October / Summer Holiday-ing

October is over and my mom just left and now I'm sad. haha I looked forward to October for a really long time and now it's over. Anyways, It's kinda frustrating.

Having my mom here was so fun though! We did lots of stuff and had an itinerary for each day that she was here. It stormed really bad each day, but we managed to do most everything on our "to do" list.

She got in really late on a Friday night so we spent the night in Bangkok and the next day we got up and explored the Chuckachuck (sp?) market, which is the biggest market in Thailand. Supposedly the whole thing is about the size of 7 football fields. We were supposed to go to the Royal Palace after that but it closed for Buddha Day. Mei told me that Buddha Day is a day at the end of rainy season where the head monk isn't allowed to leave the temple, but I'm still really confused.

When we got to Pattaya, my mom just basically wanted to see what I do everyday. We managed to sneak in a Thai massage and a foot massage into our "busy" schedule in just a few days, go to the Jim Thompson (the Thai silk guy) store a few times, and have a banana pancake about every other day. haha We went to the island (Koh Larn- Coral Island) one day, which was great to relax on the beach and swim. We also went out to the Sriracha Tiger Zoo where we saw a crocodile show, tiger show, and elephant show. We also tried crocodile satay! haha It tasted like chicken. haha

The best few days were when we went to Koh Chang (Elephant Island). We stayed on Klong Prao beach where it is quieter, but the first night we went down to White Sand beach to have dinner and wander around some shops. The next morning we went elephant trekking! Elephant trekking was really fun! My mom and I were the only white people in our group, so we got some special privelages- like, I got to climb on the elephants neck to sit! haha It was really fun! Then we laid out all day and went to Bang Bao Bay for dinner and shopping that night! The next morning we went to Klong Plu waterfall, which was beautiful, but kindof scary because it had been raining so much and the rocks were slippery!

On Sunday we went out to eat with Mei, Kung, and Ooii (the principal, vice-principal, and a teacher from school). Then they treated us to the Alcazar show, which was not good. hahahahaha But it was nice of them. Then mom got to come to work with me today which was fun because she got to see what I do! haha

Anyways, it's been a great couple of weeks! Now I've really gotta go figure out what to do tomorrow with my class! haha The copying never seems to get done here... haha

Laos; Jewel of the Mekong

For the two months of being overseas I could not believe that I was here and doing these things. I kept wondering how I got here and why I was here. It's a very strange feeling, but what is even stranger is when you get to the point where you are walking down the street after your morning walk along Beach Road and then stopping at a fruit cart to buy some guava and you think "what else could I possibly be doing right now?" and it becomes normal.

Last week I got to go to Laos with a group of people from Languagecorps and I fell back into the "wow, I can't believe I'm here" stage, which I'm really glad for. It's a fun stage to be in. haha Who would have ever thought that I would go to Laos?? hahaha

About 12-13 (I can't remember, and don't feel like counting, haha) of us took a night train to to the Laos- Thailand border. The night train was an experience in itself. The beds were just lined up along the hallway of the carts and everyone was kinda just together. haha I had the bed on top, which I had a hard time getting in and out of. haha At one point during the middle of the night I fell off my ladder and prayed that nobody saw, but of course Kate just happened to be looking my way at the time. hahaha We spent as much time as possible hanging out in the bar cart until we had to go to sleep and when we woke up we only had a couple more hours until we got to get off. Once we got off, we went through immigration and applied for visas and stuff. Then we took a bus to our first destination- Vientiane.

That first day in Vientiane, a few of wandered around a little bit to explore as soon as we got there. We visited at a really good time because it was the Boat Festival, so there was a lot of festivities and market activity going on. Some of us decided to ride a ferris wheel, and the ride ended up being 30 minutes long because they wouldn't let us off! haha Afterwards everybody went to a nice lunch on the Mekong River. That night we went out to a bar to hang out.

The next morning I got up early to explore on my own. Laos is absolutely and undescribably beautiful. It may be the only landlocked country in southeast Asia but it def has enough waterin it with the Mekong and Namsong. There is a lot of French influence, because it used to be colonized by France, so it feels really quaint and sweet. For breakfast we actually went to a French bakery. Unfortunately, that day we had more traveling to do, which involved a four hour van ride in a 12 seater van. It was extremely cramped and I got stuck in the very back with 3 other girls on a very windy road. Halfway through the ride I was moved because I was carsick. haha Anyways, we reached our destination- Vang Viene and that night we went out to check out the "night life". I'm not much of a night life girl, but the bars here were so fun, because they were all outside and it basically consisted of us hanging out in a bungalow swinging on hammocks next to the river all night while I sipped my mango shake. haha It was extremely fun and I felt like I was in a movie.

The next day was our big excursion of kayaking and caving down the Namsong. We all got in these two person kayaks and just kayaked all day. Along the way there were all these stops and sights to see. We stopped at the Elephant Cave, were a Buddha was and the rocks looked like elephant tusks. We stopped at an organic mulberry farm where I tried a mulberry mojito. We stopped at a place where you climbed a ladder about 40 feet in the air and took a zipline and let go to drop into the river. (I actually did it! I was so proud of myself! haha) And we stopped to swim through this really dark cave in the water. I honestly didn't enjoy that cave too much. haha The water was freezing and it was pitch black and it was really scary and I ran into a lot of rocks in the water leaving a lot of purple spots on me. haha It was cool at the end of that though, because when we got out there were a bunch of pomelo trees and a guy shimmied up the tree to shake the branches and we all grabbed a pomelo and ate them right off the tree. haha

That night we got to experience a festival where people buy boats made of banana leaves, bamboo, and flowers and they light candles on them and float them down the river. The farther the boats float, the more good fortune they bring you. Several of us bought them and took them to the river to float them. It was such an amazing thing to experience and an awesome sight to see when literally everybody in the city is floating their boats down the river.

The next day we woke up really early to drive back to Vientiene. When we got back to Vientiene, the city was crazy. The big Boat Races were that day and the streets were packed. We all kindof did our own thing that day and I went shopping. haha I bought an awesome handicraft Laos bag, which I absolutely love. Then that night we all met up for dinner and to go out again.

Before we had to catch our train on the last day, we finally got a tour of Vientiene. We went to Victory Monument and Buddha Park which was lots of fun and cool. Buddha's everywhere. Then we went to Rick's house where Da made us lunch. Then we had to catch the train back.

Their was absolutely nothing bad about the week and now I keep thinking "wow, I can't believe I did that." hahaha

Fun in the Sun at Bangsaray

This weekend was lots of fun in the sun! haha I'm in a very strange mood right now. haha Forgive me. Well anyways, it is Tim's and Kate's birthday's this week, so some of us decided to go celebrate by going to Bangsaray to lay out in the sun. For those of you who don't know, Tim and Kate were both in the languagecorps class after mine and they just finished training a week ago. Kate is planning on going to Bangkok to teach in a couple weeks and Tim is looking for a job here. Tim is turning 44 and Kate is turning 24, Happy Birthday to them!

Anyways, we hired a songteow to take us to Bangsaray for the day. It was me, Tim, Tim's girlfriend- Khun, Kate, Michael, Michael's girlfriend- A, and Yawn. Bangsaray is a beach that is further away from all the touristy stuff and is more local and isolated, so it was really nice and quiet. We went out there, had lunch, laid out (yay for making American friends who will go out in the sun with me! haha) and went swimming. It was wonderful. Afterwards, we went to Tim's house that he is trying to sell to swim in the pool.

Me and Kate
(From left to right) Yawn, Kate, Me, Michael, A, and Khun

The day was wonderful and exhausting and it got me totally pumped up for the next few weeks! This week is the last week of term at school for the kdis before their two weeks of summer break or summer school starts, so this week at school should be lots of fun, because I planned a lot of games and art projects. hahaha Then we are leaving for Laos on either Friday or Saturday (which I'm SO EXCITED for) and then my mom comes (SO EXCITED for) and we are going to spend a night in Bangkok and go to Koh Chang and do lots of sightseeing in Pattaya!!!

Get excited for October.

The Big Biking Accident

I have made a reputation for myself here. It's called being accident prone. haha It's much like my reputation at home.

I rode my bike to school on Monday. It was a nice day for riding the bike, because it had rained the day before and the sun was coming out, so it wasn't unbearably hot and it was dry outside. I had just turned a corner from a back road onto a larger main road. The street goes slightly uphill, so I was giving it my all and pedaling really fast (plus I was running behind schedule and I was afraid that I was going to be late.) At that moment, my pedal decided to remove itself from my bike.

The pedal just fell off.

I flew through the air doing a somersault (which I'm hoping was graceful, because my fall certainly wasn't) and my bike also flew through the air behind me doing a somersault. I landed where your head meets your neck and fell with a thud on my back and my bike decided to land on top me.

Luckily, I had some adrenaline and I got up quickly before I was run over and a very nice Thai man got off his motorbike to help me hobble to the sidewalk and to fetch my pedal and other belongings from the middle of the road (how they got all the way to the middle of the road, I have no idea...)

The nice Thai man managed to tell me that I was badly hurt and that I could not ride my pedal-less bike. Unfortunately, I already knew these things and the information that he obviously worked very hard at finding the words for did not help me at all. hahaha

I called Mei and she sent Eric with the Kindergarten bus to pick me and my bike up. As I waited, I realized that I was bleeding quite a lot and it was quite possible that I might finally get to go to Bangkok- but that would be to go to the hospital. haha Eric picked me up and we drove to the school where 5 of the teachers left what they were doing to help me lay down and bandage me. haha I have cuts up and down both legs and my back, the skin of my right knee cap is no more, and I am black and blue all over. My leg was swollen for a couple days but is much better now. What concerns me most is the fact that I hit my head so hard and how three days later I'm still taking painkillers every few hours for it. I've talked to a few people about it and they think it is just whiplash and I really hope they are right, because I would rather not deal with anything more severe. haha My knee cap has managed to get infected but Mei had antibiotic cream, thank goodness. Basically, I'm a mess because of the damn bike.

Someone at the school fixed it. I don't know why. haha I'm not sure if I'll ever ride it again. I can't decide. Maybe I'll sell it.

I'll keep my pink helmet though. I love that.