elephants, bungee, and tigers. oh my!

So today is my first official day of teaching. However, I do not have any level-1 classes, so I don't actually have to teach for another 3ish weeks. So all I have to do is sit in the office. I feel like I'll get a lot of blogs done this way. I am going to sit in on another teacher's class today, just to get the feel of things. I'm a little less worried about the fact that I don't know how to teach, but I'm sure I'll be scared again once I actually have to teach. But because I don't have any level-1 classes, most of my kids will know more English, so it won't be quite as daunting.

I feel like I should address the red shirt situation before talking about actually interesting things. The red shirts in Thailand represent farmers, workers, etc., who want to change the dates of voting for parliament (or that's my basic understanding, at least). They get pissed off sometimes and set things on fire. They set tires on fire to keep out soldiers so they can riot in certain areas. In the past 14 or so days, things with the red shirts have gotten a bit more violent. There have been more riots, and the police/military are stepping in more actively to end the situation. Last week was supposed to be the first day of school, but all schools, banks, embassies, etc., were closed. Most of the violence in Bangkok was in Siam, which is pretty far away from where I live. My neighborhood/whole side of the city saw no violence or red shirt action. Had I not been told that all of this was going on, I would have no idea from what I see on a day-to-day basis. For the past five days there has been a curfew in Bangkok, so no one could be out after certain times. While I'm sure this seems terrifying to outsiders, it was only put in place so that soldiers and police could more actively fight red shirts. So, all of that scary stuff being said, I have been perfectly safe. There has been no threat to my safety, and things have been going quite well for me. I know people are worried about the situation, because CNN and BBC make it seem like Bangkok is a straight up war zone. That is not the Bangkok I know. The worst thing I have seen in Bangkok was a thunderstorm that came in rather harshly last night. So...I'm good :)

Because school was closed last week, Nick and I decided to go on a little vacation. We went to Chiang Mai, which is in the North of Thailand. It was about a 14 hour train ride (barf). We left Bangkok around 4:30 pm on Wednesday and arrived in Chiang Mai around 7:30 am on Thursday. We got off the train and were immediately attacked by taxi drivers. This happens all over Thailand (with taxi drivers, suit salesmen, tuk tuk drivers wanting to take you to a "ping pong show") and it's really quite annoying. Anyway, we found a hotel that cost a whopping $15 a night for a nice room (with air conditioning, a tv, fan, and hot water). And they provided free transportation from the train station. What more could you ask for? We got to the hotel, and it was super nice. Here is a picture

Anyway, we got there and got all checked in and then wanted to see what kind of trouble we could get ourselves into. We talked to a hotel worker, and said that what we really wanted to do was see some elephants. Chiang Mai is known for elephants. There is a beer here called Chang that has elephants as its logo. I'm definitely getting a tattoo of one of those elephants. So we scheduled a private driver to take us to see some elephants. We drove way up into the mountains and got to the elephant camp. We walked around a lot and saw some elephants and fed them, and all that good stuff. There were just elephants everywhere, and they were HUGE! Here are some pictures of walking around and feeding them, etc.

After we walked around for awhile we went to an elephant show. They danced, and played soccer, and threw darts at balloons, and they painted. I swear to God....they painted pictures. It was so awesome! I wanted to buy one, but they were like $60, and that seemed ridiculous.

After we walked around and watched the show, it was time for our elephant ride! We signed up for an hour ride versus a half hour ride, and I think that was a wise choice. We started off with all of the other elephant riders, and then we took a different turn that took us up a very steep path. We went up, up, up, up, and up through the mountains. It was pretty terrifying at times, because it felt like we were going to be thrown off the mountain at any moment. Especially on the way down. It was really steep and we were just perched way up on top of this huge animal. It was an experience I will never forget. It was a gorgeous view, and just an all together amazing day.

That night we didn't do too much. There was a curfew in Chiang Mai, so there really wasn't too much we could do, aside from hanging out at the hotel and swimming. The next morning we set up another private driver so we could go.....bungee jumping!!!! Nick was pretty anti-bungee the morning we went (he didn't want to die before seeing how LOST ends). I was still going to do it, because I knew if I did it so would he. And I was right! We got to the place, and I wasn't really scared at all because I wasn't letting myself think about it. We filled out all these forms saying that if we died it was our fault, blah, blah, blah. They walked us back to where you jump, and it didn't seem all that high, so I still was feeling good about it. They attached all these crazy things to our legs, which made my feet go instantly numb and turn a really cool blue-ish color. They then started lifting us up to the jumping spot. The ride up seemed theatrically and dramatically long, but that is probably just in my head. The whole way up the guy was giving us directions, but I honestly wasn't really listening. Once we reached the top he threw off all the slack rope, and that was straight up terrifying. I thought it was going to drag us over with it. That was the point that I began to get really scared. He finished telling us what to do and told us to get up and stand with our toes over the edge. I swear, that is the hardest thing I've ever had to do. At that point I was pretty much shaking all over. It sure looked high up. I knew I wouldn't be able to jump all by myself, so I was pretty glad Nick and I were jumping together. The guy counted to three, and then......wooooooo! The first second off the platform was SO AWESOME. I can't wait to do it again. It was the scariest and most freeing thing I have ever done.

This blog is getting obnoxiously long. Anyway, right after bungee jumping we went directly to the Tiger Kingdom. We got to spend fifteen minutes with tigers and play with them! Well, not really play with them, because they were huge and scary, but we got to pet them and stuff.

So that was our vacation!

ps, I saw a motorbike yesterday that had four people on it. One person was carrying a laundry basket.

Lao Kao

I'm kind of sucking at taking pictures, but I'll try. It's just weird to take pictures of the stuff I do everyday, and the things I see all the time. Anyway, the picture above is around my neighborhood. Just kind of an areal shot of Bangkok. This was taken from the roof (ish) of the school I'm working at. The picture below is of our soi (street). Our neighborhood is a really quiet, completely Thai, and awesome place. The picture was taken from the balcony off Nick's room. His balcony is waaaaay better than mine. Mine looks out to a really awesome wall. So that's cool.

I can't say enough how much I love the food. There are amazing restaurants on the street, and everything is made right in front of you. The produce here is about a hundred times better than in the US. I'm straight up obsessed with the onions. Everything is fresh, and spicy, and wonderful. However, the other night I had curry that was so spicy it literally made me dizzy. It was painful, but so tasty. I couldn't eat very much of it. The picture above is a feast we had the other day. It's an omelet with pork, tomato, and onion (!) over rice, and fried noodles with veggies. OH MY GOD IT WAS SO GOOD. And lots of condiments. We put things like soy sauce and chili sauce on pretty much everything. All that food cost $1.50. So awesome.

The other day we met up with Nick's friend, Matt. He's been in Thailand for a year-ish. He was fun. We took the train thing to meet him. Here's a picture of my favorite stop, because it has the best name ever.

That day we went to a park. It reminded me of a Thai Central Park. There were people all over, and lots of fun things to do. The playgrounds were funny and pretty much just had workout equipment. We walked around for most of the day--worked up a pretty solid sweat. After walking for about a million miles, we went to this little restaurant and sat around drinking Leo (beer) and talking.

I think one of my absolute favorite things is Bangkok nights. Every night we've gone out we have just sat around a table and drank beers and just had really awesome conversations with people. Last night we met up with Nick's friend Dan on Khao San road, which is where all of the backpackers go when they come to Bangkok. It was really weird to see white people. We went to a bar called Infinity and had some drinks with Dan and hung out with a couple people who were working at the bar. Then a Japanese guy that Dan knows came up and sat with us, and then a little later Nick's lady boy friend, Angel, came and sat with us for awhile. I don't think I would know that she was a lady boy if I hadn't been told. She's really pretty.

I start teaching on Monday. Terrifying. I went to the school today and yesterday, and pretty much just got laughed at. So that was fun.

Okay, there was a lot more I was going to write, but it's 1 pm, which means the air conditioning is crapping out, which means that it's five thousand degrees in here. So no more blogging for now. I'll write again soon.

Ps, Thai children are my FAVORITE.

24 hours. or 3 weeks.

I've been here for almost 24 hours. It feels like I've been here for approximately 3 weeks. I can't really describe that feeling.

This blog is going to be full of really uninteresting details. sowwwwwy.

The flights (totaling 27 hours) were surprisingly not horrible. The first flight, which was only like an hour, I sat next to an older guy, who farted at least three times (that I could smell). That was not very pleasant. The second flight, which was 14 hours, I sat next to two Japanese kids, who could have been anywhere from 16 from 28 years old. They all look the same age. They were nice, didn't speak much English. I asked the boy next to me help me find my sandal. That was an ordeal. I slept through at least two meals. The kind Japanese boy woke me up for one. I finally made it to Tokyo, and had a little less than an hour to make my connection flight to Bangkok. I was standing in an impossibly long line for security (after I had to hunt for someone to tell me where my gate was), and went to grab something in my purse and noticed there was a lot of water. My camera and phone=destroyed. So that was just really just great. So after fishing out all of my important things and wringing them out, and getting through security, i sat against a wall and wished to be back in the U.S. Five minutes later I got up and things got much better. The flight to Bangkok was fairly uneventful. I was seated next to a VERY large man, who panted and was very sweaty. He took up about two-thirds of my seat. But, it was a pretty empty flight, so I got to move and got my own row. I spent the entirety of the seven hour flight unconscious. A flight attendant woke me up briefly asking me in a very Thai accent if I wanted shrimp, but I don't know that I even answered. That's irrelevant. Anyway, I landed in Bangkok and we had to get out of the plane and take buses into the airport. This was when I first experienced the heat. I wish I could explain the heat in words. It's thick, and heavy, and HOT. I got through customs quickly, even though I couldn't hear, and checked the board for the baggage claim. However, the board would be in english for about five seconds and then switch to Thai. So, I walked to the baggage claim and watched luggage for a good 30 minutes, and came to the realization that in one of the four airports I went through my luggage, which contained all of my belongings, had been lost. After watching the same four suitcases I walked up to someone who, not so politely, told me that I "flew Delta, and that my baggage was about seven miles away." When I finally got there they had it in a special area where I had to beg for my suitcases. Then I had to walk another 11.7 miles, in an airport that had very little English, and finally saw my boss, Ploy. She told me Nick had gone looking for me, and then i finally saw him! We headed back to our apartment, which is in the North West part of Bangkok.

Our neighborhood is made up of a million little streets, all of which are filled with dogs. Last night we saw puppies! Nick and I got to our apartment and hung out for awhile, but because I slept through most of my meals in the previous 24 hours, I was starving. It was about 2 am so we walked down the street a few blocks to a street food place that was open. We had a deeeelicious meal of rice, veggies, meat, and chilies, and a couple Thai beers. The whole shebang cost a total of 7 dollars.

Today we ventured to China Town, in search of electronic devices. It was hotter than I can describe. I don't think I've ever sweat like that in my life. We walked through about seven blocks of fabric street vendors. There was fabric everywhere! We finally found what we were looking for and I purchased what I needed. I got a cellphone for local use, so I feel pretty fancy now.

After our China Town adventure, I was pretty wiped, even though jet lag has not really been an issue. We went to the mall/market area tonight to get dinner and walk around for awhile. We took motor bike taxis to the mall, which was one of the single most terrifying moments of my life. I was holding on with literally white knuckles as the driver zipped along narrow waterways, and took corners just a little too fast. Needless to say, I can't wait to take one again. I love how inexpensive things are. It makes me giggle every time Nick tells me how much things cost.

Well, that was long and boring. but that's what has happened so far. I can't wait for what's to come.

ps. my Thai sucks.