Signing Off

I'll be out of touch for the next few days. Considering that I hadn't written in a week before yesterday and that I've probably lost most of my followers due to my absence, I guess thats not a huge deal except to the 3 people that are still reading, but I felt like I should let you know. Like I said yesterday, I have to go to Laos to get a new visa. The trip involves about 6 buses, including two overnight ones, 3 different types of currency, a yet to be determined guesthouse, and information gleaned almost exclusively from forum posts of other travelers. Should be interesting. But hey, I'll be in Laos for 2 days, how many people can say that?

Just an update on my life. I am staying at the guesthouse for another month, and then am moving to someplace better situated and hopefully with a more comfortable bed. This isn't really pertinent to you unless you are planning on sending me something in the mail. And in that case, do it now. Today. (Well, tomorrow since its Sunday. But get it ready today.) I haven't quite been able to pin down exactly how long it takes for stuff to get here, but its at least two weeks, so if you don't send it soon, there is a good chance it will arrive after I've left, and I would feel terrible that you spent time and money sending me something and I didn't get it. If you have something and don't get it sent out soon, just wait another month and I'll give you the address of my new place. (Also, I keep meaning to do a post exalting and thanking all of the people that have sent me something, but I keep putting it off. Just know that you guys are the best, and its coming. You know who you are.)

Ok, off to shower and pack, my camera is all charged and I've got some podcasts saved up and I've even downloaded some audio books, bring on the 14 hour bus rides! Hope everyone is doing well and hopefully you will hear from me Thurs during the day. And hopefully I don't get stuck in Laos.

TPWWLT - Eric Hutchinson - 'When You Were Mine'

Wake Up In The Morning Feeling Like P. Diddy

If you consider this blog sort of an online journal, I guess last week is the week where the pages get torn out because nothing interesting happens. To be honest, it wasn't a great week. I was pretty sick, I'm pretty sure the mono I caught junior year of college flared back up. Julia had a friend in town and they went up to Pai (a more primitive town located a few hours away), and I had to back out of the trip because I just wasn't feeling good. That was last weekend, and its only been in the last day or two that I have started to feel better. It was a week full of laying in bed, sleeping, lack of internet, a little stress, a little sadness, and just overall feeling like crap. But its over, I feel better and I'm putting it behind me.

My friend Leah, who Julia and I know from our program, was in town with her mom today. So I went and met the two of them and Julia for dinner. It was actually very nice to see her, to hear about some of the people from our program who stayed in Cambodia (in Phnom Penh, where she works), and to get the latest scuttlebutt about the teachers and students we all know. Plus she is a lot of fun, as was her mom, and we had a great time at dinner. (Though my stomach still hurts from the huge burrito I ate. But in a good way. :) ) After dinner, we dropped her mom off at their guesthouse, and caught a taxi to the first ever Smile Full Moon Party. We rode about twenty minutes outside of town to a big forest preserve. They had set up a big stage and had bands going, and between bands they had some crazy fire dancers, whipping around balls and staffs that were on fire. It was very cool, live music outside, in the middle of a forest preserve, right next to a lake, surrounded by fellow twenty somethings all just trying to rock out and have a good time. It was a pretty excellent evening.

Tomorrow Julia and I embark on an adventure to Laos to get our visa's renewed. We need to head to a Thai consulate to apply for a new 3 month visa, so we are taking an overnight bus tomorrow night. Kind of a shame for the blog, right as I am getting back into the swing of things, I have to leave for 3 days, but I'm glad I started to feel a bit better, because 13 hours on a bus overnight would not have been fun if I was still sick. But I'm charging my camera and I'm sure I will have lots of stories and pictures from my trip. Sorry for the lack of wit or humor in this post, but its 2 am and I'm still recovering from mono. :) Hope everyone is doing well back home!

TPWWLT - Ke$ha - Tik Tok (and I'm not apologizing.)

Sawaadee

Think I'm getting sick. Nothing life threatening, have just felt tired and crappy all week, and haven't had motivation to do anything but lay in bed, hence the lack of posts. (You would think laying in bed would make me want to post, but its actually the opposite.) Julia has a friend from home in town, so I have been hanging out with her sometimes when Julia is at work. Read a few books, watched all three Star Wars movies, followed up at some language centers and schools. Not really in the mood to type, just wanted to let everyone know I'm ok and hanging in there. Picked up some meds today, hope those help. Hope all is well back in the US of A, and everyone is enjoying the incredible 18-0 lead we have over the Soviets in the medal count. USA! USA!

Oh Internet, Where Art Thou?

I apologize for not posting in a few days, my internet has been out since Friday and I just got it turned back on today. So what have I been up to? Saturday, I met Julia and this other girl Lauren (who might almost be considered my 2nd friend here) for dinner. We ate at Pizza Company, a Pizza Hut knock off, which turned out to be pretty good. Obviously no Lou Malnatti's, but my yearning for cheese and bread was strong enough that I even manged to eat some vegetables on my pizza. After dinner Lauren took us over to her friends' house where we met some new people, which was nice. We sat around their table, drinking and smoking hookah (well, I nursed an orange Fanta), and trying to fit in. But it was fun. :) (They also gave me a good tip to check out Chiang Mai University to see if they were hiring, as this was the week that the teachers had to let CMU know if they were coming back next semester. I'll keep you posted.) We hopped on a song tau and headed out to bar, where I managed to do quite a bit of people watching. Saw lots of very drunk Thai's, which was amusing, though we didn't stay long as Julia was tired and I didn't really know anyone else there. (Let's be honest, I was tired too.)

Sunday there was supposed to be a festival for Chinese New Year, but aside from some empty stages set up, what we found looked like any other market you can find around Chiang Mai every other weekend. It was blazing hot out and my stomach was feeling kind of upset, so I headed home early and spent the rest of the day trying to get my internet to work. My back started to hurt last night, and since body aches are usually a precursor to me getting sick, I was hoping I had just wrenched it or something without realizing it. But it took me a long time to fall asleep last night (insomnia is probably last on the list of things I would choose to be afflicted with in life), which is never a good sign. And woke up today feeling like crap. I've spent the day in bed, though I did get up twice to go buy orange juice. Hopefully I feel better tomorrow, I have my route to CMU all mapped out and I would like to get over there ASAP. Plus Julia has a friend in town and not only would I like to meet her, but I told Julia she could borrow one of my pillows! Hopefully I can get some new pillow cases for tomorrow so I don't get this poor girl sick!

Sorry for the lame, poorly written, uncreative, and uninsightful blog post, but I'm still feeling kinda blah. I had two good ideas for posts over the weekend, but I forgot them. Oh well, they will come back soon. (My goal for Feb was 20 posts, or about 3 every 4 days. I'm a bit behind my with internet going out but I'll see if I can finish strong.) Hope everyone is doing well, I'm heading back to bed to watch the Empire Strikes Back, or part 2 of my Star Wars Marathon. (Though Return of the Jedi is definitely going to have to wait for tomorrow.) Hopefully I'll dream of Princess Leah... :)

TPWWLT - Metro Station - 'Shake It'

PS - Just wanted to say thanks to everyone who has commented on and about the blog to me. Blog comments, facebook message, wall post, gchat, email, skpye...a ton of different people have let me know some way or another that they are reading it pretty often, and you guys have no idea how much that means to me. Yes, its a sort of personal journal, and for the most part, I write what I want to write about. But I also realize other people are reading it, so I make an attempt to make it semi entertaining, even trying to proofread a few times before I hit 'post.' :) So I just wanted to say thanks a lot for reading and caring, and thank you also for letting me know you are reading, if that makes any sense. It's nice to know I'm not just speaking into a void, so thanks again.

PPS - They actually celebrate Valentine's Day here, and not just in the touristy parts of town. The flower market on Sunday was filled with roses and other Valentine's Day merchandise, and I saw quite a few Thai couples walking around at the Chinese New Year's Festival, the girl with roses in hand, the guy with an 'I'm getting lucky tonight' smirk on his face. I wouldn't have even realized it being in what feels like the middle of the summer, but I think I was trying not to think about it being so far away from both of my Valentines. But I do want to say a slightly belated, but very loving, Happy Valentine's Day to both of the special ladies in my heart, Mrs. Ruth Clark and Mrs. Barbara Keefer. I'm sorry I couldn't deliver your roses and chocolates in person but I hope both of you very special ladies had a great day and I love you both!

Woo!

I am always on the lookout for new, inexpensive, and delicious places to eat. My guesthouse is located right off a main tourist street, which means I am surrounded by a plethora of very western feeling bars and restaurants. Pretty much any direction I turn, I have to walk for a good 5 minutes to get into more authentic and Thai parts of town. And these bars and restaurants all serve food, the only problem is that it is wayyy too expensive. You sit down, speak to the employees in English and order off an English only menu, only to pay 3 or 4 times what you would pay for pad thai at a stand in the market. (I can't speak to the quality, I've never actually sat down at a place like this.)

Anyways, the basic Thai 'restaurant' is very different than this. It is usually nothing more than a little stand set up on the side of the street, with maybe 6 or 7 folding tables set up around it, surrounded by little plastics stools. It is typically run by a family, only serves maybe 5 or 6 things (if that many), and usually has the menu posted on the side of the stand in Thai. If I am lucky, they might have a grimy, laminated English menu they can fish out of some cabinet for me, but usually I just get by on pointing and my slowly increasing level of basic Thai food vocabulary. They will have a big jug filled with ice water and a basket of plastic cups, feel free to help yourself. Its quick, hot, cheap, and almost always delicious.

So I am surrounded by all these western restaurants serving expensive western food. (To be fair to them, most any western food I have seen here is expensive. But the corresponding Thai food they serve is also way overpriced, so my pocketbook and my 2 month native snobbery help me to bypass these more convenient options.) Because of this, I am always on the lookout for a new stand somewhere near my place that I can try out. A few weeks ago I found one relatively close that serves what has become my favorite meal here, fried garlic pork on rice. I have been there half a dozen times since then, always getting the same thing. I have slowly evolved from pointing at the menu to ordering in Thai ('mu gatiam,' literally 'garlic pork' - only nouns for me, I haven't quite graduated to complete sentences yet), and I was beginning to suspect that the old lady that runs the stand was recognizing me. And finally tonight, it happened! I walked up behind a Thai on a moterbike who was waiting for his food to go. She was busy preparing something, but as she looked up, she saw me, smiled, and said, "Sawadee kaa, mu gatiam?" ('Hello, garlic pork?") I smiled huge back at her, told her yes, thank you and sat down at a table. :)

People ask me all the time how long I plan on staying, and I usually tell them I don't have any idea. A year has always been my standard answer, but the more I think about it, the more I realize that I want to stay her long enough so that it feels like I live here, and not just like I'm on vacation. That could be 6 months, a year, 2 years, 10 years - who knows. I just don't want this to feel like a long trip, as even my 4 months in Australia studying abroad did. And though I'm struggling more than I thought I would to find work, and I'm not living where I will be for the majority of my time here, and my life here still seems rather transient, tonight still felt good. It may have been a very small thing, but it still meant a lot. To have enough of a routine, to be enough of a permanent fixture to be recognized by a sweet old street vendor may not be much, but it does allow me to feel like I'm slowing carving out a niche in this country. Or at least to be semi justified in turning my nose up at the tourists I walk past every day who are paying too much to eat food they could find back home. :)

TPWWLT - Lil' Rob - 'Summer Nights'

Nighttime Wandering

With Julia living far away and working a little more in the evenings, I've been left with much more free time (and much more alone time) at night. My internet has been very spotty recently and when I have no plans at night other than to hang out and surf the net, reading Bulls blogs and chatting with my friends on gchat, and then suddenly my internet goes out, it leaves me in a bit of a mental bind. I can only read so much, and although I have my movies that I can watch on my computer (even without the internet), sitting in my room gets kinda old, especially when watching a movie is what Julia and I usually do when we hang out, because we are wild and crazy. (Working my way through Oscar nom's, we've watched Up In The Air, Hurt Locker, Princess and the Frog, Up, and A Serious Man. Still to go; Precious, Inglorious Basterds, Invictus, District 9, An Education, and Fantastic Mr. Fox.) So, I've begun taking walks at night. Grab my ipod and keys, maybe a few bhat, just pick a direction and start walking. It's much cooler than the day, and it kind of lets me see the city in a different light. Or lack thereof. (Puns intended.) And to accompany me on these walks, instead of just music and my thoughts (I get plenty of thinking in here, its not like I need to walk to clear my head), I have started to download podcasts to listen to. It started last summer when I was in Champaign, living alone and without a TV. I would download them to play as I was getting ready for work or folding clothes or something. And the more and more walking I do around here, the more I needed to listen to. So I started exploring itunes in search of new ones to download. Well, I'm up to 23 different podcasts I am currently subscribing to. On the random times when my internet is working, I turn on my computer, start up itunes, hit refresh and all the latest episodes download to my computer. A quick sync with my ipod and I'm ready to go.

They range in scope from movies to comedy, science to puzzles, gameshows to sports, politics to history. The majority are from ESPN, NPR, or Howstuffworks.com, with the rest from random organizations, including a couple that I think are produced in the host's garage. (I'm not joking.) But regardless, they are awesome. Ranging anywhere from 3 minutes to an hour and half (most are like 35-45 min), they are all informative and great company as I'm walking the streets. Tonight for example, I left my place around 8, listening to NPR's It's All Politics discuss the race for the Senate seat in Illinois and bemoan holding the primaries in Feb. for a Nov. election. That took me through dinner (excellent noodle soup), where I switched to The B.S. Report to listen to Bill Simmons interview David Stern about the upcoming NBA All Star Game as I headed west into the city. I hit the west side of the moat, turned south and switched on Filmspotting, where they reviewed Edge of Darkness, interviewed the director of The Station, and listed the top 5 career comebacks in honor of Mel's first starring role since Signs. Hit the southwest corner of the moat, and turned back east as I started Stuff You Missed In History Class and learned all about Alexander the Great's battle with King Porous in India. Halfway home that ended, and I turned on my favorite, Stuff You Should Know, and listened to 43 minutes of How SWAT Teams Work as I headed back to my room. Two and half hours later, I arrived home, having discovered a new part of the city I hadn't seen, having gotten some more exercise, and having learned something new about the Senate, Leo Tolstoy, Mark Cuban, Indian elephants in battle, and where the first SWAT team was started. 'Sounds' like a pretty good night. Pun obviously intended :)

TPWWLT - Lady Gaga - 'Bad Romance' (Music is still better for writing, I cant digest new information audibly AND fill you guys in on the latest 411 in my life at the same time, its just too hard. :) )

Can't Complain

As I was walking back from a new language center I visited today, it started to become hotter and hotter out. Dressed in a shirt and tie, I began to sweat, and stopped in a 7/11 to grab a bottle of water to cool down. I finally reached home, tore of my sweaty clothes and started to curse this heat that makes me shower multiple times a day and drives up my water bill. And then I stopped. Its 92 and sunny here. Every single day. I have been in this town 6 weeks and if I was to add up all the days its rained, been cloudy, or had a temperature below 88, I'm pretty sure the combined total would be one. And as people back home are dealing with snowstorms, treacherous roads, and traipsing through the central Illinois wind to get to class, complaining about it being a little too hot here is kinda ridiculous. And its kinda nice to think that although things can be frustrating sometimes, I am in Asia and its sunny and 90 everyday. Guess life isn't too bad huh? :)

ALSO, I sent out some postcards a while back, and its began to percolate back to me that people have started getting them. Two things; first, I apologize for the legibility of the script, the very smearable pen and glossy sheen of the postcard combined with my inherent bad handwriting and attempts to leave the words unsmeared often resulted in only semi legible, if unsmudged, writing. And second, if you are a reader of this blog and don't receive a postcard, I apologize. Monetary constraints prevented me from sending them to everyone I wanted to, but rest assured you are at the top of the list for round two. :) Hope everyone is doing well, be safe and stay warm!

TPWWLT - Tom Lehrer - 'The Element Song'

A day in the life.

I woke up yesterday with no plans and figured I would spend the day walking around, taking pictures for sort of mini 'Day Around Chiang Mai' blog post. I swung by some area's I frequent, and while walking around the edge of the Inner City, I stumbled upon a bunch of floats all made up of flowers, much like we would see in the Parade of Roses. Like will typically happen in Thailand for any sort of festival or special occurrence, there were stalls all over selling food and trinkets. So I meandered around for a while, eating and snapping pictures. After a few hours, I was tired, so I headed home for a nap and a shower, not necessarily in that order. I walked over to Julia's side of town and we headed out to get dinner. On our way there, we passed a park and could see something big going on, which happened to be a Thai car show. I mean, America cars, but Thai's showing them off. Even had a bunch of sweet bikes and a few Thai biker gangs! (I was going to snap some pics but didn't want to get in trouble with any of the local ruffians.) We weren't in the mood for Thai food, so we actually went to a restaurant that only served salads. And I ate one. Then hung at Julia's for a while and headed home. Hopefully the pictures do a better job showing you about my day than I can, just wanted to set the stage for what you are going to see! Enjoy: Chiang Mai Flower Festival

TPWWLT - Flight of the Conchords - 'Bowie'

PS Heading to bed early tonight, going to try to get up early for the game. I found a bar that is showing it, but 6am is early.

PPS, While walking to Julia's at night, I passed through one of the bigger squares in town where they were having a big celebration, and I finally learned all the floats I saw earlier in the day were for the Chiang Mai Flower Festival. Anyways, they had a stage set up and maybe the cutest girl ever singing. :)

Great Day

Great day today. Set a new walking record, 6 hours by my count. Today was the Chiang Mai flower festival, which I had no idea about, but luckily stumbled on some floats made of flowers that would put the Rose Bowl Parade to shame. They were all sitting out and I walked around them and the festival around them for a while, snapping pics and eating. Bought some new shades, listened to some new dorky podcasts from Howstuffworks.com and came home. Met Julia for dinner, actually went to a place where the main (and only) course was a salad! (Don't worry mom, I took a picture for proof.) Walked around for a bit and headed home. Exhausted now, more details and lots of pics coming soon. Night!

WPWWLT - Smodcast

New Books!

I came to Asia with 9 books. I had them tucked into various pockets of my backpack and suitcase and while they are disproportionately heavy for their size, it was worth it. I had some excellent choices and I lovingly made my through each of them. However, some time last week, I finished the last one. (OK thats a lie, I still have 'Nine Stories' by J.D. Salinger, but reading him always makes me feel rather apathetic and question the point of life, and I think in my current unemployed/too much free time state, that is probably not the attitude I need, so I'm saving it.) So I was faced with a decision that had been in the back of my mind since I got here. For those of you who know me well, you are familiar with my love of books. Not just reading, but the books themselves. You have seen my four filled bookcases in my room at home, and you know how much I abhor the thought of getting rid of any of them. (Just ask my mom about my attitude when she brings up selling some of them at one of our garage sales.) I cannot remember the last time I got rid of a book. I don't even like lending them because I usually don't get them back. (Hence why I have bought 'Ender's Game' four times - no joke.) I don't even like going to the library because I will invariably finish the book, like it, and go buy it so I can own it. I am a pretty simple guy and don't care too much for material things, but if there is one thing I want to own, and one thing I spend money on, its books.

So, now that you know where I am going from, you can understand my dilemma. Finding books in Chiang Mai is not the problem, there are literally dozens of used bookstores in this town selling English books catering to farangs. The problem is that A) I shouldn't be spending money I don't have on books, and B) Living out of my suitcase and prob moving multiple times while I'm here means that more books = more weight = more hassle. I don't have a book shelf or any place to store them, and adding more and more books to my already too heavy suitcase is just not a good idea. So I decided to take the best option available: sell the books I brought to a used bookstore, use that money to buy more books to read, sell those back, etc. So this week, I loaded all of my books into my backpack, walked into my favorite used bookstore (I hadn't bought anything yet, but I had spent plenty of time wandering amongst them), threw the books down at the register and told them I was selling them. I just tried not to think about what I was doing, I didn't even bargain with them! I grabbed the money, stuffed it in my pocket and started looking around. I still haven't figured out how much I spent on them vs how much I got back, I don't think I could take it.

But its not all bad. Once the deed was done, I had 800 bhat in my pocket, and hey, was book shopping! (If there is one thing that always cheers me up...) And while I may have gotten a pretty crappy deal selling my books originally, the book store I went to has a policy where they will buy their books back for half price, so as long as I keep going back there, its like I'm buying all my books half price. So I spent a good hour, looking for deals and trying to stretch my funds as far as they would go. Made a decision that I wasn't going to reread anything in Asia, that all of my books for the next year would be ones I haven't read, so that left me free to experiment and ignore the comfort of Terry Pratchett, et all. I ended up with 5 books, figured I would try some new authors. John Updike, Tom Wolfe, Chuck Palahniuk, Wilbur Smith, and Bram Stoker. Already finished 'Rant' by Palahniuk, and am halfway through 'A Month of Sunday's' by Updike. Looks like I will be heading back sometime next week. :)

TPWWLT - T-Pain - 'Buy U A Drank'

PS Want to know how big of a dork I am? I made a spreadsheet on GoogleDocs so I could keep track of all the books I read in Asia so I can buy them when I get home. Title, Author, Page Number, Rating, and Comments. Aiyiyi...

PPS How do we feel about the changes I made? The wider post column and the grass background? Well good, I'm glad you like them because so do I, and I am in charge here.

Vroom Vroom

So Julia and I have been trying to ride a motorbike for a while now. Not on the back like on a taxi, but actually drive one ourselves. We figured the best way to do this was to rent one together and practice in an abandoned lot by ourselves until we were comfortable enough to head out on some roads. Our first excursion was an abject failure. We tried to rent one, but Julia told them we had never driven one before (not that I would have done any different), and they refused to rent it to us. They did however, tell us of a driving school located in another part of town. So with a rough idea where this place was, we set out for the day. Little did we know it would be a day of fruitless searching and people looking at us like we were crazy when we asked for directions (and by ‘we’, I mean Julia, I mostly just stood a distance away and refused to ask for help or directions, b/c I’m a male). Basically we had to try to make people understand that it wasn't an automobile driving school we were looking for, no we wanted a moto driving school, we needed to be shown how to drive something that most Thai’s have been zipping around on since middle school. Needless to say, no one we talked to had ever heard of such a place and we went home empty handed.

So Julia, being the industrious person that she is, took up the offer of the lady who runs the school where she works to teach her how to drive one. So she had a few lessons, and felt reasonably comfortable enough showing me the ropes. I was pretty confident I could figure it out quickly enough, I just had no idea how to even turn one on, much less work it, so I figured if someone could show me the basics, I would be fine. So last Sat we went to the place where Julia lives and rented one from the front desk. We wheeled it out to the street, and while Julia ran up to get her passport for ID, I was sitting on it and started it up. What the heck, right? It can’t be that hard? So I eased into the throttle and took off. Headed straight down a small street that quickly ended in a dead end. Ah, this is easy, I can go straight with the best of them! Turned it around with my feet and figured just one little quick trip around the block before Julia gets back down. And, well, I survived. Took the first turn way too wide, almost hit a parked car, swerved back into oncoming traffic, hit a pot hole, got control of the bike just in time for another turn and shortly ran into another dead end. Turned it around, managed not to hit anything as I brought it back to her place.

We took off with her driving and me on the back, and right away she said it was way harder with the extra weight on it than when she had practiced alone. She was all for taking turns by ourselves on abandoned streets, but after doing that once (and waiting for her to come back while she was doing it once), I was already sick of that. So I told her to hop on and we were off. We took turns driving for a bit and did find a parking lot where we could practice turning, much to the amusement of the by standing Thai’s. (The trick is to accelerate into the turns, and also not to worry about making too sharp a turn, it’s pretty hard to tip it over. Also, it’s much harder to turn right, I think b/c you are bringing your right hand closer to your body, your right elbow is contracting while your left arm is extending, but while your right hand in being brought in close, you still need to cock your wrist to give it gas on the throttle. It feels weird the first few times! Go ahead, try it, I’ll wait. See??) But anyways, I was starting to feel comfortable in the driver’s seat and I could tell the combination of my weight on the back/the busier streets/being responsible for another person was making Julia a little bit more nervous that she would otherwise have been, so I told her I would drive and took over. And it went well, we circled the entire moat, rode on the busiest streets in town and even went and got the Thai version of milkshakes. Which I needed to, b/c not only was my butt killing me from the long ride, but I was exhausted. Just concentrating so hard on not dying really takes its toll after a while. I told her I was spent, drove us back to my guesthouse, where she dropped me off and rode back to her place, making it safe and sound.

We did have one little scrape that I would be remiss if I didn’t tell you about. First of all, traffic on a motorbike sucks. Especially when you are just learning and aren't the easiest on the throttle yet. (‘Throttle?’ Is this the correct word? The gas? The turny-go-thingy? Whatever.) But the Thai motorbike riders don’t sit in traffic, they will drive down between lanes, and between the car and the curb, and just keep moseying ahead while the cars aren’t moving. In the States, this infuriates people to no end, but it’s pretty accepted here, even enough so that the cars will try and stay in a straight line in their lanes to leave room for the moto’s. (Driving a moto was bad enough, God help me if I ever have to drive a car in this country. I get a little nervous seeing one motercyle on the road, I definitely could not handle my car being surrounded by them like a herd of antelope.) Well Julia and I were in agreement that we were just fine with waiting in traffic, we would save the between lanes stuff for another day. But heading on home, I don’t know what it was, but I changed my mind. Maybe it was bc I was tired and want to get home, maybe I was sick of traffic, maybe I was just upset at the looks we were getting from Thai’s as they were wizzing by us. (‘Oh look at those poor farangs, sitting in traffic. Hahahahaha.’ Trust me, that’s exactly what they were saying.) But anyways, I figured it wouldn’t be that hard, I was going straight after all. So I followed my advice of my driving instructor from 9 years ago (‘Keep your eyes forward on where you want to go, if you turn to look to either side, you will instinctively turn that way,’) and I went for it. And it was fine, we did good. There was just one little time where a bus was a little too far over to the curb that we had some trouble. I wasn’t entirely sure I could make it, but by now I have a line of moto’s behind so stopping isn’t exactly an option. I squeezed through and right as I thought I was going to make it, the side of my bike scraped against the curb. My foot shot out and I tried to push myself off the curbs, probably 5 or 6 times. Of course I had released the gas, so we were moving, but my foot pushing us away was our only form of propulsion. After a few seconds, my brain turned back on and I realized that giving it gas was a much better way to get off this curb that my left foot. (Oh yea, don’t forget for a second we are on the left side of the road this whole day. Throw that into the mix.) So I punched it and we finally came off the curb. It was a somber ride back to my guesthouse, but when we finally stopped and got off to have a look, there was barely any mark. Well, there wasn’t any mark that we could distinguish as ours from all the other ones on there, which cheered me up immensely. So overall, a success. Next up: conquering a manual transmission as opposed to an automatic. (Gulp.)

TPWWLT - Drake - 'Forever'

Wasting Away

I have this thing when I see people that I haven't seen for a while where they always ask if I lost weight and tell me I look skinnier. Usually flattering, but I have been the same size since my senior year of high school. Same height, same weight, and while I'm sure some of my high school muscle has flabbed over, I have pretty much the same physiqe. My guess is that people just have a mental image of me that I am a little thicker than I actually am. Which is fine, better than the other way around I guess, I would rather have people think I look skinny when they see me as opposed to wondering when I got fat. Plus I'm ok with people thinking I am jacked when I have worked out twice since senior year of high school. :)

But anyways, the point of the story is that I have been the same size since senior year of high school. 5' 9" 3/4 (I used to say 5'10", but my girlfriend freshman year of HS didn't believe me that I was that tall, so we measured in the lobby one morning before school. Turns out she was correct that I was a quarter of inch short, so I had to promise her that I would never again tell people I was 5'10") and 180 lbs (give or take 5). Well, until the last few weeks that is. It started when I put on jeans to head out for the night, and they were falling off me. Even when I grabbed my belt, I had to go in an extra loop to keep them up. And lately my eating habits have started changing. Three of the last four days, I realized I have only eaten one meal. Usually late afternoon, and I eat a decent amount of food, but that has been my only meal all day. And I've also been way more tired than I should be for the lifestyle I am living. I do a decent amount of walking, going around town to different schools and language centers. I prob average 2.5-3 hours of walking a day, but coming home around dinner time, I have just been exhausted, coming home to nap every day. And with Julia living far away, most nights I'll just hang in my room, reading, plotting my next day and watching movies. But not usually eating.

Anyways, I realized this is not healthy, eating a meal around 3 and not at all the rest of the day. And while its good for my pocketbook, I'm pretty sure there is a direct correlation between my lack of calorie intake and my lack of energy. (Calories = energy, thank you Mr. Dennerlein) And there are plenty of places to get cheap food, it's Thailand, it's like their thing. So I made a concerted effort today to eat as much as I could. I woke up this morning and went and got some snacks from 7/11 (breakfast is really not their thing here). I had a small banana bread and a packet of cookies, and by the end of the cookies I was like forcing them down. I'm pretty sure my stomach has shrunk when I can't finish 12 cookies at noon. I was out running some errands, grabbed a pineapple shake (pineapple and ice, more like a smoothie), couldn't finish it. So I figured I would call out the big guns. Was right down the street from Burger King so after I finished running around, I went in, ignored my lack of hunger (and my wallet) and ordered a Whopper w/ Cheese, fries and a Coke. Pretty much I signaled to the bullpen for America. I put Wait Wait Don't Tell Me on my ipod in attempt to distract myself and trick my stomach into thinking it was hungry. Bite, chew, swallow, repeat. Over and over. Till I looked down and it was gone. I walked home and collapsed into bed, just as tired as usual, and hoping it would just take till tomorrow for these calories to work their magic.

I woke up from my nap, did a little cleaning, downloaded some tunes and messed around online for a while. My friends started waking up, skyped for a bit with one of them, watched Bones online and started writing this blog post. And I was halfway through it when I realized it was 11 pm and I hadn't eaten since Burger King! Gosh darn it. I am literally just not hungry. Luckily I still had half my snacks from this morning, so I forced some pizza bread down. And Burger King alone was more than I had eaten each of the past two days, so I understand why I wouldn't be hungry today if I wasn't then, but its still worrying. Listen, I know that complaining about not being hungry and losing weight is something that very few people want to hear, and that there are millions of people throughout the world who are starving everyday, I get that. But its starting to scare me a little bit as to why I'm not ever hungry. Each of the last three days, I'm pretty sure that if I wouldn't have made it a point to eat, I would have been fine and not noticed it. The fact that my stomach isn't telling me to eat is a good thing I guess, but its just worrying as to why its not. And if I wasn't so tired all the time, I would be more ok with it. Its just weird, and was pretty much the focus of my day today, trying to get myself to eat, so I figured I would write about it. My plan tomorrow is to have 4 meals, finish my snacks when I get up, lunch when I leave, late lunch after walking around, and go back out for dinner, even if I'm not hungry. Hopefully after a day or two of this I will see my energy levels improve. I'll let you know how it goes.

TPWWLT - Emerson, Lake & Palmer - 'Karn Evil 9'

PS - That was way too many words about my eating habits and immediately jumped to the top of the 'Blog Posts I Was Better Off Skipping' List. Haha I just don't understand it! Why am I not hungry? Who knows? Not this guy.