Bangkok

So, since I've had difficulty motivating myself to write this blog with any sort of regularly, I think I am going to follow my friend Guy's advice and begin writing it every Friday (though if I get any sort of night social life it may become Thursday). Anyway, since I've arrived back from Katt's parents house with Caroline, we stayed in Khon Kaen for only a few days before we decided to travel to Bangkok. While we were in Khon Kaen we helped Katt teach a couple of my Thai friends English by simply conversing with them. This seems to be the preferred method of teaching English in Thailand. Simply conversing with the students and then occasionally pointing out new words or things like that so that they can understand. My main issue with it is that I begin to start talking like they do, meaning, I begin to stop conjugating verbs and using the wrong pronouns, simply so that I am understood. The problem with this of course is the fact that I'm then teaching them absolutely nothing, and I may even be impeding their learning. In any case, the classes were quite hilarious because all the class (which incidentally was all girls) wanted to talk about was boys and what Caroline and I thought of Thai girls and drugs and alcohol etc etc.
The day after class, Caroline and I traveled to Bangkok. We decided to go by bus because it is much cheaper than flying and honestly, a lot more comfortable. While a plane ride to Bangkok is around 250$ the bus was about 25$ per person. The buses are luxury buses and pretty much allow you to fully recline, which is very very nice. In addition, while the plane is about an hour, the bus is only around 6 hours long, which, in the difference in cost and comfort, is well worth it. Caroline and I arrived in Bangkok and decided to stay on a place called Silom Road. The general place for travelers to stay is a road called Kow San Road, but it is extremely touristy, cheap, and therefore a bit gross. Silom is more for the "higher class" travelers that decide to stay and therefore have much cleaner rooms and things like that. We found a place called the HQ Hostel which was actually really really nice. Though it was a hostel, we decided to splurge a bit and get our own 2 person room, which turned out be nicer than my apartment. Since we got in late we decided to just hang around the hostel for the first day. We walked outside and walked down the market that's near there, laughing at the hilarious English on the front of shirts (one was a pair of minnie ears that said "BITCH PLEASE" and another was "This machine accepts 5,10,20,50, and 100$ bills) and trying to decide what to eat. Unfortunately, because we were foreigners and young, we were offered pornography CONSTANTLY. It was extremely annoying. What truly shocked me was the fact that though most of the people offering it was grimy shady characters, there were also some men dressed in suits that would completely surprise us by suddenly turning around and opening their jacket (yes just like the movies) and pulling out pictures for you to choose from or something. After walking around for a while, we decided it was late and went back to the hostel to go to bed.
The next morning we got up and went to Wat Po (the reclining Buddha) it was absolutely spectacular and gigantic. The Buddha is close to 50 ft tall and probably 150 ft long and completely gold. The artistry around the edges of the temple was extremely ornate and beautiful. It is very intricately done and beautifully made. I'll post some pictures so that you can see what I mean. Caroline and I also traveled to Kow San Road which, as  I said before, is a total tourist trap and tourist place. It was actually pretty nice to see a bunch of white people there and we had a few conversations with people there which reinvigorated me English speaking, which has been slowly sliding downhill since not having anyone to talk to (besides Caroline of course). I unfortunately have run out of time to write the rest of this, I'll try to come back and finish it off (there's not much left, mostly us just hanging around and taking boats and stuff to and from our hotel. Then taking the bus back) but I'll post a bunch of pictures now.

Katt's house and teaching and Caroline

Hi all, I've become less and less motivated to write this blog unfortunately. Due to my absolutely gripping schedule of activities, I never have ANY free time...EVER. Except when I spend numerous hours reading bad books and napping. But these are extremely important and time-consuming activities which cannot be replaced. However, at the insistence of Caroline (who has come here to visit for a couple weeks), I am now writing another blog post. In case you didn't know.

The last couple days have been filled with all sorts of teaching excitement as well as the crashing of Scooters, and the exploration of new parts of Thailand. I picked up Caroline from the airport on Sunday night and proceeded back home. The next day we decided to get massages at my favorite massage place Subai Subai and then proceeded to take a bus up to Kat's parents house. Originally, Caroline was going to arrive later and I would go to Kat's house by myself and teach students up there alone. But due to a change in plans, Caroline arrived early and we decided to go up anyway and would have her help me teach. Thank god this happened, or I would have been utterly lost as to what to do. In any case, we arrived and were picked up by Katt's father. Nothing notable happened at the house. The next day we went to teach kids. Now, what I assumed we would be doing is helping out Katt's dad in his class, either doing TA sorts of things, or teaching short lessons in English. I could not have been more confused on what was going on. Essentially, we walked awkwardly into a classroom (either 12-13 yrs old or 14-15 yrs old) and proceeded to introduce ourselves. The students tended to either break out in awkward laughter, laugh among their friends, and stare. We had absolutely no idea what to do. As we awkwardly glanced around and looked to Katt's dad to help us, he proposed we sing a song. This was completely disorienting. I mean, sitting there reading this, it seems like a good idea and not so difficult, but try being in front of 25, 15yr olds who are sitting there already laughing at you. And then come up with a song that is somewhat interesting but will still teach them something. I couldn't think of a single song other than Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance". Thank God Caroline was there and proposed Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. Now, this isn't the greatest song to teach to 15 year olds, but its a helluva lot better than "Bad Romance". I was hoping that we could simply write the song on the board and then teach it to them, however, Katt's dad was under the impression that I should sing it to them. Let me just say that I have embarrassed myself a large large number of times, in numerous situations, and, while this probably wasn't the most embarrassing moment of my life, it was very very close to the top. So, to give you the full picture, I am standing at the front of 25 students, holding an overly large water bottle that I have been feverishly drinking from, drenched in sweat from both heat and nervousness, preparing to sing a child's song. I kinda just wanted to cry. To any of my teachers that may read this, I admire your courage. Nonetheless, I stood at the front of the class and belted out Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, then had Caroline write in on the board and teach the song to the class. Thankfully, after doing this for what seemed like 50 classes, at 12 hours each class (ok so it was 2 classes for about 30 minutes, but still...) we finally were allowed to escape back home. We both promptly fell asleep for a couple of hours and then hung out for the rest of the night. The next day, Katt came up to her parents house. Initially, Katt's father was going to be our guide for our entire time up there, but a meeting came up and he had to leave, thus making Katt come up with Alex because there was no one there who spoke English. The next day we went back to the school with a bit more of a plan. We had some games that we could play with the older kids and some other activities with the younger. Fortunately, the younger kids hadn't played with us yet, so we we and saw them. This took up the entire day and we luckily did not have to teach the older kids. We played games like Ring Around the Rosie and All Around the Cobbler's Bench. The kids mostly didn't understand anything we did, but they really liked falling down and pretending to be dead and such.
After the teaching Caroline and I took Katt's Scooter for a ride! We went up to the waterfall that I've already described. We also went to the gardens but unfortunately our ride was cut short by impending lightning and incoming rainstorm. I'm going to avoid describing the drive because it will sound really cliche and not really do justice to what we saw. But it was absolutely amazing having the wind blowing in your face as we rode between rice patties and sugarcane fields. We drove back the next day and hung out. Thus have been my activities for the last couple of days. I will post a bunch of pictures in about an hour. Hope everything is going well for everyone. I will attempt to get more motivated about this blogging.

Living and Loving

Long time no see!

Hey everyone, its been a while! Sorry for the delay and everything! I finally have friends! Places to go! People to see! Or something like that anyway. SO! Lots of updates! =]

So this first post I wrote a little while ago when our internet was down and I was planning to post (really I was!) So things have been updated since then...see below the story =]

Generally, for the Thai, they either make their own food, or they get their food from a street vendor and take it home to eat it. There are eat in restaurants, but from what I can determine, they are few and far between. However, since one of Scott and Kat’s friends came to visit them for a day, we decided to go to eat in restaurant. I was informed that we were going to have sushi which is AWESOME because I love sushi. This restaurant was situated in the “big central mall”. Though 90% of Thailand is street vendors and small shops, etc, they seem to have a certain need to make up for it by building ridiculously large shopping malls. Like, think 2x or 3x Sun Valley Mall (sorry non-Californian’s I’m not sure what else to compare it to). Inside these malls are a multitude of difference shops and restaurants etc. Our restaurant, named “Zen” was on the 3^rd floor of 7. (Also kind of funny, they number their garage levels 1,1.5,2,2.5,3,3.5, etc…I have no idea why this is considering the levels are just one floor higher than the level below it, not a half a floor higher.) Zen was an interesting meshing of cultures that I greatly enjoyed. First, it was a buffet. A sushi buffet? I’ve never heard of anything remotely close to that. Secondly, the “sushi” was 4 different types of what I would call “sushi” and then a lot of “Japanese food”…like pot stickers meat balls. Everyone knows these are truly classic Japanese dishes. During long battles, the samurai quite often consisted purely on meatballs they had stored in their armor…To sum up the restaurant experience, we were in a Japanese restaurant, being served by a Thai woman in a kimono, and were being served Chinese Pot stickers and American Meatballs. Ah the cook pot of cultures.

Anyway, nothing much else happened. I have begun to make names for Alex, mostly because they amuse me and neither Kat nor Peggy has any idea what they mean unless I explain them. These are a couple of my personal favorites: Alex, Wreaker of Havoc and General Confusion; Alex, Ender of Silence and Calm; and finally, Alex, Ultimate Glass Dissassembler. The final name coming from a calamity that occurred a few days ago when, unbeknownst to anyone else, Alex found a glass cup. However, his interest in this cup quickly waned, until Alex dropped it on the tile and it shattered. This was very interesting. Unfortunately, mom promptly removed him from the vicinity of more glass. But since then, Chief dissembler of glass haunts our kitchen.

Anyway, back to more recent things! I have just moved into an apartment! I'll be posting the pictures in just a little while once the internet starts running at something slightly faster than dial-up (it comes in and out). The apartment is located about 20 minutes from Scott and Kat's house. Near the lake, and right next to a school where I regularly go to meet people. Yes, I did just write regularly go to meet people. Over the last week or so I have had a chance to go in to Ganniscorn (or something close to that) highschool and teach and help out in classes. Scott and Kat both taught students that go there and they introduced me to them and we get along great! It's really really really nice to have someone to hang around with. Not that I'm saying anything against Scott, Katt, Peggy, or Alex, but kids my own age that I can talk to (they can speak fairly good English) is a total lifesaver. We've been going over to Central Plaza (essentially Sun Valley Mall) and seeing a movie or two as well as playing games together and even going to a concert together. It's been a TOTAL blast and I'm finally out of the "I am completely homesick and I'm pretending to be just fine but I want to go home" stage, and am moving into the "Ok, this might not be so bad after all..." stage. Also, as of last night, I met some older people who I became friends with pretty quickly. This group was a tutoring group for pretty much all ages, (the ages went from 15 to 35) and they invited me out to dinner so that they could practice their English. I was picked up by the teacher of the tutoring group who brought me out to their teaching facility outside of town. We conversed for about 45 minutes and then went to dinner. Originally this was going to be the entire plan, but we ended up deciding to go to karaoke all together. This was a total and complete blast. Though I knew none of the songs except the ones that I chose, we were all still rocking out together for a good 2 or 2 1/2 hours. I truly found out how exceedingly...what's the word I'm looking for....unique my voice is. In any case, everyone had a lot of fun, and I think I've got some more people who will call me from time to time and give me something to do. 

There is tons more that I need to write about, but I'm feeling exceptionally tired right now, but I promise I'll write more soon! Sorry for the delay, pictures coming soon, hope everyone is going alright!

Living and Loving

Mikolka

Thai Language and Culture!

Ok so I just wanted to do a quick post about the language that I'm trying to learn and the differences between our cultures and theirs. I of course will leave some things out because I will forget but I'll try to cover the basics.

Firstly, if you come to Thailand, here's my cheat sheet that I'm using (with phonetic sounds out).

Cheat Sheet

To be verb – (places – yu) (people/objects – pben)

Hello – Sawadee kap

Sleep – non

Thank You – Kob koon ka

Excuse me/sorry – Ko Tot

How are you? – Sa by dee my kap

I’m fine – Sa by dee

Me / I – pom

You – Koon

Hungry – hew (eat – gin) (rice – kaow)

Thirsty – Gra Hy nam (nam – water) (Thirsty [non-proper] – Hew Nam) (drink – duem)

Where is – (object) you Tee nye

Hotel – rrong rram

What’s your name? – Koon sheu a rye

This – nee (that – nan)

How do i? – Pom kooan tam yang rrai (tam – do)

Small – lek

Big – yiy

Hospital – rrong pa ya ban

Full – eem

Already – laew (think laew)

Be careful – rra waang (dangerous – an ta rye)

Cute – na rrac (beautitful – suai)

Go – pbai

Pom shu mikolka shu len Micky –my name is mikolka but my nickname is micky

Pom ayue sip ped p – My age is 18 years.

Pom ma djak America – I come from America.

Pom dee jy tee dye ma tee nee – I am happy to be here.

Yin dee tee die rru ja – nice to meet you.

Koon shu a rrai - Whats your name

Pooaagk koon a yu tao rrai – how old are you all?

Pom pood thai dye nitnoid – I only speak a little thai.

Pom tam dye – I can do.

Pom chaaaap len kap dekdek

Pom chooop – I like

Koon chooop computer my? – you like computers?

Koon chooop tam a rrai – what do you like to do?

A rrai – what

Ti nye - where

Kam laan = ing

Jsa = future (will do)

Kuuy – past (ed)

My crap cap koon – no thank you (and walk away)

Pom mya me ban ha – I don’t want any trouble

Pood – speak

Pood chsa chsa doiee crap – speak very slowly please

Rreo rreo – very fast

Mag mag – very very

Mye before verb or adjective = not

Laww = handsome

Jsing = true

Feeeen – gf bf relationship

Sooot - single

So there's some language for you all. Interesting thing is that Thai is a tone language, meaning they have 6 different tones and each one can mean something different in a word. For instance, mye said like at the end of a sentence in a question, makes a sentence a question, but if you say mye flat and monotone, it becomes no or not. Also, they have different letters that are actually incredibly difficult to pronounce. For example, their "j" actually sounds like a "js" because they don't separate their teeth when they say the "j", thus making it get a "s" sound with it. Try it once or twice!

So interesting things about the culture! Feet are considered very dirty. Much like we would consider a butt to be dirty and inappropriate, feet are considered the same thing. When sitting, you never point your toes at the person or at whatever you're facing, it's considered extremely rude. Thai is obviously an asian culture so there is a lot less touching as well. Only very close friends, girlfriends/boyfriends, and family really ever touch. Shaking hands is even considered a nono. When you say hello to someone, you bow with your hands in a praying position with your two index fingers just in front of your mouth. As I said in my previous post, women cannot touch monks. No head touching except on babies. 

Anyway, there are more but those are the basics. Trying to remember these things can be quite a challenge during a regular day and trying not to cause offense is a pretty key part of dealing with everything. 

Hope you enjoyed it! Remember, put any questions in the comments!

(by the way, i know a lot of people are having trouble commenting. When you comment, you need to write your comment, then select one of the accounts from the drop down menu. Unfortunately, this site requires that you have one of those accounts to comment so as to reduce the amount of drivel that random people can post. If you don't have any of those accounts, you can email me your comment and I'll add it to the bottom. Thanks!)

The crazies always find me....and a temple

Story then Pictures

So nothing super exciting has been happening lately. Buncha pictures I just posted are from the temple near our house. I'm back in Khon Kaen and have been learning all about Buddhism! I'm going to explain what I know to ye of little faith, and convert ye to the GREATEST RELIGION OF THE WORLD. Well ok, not quite, but I'm gunna give a little more info than some of you know. =] First though, you get to hear my actually kinda creepy and horrific story. 

So today I went to Subai Subai to get a massage. Scott and Kat both recommended this massage place as the best one that you can go to. After a two hour massage for 10 dollars, I see where they're coming from. Anyway, since I biked there, I of course biked home. When I was biking home, I was biking on the street with the lake and lake trail on my left. While I was biking some guy came up on the lake trail and started talking to me. His English was pretty good and we were sorta talking, mostly just jumbled phrases. He told me to go into the park, I thought this was because the street ride was dangerous. I went into the park and continued biking with him biking with me. We were sorta talking and as I tried to peel off to go home he got kept saying "no no, water there". I thought he was offering me water and was actually pretty thirsty so kept going. We finally got to the bathrooms and we sort of sat down. This was immediately confusing to me. However, not trying to offend anyone, I sat down. The bench was fairly small and somewhat apart from the trail. He immediately began touching my arm. This should have immediately been a warning sign. The Thai do NOT touch people very often. Only very close friends or family really touch, and even that is rarely more than a hug. The fact that this Thai guy was touching my arm should have alerted me to back away. However, since I wasn't thinking properly, I ignored it. He then got up and tried to open some garage. I thought this was what he needed help with and then I would be going. However, this garage was locked. So again we sat down. (I know that reading this it may have sound strange and you're thinking, wow what an idiot why is he doing this? But at the time I was just trying to be nice, and since I know almost no one here, it would be a nice change to have a friend. Please keep that in mind.) He then began touching me again, measuring my thighs. Ok, now I knew he was just trying to pick pocket me. I stood up and started moving away and he kept saying sit down 5 minute sit down 5 minute. Had this just been pick pocketing I would have been fine, however, I was completely astonished and infuriated when he reached for my crotch. This was completely unexpected. I immediately pulled myself away and ignored him shouting for me to sit down while I biked away. I'm mostly posting this here somewhat as a warning to others, because this is actually horrifying and extremely upsetting to me. I'm also trying to laugh it off because it seriously shook me up. As anyone who has experianced something like that before, despite it seeming like a funny thing or something like that, it's actually really upsetting. So, this is my therapy. Heh..anyway that's all. Also, take this with a dose of reality though, while this happened to me, this is EXTREMELY unlikely to ever happen to anyone else. This has the ability to become the "razor blades in the apples on halloween". Please don't make the mistake that this is a normal thing or that this happens regularly. Everyone I have talked to about it in Thailand has said that they've never even heard of someone doing anything close to that. So keep that in mind. It was most likely that this guy was crazy or something along those lines. But, be aware and be safe, and when those warning bells go off, listen to them. 

ANYWAY, back to less weird but equally interesting topics! =] So, Buddhism is a very interesting religion. As most people know it believes in the wheel of life and that once you die, you come back again until you live your life so well that you go to live with Buddha in some sort of heavenlike thing. Interesting thing's I learned: Supposedly, when you die and are with Buddha, your bones turn into rock or crystal (they cremate so bits of your remains are rock and crystal); when you are in the wheel of life, you generally just stay a human in your next life, though your status may be raised or lowered as a human (kind of like more and more of a test because, when you get higher in the wheel and you become wealthy, its much easier to be mean to people and therefore prove you are not ready to join Buddha), however, if you do something specific, like torturing a certain animal or type of animals or anything like that, you will be punished by becoming that thing, and living your life as the creature you tortured (for myself I worry that I'm going to be reborn a spider...*shudder*); they essentially have the same "commandments" as Christianity, don't kill, don't steal, don't cheat on your wife, etc..; they believe (I really like this SO much more than Christianity) that children are innocent and therefore have a "second vision" and can see into the spirit world, this ability manifests itself in the fact that children (like Alex who is 16 mo) bow to the Buddha and seem to understand the power of Buddha. I learned some other stuff but I actually forgot exactly what the differences were lol...if you have any questions, put them in the comments.

Anyway, that's all for this post, I'm going to add some stuff to under each picture to explain it or make myself laugh.

Living and Loving.

 This is the temple, its build is mostly thai but was influenced somewhat by Chinese culture, so you may see things that look Chinese.

 This is the top portion, it looks extremely awesome because (though this picture doesn't show it) it sparkles with the gold. 

 I'm not sure whether this is Thai or Chinese...but it's cool nonetheless.

 Across from the temple, below it says, make sure to wash your hands after every meal.

 I agree with him, its too damn hot. 

 Buddha with a thin thin layer of gold coating.

 Totally cracked me up...inside the temple are "fortune tellers"...just insert 1 Baht! But hey, I guess everyone needs to make money.

 Cool ceilings. This pattern is repeated over the whole temple.

 Lots of different types of Buddha. This is the long-lobed one. (Look at his ears)

 Inside the box, you can see a small jar with a gold pointy lid, inside is supposedly a piece of Buddha's "crystal and stone" remains. At least in this religion you don't have to eat him.

 This was a BOMBASS chandelier. I've never seen one that looked so cool. 

 You know how we have a dog party? Well in Thailand they have the elephant party. (Buddha in orange on the left)

 So, normally I don't believe religious hoodoo about seeing this or that, but it was kinda eerie when Alex, without prompting from anyone, started bowing to the Buddha's. 

 So these next couple of photos are on the second floor of the temple. They show all the things you shouldn't do. Basically the rules of Buddhism. This one is that women should not stand close to monks. Technically, women cannot even touch monks. If a monk gives a woman something, they have to put it on the ground and have the woman pick it up. 

 Monks shouldn't pee standing up. (actually) They must squat to pee. 

 Peggy just wandered in with this. I lol'd.

 Young women should not stomp or show anger, especially in the sight of an elder.

 Don't be too sexy. Actually, if you're shorts are too short, they require you to wear a wrap that covers your legs.

 I thought it had to do with the naked boy, however, this one is that a man should not stand in the way to the home for a pregnant woman because it signifies that he will stand in the way of the birth.

 I guess the guy sitting sideways, wrong again. The guy in the center in white cannot sit with his legs crossed, he must sit with his feet facing away from the monk. So on his knees or sideways.

 Young should never sit above elders.

 These are some of the original "commandments" written on banana tree(?) bark.

 Don't sleep with your weapon. (boys, please keep your jokes to yourself)

 I guessed don't make the woman work while you rest. WRONG, make her work, just don't let her do it something that looks like she came out of the shower. (I'm not joking)

 Don't spit.

 Do not touch the electric fence. Hehe crackin myself up. 

Don't eavesdrop.

 Don't think about you're husband hunting because you'll make him screw up. Girls ruin everything. ;)

 Don't play with fire.

 Badass shield.

 Don't sharpen your weapon at night. (yeah i know, why? Kat: "Just because")

 Stuffed Cobra anyone?

 So, uninteresting photo EXCEPT, interesting fact you will now know. If you see pictures or figures with what looks like a candle around their head, it means they are holy. Much like halo's signify angels.

 Collection of different figurines. I thought nothing of it until Alex prostrated himself in front of it. I figured I'd take a picture and see if then I could see the spirit.

 The lake.

 The lake...2

 4 of these at each of the corners of the temple. No idea what the significance, but is an exact replica of the main building.

 Standing at the top looking over the ledge onto the ledges below.

 Chillin, though it looks like he wanted me off this temple. Damn foreigners.

I was as confused as you are about this. This was in the courtyard of the temple. According to Kat, this province (or area or something?) was named because they found dinosaur bones here. So that's why there's so many different dinosaur like things. So, dinosaur lovers, this is where it's at.