we don't have any plans today, so i got to sleep in (until 8:30, and that i even call that sleeping in is a terrible sign). we're gonna go on a run, head to the market, maybe watch a movie, maybe wander around town, maybe play games, maybe do nothing. we realized last night we haven't really done this--this we-have-nothing-to-do-all-day-tomorrow thing--at all since we got here.
ahhhhhh what a good feeling. hello, lazy saturday. it's nice to see you.
28.11.09
27.11.09
a burger and fries
it's my i'm-not-in-america-but-i-need-to-celebrate-thanksgiving-anyway tradition. paris 2007, it was a huge, delicious, meaty burger at "breakfast in america." two years later, i had a not so huge but just as delicious burger at some place off khaosan road in thailand. excellent choice.
why travel all the way to bangkok when the thai-farang place across the street in suphanburi sells a mean burger, nicki? well, friend, let me tell you. maddy, sam, ally, and i needed to get tickets to go to koh phi phi for new years and rumor had it tickets were significantly cheaper if you bought them at the station itself. and it only takes an hour and a half or so to get there, so nbd. we went.
it was sort of a weird day for me. i realized this blog has mostly just been a bullet by bullet summary of everything i've done, which is all fine and good, but i haven't talked about my feelings much (shocking, i know).
but i was homesick today. and now i feel like i need to talk about emotions (nat's dying of happiness right now). i don't think i let on too much, but i was missing home real bad. it seems like we've been talking a lot about home lately cuz of the holidays, and just thinking about how much i love thanksgiving week in san ramon made me wish i could go back, just for a couple days. when i started to explain thanksgiving to my wonderful first class this morning, my chest twisted and my words stopped themselves in my throat for a second.
these little bouts of homesickness aren't really a big deal. i'm still so happy for thailand, and so happy about my friends here, and i'm not thinking about going home at all. just...some days i miss california and my family (in every sense of the word) more than others. i'm thankful for the good life i have in the states and here in thailand.
why travel all the way to bangkok when the thai-farang place across the street in suphanburi sells a mean burger, nicki? well, friend, let me tell you. maddy, sam, ally, and i needed to get tickets to go to koh phi phi for new years and rumor had it tickets were significantly cheaper if you bought them at the station itself. and it only takes an hour and a half or so to get there, so nbd. we went.
it was sort of a weird day for me. i realized this blog has mostly just been a bullet by bullet summary of everything i've done, which is all fine and good, but i haven't talked about my feelings much (shocking, i know).
but i was homesick today. and now i feel like i need to talk about emotions (nat's dying of happiness right now). i don't think i let on too much, but i was missing home real bad. it seems like we've been talking a lot about home lately cuz of the holidays, and just thinking about how much i love thanksgiving week in san ramon made me wish i could go back, just for a couple days. when i started to explain thanksgiving to my wonderful first class this morning, my chest twisted and my words stopped themselves in my throat for a second.
these little bouts of homesickness aren't really a big deal. i'm still so happy for thailand, and so happy about my friends here, and i'm not thinking about going home at all. just...some days i miss california and my family (in every sense of the word) more than others. i'm thankful for the good life i have in the states and here in thailand.
25.11.09
so, would you like a job?
after class, maddy and i walked into the teachers' office and saw tons of strangers milling about. kanchana introduced us to a short woman dressed in an elaborate thai costume, and a guy started snapping pictures of us chatting with the woman.
turns out all of these people (maybe 10 or so) are from a university which may or may not have been kasetsart university...i dunno, i couldn't really understand her. the camera man directed us outside so we could all take a picture together, then the group picture devolved into small talk. tahsh, maddy, and i talked to this short university professor/administrator for maybe 20 minutes about nothing in particular--how she spent some time in los angeles and rode the bus, about how we don't like busy cities that much, about how there's a buffalo village in suphanburi, blah blah blah.
once or twice, the tiny woman sort of joked about us working at the university when we finished our contracts, but i sort of figured it was a complete joke. but then, right at the end of the conversation, right when everyone was leaving, the tiny woman called over this other university man.
"ask them to work at the university."
so right there, in the middle of the hallway at our school (a school we've only taught at for a month! out of a year-long contract!), a man offered us jobs as university professors. doesn't matter what credentials we have, doesn't matter how much we've taught, nothing. we just know how to speak english, and that's good enough to be a university professor.
oh, and just to be sure we knew he was serious, the man leaned in at the end of the conversation and goes, "we offer 35...35,000 baht for 12 hours a week. five hundred baht for every hour over that."
SO, all of my jobless friends, don't worry so much. know that you're already qualified to be a university professor in thailand.
turns out all of these people (maybe 10 or so) are from a university which may or may not have been kasetsart university...i dunno, i couldn't really understand her. the camera man directed us outside so we could all take a picture together, then the group picture devolved into small talk. tahsh, maddy, and i talked to this short university professor/administrator for maybe 20 minutes about nothing in particular--how she spent some time in los angeles and rode the bus, about how we don't like busy cities that much, about how there's a buffalo village in suphanburi, blah blah blah.
once or twice, the tiny woman sort of joked about us working at the university when we finished our contracts, but i sort of figured it was a complete joke. but then, right at the end of the conversation, right when everyone was leaving, the tiny woman called over this other university man.
"ask them to work at the university."
so right there, in the middle of the hallway at our school (a school we've only taught at for a month! out of a year-long contract!), a man offered us jobs as university professors. doesn't matter what credentials we have, doesn't matter how much we've taught, nothing. we just know how to speak english, and that's good enough to be a university professor.
oh, and just to be sure we knew he was serious, the man leaned in at the end of the conversation and goes, "we offer 35...35,000 baht for 12 hours a week. five hundred baht for every hour over that."
SO, all of my jobless friends, don't worry so much. know that you're already qualified to be a university professor in thailand.
24.11.09
the ability to make pancakes and grilled cheese
that's what i want. man, if i could make some banana pancakes in the morning on the weekend, life would be sweet. how jack johnson of me.
i hope hot plates aren't too expensive here. maddy and i might splurge on one once we get paid. december first i'll be rollin' in baht, making grilled cheese sandwiches, and riding my bike places. (oh, i want money to buy a bike, too. if that wasn't clear.)
i hope hot plates aren't too expensive here. maddy and i might splurge on one once we get paid. december first i'll be rollin' in baht, making grilled cheese sandwiches, and riding my bike places. (oh, i want money to buy a bike, too. if that wasn't clear.)
23.11.09
starbucks, burritos, pizza, spaghetti, and wine
overall, thailand is suiting me quite well. i’m loving the food; the people are enchanting; being able to wear skirts pretty much all the time and never having to be concerned about bringing a jacket out are pretty awesome things. but after a month here (one month anniversary was on friday!), I was sort of craving a bit of amerikuh goodness.
enter chiang mai, complete with burritos, sandwiches, shocking amounts of English speakers, and starbucks. ohhhhh, starbucks. I didn’t realize what a shameless consumerist I’d become until I saw the starbucks here and squealed.
we (maddy, ally, tahsh, and i) left suphanburi around 3:30 pm on Tuesday and, after an hour+ long van ride (100 baht/~$3) and an expensive, equally long taxi ride (~80 baht each/~$2.90), we got to the airport to pick up our train tickets. since we bought them online, we had to pick them up not at the train station but the airport. logic completely escaped these train ticket sellers because 1) they didn’t put the pick up desk at the train station, where the trains ACTUALLY ARE 2) they put them at the airport, which is an hour away from the train station in half-decent traffic 3) not only were the tickets at the airport, but they were at a random cargo station, which is a shuttle ride away from the regular part of the airport where normal people put pick up desks.
whatever. that story’s probably not going to come off nearly as confusing/hilarious as it was in person, so just trust when I say it was a crazy time. we finally got our tickets, made it to the train station, and hopped on our overnight train. maddy and i took some sleeping drugs and slept like babies on the way up there, and when we finally pulled into the station just after 1 pm, i felt completely well rested (though i was starving--shitty breakfast food on the train. whoda thunk).
we checked into our hostel ("a little bird," it was called. i highly recommend it) and the first item on the list was food. western food, to be exact. we'd heard about the delicious western food all over the city, but even so, when we walked across the street to a burrito place, we nearly fainted when we saw the deliciousness of the food. OH MY GOD I'VE MISSED BURRITOS.
on thursday we woke up reallllllll early in the morning to do the gibbon experience, which was a 15-platform zip line thing through the jungles just north (i think) of chiang mai. phenomenal. the pictures tell better stories (but don't judge me...harnesses make everyone look bad).
the rest of the trip was punctuated by tons of shopping, lots of delicious (if expensive) eating of solely western food (hence the title), gallons of coffee drinking, and lots of hanging out with friends from the north. these names won't mean a thing to most of you, but we met up with nancy, brian, brian's friend joe, markus, and cindy, and i was overjoyed. it's weird how close we became during that orientation week, and how much i've missed this people in the three weeks since i've last seen them, and how comfortable i felt with them. thailand friends, you're pretty neat.
this won't be the final chiang mai trip, not by a long shot. i just want to exist in coffee shops there a lot more.
enter chiang mai, complete with burritos, sandwiches, shocking amounts of English speakers, and starbucks. ohhhhh, starbucks. I didn’t realize what a shameless consumerist I’d become until I saw the starbucks here and squealed.
we (maddy, ally, tahsh, and i) left suphanburi around 3:30 pm on Tuesday and, after an hour+ long van ride (100 baht/~$3) and an expensive, equally long taxi ride (~80 baht each/~$2.90), we got to the airport to pick up our train tickets. since we bought them online, we had to pick them up not at the train station but the airport. logic completely escaped these train ticket sellers because 1) they didn’t put the pick up desk at the train station, where the trains ACTUALLY ARE 2) they put them at the airport, which is an hour away from the train station in half-decent traffic 3) not only were the tickets at the airport, but they were at a random cargo station, which is a shuttle ride away from the regular part of the airport where normal people put pick up desks.
whatever. that story’s probably not going to come off nearly as confusing/hilarious as it was in person, so just trust when I say it was a crazy time. we finally got our tickets, made it to the train station, and hopped on our overnight train. maddy and i took some sleeping drugs and slept like babies on the way up there, and when we finally pulled into the station just after 1 pm, i felt completely well rested (though i was starving--shitty breakfast food on the train. whoda thunk).
we checked into our hostel ("a little bird," it was called. i highly recommend it) and the first item on the list was food. western food, to be exact. we'd heard about the delicious western food all over the city, but even so, when we walked across the street to a burrito place, we nearly fainted when we saw the deliciousness of the food. OH MY GOD I'VE MISSED BURRITOS.
on thursday we woke up reallllllll early in the morning to do the gibbon experience, which was a 15-platform zip line thing through the jungles just north (i think) of chiang mai. phenomenal. the pictures tell better stories (but don't judge me...harnesses make everyone look bad).
the rest of the trip was punctuated by tons of shopping, lots of delicious (if expensive) eating of solely western food (hence the title), gallons of coffee drinking, and lots of hanging out with friends from the north. these names won't mean a thing to most of you, but we met up with nancy, brian, brian's friend joe, markus, and cindy, and i was overjoyed. it's weird how close we became during that orientation week, and how much i've missed this people in the three weeks since i've last seen them, and how comfortable i felt with them. thailand friends, you're pretty neat.
this won't be the final chiang mai trip, not by a long shot. i just want to exist in coffee shops there a lot more.
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