Happy Mother's Day!

Miss you mom! Hope you have a great day!

Love Bub

PS Thanks to JP, Wes and some of my freshman year college buddies for help with the pic.

Wanna Be a Balla

Haha April Fools! I crack myself up. On a serious note, I am not joining a monastery nor am I coming home, I actually have a part time job and have my first day tomorrow! Just one 2 hour class (more work on Sun), but its exciting to have some legit teaching to do! Some interesting stories about my new boss and her family (her name is Suda, she is 54 and a Muslim Thai and she is the sweetest lady ever ) but I will get to those some other time.

Guess what I did today? Played some basketball! Lex, Adam and I went over to the courts at CMU (Chiang Mai University) to try and get some exercise. I don't have any basketball shoes, so I had to wear my nice Pumas, the ball was way too bouncy, the courts were slippery....and it was glorious. We shot around for a little bit, and then some Thai kids in the next court over asked if we wanted to play 3 on 3. Now the tallest one of them was about 5'4", and they were all in flip flops. And they were 15. So you can imagine my chagrin when we find ourselves down 6-1. But we battle back, end up going up 10-8. The typical pickup game will last to 11, so I stop the game to ask what we are playing up to, (how many points you need to win) a feat made all the more difficult across languages. We can say numbers, so keeping score isn't too hard, but trying to convey the question of when we were stopping was a little more difficult. And I will freely admit that I was exhausted at this point, and really really hoping we are playing to 11. So we get the point across, we all stand there looking each other, and I figure, its their home court, we are in Thailand, I don't know what the culture is, I'll let them call it. And out of nowhere, Adam chimes in and says, 'Yee sip et?' What?? 21???

To my utter dismay, they quickly agree. Honestly I don't really remember the rest of the game, it was mostly just constant repetition of trying to chase around these 15 year old Thai kids, who all apparently had limitless energy. (They also had a sub, which was bogus.) I was bent over wheezing at every stopped ball, and would just gather my strength to try one of every 5 plays. A kid knocked the ball away from me and when I jogged to go get it, I thought I was going to die. I don't remember ever being that exhausted before in my life. Anyways, we pull out the win, and stumble over to the sidelines to grab some water and sit down. After a long (long) rest, we climbed on their moto to head and get some ice cream. Ah, the spoils of victory.

Spent the rest of the day with them, grabbed some dinner and took a dip in their pool, (which might have been even better than the ice cream...well almost. But swimming after playing basketball in 103 deg weather is pretty much a necessity.) and watched the ends of Iron Man and Spider-Man 2. (Why do you think the first superhero name is broken into 2 words, but the second name is separated by a hyphen? And what about the names that are all one word? You have Batman and Superman, but then also Spider-Man and Iron Man...why isn't it Ironman? These are the things that keep me up at night.) And as I lay here in bed exhausted and sore, and as my feet are howling at me right now, I feel physically better than I have in a long time. Something about getting to play basketball after such a long hiatus just makes you feel good. Maybe its competing, maybe its knowing I was doing positive things for my body today (sans ice cream), maybe its the endorphins still kicking in, or maybe its just the fact I didn't die today on the court...whatever it is, it was was a good day. :) Though I'm exhausted and teach my first class in 13.5 hours, so I need some sleep! Take care everyone!

TPWWLT - Chingy - 'Balla Baby'

PS - I got a fridge today! They have been redoing all these rooms in my guesthouse (that construction and my feelings towards it could fill a post all by themselves), and as I'm walking out today, I see the main bossman and another guy carrying a fridge up the stairs. I jokingly ask him when I'm getting one, and he stops and uses his eyes to point to the one in his hand, asking if I wanted the one they were carrying that had been previously destined for another room. At first I though he was kidding, but when I realized he is being serious, I readily accept and bound upstairs to unlock my door for them. We get it situated, plug it in, I leave it to cool down as I head out for the courts. Grab a water on my way home tonight, drink a bit, and throw it in my fridge as I walk through my door. Guess who is having cold water tomorrow when he wakes up?? This guy!

(I mean, its the little things right. Call me crazy, but even I can laugh at myself when the highlights of my day are being short 15 year olds in basketball and waking up to cold water instead of room temperature water. :) )

Big News

Ok so I haven't written for a while, but its because I have been trying to take some time to decide where I'm at right now in my life. Work has been frustratingly slow in coming, I have a few friendships blossoming but I still spend way too much time alone, and its killing me slowly knowing that every time I eat, I am spending money without having any come in, and slowing watching my bank account dwindle down to nothing like the Chinese water torture of finance. I am loath to go home (not that it doesn't cross my mind 7000 times a day) because that would be admitting defeat, and more practically, would put me right back where I am now, i.e. looking for work. Continuing on like this is wearing me out and making me question my mental state. And in both instances, both choices seem to leave me without what I came here for...some sort of answers. Some sort of reason and justification and purpose and insight into the great questions of life, like why are we here, what is love, and why does your back always itch in that one place you can't reach to scratch it?

So, what am I getting at? Recently another option in this great game of life was made known to me. I have never been a very religious person. Raised a Catholic, I have always had too much mind and too little faith, and let my questions get in the way of practicing and believing. But in the last few months, I have become more and more exposed to the ideas of Buddhism, and the Eightfold Path. I have long believed that answers to my questions, that 'inner peace' as it is so poetically put, would be found within myself. And that the things that can make me truly happy would come from within, from my own moral values and my own inner contentment. Maybe it was my stubborn independence or pig headed arrogance, but even the Christian doctrine of 'trusting in God' seemed too easy to me. To just entrust my life to someone else, even a higher power, seemed to be taking the easy way out, and I am convinced that true happiness lies along the hard road of figuring it out for yourself. And I think that's what has always appealed to me about Buddhism, is that it is more of a set of principles to live by than a specific doctrine of what to believe. By following these principles, and through meditation and thought, it is possible to achieve nirvana or inner peace.

Anyways, I'm putting off what it is I have to tell everyone. (I'm strangely really nervous right now.) Well, here it is: I've decided to take the vows at a monastery and become a monk. Taking myself out of my comfort zone and coming to Thailand was a start, but I think I've realized that its not enough and I'll never find what I'm looking for this way. I am still too connected. I still spend too much time online, and eating at McDonalds and following american sports and politics. I need to leave that all behind and fully commit myself to self realization. And I truly think this is going to help me do that. OK, so what does this mean? Well, first of all its a three year commitment to become a full monk. The temple master I have been speaking too stresses that this is merely the most basic of guidelines and that its different for everyone. Some take longer, a few shorter, but its only when you are your abbot decide you are ready that you become fully robed. He also says that a decent portion of monks choose to remain in the monastery for the majority of their lives. While I don't plan on this, I can't discount it happening if it seems like the right thing for me. And if don't, I will only be 27 or 28 when I am finished, and will hopefully have a true sense of what I am doing in life and what makes me happy. I'm not allow to speak or make any audible sounds for the first 2 months, and I am allowed no contact with anyone outside of the monastery for the first year or so. I give them the contact info for my next of kin, and they will let my mom and dad know if anything happens. Though I live in the monastery, I spend my time studying (for me, both the precepts of Buddhism and Thai), meditating, and performing simple manual labor, so the chance of anything happening is pretty low. But yea, I won't be able to communicate with anyone for a year, which is the biggest reason I wouldn't do this. But I have been thinking about it so much, that bottom line, I need to do whats right for me, and I am almost convinced this is it.

I still have two weeks till I head to the monastery - its up in the mountains, absolutely beautiful - so I can still talk until then and use that time to get my affairs in order. I know pretty much no one is going to understand or support this decision, but like I said, I'm channeling my inner Ayn Rand and doing what's best for me. Hopefully I'll have a chance to talk to everyone I would like to in the next two weeks. Hope everyone is doing well.

TPWWLT - Trick Daddy - 'Let's Go'

PS April Fools :)

Insert Clever Title Here

Life is good...its reasonably cool here, only supposed to get up to 92 today! (104 the other day) This morning was beautiful, slightly overcast and with a nice breeze. Great to be walking around staying out of the sun for a little bit. The day usually starts off kinda cool, and gets hotter and hotter as the day goes on, which is also what usually happens in my room. By dinnertime, its as hot in my room as it outside, and even though it cools down at night, I can't open either of my doors because the mosquitoes will flock inside. So its still pretty warm when I get to bed, but usually has cooled off a little by the time I wake up. And I'll usually stumble out of bed, open my balcony door to let some cool air in and then go back to sleep. But supposedly it gets hotter in April, so I'll keep you updated. :)

Went bowling the other night, it was pretty excellent and the first time I had been since high school. Had a bad first half of the first game due to rust, and a bad 2nd half of the 3rd game due to fatigue and rapidly dwindling lack of interest, but the rest I actually did OK. Bowled a 146 in the 2nd game, I didn't know I had it in me! But it was fun, they had galaxy bowling going on, so the place was dark and everything was in neon. Interesting experience throwing glowing bowling balls while listening to American pop music in the middle of Thailand. But lots of fun. (Though it was a struggle to refrain from yelling Big Lebowski quotes the entire time... "Over the line!") Also, the bowling alley was on the top floor of this big mall, and since we went around 9, the mall was shut down, which lead to a little exploration to find this place. I was walking with my friends Lex and Adam, and we made our way through a maze of dark hallways and run down rooms, only to come upon a modern looking bowling alley in the middle of nowhere. They also had an ice arena up there, and though there wasn't ice on it at the moment, we all agreed that once they do, we are heading up there to just lay down on the ice for a little slice of home. Also, while I wear dark socks and nice shoes for all things work related, bowling was the first time I had put on a pair of white socks since I've been here. And yes this means I have not participated in any sort of working out or cardio activity since I've been here. Though Lex said she saw a bball court with people on it, so hopefully I will finally get to play some basketball. I have seen a few courts around here, but never anyone playing on them, so hopefully soon. And Lex played so she said we could at least go shoot around if we can't find any games.)

Overall, life is good. It's weird the things I miss. I ran out of qtips the other day and it was driving me crazy! How am I supposed to dry and clean my ears after my shower? I have been doing it for so many years that suddenly when you can't, its kind of shocking. But my dad is sending me some soon, so I just have to hold out a little longer. Just weird that I can't find something like that here ya know? OK, I'm in a rambling mood, so I'm going to stop myself before I get into my workout regimen with my TV (not watching, using as a weight), my mutual understanding with the geckos, or my jobs doing manual labor for the family that owns my guesthouse. Those will have to wait for another day!

TPWWLT - MGMT - 'Kids'

Laos Pictures!

A nice mix of most of the stuff we saw. Sorry I got a little statue crazy, but they were pretty fascinating. Click the link below and enjoy!

Laos Pictures

Laos Rider

Part 4 - The Visa

OK, so what about the Visa (capital 'V'), the reason we went to Laos in the first place? Well, Tuesday morning we woke up early, walked across the street and got in line outside the Thai embassy around 7:00 am. We were probably about 50th in line, and it was interesting seeing the businesses that had sprouted up specifically catering to visa applicants. We came prepared with pictures, and our guesthouse owner gave us some application forms as we were walking out the door, so we were pretty much set. But picture taking and developing, forms, help filling out forms, people to wait in line for you, snacks...all available for all those waiting in line watching the sun come up. We were probably about 50th in line, but with people cutting and sliding in right when the doors opened at 8:30, we ended up being 115 and 116th in line. They gave us little plastic cards with our numbers on them as we walked in, and we grabbed a seat. They called up about ten people at a time and after about an hour they got to us. We walked up, turned in our passport, our application forms, two pictures and copies of everything. Got a receipt and were out of there by 9:30 to head back to sleep. It was really a very well run process.

Well, for as well run as the morning handing-in process was, the afternoon picking-up process was just the opposite. We had to wait till the following day to come pick up our passports. They opened the gate at 1, so we figured we would head over there around noon to get in line. We were much closer to the front than we had been in the morning, probably about 20th in line. However, it was also the middle of the day and we were standing in the sun in 105 degree weather, so it was much more miserable. When the gates finally opened, instead of an orderly line and numbered cards like the previous morning, there was a mad rush to get in, mostly from people who had just strolled up. When you have been standing in line in the hot sun for an hour and three German dudes stroll right up and butt in front of you, I will admit there was some anger that started to rise. And when we all moved en mass towards the building where we needed to get inside to pick them up, and we are bunched on the steps to get inside, and people are pushing from behind despite the fact there was nowhere to go, and the guy who worked there just kept screaming at us to form two lines when no one was moving, and I estimated that I was probably 150th in line...well, thats when I sought help. I pulled out my ipod, turned on Jim Gaffigan and let the dulcet sounds of Hooooot Pocket calm me down.

Anyways, I'm slowing inching up to the front of the line. It gets to the person two ahead of me, and as he gets his passport back, he eagerly flips it open to see if he got the double entry visa. I can see from the disappointed look that flashes on his face that he was denied. Like we talked about in the first Laos post, the double entry visa means I have 6 months in Thailand instead of just 3. It means I can wait 180 days till I have to do this again, instead of just 90. It will cut my expenses and my necessary traveling and overnight bus rides in half. No one really understands why some people get a double entry and some only get a single. It is merely up to the whims of the Embassy staff on that particular day. Some people advise going on certain days, or certain times of the month, or writing certain things on your application...but no one is really sure. So after an hour in the blazing head, another hour fuming over all the people who cut in front of me and the people elbowing me from behind, I step up to the window, hand the lady my receipt and wait patiently as she searches for my passport. She finally spots it, hands it back without acknowledging my smile or thanks, and I step away from the window. I frantically page through looking for my visa...my eyes find it and track quickly across to the correct box...'Number of Entries'....2!!! YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS! Success! All the anger and annoyance of the last three hours vanishes in a puff of happiness. I find Julia, see that she got the double entry as well, and we happily begin the journey home. Until next time Laos...

(Though on 2nd though, maybe I'll try Hanoi...I mean how many people can say they spent a weekend in Vietnam? :) )

TPWWLT - Frank Sinatra - 'My Way'

PS - Stayed at my place for another month. It's good though, everyone around here knows me by now so I don't even have to order when I go to certain places, I just show up! But you can still send me stuff if you would like. I would, as they say, not be mad.

How Laos Can You Go?

Part 3 - The City

This post will be a little different than the first two. We saw enough in our two days walking around that going through everything I saw would make this post even longer than the 9000 words I usually type. Plus, I wanted to tell you about the visa and the journey so you could kind of understand both the complexity of the former and the monotony/asininity of the latter. I think both show an insight into the visa process in particular and the culture of SE Asia in general. Whereas today I just want to give you some of my base impressions of Vientiane and Laos. (Also, over the course of the trip, I thought like 7 times that I needed a notebook to jot something down. I would see something and immediately think of how it would be interesting a blog post and how I could write about it. I think I need more followers to have an attitude like that. Like...100,000 more. :) )

The capital of Laos in the city of Vientiane, located along the mighty Mekong river. Julia told me that it was called 'the largest village in Asia' and the nickname seemed pretty appropriate. A sleepy town, where most things seemed to be closed by 11 and certainly none of of the high rises of Bangkok, or even the 20 story hotel's or apartment buildings of Chiang Mai. A more touristy area along the river, about a 30 min walk from the embassy and where we were staying. Most of the guesthouses and restaurants were located around here, and there was even a little market set up at night.

The first night we were walking through a wide park admiring what the locals call the Patuxay, a huge monument resembling the Arc de Triumph. It was actually built to celebrate independence from France, so it was slightly ironic they modeled it after one of Paris's most famous landmarks. (Examples of French colonization can be seen all over, from the aritechure to the food to many of the important signs (inc all street signs) being in both Lao and French.) But we are walking towards the Patuxay and I look over to my right to see a big government building...and notice the red and yellow hammer and sickle flag of the USSR. Wait a second, Laos is communist?

I mean, disregarding the fact that my world knowledge is severely lacking and ignoring my complete and utter lack of research about a country I was going to be in for 3 days, I am actually kind of excited. I'm in a communist country! And to be honest with you, aside from the flag (which, get with it Laos, there isn't even a USSR anymore), there really wasn't any indication that the country was very communist. I didn't have to recite a loyalty oath when I entered the country, and people weren't lined up at the local collective to receive their share of the fruits of production. About the only place it really became apparent was in the museum.

Being the capital, one of the things located in the city was the National History Museum. Julia and I headed over there and entered a seemly deserted building and began to look around. After skipping quickly through the clay pots and arrowheads of early peoples of Laos, I began to get to the last few centuries of the country, depicting everything from French colonization up to present time, including multiple rooms depicting the struggle against 'U.S. Imperialists', a phrase I would see quite often. Most of these rooms were filled with pictures, captioned in three languages, Laos, French and English, though a few of the later rooms also contained guns and bombs used in the conflict. During the next hour, I was dumbfounded at the things I hadn't known about historical U.S.-Laos 'relations.' I learned Laos is the most bombed country in the history of the world, and that a majority of those bombs were dropped by us in the Vietnam War. I saw over and over again pictures of Laos leaders (always called 'comrade so and so') 'inspiring troops to fight against the U.S. Imperialists.' I saw some of the recovered bombs we had dropped on this country, and some of the guns those very same future communist leaders had used to kill Americans. I mean, I am not trying to comment on the necessity or wisdom of our actions during Vietnam, but it was just bizarre to be standing here reading all of these things, with a copy of my U.S. Passport in my pocket, looking around wondering if someone is going to jump out of the walls and tackle me for the 2,000,000 TONS of bombs my country dropped in theirs. We dropped more bombs on Laos than all of the bombs in WWII put together! And yet, here I am, strolling the museum without a care in the world. Just a bizarre experience.

The rest of the city was also pretty cool. We hopped on a local bus to head out to a place called Buddha Park, where a local rich guy had collected all these crazy stone statues of Buddha and other crazy things and just put them all in a park. We had to ride on a local bus to get out there...which was awesome, being the only white people on the bus, having no idea where to get off or how far it was, and just getting to watch the local people interact with each other. Very cool. We made it out there, and the park was amazing. They had the biggest sleeping Buddha I have ever seen (my favorite of all the Buddha's, obviously.) They also had this huge 5 story orb cut out of stone, that you could go inside and they had a center chamber in each level filled with these messed up statues and it was like pitch black in there and you could climb up on the roof of it and overlook the whole park. It was pretty awesome, mostly because you could climb on the roof. We meandered around the park for a bit, then headed back out to the road to wait for another bus. Well, we didn't quite know what the deal was, so we crossed the street to wait for the return bus, assuming it was a 'there and back' bus route. Unfortunately, it turned out it was a big loop route, so when we saw a bus fly by in the opposite direction, little did we realize that not only was it the bus we wanted, but it was the last one of the night. We wouldn't even have known this if some people who were checking out the park with us hadn't decided to roll down their window and ask where we were headed as they were driving away. It ended up being two girls from New Zealand visiting their relatives, and not only did they inform us that the buses were done, but they offered to give us a ride to Friendship Bridge where it would be a lot easier to catch a ride than on the side of the two lane highway on which we were currently standing. They were very nice, and although I'm sure we could have found a tuk tuk (eventually...I think) for the 45 min ride back into the capital, they saved us a lot of money and trouble by giving us that ride. So thank you family, wherever you are.

We also saw some cool temples and other things of that nature, which were cool and beautiful and cultural and which I will link to some pictures soon because I can't really do them justice with my words alone. (Also, it would be so American to me to say they looked very similar to many of the Wats I have seen and become used to here in Thailand, so I won't say it.) The morning of the day we left, we did check out Pah That Luang, the national symbol of Laos. It was a huge golden minaret type structure surrounded by many other smaller golden points. It was unique in being known more for its cultural than religious significance, though there was a definite religious aspect to it as well. Although being there for 3 days was hardly enough time to see everything, I felt like I got a decent sense of the city and enjoyed it. It was much less touristy than Chiang Mai, and also just had a more relaxed feel. Less to do, stuff closed earlier, but still an interesting mix of religion and politics, of Asian and French culture, of tradition and tourism. And like I said multiple times while I was there, I got to spend a weekend in Laos, how many people can say they have done that? :)

TPWWLT - New Found Glory - 'Something I Call Personality'

PS - I am not addressing my failure of the blog the last two weeks, other to say that I am good, not injured or sick or anything, and that I had about 3/4 of this post written the night after my last post, so I had to finish it before some more recent updates.

PPS - Instead of 'Laos' rhyming with 'mouse', the locals pronounce its as rhyming with 'now.' (Like 'Lau.') That might make some of the post titles and my weak puns and exchanging 'Laos' and 'low' a little more understandable to some of you.

Yah!

I apologize to those looking for Part 3 of my journey to Laos...the hours I had scheduled this afternoon to work on it were interrupted by an attack of new bugs. The last few days I had begin to suspect that I had either acquired a new species of ants, or brought them back somehow from Laos. The previous ones would only show up when I had food, they would make a straight line towards it and I could usually trace the trail of them all of way from their getaway in the corner of the room towards whatever delicious morsel I had left out. If I removed the food, I would try and sweep along their line of advance to kill as many as I could, but the rest would be left to their devices and would shortly disappear to wherever they had come from. But these new guys, besides the fact that they were smaller, darker and faster, just don't really leave. I can usually spot a few of them on the ground if I look hard enough, and they aren't going anywhere, just sort of meandering around.

And then today, I'm laying in bed reading, when a bug lands on me. My focus broken from my book, I look up and notice 50 or so insects hovering around my light. Where they came from, what they are, I have no idea. Are they connected to the ants, did they suddenly evolve and grow wings like those bugs in the Smoothie King used to? I don't know. They are way bigger than the ants, so I don't think its likely, but I'm no entomologist. What I do know is that I spent the next 2 hours trying to kill them all, not to mention the crawly bugs that were either them before they had wings or them after their wings fell off. Or at least I hope thats what they are, otherwise I have THREE new insect species suddenly popping up in my room.

Either way, the few hours I spent killing them means I'm tired, cranky, and in no mood to wax poetically about Laos the way it deserves. So I'm going to do one last sweep of my room to make sure I've gotten all the buggers, and get some sleep. Everyone enjoy your Sunday and the Oscars.

TPWWLT - Bob Dylan - 'Like A Rolling Stone'

Bummer

Woke up today to find ants on my toothbrush. Not sure why they decided to suddenly check it out today, its not like it hasn't been in the same spot the last few months. Oh well, good thing I have spares.

The Laos Down

Part 2 - The Journey

The distance between Chiang Mai and Vientiane is 252 miles. To put that in perspective, the distance between Chicago and Detroit is around 270 miles. And while that trip can be done in around 4 hours, (to be fair, since we were riding on public transportation the whole time, we should use the bus time of about 6 hours) the trip we took was just a bit longer. The first leg was an overnight bus ride from Chiang Mai to a town called Udonthani, still located in Thailand but much closer to its eastern border it shares with Laos. Considering Julia and I spent most of Sunday Googling info about the trip and trying to glean as much info as we could from various travel blogs, we arrived at the bus station Sunday evening around 6, not really sure what to expect, nor even sure if they would have tickets still available. For about 12 dollars, we ended up getting tickets on the 2nd class bus, or the lowest possible grade, as the nicer ones we already sold out. It was your average coach bus, packed tight with uncomfortable seats and lack of amenities. It left at 7, so we quickly grabbed some food and hopped on.

For anyone who has ever traveled on an overnight bus, its not very fun. I understand the appeal, and the idea of saving a night spent on a hostel or guesthouse somewhere, I really do. We did it many times in Australia on spring break. But that doesn't mean I like it. For someone who values sleep as much as I do, trying to grab all that I need while reclining at a 135 deg angle is enough to make me quite grumpy. We seemed to stop every 45 min to pick up or drop off a single person in some nameless town in the Thai countryside, every stop requiring all the lights to be turned on. Mostly it was a blur of tossing and turning, shivering, and the dulcet tones of Frank I had playing over my ipod to lull me to sleep. I did remember how cold the trip up from Pattaya was, so I came prepared with a hoodie and socks. However, I failed to account for the aircon blowing cold air straight down the center aisle of the bus, and ended up with a tshirt wrapped around my legs, my feet sticking out of the sleeves as I tried to keep the waist tucked under my knees so it wouldn't fall down while I was sleeping. I prob grabbed a total of 3 hours of sleep, but like all things, it eventually ended, and we pulled into our destination just as the sun was peeking over the Thai horizon, 12 hours and 3 minutes after we left Chiang Mai.

We quickly hopped on another bus and spent an hour on it traveling to a town right up against the border. On this one Julia and I had noticed a pair of guys, one farang and one Asian, who we were thinking were heading to Laos for the same reason we were. When we ended up in the same ticket line trying to buy a bus ticket for Laos that they wouldn't let us buy because we didn't have a Laos visa yet, we introduced ourselves and asked them what their plans were, mostly because we didn't have much of a clue what do next. There names were Aiden and Goldie, a Brit and a Filipino, who were also teachers in Thailand and has been living there for years. They were very friendly and we tagged along with them for the rest of the trip. They showed us how to make copies of our documents where it was cheap, and negotiated the price for the tuk tuk to the border.

The biggest border crossing between Laos and Thailand is the Lao-Thai Friendship Bridge. Now I haven't been to many international borders, but it seemed it a bit superfluous to me. You can't take a bus directly to the border, only the bus station a few miles away, where you can hire a tuk tuk to take you to the border. You depart Thailand, standing in line and heading through the immigration stations where they check to make sure you haven't overstayed your alloted time on your passport, and stamp you out of the country. (Because of mix-up of his work visa and some miscommunication with the local immigration officer, Aiden actually hadn't been getting his visa renewed like he thought he had been, and had technically been in the country illegally since last June. This means two things. First, if he had been stopped by the police for any reason, even a cursory inspection, one glance at his passport and they could have deported him immediately for being in the country illegally. Second, because of the 219 day overstay, he ended up with a fine of 20,000 bhat, or around $600 bucks. Ouch. Though they still gave him a visa at the embassy and let him back in the country two days later, so I guess they didn't think it was that big of a deal. But it just goes to show how important this stuff is. And also how its tough to plan for everything, and even to know what the proper thing to do is all the time with this stuff. Both his school and the local immigration office said he was fine and not to worry about it, but that didn't mean much to the officers at the border. This isn't a country where he could get them to call whoever at his local office and work it out. They don't really care, its pay the fine or say hello to you cell.) But anyways, once you pass out of Thailand, you can't walk across the bridge, you have to buy a ticket to take a bus across. You are on it for about 90 seconds, crossing the mighty Mekong river, the geographical divide between the eastern edge of Thailand and the western edge of Laos. Here they let us off, and we fill out the usual paperwork for entering a country, hand over our passport and 1500 bhat ($45 bucks, by far our biggest expense of the trip, and something that would only have been $35 if we paid in American, but we couldn't find anyone who would give us American dollars before we left...woo Asia. :) ) and wait 15 minutes to get our passports back. Boom, they call my name, I have a stamp that allows me to be in Laos for 30 days, and I walk into the newest country on my list.

We split an airconditioned minvan with Aiden and Goldie for the 45 minute ride to the capital. We are pretty sure it was a holiday and that the embassy is closed but seeing as we don't have a place to stay, we figure we will get dropped off there, see where it is, and just try and find a place within walking distance, making getting there in the morning a little easier. We hop out, and the embassy is indeed closed, so we pick a random direction and start walking. Aiden and Goldie know of a place not too far away, but Julia and I decide its a little out of our budget so we keep looking. After 45 min of walking around in the blistering noonday heat, not even really sure where we are on the map, we finally get tired of snapping at each other and decide to just head back to the place where they guys are staying. As our luck would have it, we stumble past a tiny little place located literally a stones throw from the embassy that we had missed in the very beginning of our search because (of course) we were on the opposite side of the street. It is pretty much perfect for us, a large, cheap fan room with two big double beds. We gratefully throw our stuff down and collapse into our respective beds.

So to overview, it had been 17 hours since we had left Chiang Mai, a scant 242 miles away. For those keeping track at home, it looked something like this: tuk tuk to bus station, 12 hour bus ride, hour long bus ride, 10 min tuk tuk ride to border, leave Thailand, 90 second ride across Friendship Bridge, enter Laos, 45 min van taxi ride to Vientiane. The time different was spent among waiting in line to leave Thailand, waiting in line to get in Laos, and of course that hour walking around in circles looking for a place to stay. But we are there! And we cant wait to explore the city! Right after a nap.

Coming tomorrow: Part 3 - The City

TPWWLT - Blink 182 - 'Wendy Clear'

Getting Laos

There And Back Again: A Farang's Tale

by Michael Keefer

Part 1 - The Motivation

Growing up as an American, I gave little thought to such things as passports, border crossings, travel visas and the like. I mean in the back of mind somewhere, I knew that these things existed and people weren't allowed to move countries and live wherever they liked, but it hardly seemed important enough to go find out about myself. And sure, when I went to Europe senior year of high school, I applied for my passport, and remember being excited at the half dozen stamps my two country visit resulted in - look at me, world traveler at 18, aren't I cultured? And when I went to Australia to study for a semester, I had to apply for a student visa, but that was done simply, in an hour online. I printed out the result, gave it to the immigration officer in the Sydney airport and never thought twice about it.

The average person entering into Thailand will get a 15 stamp on their passport. You pay a little bit, they let you in, and you have 15 days to do whatever. If you really love your time here, you can spend a day at an immigration office and get an extension for 10 more days, but after that you need to leave the country. Now, this is used mostly just for travelers and people passing through for a few weeks. If you are planning on staying longer, you can go to the Thai embassy in your country of choice and apply for a longer term visa, much more permanent than just a stamp in your passport, with a date you need to leave by. The most basic of these is the tourist visa. This is what we did in Cambodia before we came. Early in the morning one day, LanguageCorps picked up the 4 of us who were going to Thailand and brought us to the Thai Embassy. There we filled out a form, checked the 'tourist visa' box and handed that in along with 2 photos and our passport. We got a receipt, and the next day we got our passports back, complete with a Visa sticker for our tourist visas. We we crossed over into Thailand from Cambodia, since we already had a tourist visa, we got a stamp saying we could stay in the country for 60 days, instead of the 15 we would have gotten if we just tried to come into the country without a visa. (And at the end of that 60 days, we could go to an immigration office to get extended another 30 days, like I detailed in an earlier post.) But bottom line, even with this 60 day tourist visa and 30 day extension, there is going to come a time when you need to leave the country.

So what does someone like me, who wants to stay in this country for a while, do? Well, you go on what is affectionately called a 'visa run' by the many other people like mean in the same predicament. Thailand isn't too picky, they just want you to leave every little while so they can keep track of you, but they don't mind if you come right back in. So we have two options. The first is just to drive to the border, cross it, wait like an hour and turn back around and come in. The pro's of this are that its easier, less time consuming and cheaper. The con is that it only gets you 15 days and you would have to do it all over again in two weeks. It used to be 30 days, and it made a little more sense taking a day to run to the border once a month, but every two weeks is kind of ridiculous. So the second option is to take a longer trip to the capital of a surrounding country, and go through the application process that we went through in Cambodia, filling out a form and leaving our passports overnight. The pro of this is that it gets you a much longer amount of time in the country. The cons are that its more expensive, longer (3.5 days vs 1) and you are dealing with more complicated border crossings, not to mention the bureaucracy of the Thai embassy. (One other huge positive is that you might be able to get a double entry tourist visa. That would mean the same thing for the first 3 months, 60 days + 30 day extension, but at the end of that, we would just need to run to the border, go out and come back in, and we would get a second 3 months by only doing a day trip to the border and not a 4 day trip to another capital. Confusing I know, but just trust me when I say the double entry tourist visa is gold among the farangs here in Thailand.)

So with our first 90 days in Thailand coming to an end, Julia and I knew we needed to do something. So we crunched the numbers, looked at all the angles, and figured a trip to the Lao capital of Vientiane was prob the best bet. So last Sunday night we caught a taxi to the bus station and hopped on a bus heading off to meet our destiny...

Coming tomorrow: Part 2 - The Journey.

TPWWLT - Frank Sinatra - I Won't Dance

PS - No more boring visa talk in the rest of the Laos posts, I promise.

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.