it's 12:31 am. i'm sitting in my apartment by myself, seven tabs open on the internet, sober, and chatting with a student on fbook. man, life differences.
p.s. MOM AND DAD ARE COMING TO ASIA ONE WEEK FROM TODAY!!!!
12.3.10
prom night
special double post night even though i'm tired and it's showing in my writing! but i wanted to write about this while it's fresh in my mind.
tonight was the seniors' prom. people got real dolled up, fancy dresses, runway-worthy up-dos, the whole lot. a fair amount of the girls at our school are lesbians, and they were out tonight like they had nothing to hide. some girls came with their new, boy-short haircuts and boy-style get-ups, hand-in-hand with their girlfriends. they weren't parading it like they had something to prove, either; this is just who they are. nobody stared, nobody even thought anything was out of the ordinary (as far as i could tell). there would just be big groups of friends, some of the girls single, some of the boys single, some boys and girls paired off, and some girls and girls paired off. just like it ain't no thang. no male couples as far as i saw, but there was the flamboyant guy flitting about (our favorite ladyboy didn't show :-[).
i was just impressed by how not weirded out anyone was. america, you could really take a cue from these 18 year olds.
tonight was the seniors' prom. people got real dolled up, fancy dresses, runway-worthy up-dos, the whole lot. a fair amount of the girls at our school are lesbians, and they were out tonight like they had nothing to hide. some girls came with their new, boy-short haircuts and boy-style get-ups, hand-in-hand with their girlfriends. they weren't parading it like they had something to prove, either; this is just who they are. nobody stared, nobody even thought anything was out of the ordinary (as far as i could tell). there would just be big groups of friends, some of the girls single, some of the boys single, some boys and girls paired off, and some girls and girls paired off. just like it ain't no thang. no male couples as far as i saw, but there was the flamboyant guy flitting about (our favorite ladyboy didn't show :-[).
i was just impressed by how not weirded out anyone was. america, you could really take a cue from these 18 year olds.
"english camp"
yep, that goes in quotes. this trip down to phuket paraded itself as an english camp, but the kids spoke maybe 20 words of english each day. it was more like "go on a trip down south with your friends." eh, but no matter. it was a free vacation for me, so i can't complain too much. it was about 25 students (one boy, the rest girls), about six thai administrator/teacher/leader-type figures, and maddy, tash, and i. i should note early on that we had about zero responsibility on this trip other than to exist near the kids and be props ("oooh, look at the americans we brought on our trip!") we went to ranong for one night, phuket for two, and suratthani for one. and we spent a lot of time on a bus.
so we left sunday morning at 6 am. i'm a doofus and thought we were leaving at 7 am, so i woke up to maddy's hard rap rap rap on the door. god, i hate when i do crap like that. i got to the bus like 15 minutes late, but it didn't end up mattering cuz the trip leader was half an hour late. despite the early hour, the girls were still FRIGGIN EXCITED to be going on the trip, so they did what any thai teenagers do when they're pumped--karaoke with the volume all the way up. yes, at 6 :30 in the morning.
that wasn't a good morning. actually, we woke up unnecessarily early every morning, but not because the leaders needed us to. the girls would just rise at like 5:45 am and start talking, even though they were just chatting madly away seven hours earlier at 10:30 pm. what are you even talking about? nothing significant changed in your life in the last seven hours.
the trip reminded me a lot of the trip i took in 8th grade to washington d.c., and actually probably like most overnight field trips. there were tons of things to do, some boring, some awesome, so we woke up early and were go-go-going all day. everybody got increasingly tired with each day, so when we went to a seashell museum on day four (which is, indeed, as boring as it sounds), pretty much everyone was super bored.
oh, also, we were tired cuz we slept on linoleum for four nights. we slept on the floors of various schools. it's like other schools opened up their campus to us, so we brought sleeping bags, rolled out straw mats and just parked it on the floor of a room in the school. no mattress pads, nothing shielding my body from the hard, hard ground. my rock-hard suphan bed looked damn good when we came home last night.
i got really tired of being carted around on this trip. maybe it's just cuz i'm tired of being a prop in general. we farangs didn't have much responsibility--like usual--so we kind of just went along with the group like sheep. bah. this is a stupid thing to complain about, i know. let's get on with the story.
so the big english event for the kids was to interview some random white people on the beach. on the third day of the trip, the students broke into little groups and we people who speak english helped the kids form interview questions for the foreigners. the questions were pretty basic--where are you from, where have you been in thailand, where's your favorite place, what's your favorite food, do you know about thai dancing, what do you think about thailand in general, etc.--so when we were warming up that morning, my group was really rockin the interview. they're able to chat with me, develop conversation, ask questions that aren't on the sheet and just come from their head, etc.
but when we got to the beach, MAN were they nervous. so we pulled up to patong beach, which is the biggest tourist beach on phuket, around 10 am. the students ate some stuff then each group had to interview at least three foreigners. i walked around with my group, letting them lead the way. they first interviewed this really friendly, older australian couple. even though the aussies were really sweet and understanding, the girls still completely stiffened up. they totally didn't listen to whatever the man said and just read the next question on their paper when he finished talking. but, no matter--everyone was smiling during the interview, so it was a success. in fact, after they finished talking to the couple and we walked away, a couple of'em did a little cheer of excitement. lol. cute.
these poor girls, though...so one of the questions was "what's your favorite thai food?" for them, it's the easiest question in the world and it's almost like they can't imagine anybody not knowing what their favorite thai food is. but they asked the strangers, and the strangers sort of stuttered like "uhh...i dunno, that one with shrimp." one guy actually said he didn't like thai food at all, which really threw them for a loop.
i have a video of one of the interviews, so you'll have to go look at it on fbook soon.
anyway, the trip overall was pretty uneventful, so i don't really have a thrilling blog for you. long, like vacation entries usually are, but not exactly thrilling. hey, but that's pretty much how the trip was! lolz, jokes. it really was cool getting to know the girls though.
OH MY GOD, i forgot to tell you. (well, i told some of you already, but not all of you.) i played super asian poker with actual asian kids! they call it slave (sa-laaaaaaave), you might call it president/asshole/13. it was awesome. we got a couple little jokes from the weekend (chicken walk! relaxxxx), and i'm emailing with one of the girls now, and we did all get a little closer. it'll be fun to see these girls (and boy) around school next semester. they're not bad kids.
so we left sunday morning at 6 am. i'm a doofus and thought we were leaving at 7 am, so i woke up to maddy's hard rap rap rap on the door. god, i hate when i do crap like that. i got to the bus like 15 minutes late, but it didn't end up mattering cuz the trip leader was half an hour late. despite the early hour, the girls were still FRIGGIN EXCITED to be going on the trip, so they did what any thai teenagers do when they're pumped--karaoke with the volume all the way up. yes, at 6 :30 in the morning.
that wasn't a good morning. actually, we woke up unnecessarily early every morning, but not because the leaders needed us to. the girls would just rise at like 5:45 am and start talking, even though they were just chatting madly away seven hours earlier at 10:30 pm. what are you even talking about? nothing significant changed in your life in the last seven hours.
the trip reminded me a lot of the trip i took in 8th grade to washington d.c., and actually probably like most overnight field trips. there were tons of things to do, some boring, some awesome, so we woke up early and were go-go-going all day. everybody got increasingly tired with each day, so when we went to a seashell museum on day four (which is, indeed, as boring as it sounds), pretty much everyone was super bored.
oh, also, we were tired cuz we slept on linoleum for four nights. we slept on the floors of various schools. it's like other schools opened up their campus to us, so we brought sleeping bags, rolled out straw mats and just parked it on the floor of a room in the school. no mattress pads, nothing shielding my body from the hard, hard ground. my rock-hard suphan bed looked damn good when we came home last night.
ahhhh, bedtime!
i got really tired of being carted around on this trip. maybe it's just cuz i'm tired of being a prop in general. we farangs didn't have much responsibility--like usual--so we kind of just went along with the group like sheep. bah. this is a stupid thing to complain about, i know. let's get on with the story.
so the big english event for the kids was to interview some random white people on the beach. on the third day of the trip, the students broke into little groups and we people who speak english helped the kids form interview questions for the foreigners. the questions were pretty basic--where are you from, where have you been in thailand, where's your favorite place, what's your favorite food, do you know about thai dancing, what do you think about thailand in general, etc.--so when we were warming up that morning, my group was really rockin the interview. they're able to chat with me, develop conversation, ask questions that aren't on the sheet and just come from their head, etc.
but when we got to the beach, MAN were they nervous. so we pulled up to patong beach, which is the biggest tourist beach on phuket, around 10 am. the students ate some stuff then each group had to interview at least three foreigners. i walked around with my group, letting them lead the way. they first interviewed this really friendly, older australian couple. even though the aussies were really sweet and understanding, the girls still completely stiffened up. they totally didn't listen to whatever the man said and just read the next question on their paper when he finished talking. but, no matter--everyone was smiling during the interview, so it was a success. in fact, after they finished talking to the couple and we walked away, a couple of'em did a little cheer of excitement. lol. cute.
these poor girls, though...so one of the questions was "what's your favorite thai food?" for them, it's the easiest question in the world and it's almost like they can't imagine anybody not knowing what their favorite thai food is. but they asked the strangers, and the strangers sort of stuttered like "uhh...i dunno, that one with shrimp." one guy actually said he didn't like thai food at all, which really threw them for a loop.
i have a video of one of the interviews, so you'll have to go look at it on fbook soon.
anyway, the trip overall was pretty uneventful, so i don't really have a thrilling blog for you. long, like vacation entries usually are, but not exactly thrilling. hey, but that's pretty much how the trip was! lolz, jokes. it really was cool getting to know the girls though.
OH MY GOD, i forgot to tell you. (well, i told some of you already, but not all of you.) i played super asian poker with actual asian kids! they call it slave (sa-laaaaaaave), you might call it president/asshole/13. it was awesome. we got a couple little jokes from the weekend (chicken walk! relaxxxx), and i'm emailing with one of the girls now, and we did all get a little closer. it'll be fun to see these girls (and boy) around school next semester. they're not bad kids.
11.3.10
hoooooooooooooooooome!
we just got home from phuket with the m2 smart class after 12 hours on the bus. COUNT'EM, 12 HOURS. on a bus. it wasn't terribly uncomfortable or anything...just dull..and bus-y (not busy...bus-y). we made eight stops, i think...EIGHT FRIGGIN STOPS. i'm used to traveling like an arnold: minimal stoppage, get on with the trip. pee the dogs then let's get this ship on the road.
but i'm home now so it doesn't matter! yahoo! (i've never said yahoo in real life ever!) i've got some funny stories for you and some terrible stories about how i've slept on straight linoleum for the last four nights, but i've gotta stretch and shower and catch up on all the internet goodies i've missed out on for the last five days first.
oh my god, i've even missed typing. i love computers.
expect stories/pictures/videos within the next 24 hours.
7.3.10
field trip!!
i think i'm about to be a chaperone on my first field trip ever. actually, i'll be somewhere between chaperone and person who needs a chaperone.
tash, maddy, a handful of thai teachers/administrators, and i are headed down to phuket tomorrow with the 8th-grade honors class for five days/four nights (to use the lingo, this is an english camp with our m2 smart class). i'd say i have no idea what to expect, but that's not true. they gave us a very detailed schedule of precisely what will happen every single hour of every single day of the trip. from march 7 at 7 am to march 11 at 8 pm, i know exactly what i'll be doing.
well, that's assuming we stick to the schedule with some sort of american punctuality. we'll see. either way, i'm super pumped. the kids are gonna have to just walk up to random white people and start speaking english with them. hilarity's bound to ensue.
but you know what sucks? i still haven't written about koh tao (aside from the burn incident). ohhhh well. i suppose pictures on fbook will have to suffice. it's so daunting to write about vacations...i wanna remember everything, every stupid travel detail and everything i ate and everyone i met, but writing about all of that gets to be SO LONG. those vacation posts are mostly for future nicki to look back on and remember all the crazy things past nicki did, so i apologize for when i include seemingly inane details or stories that are unfunny to people who weren't there.
anyway, it's just after midgnight and i'm gonna wake up around 6 am so i can be at school at 7 am...so, crap, i really should get some sleep. after phuket i'll be in suphan for like a week, so maybe i'll give you a good koh tao posting then. OHH i'll also tell you all of my travel plans for the next couple months cuz i know you're dying without them.
okay, nicki, stop typing. go to bed. see you next week, friends.
tash, maddy, a handful of thai teachers/administrators, and i are headed down to phuket tomorrow with the 8th-grade honors class for five days/four nights (to use the lingo, this is an english camp with our m2 smart class). i'd say i have no idea what to expect, but that's not true. they gave us a very detailed schedule of precisely what will happen every single hour of every single day of the trip. from march 7 at 7 am to march 11 at 8 pm, i know exactly what i'll be doing.
well, that's assuming we stick to the schedule with some sort of american punctuality. we'll see. either way, i'm super pumped. the kids are gonna have to just walk up to random white people and start speaking english with them. hilarity's bound to ensue.
but you know what sucks? i still haven't written about koh tao (aside from the burn incident). ohhhh well. i suppose pictures on fbook will have to suffice. it's so daunting to write about vacations...i wanna remember everything, every stupid travel detail and everything i ate and everyone i met, but writing about all of that gets to be SO LONG. those vacation posts are mostly for future nicki to look back on and remember all the crazy things past nicki did, so i apologize for when i include seemingly inane details or stories that are unfunny to people who weren't there.
anyway, it's just after midgnight and i'm gonna wake up around 6 am so i can be at school at 7 am...so, crap, i really should get some sleep. after phuket i'll be in suphan for like a week, so maybe i'll give you a good koh tao posting then. OHH i'll also tell you all of my travel plans for the next couple months cuz i know you're dying without them.
okay, nicki, stop typing. go to bed. see you next week, friends.
5.3.10
OW F$*K SH*T THAT HURTS
remember that picture in the last post where tahsh is wrapping my leg with a big ol' strip of gauze? here comes the story.
on sunday (or maybe it was saturday...you know how the days go when you're on vacation), maddy and i rented a motorbike while tahsh went out diving. we got really into the bike and ended up taking this long drive over what we found out was a hilly-ish part of the road. we reached the literal end of the road, so maddy tried to drive the bike up this tiny little baby hill to the parking lot, but the bike was like "HA no way, suckers!" and started to slip backwards. we struggled to keep the bike from falling over completely, and in my thoughtlessness from the back of the bike, i accidentally hit the inside of my calf against the exhaust pipe of the motorbike.
it wasn't extreme pain right at first. (you were expecting me to say something different cuz of the title of the post, huh? just wait.) it sort of felt like someone had just smacked me really hard on my leg. we biked back to our guesthouse (after making a trip to town to refill our empty-at-the-end-of-the-road-far-away-from-a-gas-station tank...lol. seriously, morons) and i decided i should go to the clinic. the doctor-type person told me to keep it clean and stay out of the ocean (ha, yeah right...this was day two of our five-day beach vacation), then she gave me sesame oil to put on it. it worked for her when she had her burn, she said. great, i love getting anecdotal cures when i go to official medical clinics.
anyway, i kept my burn as clean as possible for the rest of the trip. for our snorkeling boat ride around the island, doctor tahsh wrapped up my leg nice and good with gauze, a plastic bag, and lots of waterproof medical tape. the burn looked the best after that day, actually.
when i got back to suphan yesterday, i got to thinking that maybe i should go to the doctor and get some antibiotics. when i showed the desk/cleaning ladies downstairs the burn--which was a yellow/red scab at this point--they all gave me concerned mother looks and really really insisted that i go to the hospital to get some antibiotics. so this morning, i asked my doctor, webmd, what i should do.
"seek medical attention," he said virtually. so i called kanchana, and she said she could take me to the hospital at 5 pm. when she and her husband picked me up, i showed them the burn, they gave each other concerned looks, asked me when it happened, spoke in thai a bunch, and off we went to the hospital.
at the hospital, kanchana took me to the emergency room (i'm assuming this was because we didn't have an appointment). the emergency room is literally a room, about the quarter of the size of a football field, with a reception desk in the middle and beds lined up along the wall. the only privacy is some curtains that can be pulled around to shield each bed.
so anyway, i sit up on a bed under a sign that says "MASS CASUALTY ZONE D" and a doctor brings over a thing for me to prop my leg up on. "when did you get it, what've you put on it," blah blah blah. then she brings over some iodine and a water-type substance, and decides to RIP THE SCAB OFF. holy shit, it was the most painful experience i've ever had. she rubbed it--THIS IS FUCKING SENSITIVE SKIN HERE, WOMAN, STOP RUBBING THAT SO DAMN HARD--with iodine first, and i thought that would be it. then she pressed a cotton ball against it, poured water on the cotton ball, then continued to TEAR MY VERY FRAGILE SKIN AWAY FROM THE BURN. she grabbed some tweezers and just tore away at this incredible sensitive injury. this intense fucking pain went on for five minutes. my face was contorted in an expression of super pain the whole time. i literally said, "GEEZIS, this hurtsssss!" out loud.
she and kanchana, meantime, are just shootin the shit, chatting about god knows what. then they both look at me and, sort of giggling, kanchana goes, "don't cry."
OH MY GOD, SHUT UP, WOMAN.
"kanchana," i said, "when i was 10 years old, i broke my arm. this hurts more." she laughed.
the doctor woman finished ripping off the scab and i'll have to give it to her--it did look better. she put some cream on it, gauzed it up, and told me not to get it wet. "don't shower," kanchana half-joked later in the car ride home. the doctor told me i'd have to clean it and wrap it like this for a little while, but i'm supposed to get a doctor to do it every day, which is probably not gonna happen seeing as we're headed to phuket with an honors class for english camp in two days. but seriously, it's just dabbing some cream on the wound and wrapping it--i think i can handle it myself.
oh my god, but that pain. i'll do anything again not to EVER have anybody inflict pain upon me like that again. they gave me some antibiotics and some painkillers, which i took about half an hour ago and haven't kicked in yet. boo. i'm gonna make some campbells chicken noodle soup and watch new york, i love you now.
p.s. sorry for the profanities, but seriously, if you felt that pain, you'd have used the f-bomb a fair amount, too.
on sunday (or maybe it was saturday...you know how the days go when you're on vacation), maddy and i rented a motorbike while tahsh went out diving. we got really into the bike and ended up taking this long drive over what we found out was a hilly-ish part of the road. we reached the literal end of the road, so maddy tried to drive the bike up this tiny little baby hill to the parking lot, but the bike was like "HA no way, suckers!" and started to slip backwards. we struggled to keep the bike from falling over completely, and in my thoughtlessness from the back of the bike, i accidentally hit the inside of my calf against the exhaust pipe of the motorbike.
idiot.
it wasn't extreme pain right at first. (you were expecting me to say something different cuz of the title of the post, huh? just wait.) it sort of felt like someone had just smacked me really hard on my leg. we biked back to our guesthouse (after making a trip to town to refill our empty-at-the-end-of-the-road-far-away-from-a-gas-station tank...lol. seriously, morons) and i decided i should go to the clinic. the doctor-type person told me to keep it clean and stay out of the ocean (ha, yeah right...this was day two of our five-day beach vacation), then she gave me sesame oil to put on it. it worked for her when she had her burn, she said. great, i love getting anecdotal cures when i go to official medical clinics.
anyway, i kept my burn as clean as possible for the rest of the trip. for our snorkeling boat ride around the island, doctor tahsh wrapped up my leg nice and good with gauze, a plastic bag, and lots of waterproof medical tape. the burn looked the best after that day, actually.
when i got back to suphan yesterday, i got to thinking that maybe i should go to the doctor and get some antibiotics. when i showed the desk/cleaning ladies downstairs the burn--which was a yellow/red scab at this point--they all gave me concerned mother looks and really really insisted that i go to the hospital to get some antibiotics. so this morning, i asked my doctor, webmd, what i should do.
"seek medical attention," he said virtually. so i called kanchana, and she said she could take me to the hospital at 5 pm. when she and her husband picked me up, i showed them the burn, they gave each other concerned looks, asked me when it happened, spoke in thai a bunch, and off we went to the hospital.
at the hospital, kanchana took me to the emergency room (i'm assuming this was because we didn't have an appointment). the emergency room is literally a room, about the quarter of the size of a football field, with a reception desk in the middle and beds lined up along the wall. the only privacy is some curtains that can be pulled around to shield each bed.
so anyway, i sit up on a bed under a sign that says "MASS CASUALTY ZONE D" and a doctor brings over a thing for me to prop my leg up on. "when did you get it, what've you put on it," blah blah blah. then she brings over some iodine and a water-type substance, and decides to RIP THE SCAB OFF. holy shit, it was the most painful experience i've ever had. she rubbed it--THIS IS FUCKING SENSITIVE SKIN HERE, WOMAN, STOP RUBBING THAT SO DAMN HARD--with iodine first, and i thought that would be it. then she pressed a cotton ball against it, poured water on the cotton ball, then continued to TEAR MY VERY FRAGILE SKIN AWAY FROM THE BURN. she grabbed some tweezers and just tore away at this incredible sensitive injury. this intense fucking pain went on for five minutes. my face was contorted in an expression of super pain the whole time. i literally said, "GEEZIS, this hurtsssss!" out loud.
she and kanchana, meantime, are just shootin the shit, chatting about god knows what. then they both look at me and, sort of giggling, kanchana goes, "don't cry."
OH MY GOD, SHUT UP, WOMAN.
"kanchana," i said, "when i was 10 years old, i broke my arm. this hurts more." she laughed.
the doctor woman finished ripping off the scab and i'll have to give it to her--it did look better. she put some cream on it, gauzed it up, and told me not to get it wet. "don't shower," kanchana half-joked later in the car ride home. the doctor told me i'd have to clean it and wrap it like this for a little while, but i'm supposed to get a doctor to do it every day, which is probably not gonna happen seeing as we're headed to phuket with an honors class for english camp in two days. but seriously, it's just dabbing some cream on the wound and wrapping it--i think i can handle it myself.
oh my god, but that pain. i'll do anything again not to EVER have anybody inflict pain upon me like that again. they gave me some antibiotics and some painkillers, which i took about half an hour ago and haven't kicked in yet. boo. i'm gonna make some campbells chicken noodle soup and watch new york, i love you now.
p.s. sorry for the profanities, but seriously, if you felt that pain, you'd have used the f-bomb a fair amount, too.
4.3.10
honey, i'm hooooome
back home in suphan. this place has never felt homier (that may or may not be a real word). when i got back, the spunky front desk lady shouted "nickiiiii!!!!" so i chatted with her and the cleaning ladies for a while...granted, our version of chatty has a lot more gestures, facial expressions, and "what?"s than a what i used to call a good chat, but i've since learned that a good talk is a lot more than full sentences.
anyway, as usual when i get home from a vacay, i'm tired. plus i'm still in island mode where i don't really feel motivated to do anything. after i pick up my paycheck tomorrow (apparently everyone in the office was REALLY CONCERNED that i wasn't there to pick it up today, even though i said i wouldn't be there till the 5th...ohhh, thailand), i'll motivate myself to share some stories and upload some pictures on fbook. here's what you can look forward to:
anyway, as usual when i get home from a vacay, i'm tired. plus i'm still in island mode where i don't really feel motivated to do anything. after i pick up my paycheck tomorrow (apparently everyone in the office was REALLY CONCERNED that i wasn't there to pick it up today, even though i said i wouldn't be there till the 5th...ohhh, thailand), i'll motivate myself to share some stories and upload some pictures on fbook. here's what you can look forward to:
funny signs!
stunning island views!
the reason this is happening!
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