the rest of them. I can't believe that I immediately assumed it was something I lacked vs. a problem with the machinery. Typical.

In the city of Nongkhai, there are only 2 street lights that I have seen so far, and I haven't seen any stop signs, so basically its everyman for themselves, even at major intersections not connected to the highways. (Disclaimer-this might not be the case in all cities, and isn't the case on highways that connect one city/town to another. The highways are actually fairly sophisticated and have separate roads going the opposite ways with uturn options every mile or so.)

Finally, a bit about one way roads. There are certain roads that are one way, yet there are no signs. When you are at an intersection and staring at cars going the other way on both sides of the road, that is how you know its a one way street. Efficient huh?

Aright, I must go take my life in my hands and "cycle" off to my dorm.

Peace.

bedtime

It's 6am. The sun has rose and the roosters are crowing.

Goodnight

Fieldtrip and other Thursday night fun

After one day of teaching at CBAT, the teachers told us that they were going to take us on a field trip. With people's schedules, we decided to go, on Johan's second to last day. Destination: Ban Chieng.

So we go into school like normal that day(which means waking up before 7am), expecting this to be a few hour trip with some of the teachers, but in the typical Thai way, it is nothing like you expect. It was an interesting trip for me regardless though because I was the only girl, with four boys(Bart and Jereon from Holland, Johan from Sweden and Andy from the UK).

We arrive at CBAT and are told to hop onto the vechile shown here. It is essentially a tuk-tuk on a huge truck, but its what they would call a bus. If nothing else, Air Con isn't a problem because it can't get hot when you are going fast on the highway. Big enough to fit about 20 comfortably, so in the typical Thai way there was almost double that amount. People were sitting on the floor, singing and dancing. It was quite an experience. They of course treated us like royalty and had enough food and drinks to feed an army. About 5 of the teachers we teach every day went, and the rest were a mix of students and other teachers. They took more pictures then we did it seemed, since many Thai people hardly leave their provinces(counties).

We arrived first, about an hour and a half later, at a forest temple, where Buddha went to meditate, and was protected by the Naga, or the 7 headed snake. It supposidly lives somewhere in South East Asia and the mythology surrounding it is similar to the mythology of the Loch Ness Monster(or Nessy as she is apparently affectionately called in Europe. P.S. I mentioned the parallel's I witnessed between Naga and Nessy and almost got my head bitten off by the boys who were trying to convince me that Nessy is real.) The temple was really pretty and very peaceful. I did not like though, that they made us pray. I mean on one side its "when in rome, do like the romans", and it looks rude not to, but on the other hand, if I have no idea what I am doing and only going through the motions, I'm not sure if I see a point to it. If Buddha really is an all knowing, shouldn't he know how I feel without having to bend three times, wai and burn incense? Johan and I had an interesting conversation here, in which he explained much of the Buddhism philosophy. We also prayed for things we wanted, and if you could make sound on this thing(in picture) then it will come true. Mine had sound!

Then we went to Ban Chieng. Ban Chieng is one of the oldest known archaelogical sites in South East Asia, which has also made discoveries which have affected world known theories. I would not know what they were though, because we spent a half an hour watching a filmstrip about the site as a whole and had like 15 minutes to walk around the whole of the museum before it was lunch time. I understood they used pottery, tools, and jewelry. I was most looking forward to this part, but the museum wasn't that great and we had little time to really traverse it. We had lunch as like a buffet style, where you order a bunch of food on the tables and take what you want. Thai food is very spicy, way too spicy for my Macaroni and Cheese diet upbringing, and I always have to ensure that the food is Mai phet, or not spicy. They swore up and down that this papaya salad wasn't spicy, but when I put it in my life, it caught fire I swear! Also, I had to use the Thai toilet and had no toilet paper. I had to use the butt washer. It was gross. Just thought I'd share.

We then had some time to shop around and I bought a few things. They also bought the boys necklaces and me a bracelet. Since Johan and Jereon are leaving they also got them t-shirts I believe. We took a few pictures and then got back in the vechile. It was 3pm at this point and I thought we were heading back to Nongkhai, but no such luck.

We wind up on a wine tasting tour. But by tour I mean a house that had some wine at it. There were three different kinds of wine and they all had different uses, such as to lower blood pressure, or to increase circulation. We had about 2-3 glasses each. One of them, apparently was supposed to increase, um, well it had the same active ingredient that Viagara has, if you catch my drift. So we decide to buy a bottle of that for one of the other Volunteers who's birthday was that evening. We also had some as well.

We get back into the vechile on the way back and they tell us that they bought us two bottles of wine, one for the bus, and one for our party that night. Yes, that's right. We had one for the bus. An open air vechile with the thai and farang's alike doing shots of wine in the truck bed. What kind of crazy country is this you might ask? One that loves to have fun, I'd say! I then decided to share with the boys that this was a weird trip for me being the only girl, and that I felt like one of the guys and it was fun. They then told me that they had actually censored themselves because I was there, so I told them to pretend I'm not here. Guy bonding + wine = a very enlightening experience for Lacy. I learned much about the inner workings of the male mind. We spent alot of time trading pick up lines. My favorite: you break a piece of ice in front of the girl and then say "now that the ice is broken..."

We arrived back in Nongkhai around 5:30 and had to get some meat for Charlotte's birthday party. So Jennie, Bart and I headed to Tesco's(like the walmart all-in-one store) after watching some of Sin City. I try to take a nap after knowing its going to be a ridiculous night. Dinner, which was supposed to start at 630pm, begins around 830pm. We had a BBQ at the Green dorm and chilled out. It actually cost us more then triple the amount to buy food and cook it then it did to just go out to eat, even in a nice restaurant. Either way we hung out there until 1030pm or so, and then Sam, Johan, Johanna and I headed to Surreal, with plans to go to Banana, the local Discoteck(sp?). After drinking a bit and having a good time, Jennie, Bass and Jeroen join us and we continued to enjoy ourselves. I had one of the greatest nights ever. It was very fun, I won't bore you or scare you with the play by play, but know I had an amazing time. Before we knew it, it was 3am, and we never made it to the disco. I was in bed by 4am.

I awoke at 7am to teach. As I was leaving the rest of the people who did not have to teach today were finally going to bed. Johan, was pretty much still drunk in class. I could hardly concentrate or write on the board. They made us dance and sing. It was the funniest thing ever. Then they took us out to lunch, and fed us so much food. It's now 1pm, and I have not slept more then 3 hours in 36 hours with plans to play tennis at 3pm and go out all night again for Johan, Charlotte and Melanie's last night. Should be ridiculous. Maybe I'll actually get to go to the disco tonight?

i love my life

I have been giving you all bits and pieces of my life, but I'd like to give you an idea of my daily schedule, so you can be oh so jealous.

Don't worry, I will not continue writing blogs about everytime I go to the bathroom(athough I do have some interesting stories) and eat a meal, but I thought I'd give you an idea of my schedule.

I wake up around 6:30am. That's kinda rough. I wake up, shower and eat breakfast. I bike over to the other dorm, called the Meechai dorm, which takes about 10 minutes. Then I spend about a half an hour on the computer blogging/checking email etc. Then Andy, Johan, Bart and I get picked up in an Air Conditioned car and get driven to CBAT UDON, which is the college of business administration and tourism in Udon Thani. Udon is like the closest big city to Nongkhai, it has an airport and is fairly central in the Issan region.

We teach(and by we, its really me teaching and the boys causing trouble. Although Johan is very helpful. I actually kinda like that they don't do much, because then I get to control the classroom but they still help me whenever I need it.) from 8:30-10am. Then we get driven home and I chill aroudn on the computer for a little while longer.

The first week, I got errands done around town, such as buying food, exchanging money and buying my cell phone, because we had Thai language classes at 330, so we had to stick around. Now that those classes are over, its a little less structured. For example, Monday Sandra, Bart and I went to a local pool at the hotel. It was 40Baht, which is a little more then a dollar, to recieve a towel and a spot poolside. After spending three lovely and lazy hours at the pool, I went back to the green dorm(about a 20 minute bike ride) to grab Anke and we headed to the water park to check out aerobics. It is led by a "ladyboy" who is a man but dresses and acts like a female(transvestite). It was an interesting experience, and something I am going to continue doing!!!

We then went back to shower and then about 10 of us met at the "danish bakery" for some Western food. The first time since we arrived, where I ate a cheeseburger!!! We had a great time!

Then we biked back to the Meechai dorm with some beers and hung out on the roof and talked for a few hours. Anke and I biked back to the green dorm around midnight.

Basically
8-10=teaching
10-7=relaxing, exersizing, spending money, reading, etc.
8=big dinner with at least half of the volunteers
9-11=party time(either at a bar, or on the balcony)
12=bedtime

Most of my days follow a similar pattern. Although some days instead of sitting by the pool, we chill out on the balcony in the hammocks and read or talk. It's so hot in the afternoon, that its not worth it to go out in the sun for too long. Yet, I have been here more then a week, and my first spot of color didn't occur until I went out at the pool. Now I am very burnt!

Some of the volunteers left to a camp for a few days, so since its more convenient to be at the Meechai dorm, I stole one of the girls beds for the week.

The only things that would make my life better: Airconditioning at the dorm(although we do have pretty affective fans), less mosquittos(or better bug protection), and maybe someone to snog every now and then(bonus points if you figure out what Snog means), and the ability to keep up with my TV shows on the internet!!

Other then that, life is great!

Peel banana

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=2014328346

I haven't yet gotten the video of me peeling my banana, because its on someone else's camera, but here is an example of this weekend. I hope you enjoy!!

In a conversation to Adrianna at 11:03pm 3/12

my worst thai nightmare just came true
i am so happy that i might have ibs, b/c that would mean that i hardly ever pooped lowering my chances of pooping in a thai toilet
but someone was in the western toilet room showering
so i had to poop in the thai toilet

Off to watch a movie and chill out on the roof with me amigas. Peace out! I will get you my video asap!

We'll all enjoy to be together. Oh English camp make me happy!

I have just spent the past weekend having the time of my life. We went to a summer camp. There were 8 of us. Jennie and Karen from England, Bass and Joroen from Holland, Sandra from Austria, Anke from Germany and Johanna from Sweden(I stand corrected mom!). At 4pm we got ready to leave Nongkhai and in true thai time, they showed up around 5:30pm.

An hour later we arrived at the school and they showed us to our sleeping quarters. We were told we were going to be in tents. This was not the case. The girls room had 4 mattresses on the floor, and we had to improvise with two more. It was bare bones and rather ugly, but it was better then a tent. We only had 1 bathroom for the 6 of us. However, Johanna thought she saw a rat and spent every night patrolling thr room with a flashlight(or a torch to the British), so that was rather unpleasant. The boys room was like a palace, especially with only two of them. They had a balcony overlooking the school and had two bathrooms, one for each of them.

We were then whisked off to eat. We went to a Korean BBQ place. Essentially its a buffet, with raw meat, vegetables and noodles, and you bring it back to your table and cook it. Its weird though, b/c then you just kinda eat whatever you want, even stuff that other people brought back. Also, since the oven is like part of the table, it gets pretty hot underthere. When it's about 100 degrees fahrenheit, you kinda don't want to add any additional heat to that.

Then they informed us that we would need to put together a bunch of lesson plans to teach for the next day in four different areas; speaking, listening, reading and writing. This was tough for many reasons. The main two reasons is that most of us are very strong willed and the other reason is that we know different types of English and we fight over grammar, prononciation and spelling. So we put our heads together and came up with a smashing agenda. We split ourselves up, one native and one non-native speaker to each group and we taught the same lesson twice in the am and twice in the pm. I was with Bass and had listening and reading.

After planning, we went to the balcony and hit the bottle. Of tequilla. I only had 2 shots and was in bed by 10pm. I had a great night sleep. Nice hard mattress. I awoke at 730 and hopped over to the boys dorm to have a lovely thai shower. That's right folks, I showered with a bucket. I squealed alot, it was ice cold and I couldn't get all the shampoo out of my hair to save my life. I have no more to say on this subject. I'd rather not relive it anymore. ;-0.

The morning consisted of the whole group together. We started with like a little obstacle course, limboing, hopscotching and then patting us down with talcum powder(see pic on top). We sang song after song. We sang and danced with them. We figured that after tomorrow we will never have to see them again if we don't want to so we can make complete asses of ourselves. We did. Think the JCC but mostly in Thai. First we sang a few thai songs and then English songs like....(to the tune of, Oh when the saints come marching in)

"Oh English camp
Oh English camp
Oh English camp make me happy

We'll all enjoy to be together
Oh English camp make me happy."
Like the grammer? Thought so. Another song we sang, was the peel peel banana song. I have some lovely video footage of it and will share it with you all when I figure out how...

Then we taught. Bass and I worked very well together and the kids were great. They begin with the entire class standing up in front and robotically saying good morning teacher, how are you." Then you say, good or fine, how are you, and they repeat back "I'm fine thank you". Its cute but a little creepy. The activities went great. I won't bore you with them, but they were fantastic.

About every hour or two they fed us fruit, or bread or noodles. They had a constant supply of water for us. It was lovely. Minus this sweet desert. Ok it's black jello mixed with ice and gelly candies. Plus lots of sugar. Grooooooooossssssssss.

We met back as a group again and embarassed ourselves some more, then did another class, this time much longer. We had so much fun. Then we had some down time and me, sandra and jennie just laid in their bed doing anything to avoid the 100f heat.

Ok, so as I just mentioned, it was over 100f heat I beileve. At least around that. So they decided it would be a good idea to have a bon fire after dinner. Ok fine. Not ok however, to have us sing and dance around it for over 2 hours. Jennie thought the whole thing was proposterous(she's british, so she can use words like that). I have to say I agreed. I mean I had alot of fun but it was a little insane. We are already hot, lets add to it.

Then, they did the weirdest thing. They handed us Leo beer and strawberry wine coolers. What place of employment(or voluntary employment in this case) would do such a thing. Either way, that moved the evening along quite nicely. We moved ourselves up to the boy's "royal" balcony and spent the rest of the evening watching the stars, listening to music, talking, and maybe breaking a few glasses.

The next morning we ate breakfast and then we were off to a national park. They had us do 4 10 minute lessons(so each group saw us once). I worked with Sandra, and when a student got the answer right they got to be pulled up in a tree and ring a bell, by a pulley. Picture will explain what I mean. It was ridiculous but fun.

Then we laid around for the rest of the time. We watched the students zip line right into the water, which I would have done had the water resembled any blue or even green hue, but brown was just too dirty, even for me.

Speaking of dirty, I showered 4 times in the 48 hours I was there. Oh, and since I was so afraid to go "number 2" in the thai toilets that were there, I scared myself into not going the entire time. I think that is a disease. I probably should look into that.

We were told we'd be leaving back in nongkhai by 430. It was 2 oclock and we were at least 3 hours from home. Instead of heading back to the camp we went to this place called Erawan cave, which housed a beautiful temple in it. Only problem; it was 611 steps up. Let's talk about how fun that was, in 100f heat and me still horribly out of shape. But I got some great views.

Finally, we went back to Nongkhai and arrived around 8pm. Just a little later then promised. There's Thai time for you!

I touched a monk and did not catch fire

As I have mentioned, I missed most of the introduction weekend including a class on thai culture. I did not know anything really, except for things that I had read. I didn't know how to get to the market, how to exchange money, how to make a phone call, or where to eat!! I even had trouble flushing the toilet, because no one had told me how to do it.(By the way, you don't flush the toilet, you just keep throwing water down the hole until it eventually goes down the drain.)

However, one thing that I heard constantly was that women cannot touch monks. They are not even allowed to hand them an item, such as a pen. I would have to lay the item on a "cloth" without actually touching the cloth, lift my hand up, back up a little and then they could grab the item. So I figured if they kept telling me this over and over again, I should listen.

Wednesday was my night to "monk-it". We do not formally teach the monks, but they want to speak with us conversationally, to beef up their skills. So whatever monk or even community member just wants a little practice speaking English, different volunteers go every night at 7pm to speak with them. On wednesday, Karen, Jerone(pronounced with a Y at the beginning, in case of course you are reading this out loud), and I went to the temple. Side note, there are temples everywhere. There are like three temples on the little side street we live on alone. Just to let you know that its not a special temple or anything, just the one that travel to teach has connections with. Anyways, so we sat down and began speaking with the monks. Some were very fluent, and just needed a little grammer practice, others could hardly speak, or were to shy to do so. As I was futzing with my feet under the table, since I always have to be futzing with something, I accidentally kicked the monk, in like a playing footsy sort of way(not in like a karate sort of way). Because everyone made such a big deal about women touching the monks, I thought I would get douced with holy water, or the monks would all run away screaming, or bhudda himself would come on earth and set me on fire. Of course none of these things occured. He kinda laughed it off and we went on with our conversation.

I was still skeptical though, I was still nervous about touching them. So when asked to explain where I lived compared to New York City (**if you EVER travel out of the country, and say you are from New York people will immediately think the city. It sounds cheesy but bring a map, and show them the distance, maybe even compare it to the distance between two cities in the country you are staying in, so they will see what an insult it is to assume that everyone who says New York means the city. Oh and "upstate New York" means nothing to people who don't live in a country that is split up into states. They think Upstate is another way of staying uptown and they still think you mean the city.), I took out my trusty map and tried to show them. Yet as I was opening the map, the monk kept trying to help me. I was so confused, so I let go, and let him do it. I would then try to show them where I lived and he would touch the map while I was. I was so self counscious that I eventually stopped touching the map all together. I at first thought, that its still a very patriarchial society that by him touching the map, I would have to stop touching it, as like a power hierarchy. It was exhausting.

Later on at dinner, as I am regailing the rest of the group on my potentionally spiritually damning experience, Jerone was like "I bet they just spread the rumor around, to make the western women annxious and nervous. They must have a tally chart just out of reach where they compete with who touches(and of course i mean non-sexually) the most women 'by accident'." Then he mimicks one monk talking to another, "I touched the new volunteer today, she almost went through the roof, I should get two tallies for that one."

Apparently monks in Thailand are not devout buddhists. It is sorta like joining the army or the ROTC in America. You might not be able to touch a woman the entire time you are a monk, but you will be able to go to school alot cheaper then a lay person. Similar to the ROTC idea where the army will pay for part of your school, if you train while you study and then give up a certain number of years once you graduate. Therefore, many of the monks are not too serious about the touching of women and other religious decrees. To them its more of a means to an end.

So in short, I'm not going to hell. I thought you would all be concerned!

oh, so you are curious about me huh?

Really, I'm not sure if you are or not, but I realize I've been sharing with you alot of what I am experiencing instead of the typical how I feel about it. That is so not me, so I will now share some of my feelings with you.

When I first got here I was overwhelmed of course. I missed my flight, I was 2 days late to the introduction of the culture, and the teaching. I lost my luggage leaving me in Winter clothes without any means of washing myself for about 36 hours after I had arrived. Everyone seemed to already know everyone already and I was left out in the dark. I spent the first two days trying to acclimate myself, get money, buy food, buy a cell phone etc. Although, I did do something that was uncharacteristic of myself, I kept going out. Whenever someone asked me to go anywhere, I would go. Even though I felt crappy and all I wanted to do was sleep and wait for my luggage, or simply gain my bearings, I went anyway. Of course the first day or two I was still not comfortable, but I pushed through it.

I am a huge perfectionist. Well, a minimalist perfectionist. I expect to do the minimum expected, and everything will be perfect. For example, I expected to come here and be friends with everyone immediately and feel right at home and understand the culture without extra effort, and as always it felt short of my extremely high expectations, because I kept having to deal with one mini-drama like losing my luggage after another.

Yet, instead of getting angry or frustrated as is my typical nature, whenever things didn't go the exact way I expected them to I removed myself from the situation and spent a little time alone. For example, one of the coordinators, Jessica, went to help me buy a cell phone, but she doesn't speak much thai and the market owners speak little english. I got so frustrated, so I asked a thai coordinator that also spoke English. He said he was busy, and I got rather angry, because of course he should be free to do whatever I need him to at a moments notice(please read that sentence with extreme sarcasm). Yet, instead of whining or getting upset, I just went bymyself to the Walmart type store called tesco, which has many cell phone shops outside of it, and spent some time figuring out what I wanted in a phone and trying to piece together some Thai. After an hour of getting nowhere, I decided to go to the one pizza place there, so I could get some "Western" comfort food in me. Finally, I went back to the shops and bought a phone. It's a nice new phone and it cost 2240Baht which is around $60USD I believe. By the time I had gotten back I had calmed down and everyone was getting ready to go out. I wound up going out with everyone to dinner and then to Surreal, the bar the volunteers frequent and had a great time! I'm really learning how to take things as they come instead of expecting so much.

I also struggled at the beginning with the social aspect of the program. I kept seeing all the volunteers who had been there for weeks or months even get along very well with each other and my high expectations told me that I should be the same way. Yet of course, they have had alot of time to build these relationships and I have come in and expect to be immediately accepted.

For three reasons though, I had had some tough times integrating into the social scene. First, is the fact that everyone comes from different cultures. There is one other American, three people from England, one from Australia and everyone else is from other Western European countries who does not natively speak English. As Americans (or maybe just as me) I feel that to connect with people you have to constantly be talking. This is not the case in Germanic countries for instance. So when I was trying to get to know a girl from Germany I thought that we weren't getting along very well because we were both just laying on the hammocks and not really talking, but to them, that's a fine way to spend the day. They do not need to constantly be filling in the silence with meaningless chatter. They only speak when its necessary. That's not to say that they don't like to talk, but it doesn't seem rude to them to be silent for a while. I am starting to realize this more now. I've had the most social issues I think with the sweedes. The sweedish people by nature are very reserved and shy. Of course I see this as rude and stuck up though, because I am naturally friendly and outgoing. I don't mean to, but when I go out of my way to be nice and friendly and they are curt back, I assume that they don't like me or are snobby. That is just their way. They interact like that to people they are good friends with as well. They don't seem to get to excited or angry or any other emotion, they keep a calm, cool outward expression at all times. This seems true of most of the male Sweedes. The females are a little more friendly! The second thing I have working against me and my perfectionist high expectations is the nature of the program. There are new volunteers coming and old volunteers going every two weeks. For people who have been here for over a month even, they kinda get tired of getting to know new people that will just be leaving shortly after. Therefore they don't bother. I was nervous because I got assigned to teach with Andy from the UK and Johan from Sweeden and they were two of the guys who had been the least friendliest, and I thought they were really snobby at first. First of all Johan was from sweeden, so like i said before it was already tough and second of all they have both been here for over 2 months and they just don't see the point in meeting new people anymore. They are nice to me and friendly because I "won" them over with my infinate charms obviously, but they have not put in any effort really, to get to know the other new volunteers. The last reason, which has since been rectified, is that because my plane was delayed and was coming late anyawys, I arrived nearly 3 days after the other new volunteers arrived, so they all bonded and I did not. Also, out of the girls, two live together, and two others live together, and one girl in each room speaks german so it brought them all together. I room with a girl named Yvette, who has been there a while and already has her friends. Luckily though, we had this thai language class everyday this week that has sort of brought us all together.

WIthin two days or so, it all worked itself out. Except for lunch (which the other volunteers eat at their school, since they teach til 12, yet I teach til 10 and get no lunch), I have not eaten a meal alone. I always have someone to go places with and everyone always winds up in the same places at night. It's a really great atmosphere once you let yourself acclimate at the right time and not try to push it. Overall I'm really enjoying it and have found a great group of people to experience Nonghkhai with!!!

I still am trying to push people to travel on the weekends, because I am only here for a month, and cannot extend my stay if I want. While, I don't mind traveling alone in an English speaking country, its too hard to travel alone here, so I think we are going to go to another village next weekend and into Laos the weekend after. This weekend the new volunteers are all headed into the "jungle" for a summer camp, where we teach a little bit but spend most of the time playing with the kids. We will sleep in tents and not really shower. Should be a blast. Therefore you won't be hearing from me for a few days, but I do have a couple of posts I'm working on about the culture I am experiencing. I jsut wanted to give you all a little bit about how I'm feeling about it. Its surprising that I have had quite a few setbacks and it hasn't broken my spirit. And everything that has went wrong has been rectified(although I did notice that I might be missing one of my sneakers this morning, so that might not be too good...haha).

Thanks for all the comments and emails I have recieved. It's great to know you are all reading and enjoying my travels. I know I am. Will post pictures again soon!

Leaw jer gan. (farewell)

Thailand: The land of smiles

So as you all know I am in Thailand for one month and then I am going to Vietnam for 3 weeks. Well, if you didn't know that, you do now.
In researching for this program, I wanted to find out some information from someone who had been to a location, or was currently at a location, but have no vested interest to push me to go. I found this kid on facebook who was in nha trang, and we have been corresponding on and off since January. Well I messaged him recently to tell him I'd arrived and he wrote back warning me of all the things to look out for. One of the main things he kept saying was that the Vietnamese do not really like foriegners. Coming from Thailand this didn't make any sense.

Then I realized, of course Vietnam wouldn't like westerners. Westerners have occupied, controlled or colonized Vietnams government for the past 200 or so years. Westerners caused a war which tore the country apart. It's a surprise that they even allow Westerners into the country to begin with.

Thailand on the other hand, is one of the few countries in the entire world that have never been controlled, or colonized by a foriegn power. Thailand, which used to be called Siam(think Anna and the King/The King and I) innitially took up much of the South East Asia Penninsula, although I think Vietnam has always been fairly separate. It has also been a monarchy, with the rulers of the country determined by birthright since the middle ages. However in the early 1900s the government changed from an absolute monarchy to a constitutional monarchy. In the 1940s, the French colonized Laos, which is to the North of Thailand(Nongkhai is actually a border town, and when I go near the river I can physically see Laos), yet the king of Thailand used its ties with Japan to fend off the French. However Japan then began to occupy thailand militarily and caused much destruction to the country, as it was slowly loosing its foothold in world war two. Either way, it was close, but was never politically controlled by another country, super power or even another ethnicity/race. Therefore, the Thai people have nothing to fear from westerners. **Pictured is current King who has ruled for over 60 years and is one of the longest ruling monarchs in the history of the world. You can see his picture nearly everywhere.

Thailand is called the land of smiles. Which is why I LOVE it, since I am always smiling. They also dislike confrontation, and use those smiles to avoid conflict with each other and with foriegners. Whenever you are frustrated in dealing with the language barrier or some other dispute, smiling will immediately difuse the situation as they see that you mean well. However, in certain urban areas where prostitution run rampid smiles are the key to their success. The smiles can sometimes be fake and its hard to determine what they are really thinking/feeling. Either way though I haven't had many problem so far, they all seem to be friendly and very welcoming. Yet, I am also in a small closeknit town.

As a whole Thailand's economy seems to work very efficiently. Thailand and Vietnam both devestated by the War dealth with rebuilding in different ways, Vietnam through communism, or command economy and Thailand through private enterprise, or capitalism and within a few short years Thaialnd vastly improved their economy and are now the strongest economy in the area. Vietnam however was struggling emmensely and finally decided in the 80s(I beleive) that the command economy was not working and they slowly incorporated private enterprise into their way of life, similar to what Mao did in the People's republic of China.

The only main issues with Thailand's economy is that it depends alot on "sexual tourism" or prostitution essentially. The country's economy makes alot of money by having the mere children and teenage girls(although the "patrons" are always told that the girl will be older then 18) solicit their "servies" to tourists at "dance clubs", bars and street corners. It's a joke(although I find it offcolor) then its very easy to have a "thai girlfriend" if you want one, you just need a few Baht. Prostitution came about before tourism was such a big part of the economy. The Thai people were a polygomous people until the 1930s when the King outlawed the practice in order to "westernize" the area. However, they apparently still needed that outlet and variety I suppose? That was when Prostitution first became as big as it was now. If you could legitimately marry as many people as you want(although usually it was just males of course) and have sex with many different women in a socially acceptable way, then prostitution is not a necessary institution. However, when that was taken away, it simly came out in another, more profitable and capitolistic reform. I realize I am sounding rather flippant about the issue, and I don't mean to be offensive, I am trying just to explain the rational behind it, moral or not.

The other issue with the economy, or rather the government is the corruption. For anyone who has seen Brokedown Palace, its a fairly realistic portrayal of how bad the corruption is. The higher up you are in politics the more corrupt you will be. Although, corruption does actually make the country safer in a way, because officials get paid off instead of violently taking down criminals. I know I'm not explaining it right, but its similar to the idea of legalizing marijuana. If you legalize marijuana and you can buy it at the store, instead of from a dealer, you take away the criminality from it and it won't be as violent or deadly. Either way, its an oxymoron, but the corruption does seem to make the country safer and more efficient to some extent. Living in Nongkhai though, its too small of a town for the corruption to really effect the way of life at all.

Ok enough of a history and civics lesson for today. I thought it would be nice for you all to understand the backgrounds of the countries I am in. If nothing else, its my blog and I'll blog what I want to. So there.

*Note-all of this information is stuff I've pieced together from things I've heard, seen and read. Please do not take this as completely accurate, I was just trying to give you an overall understanding of the country, but I could have some facts wrong.

ps-thanks for all the comments and feedback so far, its very appreciated. I will soon write more about my daily goings on, I am trying to lay the groundwork first.

See ya on the flip side!

pictures pictures

I know, I'm going a little blog crazy, but I'm sure it will calm down soon. It's around 1pm here, and between the hours of 12pm-3pm, its not a great idea to be outside since the sun is sooo strong. The two dorms for volunteers are about a 10 minute bike ride apart, and of course the internet is at the other dorm. In the mornings I have to bike here in order to get picked up from my teaching placement, so if I stay here after teaching past noon, I am kinda stuck here for a while.

Anyways, I finally got around to uploading some pictures, so I thought I'd share them with you. Here are a few.

The image at the top left is me drinking water out of a bag, so it could be cold water. Classy huh?

The image on the top right is at the rememberance day for people who died in the war.

This image on the left is my room, or well my half of the room. I sleep on the floor and often with a mosquitto net around it. I will get pictures of the room now that I have fully moved in and whatnot. It's not exactly the most comfortable room, but for some reason sleeping so close to the ground makes it cooler. Plus, we have a fan that keeps us pretty cool at night.

To the right is our porch. We have Thai language lessons out there in the afternoons, and its a nice way to relax/read/catch up etc.

On the left next, is a picture of a bunch of us out to eat during the festival. Around the table starting from the male, is eddy (from Perth, WA, AUS), Anke(from Germany), Johanna(from Sweeden) and

The next picture on the right is the classroom and the students I am working with. They are soo great. Today we even had some male teachers join the class.


Lastly, I wanted to give you a brief look at the markets and the breadth of products sold there. You can honestly buy EVERYTHING you could ever want at the markets. Even underwear!!!I hope you all enjoy! Miss you all!!

teaching the teachers

Since I am a full time teacher, trained at a University, I was thinking I might get abused, and put in the worst school, not that the schools are that bad. Either way, the exact opposite occurred--I'm living the life.

I work in a school called CBAT(college of business administration and tourism), its about 30 minute drive away(in an airconditioned car!!!). I work with two other guy volunteers, Johann(from Sweeden) and Andy(from the UK). They have both taught in Thailand before and Johann has specifically taught at this school, so that was very comforting. But this time, we aren't working with kids, we are working with teachers.

The three of us teach about 20 or so teachers, who teach English, computers, tourism and accounting at the college. They are also all female. Since they are on summer break, they are able to have the time to take this class. It will last all month.

Johann kinda took over yesterday which was great. He knew exactly what to do. I mean I know what I need to do in the classroom, but giving out stickers and assigning a seating chart is not something you do with students who are between the ages of 24 and 60.

We did introductions, had them write out their names, subjects taught, ages, interests, hobbies and favorites like movies, food, drinks etc. Although, the 2 guys spelled favorite with a u, the word color apparently has a u in it also. While they struggled with the grammer part (like instead of saying "I teach computers, they would said I'm teach computers), overall they had a good mastery of basic English. It was cute, when we did our examples, we just said "Hi my name is Lacy....., they said "Hello, allow me to introduce myself, my name is..." It was soo cute and very proper sounding.

Then we set up prompts and had them ask each other questions about their families while we monitored and corrected. They have the biggest issues with past vs. present tense, because they don't have that in Thai language.

Speaking of, while we are teaching English, we also spend the first week learning Thai. It's really tough. It is a "tonal" language, and the accent on a word can change the meaning completely. For example, if you say the word Kao in different ways, it could mean anything from rice, to knee(as in the body part), to a funky smell. It's very difficult for me to try to speak the language, although I am starting to realize how easy it is to understand it. I mean, I hate when people can't understand me, or don't listen to me when we are both speaking the same language, so its really difficult for me to try to speak and have the other person not understand/comprehend. It's very frustrating.

Back from the tangent, the students we have though are so sweet. Today they brought us Thai coffee, which was actually really good, and some water. They also want to take us on a field trip next week to Ban Chang.

As this is an English class, they were joking around and telling us that if any of them were to speak thai during the class, we are suppose to charge them 5 baht. So as a joke, whenever someone speaks thai the rest of the class says "5 baht, 5 baht". The thai like to repeat things.

All in all, the teaching is going very well. Like I said, I really lucked out! I heard a few horror stories about behavior management in some of the other classrooms, but the only thing I really need to worry about is them talking while we are. They are also very sweet and seem to have a great time doing whatever. We laugh and joke around more then anything in class!

By the way, I didn't realize it, but my blog before wouldn't allow "anonymous people" or people without blogs to post, but I have changed that, so I encourage you to write comments, questions, critiques, etc.

peace

Thai time and other culture differences

I'm waiting to go to my teaching placement now. We were told to meet at the other dorm at 7:30am and its now 7:50 am. They call it "thai time". It's sorta like Jew time, so I understand. We'll be lucky to leave before 8:30 i think.

I wanted to take the opportunity to share some of the vastly different ideals/customs etc that I have been experiencing in Thailand!

Before entering any house, some stores, offices etc., you must take off your shoes. I think it has a religious reasoning behind it, but I'm not really sure what that reason is.

Bikes are everywhere. Except mine of course. I can't find mine anywhere. Not good. But people bike everywhere. By the end of this trip I will be so fit.

There are hardly any stores here, but there are five different markets, plus street vendors all over the place. When I say markets, I mean mile long markets, not just a few stalls. You can get everything you want at these markets from a pair of cotton pants(which I got for 60THB, which is less then $2USD) to a remote control, and pots/pans to electronics. Also, as expressed above the prices are really cheap.

We can't drink the water from the tap, we need to buy bottles, yet the ice by law has to be servable. I think the most expensive water I have had is like 10THB (which is like30 cents maybe). They also have water for us at the dorms. I decided to bike around at like noon yesterday for a few hours without water. Big mistake. Within minutes I had a humongous headache.

I know this isn't true of everyone's experience, but to me it seems like every day is a celebration in Thailand. At least in Nongkhai. Yesterday marked the beginning of a two week celebration remembering and honoring those who lost their lives in any wars fought by thailand. While they aren't in many world wide conflicts, there have always been tensions between Thailand and Burma. The border is a disputed area and they have lost many soldiers to the cause. In addition to the two week celebration, it is also the "summer" recess, and the chinese new Year. So either way there are and will be many celebrations throughout my stay.

The toilets. Actually the bathrooms as a whole are a whole new experience. In my dorm we have two bathrooms. The bottom floor has a thai toilet. Basically some porcellin on the floor, with a hole in it. It does however, have a "western" shower, which is a shower head coming out of the wall, not actually in a shower, but just kinda randomlly on the wall. The water pressure is so weak, it takes me like 5 minutes to get the shampoo out of my hair. The floor is dirty, because the entire bathroom is essentially the shower, since there are no walls to contain it. It's great fun. Upstairs, is a thai shower, which is basically two basins. One has standing water and the other is empty. You literally splash yourself with the standing water until you are clean. The toilet however is a "western" toilet. Although, it doesn't flush, so the only thing western about it, is that you can sit on the toilet instead of squat. To "flush" the toilet, you use the same standing water as the shower, and using a bowl you keep putting water down the toilet, until you don't see what you put down there. Oh, and you can't put toilet paper down the toilet, there is a garbage for that. I really hope i don't have to take that garbage out! I've lucked out though and only had to use a thai toilet once, and only to pee. I'm sure you appreciated that graphic depiction.

Monks are everywhere. They wear orange robes and have shaved heads. There are two temples down the street from me. Women cannot touch monks. It is forbidden by Buddhist custom/law. If I had to hand a monk something I would have to put it on a cloth that he wasn't touching. A little crazy, but ok.

It is overall very safe here, aside from a pickpocket or some other petty/non-violent crime. I'm also in a city that is a border town between Thailand and Laos. If it wasn't, there would be hardly anyone in the town I think. I do see some westerners, or farang(but the "r" is pronounced like an "L") but not many, aside from the other volunteers. The only "gangs" I need to worry about, are the gangs of unruly dogs that roam the streets and terrorize the bikers. Think Lady and the Tramp, or Oliver and Company. The dogs just sit outside on the road, and at night get aggressive.

I'm sure there is much more culture differences, but I haven't even been here 48 hours yet!

Special Cases Unit: Destination Udon Thani

I'm in Nongkhai. It's hot. The toilets don't flush. I have no luggage.

Saturday morning I awoke around 6:30am. Remember, my new flight isn't until noon. I take a body shower, but don't have any shampoo to wash my hair(since I wasn't planning on being there still). We leave by 7am, there is no traffic and we arrive around 8am. The company doesn't even open until 8:30am. I say bye to my mom and "fake" Aunt Marcy who saw me into the security check point. Or so we thought. So I go down towards the shops, thinking the security check point was soon. In every other airport I've ever been to, there are shops in the terminals. Nope, not the one time that I need it. I am cleared and at the gate by 9am, with two shops in the entire terminal. I make a friend. She was kinda obnocious, but it was someone to talk to.

The plane ride was fine. I sat next to a Thai 20-something guy, and while I never tried to speak directly with him, I think he actually might have known English. They fed us twice, plus a snack. I couldn't really fall asleep, I was just a little too cramped. For an 18 hour flight, being cramped is not pleasant. I did have the screen where we could choose what we wanted to do/watch. I watched Man of the Year, an Officer and a Gentleman(can someone please explain to me the title, I don't get it), some Grey's Anatomy episodes, some America's Next Top Model(Note: I am completely against this show and I think its horrible, but they were in Thailand and I was trying to learn as much as I could about the culture) and I also started but got bored with Chocolat and a Thai documentary. I also played a game which taught me the Thai language, so I learned the numbers, days of the week and some important phrases.

So I'm supposed to arrive at 5pm local time Sunday night in Bangkok. We arrive around 5:20pm. My next flight is at 6:30pm. As I leave the plane there are a bunch of Thai Airways people holding up signs, I thought it was weird, until I saw my own name. The woman told me that I was a "special case" because my flight was soo soon and she was going to try to expedite my process and help me as much as she could. That involved helping me through immigration, cutsoms, and getting my luggage, except we didn't. When you fly internationally and then fly domestically, you can't check your luggage all the way through because you physically have to take it through customs. So we are waiting at the baggage check. 6:00pm rolls around, no luggage, 6:10 luggage starts coming. By 6:20 we realized that if we wait for my luggage we will miss my plane. She promises me that she will look for my luggage and get it back to me asap.

Next plane is 55 minutes long and we get a meal. Mind you, I was on a plane from NYC to San Jose, CA and didn't get much more then crackers and pretzels. I take a "limosine" (a pick up truck) to Nongkhai from Udon Thani(where I flew in). I luck out that another man in the car with me is from texas but his girlfriend(who I'm pretty sure was a GREAT deal younger then him) was fluent in both and helped me communicate with the driver.

I finally arrive and am greeted by Rick who couldn't be happier to see me. He's the program coordinator. He shows me around the dorm and tells me that since I missed all of the orientations, that I will have private orientations within the next few days. Monday, luckily is a holiday, the start of a two week celebration commemorating all the slain and survived soldiers of Thailand. Luckily, I say, because I have an extra day to acclimate myself before I begin teaching.

I meet my roomate Yvette. She's really nice. She invites me out to a bar with a bunch of the other volunteers. Against my typical nature, and without my creature comforts of cleanliness and new clothes I decide to go. I am by they way wearing Brown "teachery" pants, a rayon tank top and a knit polo shirt. Not exactly the outfit to be wearing in 70 degree heat, let alone near 90. I meet everyone and have an OK time. I ate some Green Curry with "zero spice". It was still a little spicey to me, but it was mighty tasty. I also have a margharita. The entire meal costs me less then $5 USD. It was 150THB(Thailand Baht). It's about 35THB to $1 USD.

I go to sleep around midnight I think, and when I wake its still dark outside. After about an hour of trying unsuccessfully to force myself to sleep, I get up and read all the materials that were given to me, including the entire teaching manual, and every tourist book I could get my hands on about Thai culture, customs and the Nongkhai province.

At around 8am, one of my housemates tells me that some of the volunteers are going to a ceremony and I go, figuring I have nothing else to do. The ceremony is great, lots of Thai dancing and costumes. I have pictures. I'll post them at some point.

Then, I meet with Rick again and he tries to get me some THB. In my hurry to get on the plane, I never got a chance to get any Thai currency. Opps. Yeah, so this ceremony is a public holiday meaning banks are closed, and my ATM card doesn't "have enough data".

I go to the Travel to Teach office. Meet the people I've been corresponding with. They are all very friendly. I go on a tour of the town with Gabby, an Intern from Sweeden, although she's from Panama originally. Her story is interesting.

I am now waiting for Rick to come back so we can finally get my luggage and I can get a cell phone. I will explain more about my living conditions in upcoming blogs.

Peace out.

juuuuuuust kidding

Contrary to my belief, leaving four hours before your scheduled flight out of John F. Kennedy airport is not enough time to make your flight(when you are about 45 minutes away).

My father decided we should leave by 7, I thought that ridiculous. My Aunt Marcy seconded that, I thought 8 would be fine. It wasn't.

From one highway to the next, it was bumper to bumper traffic. By 9:15 we were still in Westchester, my dad decided all hope was lost. At 10am, he decides to pull off the highway because he has to go to the bathroom. On the way back onto the highway, we get pulled over by the cops. Apparently he went through a red light. It was a blessing in disguise. Instead of even giving my dad a warning, he tells my dad all of the highways into the city that are closed, and gives us what he thinks would be the best way to go.

After a few streets the cop is still behind us, and we have already misunderstood his directions. So I run out of the car at a red light and ask the cop for clarification. Two lights later, we get pulled over again. This time, so that he could tell us that the Bronx river parkway, the route he suggested, was actually a river(as in, it flooded), and was closed. At this point I have called my airline and found out that the same exact flight exists tomorrow. I change my reservation, and we call it a day.

Unfortunately, we are still stuck in incredibly bad weather, with flooding on all sides of us. I decide, mostly out of hunger, that it might be a good idea to find a diner, get something to eat, sit down for a while, regroup and wait out the traffic. It's genius.

So, about an hour later, we are ready to head back on the road. 15 minutes later, my dad wanted to call my mom. I thought he had the phone, he thought I had the phone. Classic sitcom plot. We turn around and go back to the diner to retrieve the phone. Now, we are on our way. Half an hour behind, but not broken.

So dad knows all of the highways to take, but gets lost about 3 miles away. He stops for gas and directions, but then decides to ignore them. A few weeks ago, Julie and I, after an exhilirating trip to the Museum of Sex down in the city stayed up at my Aunt Marcy's, and I very vividly remembered that one of the roads right near her house was called Goebel. I mean honestly, how can you forget a road with that name. Anyways, so we pass this road, and I tell him to turn on it. He thinks I am crazy, but follows anways. After about .4 of a mile on that road he gets nervous and sees a cop pulling over someone else. My father decides to pull up behind the cop and ask him for directions. At this point we are within two streets of the house, and baring some luck that the cop is from the neighborhood, there is no way that the cop would know exactly where to go, but anyways. We finally see the old route 304 that was the next direction after Goebel, and eventually find our way.

I don't know why, but I saw complete humor in this whole series of events. Unless another natural disaster occurs I am still going to Thailand, just a day late, so it will work out in the end. One thing I learned from my GA job last year, is that as long as it finishes well, sometimes it doesn't matter how it got started. It's not worth all of the worry, anxiety and aggrevation. It will all work out in the end. Knock on wood.

So it looks like I'm in Rockland county another night and I won't be in Thailand for another day. This time my Aunt Marcy and mother are driving me.

Just a day in the life I suppose...

Thailand

.....and I'm off