Positive Reinforcement

Slept in late today, and laid around my room till mid afternoon when I headed out for some food and to attempt to find the tennis match on TV. (Finals of the Australian open - it was very nice of Australia to host a major tournament so I could watch some live sports for a change.) Stopped by 7/11 to grab my favorite banana bread snack, and swung by the market to pick out half a fried chicken, which I greasily consumed on the way back to my street. Bought a cinnamon roll from my favorite Thai grandma off of her baked goods table, and headed to the Wild Boar Chiang Mai. Its an nondescript bar on a street overflowing with them, but I like it because they usually show sports, and its more laid back than most bars, meaning no Thai women employees trying to chat me up when all I want is to nurse my Sprite and watch some sports.

Shortly after I sit down, an older man, probably around 65, sits down to my left and orders a banana shake. I don't take much notice of him, but like usually happens in these situations, we soon find ourselves uttering matching exclamations at the brilliance of Roger Federer. We get to talking, first about the tennis, and then sharing stories about where we come from. Turns out he splits his time between Chiang Mai and western Canada, where he is from. He spends the winter here and heads back there for the summer. I can tell he likes to talk, so I keep asking him questions and eventually he tells me that his main project right now is that he is writing a book. 'What about?' I ask him, figuring I have a pretty good idea. 'It's about how I turned my life around,' he replies. He continues by saying that its about what he learned in his travels and all the people he met...and I'm thinking, 'Yep, another Bill Bryson wannabe.' But he keeps going, and despite my cynicism (and the obvious irony of that considering this rather verbose written account of my own travels...), my interest is piqued.

He keeps going; 'After I retired, I moved to Palm Springs and spent the next three years drinking and playing golf. I wasn't happy, but I thought thats what you were supposed to do when you retire, and I adapted. See thats what humans do, they adapt. They fail to realize that the true key to happiness is the search and acquisition of self, and they think that all these things and enjoying what everyone else enjoys should make you happy. But it doesn't. I realized I wasn't happy and I needed to do something to change it. I left my wife, I sold everything I had, grabbed a backpack, and hear I am. I have spent the last 5 years traveling, I have traveled with doctors, lawyers, rich people, poor people, sex addicts, drug addicts, everyone...and you know what they all had in common? Either consciously or subconsciously, they were all searching for who they were. Searching for themselves. If I can tell you one thing, its find out who you are. And if I can give you one piece of advice, it's love yourself.'

And as all this was flashing through my head, I realized that I was right up this guy's alley. It took him 60 years to figure it out, but I am working on it at the ripe old age of 24. And sometimes it a struggle, and its frustrating and lonely. But thats why we do it, why I did it. To push myself out of my comfort zone. I love talking to my friends back home, I spent a long time just now talking to one my roommates from last year. We talked about friends and girls back home; he just saw Jim Gaffigan in concert and is going on a trip next weekend with all of our friends. And I would love to be home and doing all that, I would love to. But I am doing something right now that .001% of the people in the world will ever do. So when I have a rough few days like the last few have been, and when I'm feeling frustrated that I don't have work, I just need to remember why I'm here. Because thats exactly what I'm doing, is searching for myself. And I know its cliche and something out of a B rated coming of age movie. Spend a year in Asia, do cool things, keep a blog/journal and fantasize about writing a book about your travels (Don't think I haven't thought about it.) But you know what, I don't care if its cliche. What I know is that I've always wanted something different that what most people want. Not better, not worse, just different. And to be completely honest, I don't even know what it is I'm looking for. Will a year in Asia help me find it better than the same year spent at home? I have no idea. But you know what? I'm here, trying to find out. And who knows, maybe in a year I come home, older, wiser and content. Maybe I don't. But either way, I'm searching. And like that guy in the bar today said, aren't we all?

WPWWLT - Starting Line - 'Best of Me' ("Tell me what you thought about when you were gone and so alone. The worst is over, you can have the best of me. We got older, but we're still young. We never grew out of this feeling that we won't give up." Semi appropriate I would say.)

Visa Time

Before we came into Thailand, we applied for 60 day tourist visas at the Thai embassy in Phnom Pehn. When the border officials stamped them when we crossed the border, my passport had a stamp that was up Feb 2nd. But you can apply for a 30 day extension at an Immigration Office, which will give you a total of 90 days in the country. So, in an attempt to not leave things till the last minute, I woke up this morning and headed over to the Immigration Office, located across town by the mall. I was going to try and walk or borrow a bike and ride over, but I slept in a bit and was meeting Julia, so I had to take a bus. I walk up to the complex slightly hesitant, but luckily they had a scattering of signs in English and I had done some research online, so I make my way into the Visa Extension Building. I walk in and decide to do what I usually do in situations like this, which is sit out of the way and watch what's going on. No sign of Julia, so I grab a chair in back try to look like I know what I'm doing. After a few minutes, I think I have some idea of what to do, and Julia's arrival from the photo taking station fills in the rest of the blanks. So 1 form, 3 photo copies, 4 passport size photographs, 6 signatures, 1,900 bhat and about an hour and a half later, I have my visa extension and they aren't going to kick me out of the country on Tuesday! Woo!

(Before March 3rd though, I have to go a border run. Basically I take a bus to the nearest border - either Burma or Laos - leave the country, turn right back around and come back into the country with a new 60 days, able to be extended another 30 days. Kind of a pain, but you can pretty much do it indefinitely, unless you land a sweet gig that helps you apply for a work permit, which lasts like 6 months or something. Visa juggling, just one more part of teaching abroad.)

Once I got my passport back, headed over the mall, grabbed lunch in this crazy baked goods restaurant. Basically it was just shelves of both fresh and wrapped baked goods that you walked around putting on your tray, and when you were done, you brought it up to register to pay. I had a bacon and cheese crossiant, a hot dog in a roll, an apple fritter, a vegetable pie, a cookie and doughnut. And let me tell you, it was delicious. Walked around the mall for a while and then decided to walk home instead of catching another bus. Spent most of the hour long walk listening to R. Kelly, including all 12 minutes of Trapped in the Closet, which when you haven't heard it in a while, is kind of exciting, finding out what is going to happen! Later I met Julia for dinner, had some noodle soup and we watch the Princess and the Frog on my computer. I liked it a little more than she did, thought it was good, but not great. Tomorrow we are renting a moterbike and she is teaching me how to drive it! She is an expert now, she has had two lessons, so I'm sure the two of us will be fine driving all over town. Take care everyone!

TPWWLT - 'Gaston' - Beauty and the Beast

Odds and Ends

What have I been up to lately? Walked about 4.5 hours today, that was pretty good. I revisited three language schools to regive them my resume and retell them to give me a job. They were kind of all over town and trying to save money so I just figured I would walk it. Then Julia moved into an apt across the moat, so I walked there to see it and meet her for dinner. Took me 55 min one way, but I had 'Wait Wait Don't Tell Me' (my favorite podcast of all time, a humorous weekly news quiz show...on NPR...yes, I am dork, I know.) for the way there and some TSwift for the way back. Though I was getting pretty into it ('You belong to meeeeeeeeee') on the way back, and I am pretty sure that I accidently started singing out loud, which looking back, would explain some of the looks I was getting from the Thai's I passed on the street.

Also got my first haircut in Asia today. Before I had been shaving my head, but since my clippers broke, I had to get to a real one. So I was waiting till the hair on top was long enough to lay down so I could just get the sides clippered and finally today was the day. I figured the odds were 70/30 of them screwing it up and me just telling them to reshave it, but they actually did a decent job. It was pretty funny though, I walked in and there were three Thai women sitting in there who obviously worked there, and when I asked for a haircut one of them yelled something in the back till this man came out. This place is right next to my guesthouse and I walk past it multiple times every day and I don't think I have ever seen this guy in there, but I walk in and he appears out of nowhere! Like they keep him around just so he can cut men's hair when they come in. :) But through hand motions and finger scissoring, I made him realize what I wanted, and he did a good job. Also, I was thinking, I don't know if I have ever had my hair cut by a man before. At Great Clips or Cheap Haircut Chain X that I usually go to, its pretty much always women. But not in Thailand.

Not much else is new...no ants since my room was cleaned (knock on wood!), but I have been very careful not to have open food at all in my room. If I have snacks, I make sure I eat it all on my balcony and throw away the wrappers in the garbage can outside my room. I have started downloading movies lately, just watched Sherlock Holmes and Up In The Air, both of which I liked. Up next is the Hurt Locker or the Princess and the Frog. And reading Yiddish Policeman's Union, by the same author as The Adventures of Caviler and Klay...having trouble getting into it, but I think I'm going to like it. Ok time for bed, take care everyone, good luck with the cold!

TPWWLT - TSwift 'You Belong With Me' (She is single now ya know...)

Ant Update

Well, I'm still here, but just barely. The Oreo's all survived, I gave one bag to Julia and ate the other one myself, though I had quite a stomachache from eating them too fast. Whatever, I was worried about the ants. The crackers are gone and I haven't opened the cereal yet, so thats still good. However, I was laying in bed this morning and felt something bite my foot, so I looked down, and my blanket and bedspread at the foot of my bed were covered in ants. Luckily they hadn't made it up any closer to me and I managed to get out with only that one bite (for now.) But it was kind of scary nonetheless. I was kidding with my post the other day about surviving the ants, they had never risen above the level of the floor and were an annoyance more than anything. But now they are in my bed biting me!

I had them clean my room and change my sheets and they seem to be gone (knock on wood) but who really knows anymore. I don't even know what they were after in my bed, I might have spilled some of my dinner last night down there but I don't know. Hopefully that was it and they weren't just randomly flocking for new food sources. I'm going to try and eat all my food on my balcony from now on, hopefully that helps. Just thought I would let you know.

TPWWLT - Zac Brown Band - Chicken Fried

Pictures!

No post today, but I figured I would keep my streak alive with a link to pictures! There are some from New Year's, and the day we headed up the see a local temple, the royal family's summer palace and a Mung village. Hope you like them, click here: Pictures!

Boom!

Can't stop posting, I'm on a roll. Not too much to report, just wanted to let everyone know how my birthday went. Highlights include skyping to various friends and family member from around 9-3, taking a nap and going out for buffalo wings (though without bleu cheese dressing, I don't think it exists in Thailand.) We were going to check out trivia night at a local but we lingered over dinner and Julia wasn't feeling well, so we came home. But she did buy me a chocolate sundae from McDonald's as my birthday present AND found the buffalo wing place, so I'm not mad. :) Then we had about a two hour discussion on everything ranging from politics to culture wars to college stereotypes to Gus Van Sant movies. And really, any day that includes naps, buffalo wings and weighty discussions is a great one in my book. So overall, a very good birthday. Hope everyone is doing well back home, gonna find a job tomorrow I decided. So I got that going for me, which is nice.

TPWWLT - 'What My Age Again?' - Blink 182

PS - There is a line in the song that goes, 'Nobody likes you when you're 23...' and last year we went out for my birthday to bar where there is a lot of dancing, and they played that song, and since I was a year older than all my friends (woo 5th year), they all took great delight in screaming it at me every time they say it in the song. And as I listen to it now, I think I'm going to miss that.

PPS - Also, it was kinda of nice being 23. 'Oh, how old are you?' 'Michael Jordan.' My name is Mike, I'm from Chicago, it just fit. Who am I going to say now? Kobe? Griffey? Willie Mays? Its just not the same.

PPPS - I would like to wish a Happy Birthday to Baby Spice, Geena Davis, Placido Domingo, Jack Nicklaus, and a very special 186th birthday to Thomas 'Stonewall' Jackson.

Birthday...fun

I turn 24 in 27 minutes. And like most days or celebrations that kind of bum me out, I'm going to bed early so I don't have to be awake when midnight hits and its officially my birthday. The loneliness that comes with being alone on what are supposed be the extra special days is always easier to face in the morning when you are well rested and greeted by the hopefulness of a new day. Take care everyone.

TPWWLT - The cars roll by my window.

PS - I'm staying here another month, just in case you haven't got around to mailing that letter.

PPS - Opened the Oreo's today. Have them in three separate plastic bags. I'll let you know how it goes.

This Means WAR!

I'm in an ongoing battle with ants in my room. It started the day after Aunt Kate sent me the packages. I had opened a bag of chex mix, chowed down before bed, and left the open bag sitting on my desk. I awoke to find them marching in a line from the corner by the door, along two sides of my bed, up the side of my desk and covering my desk, not to mention feasting on the open bag of chex mix. I grabbed the bag and threw it on my balcony and used half a roll of toilet paper to wipe all the ants off my desk and off my floor. Spent the next hour cleaning my room and taking out all the trash and leftover wrappers I could find. And separated out the remainder of the unopened food and placed it in a box in the corner.

I fired back the next day with my secret weapon: plastic baggies. I opened some M&M's and crackers and sealed up the uneaten food in bags and placed them back on my cleaned desk. Two days later they were still untouched. However, I had a resealable bag of chips ahoy in the box that they weaseled their way into, along with some granola bars, which forced me to ditch the box. I regained the upper hand by discovering that the chemicals in the wet naps kill them on touch, and we reached a cease fire for a few days.

But lately, it has not looking good. Two days ago I opened the peanut butter, and assumed that sealing it back up tight would keep them out. Sadly, I regret to inform everyone of the loss of 9/10 of a jar of peanut butter. Today I accidentally left the bag holding the rest of the M&M's open when I left for lunch and lost all that chocolaty goodness. So I'm down to three things: a box of Special K with Red Berries, a sleeve of crackers and a whole package of Oreo's. I'll probably finish off the crackers tomorrow for lunch, and Julia and I have a plan to eat as much of the special K one night for dinner, maybe 2 or 3 bowls each, and trash the remains, b/c I know I can't keep them out of there once I open it up. That just leaves the Oreo's, obviously the crown jewel of the entire food haul. Right now my plan is this: Save them till the end, and after I open them up, parcel out the rest of the package into plastic baggies, and be verrrry careful every time I close a bag. I figure that by putting them in multiple bags, if I lose one, I can hopefully still have the rest intact.

I know I'm fighting a losing battle, one against many. I don't hope to survive it, but I promise you all that I will go down eating. At least now my struggles have been documented, and hopefully someday they will sing songs of me and my food's glorious demise. Fare ye well and know that you will be in my heart and mind as I go down covered in ants like that guy in the new Indiana Jones movie. And If I somehow manage to pull out a victory, you will be the first to hear about it. Take care.

TPWWLT - Bill Simmons Mega Playoff Podcast - Pt 2

New friends!

The internet has been down at my guesthouse the last few days. Something so simple that I have been taking for granted cuts out and bam! I didn't know what to do. Couldn't answer any correspondence about possible jobs, missed skyping with both my parents, my friends thought I was mad at them because I wasn't responding to anything... Just kinda puts it in perspective how much we rely on some things. But it wasn't all bad, I finished two books (Left Hand of Darkness and the Book Thief, both excellent), and I was lucky that it was over the weekend and most of the job emails came today so I was only few hours later in responding, as opposed to a few days. And my fantasy rosters were set so I won in both hockey and basketball. Always nice when you can beat Suchy and Martin in fantasy in the same week.

In other news, my weekend was pretty good. My (only) friend Julia got a job interview last week with a school here, and while she was there, some of the other teachers invited her out with them and I tagged along. We went out Sat night and it was actually pretty fun. It was interesting to see the dynamic of the group we were out with. The street that I live off of is one of the main tourist streets here, and the upper class tourists at that. All the signs are in English, and most of the bars are expensive and filled with yelling Asian women and rich old white people paying 4 times what they should for a plate of pad thai, or for some way too expensive western food. I know that there is a decent sized community of young farangs, most of whom live here year round and are teachers, much like I hope to be. But until this weekend, I had no idea where these people congregated, so I was interested to see what it was like when we went out with them on Sat.

And, truth be told, it was very similar to what I would experience at home. In other words, I nursed a non alcoholic beverage while squeezed in between people I don't know very well, sweating and trying to make conversation above the noise of the live band 8 feet away. :) Bars aren't usually my first choice of entertainment, even when I know everyone there, and when I go with only a few friends (or in this case, one), they are tolerable at best. But to be honest, there was something almost comfortable in being out and being uncomfortable amongst my drunk fellow twentysomthings. Looking around, I could have been out at a bar in Chicago (in the summer). We stayed till close, which was only midnight (two thumbs up on that) bc the bar didnt have some permit for live music. We got food after (kebab's - no antonio's or la bamba, but delicious) and Julia and I walked home surrounded by the drunken shrieks of 30 or so white people. I could have been on Clark street or in Champaign!

But the night was fun. I did meet some new friends, got a lot of encouragement from people about the job search. Pretty much everyone said it took them at least month or so to find one, so they all told me to hang in there and stay persistent, which made me feel a lot better about my situation. I've been hearing so many different things from so many different people that it was cool to finally talk to people who are in the situation I hope to be in a few months. AND, the live band was a Thai band playing what sounded like Mexican music. They were pretty good, but the highlight was the barefooted, dreadlocked, mid-thirtish Thai woman who was the lead singer, and whom, I will admit to you faceless reader, I was quite entranced with. :) She wasn't even especially good looking, but she might have been the coolest person I have ever seen. The girls at my table kept trying to get me to buy her a rose from the small Thai children running in the bar trying to sell flowers, but I wussed out. Although in my defense, I'm pretty sure I saw her husband there. Ah well, maybe next time. :)

TPWWLT - 'Face Drop' - Sean Kingston

3 Things

First of all, I apologize for the delay in posts. I try and do it every 2 days, but I got lazy towards the end of last week, and then I was pretty busy all weekend. Julia had a friend from school visit so we were trying to show him a good time. But, I have adventures to tell you about, so get ready for some meaty blog posts coming up, complete with pics of fantastical places, or at least some Thai temples.

B) I got mail today!!! My Aunt Kate sent me TWO crate and barrel boxes full of goodies. Mostly food, but also some shirts, socks, medicine, baggies, toothpaste, the Clark Family 2010 Calendar, and of course some pictures. A veritable cornucopia of wonderfulness. And honestly, as much as it was nice getting all that (though it was too much, save your money next time Kate!), the best thing was just getting any mail at all. Just walking into my guesthouse after lunch and being told I had mail was one of the best feelings since I've been here. So thank you very much Kate. Even if my stomach hurts from eating 5 granola bars.

Tres, I threw up some pics on facebook. Just random shots of my room, the city, a couple different nights we were out. Click here to check it out: Life in Chiang Mai

I try and post again tomorrow about some of the stuff we've done recently, hope everyone is doing well back home and no one has a case of the Mondays!

TPWWLT - 'No Air' - The cast of Glee

Today

Today I took a walk, ate a burrito, bought some medicine for my throat, took a nap, upgraded my itunes and watched The Return of the King to make it all 3 Lord of the Rings movies in a span of 4 days. I need a job.

2010

Bring it on. New Year's Resolutions, go.

1. Find a job
2. Sit ups and push-ups, every day
3. Less computer, more reading - 2 books a week, at least
4. Way less facebook
5. Call into Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me
6. See Wet Hot American Summer
7. Get better at responding to emails - 2 days max.
8. Drink more water
9. Ride an elephant
10. Think of more resolutions when I'm not so tired.

TPWWLT 'Point of Extinction' - Motion City Soundtrack

New Year's Eve In Thailand

Naturally I started the evening with a nap. I knew if I was staying up till midnight, I would need some extra rest. However, the Thai's don't really understand the concept of waiting until midnight to set off fireworks so around 7:30, so after the 84th firework being set off in my street, I finally gave up and rolled out of bed. Grabbed some dinner with Julia, which turned out to be a big mistake. Unbeknown to us, they had closed off a bunch of the streets and had dozens of food vendors set up. Though it was a long night, so I did manage to sample a few things.

We had heard there was a big public celebration at one of the gates, so after dinner we headed back into the central part of town to check it out. Now the coolest part of New Year's in Thailand are the multitude of lanterns being set a flight throughout the city. Basically its a small disc held in the center of a circular crosshair of metal attached to a cylindrical covering made of some sort of tissue paper. The whole thing is probably about a foot and half wide and maybe 4 feet tall. You light the disc on fire, let the lantern fill with CO2 for a while, and then let it go and watch it fly off into the night. So you look up into the sky and you would just see hundreds of these glowing lights floating into space. One of the hotels near us was giving them out, so Julia and I actually got to set one off for free, as opposed to buying on from one of the street vendors. It was very symbolic of new beginnings and putting the past behind you, lighting something on fire and letting it float off into space to start a new year. Or something like that. Regardless, the sky looked awesome filled with lights all night as people were continuously letting them go. We were talking and we had a conservative estimate of 20,000 lanterns being let go throughout the night. Pretty awesome.

After releasing our ball of burning gas ('Pumba, to you everything is gas') into the night, we spent a few hours walking up and down the street people watching and checking out the food offerings. Squid on a stick, whole fried fish, 10 feet long coils of sausage (they look disgusting), sushi, pad thai, kebabs, all kids of salads, rices, and meats on a stick. Gelato, baked goods, ice cream, rock hard ice cream served on a stick, fried doughs, and our all time favorite, banana rotee (more on those later). After trying a few things (pretty much all in the dessert category), we were tired of walking, so we started looking for a bar to hang out in for while till midnight.

There was this veggie restaurant right across from the square with the main stage on it, and although it was empty and the walls were covered in hemp clothing for sale, there was a sign for a rooftop bar that we figured we might as well check out. Our first sign this place was a little different was when we were required to take off our shoes before climbing the final staircase into the bar (not a huge deal, there are plenty of places in SE Asia where its polite to take off your shoes before you enter, but I've never seen it in a bar before). We climbed into what can only be described as part hippie co-op/part techno club/part hash bash. There were no chairs, everyone reclined on rugs laid down on what felt like a chainlink floor. There were blacklights hung up, illuminating the neon writing on the walls, including the huge 'THC' above the bar. Techno music blared in the background, and half the bar had no roof so we could look out at the crowd and the lanterns being let go. Bottom line, it was awesome, and I'm def going back there for another Sprite or two.

Around 11:45 we headed down and out to ring in the New Year. They had big screens set up with a countdown, and we stood outside with thousands of other Thai's and welcomed into 2010. There were some fireworks set off and lots of people waited until midnight to let their lanterns go, which was very cool. It was my second New Year in a foreign country, and my first, I realized, that I celebrated outside. Granted it was 65 out, which is about 70 degrees warmer than it was last year in Champaign, but still it was cool being outside with a ton of people, and I can definitely understand the appeal of Times Square. Maybe someday. Overall it was a great night. Lots of good food and cool experiences. No kisses, but you can't win em all. :) Hope everyone had a great night, and Happy New Year's to everyone!

TPWWLT - Shu Zula Za - Poi Dog Pondering