Wise Words from Dr. Seuss

"Simple it's not, I'm afraid you will find, for a mind-maker-upper to make up his mind."

Dr. Seuss just summed up my entire life with that statement. hahahahaha How great is that? hahahaha

I have had a very trying past couple of weeks. I am just very unhappy in Pattaya and one day it occurred to me that I could easily fix this by simply moving. Now the problem is is that I don't know if it's worth it. I tried making pro and con lists and blah blah blah, but I just have no idea. I'm tired of not having friends around to call or just hang out with or of not being able to walk down the street without being harassed. It's very frustrating. It is November 30th though, and December is a choppy month with a lot of traveling involved and then I only have to make it until the middle of March before I begin my great backpacking adventure- where I can make my "residence" Bangkok... If anybody has any thoughts or advice, I'd really appreciate it because I'm really terrible at making decisions.

I wasn't looking forward to this weekend very much because I had absolutely no plans and everybody was off doing other things, but it has been a very good weekend of rest for me. I have basically slept ALL weekend. haha For some really strange reason sleep slipped on my priority list and it got me all off and weird, but now I'm back to normal and I feel like myself again. hahahaha It's fabulous. I've missed me. hahaha Then in a rush of panic I realized yesterday that I had a three day weekend coming up and nothing to do, soooo... I decided to take a vacation! haha I'm planning to go to Koh Samet for the weekend. Hopefully it works out. It'll be my first real trip by myself, so we'll see how it goes. hahaha I'm a little bit nervous. hahaha It'll be great though, cause then when I get back I will only have two days of work and then it's Constitution Day- off from work, take the GRE in Bangkok on Thursday... and I figure I'll just stay in Bangkok for the rest of the week and forget about work on Friday. hahahaha Mai bpen rai. hahaha I should prolly see if I have a place to stay, but I'll worry about that later. haha

On a side note- I tried a new fruit the other day. hahaha It was a custard apple (noinaa). It looks like an artichoke and you peel the little nubs off and eat it and it's delicious, but full of seeds. I was pretty excited about trying it because I have been really curious about what it was for about a month or so now. I also tried durian- which was really gross and it stunk up my whole room. It was a huge disappointment, but at least now I can say I've had it. hahahaha

Same Same, but Different

So, in Southeast Asia a big phrase is same- same. You use it when something means the same. Like, watermelon same same dtangmo. haha Everybody says it, kids as young as 2 and adults who could be grandparents. Everybody knows "same-same." It probably sounds really silly to you, but it's become second nature to me, not only to hear it but to use it. haha

Anyways, my class has certain topics they have to learn each week and this week is animals. They are making these really cute animal books and they make a couple pages each day. Yesterday they were doing the mammal pages and they had to write down some of the animal names of the pictures shown. So I was helping them out and writing the words on the board and going through everything with them. I mean, it's quite a big task for a four year old to do. We did such a great job for dog, mouse, and rhinoceros, but I made a huge mistake when it came to cat. I asked them what the animal was and they said cat, so I said, "okay! cat- /k/ /a/ /t/; that's a k, a, t." Then I proceeded to write "kat" on the board.

Luckily I realized what I did as soon as I wrote it down, and I quickly corrected myself, but half of my students have now spelled "kat" in their book. I'm sure their parents will appreciate it. hahahaha

It also clicked in their little heads that I was Miss Kat and the animal was a cat. We have a lot of problems now because of this. They meow a lot now and yell "same-same" at me. They think it's great. I think it's obnoxious. hahahahaha

Other than this particular story, I have nothing super exciting or important to tell you. Not that that story was important. hahaha Last week was really strange because I stayed home Thursday and Friday from work because I was sick. Everybody is sick right now. I think it's the Thai flu or something. I did kinda wonder if Dengue Fever was going around, but I don't think it is. hahaha To make myself feel better I went shopping in Bangkok over the weekend. I love shopping here. I justify buying things by converting the money into dollars, but then later I realize that I only make so much baht... hahaha It's worth it though. haha

Get excited for Thanksgiving! I'm crossing my fingers for Mexican food that night! hahaha

Ponderings

Things I miss from home (besides obvious things like family and friends and pets, haha):

1.) My pillows. I NEED my pillows.

2.) Being able to turn on the tv and watch it aimlessly when I am too tired to do anything else.

3.) Staying in on a Friday or Saturday night and not feeling like I HAVE to go do something at all times. I really like doing absolutely nothing with a few people. Just hanging out and laughing. Maybe putting in a movie with the intention of watching it but then ignoring it the whole time because you are laughing too much. haha

4.) Cooking. I love cooking. It really relaxes me. I could spend days in the kitchen chopping vegetables and mixing ingredients and be perfectly content.

5.) Target. Target is a great place. Nothing else is quite like it.

6.) I have met some awesome people here and made lots of great friends, but I miss having friends around who know me backwards / forwards / better than I know myself. It's been a little difficult for me to have a new group of friends every couple weeks. I've never really been one of those people with a ton of friends (those social butterflies), I just always had my good solid group. It was fabulous.

7.) I love walking around here cause there is constantly something to look at, but sometimes I just want to go for a relaxing walk like in a park or something. hahaha

8.) I really hate how the water tank keeps being emptied lately. At home, I never had to worry about such things. This isn't particulary a Thai cultural thing or epidemic, it's just a really unfortunate series of water tank events that seems to keep happening to me. It's a conspiracy. hahaha

9.) I'm really tired of answering the questions like "so you like living in Pattaya...???" Um, no. Newsflash- Pattaya as a whole is disgusting and I do not like it AT ALL. I am a classy girl and have found some classy things to do here. I go to the island, go to local markets, get massages, and the occassional movie. The main reason I chose to live here was because I was all by myself and I had no idea what to do and I needed to meet people. Those are in fact, good reasons.

Things here I love:

1.) I never have to drive. haha I can pretty much walk anywhere and I love walking. If I can't walk there or I'm too tired, I can take several different forms of public transportation. Both of these options are much better than every single person in the city having their own car. I'm concerned that I will completely forget how to drive by the time I get home.

2.) I love Thai food. American stuff kinda sucks. I can't even call it food anymore. hahaha I need to take some cooking classes so I can keep eating things I like even when I go home.

3.) 7-Eleven. 7-Eleven is fabulous. It has everything you need in a hurry (except for a bathroom). I pop in one about twice a day.

4.) The people are so incredibly low stress here. I love it. Nobody ever freaks out about anything. At home- everybody is always freaking about really stupid things. Mai bpen lai.

5.) Low stress people = low stress job. The teaching environment here is a completely different atmosphere. Education is just as important, but the teachers aren't running around like chickens with their heads cut off all the time.

6.) Fruit. It's an obsession. I'm really getting into the tropical fruits lately. A current favorite is salad ragahm. So good!

7.) It doesn't matter if I wake up late and don't have make up on with sleep lines across my face and am wearing my hideous track suit for school. People will still tell me that I'm sexy when I walk to school. hahahahaha What a confidence booster! hahahaha

8.) Generally I pay $1 to $2 on a meal. If I pay more than that, it is very expensive.

9.) Food stalls, clothing stalls- anything being sold on the street. It is just very convenient.

I really need to get some sleep. hahaha

Loy Krathong!

Borrowed from the wonderful wikipedia:

Loy Krathong is held on the full moon of the 12th month in the traditional Thai lunar calendar. In the western calendar this usually falls in November.
"Loi" means "to float". "Krathong" is a raft about a handspan in diameter traditionally made from a section of banana tree trunk (although modern-day versions use specially made bread 'flowers' and may use styrofoam), decorated with elaborately-folded banana leaves, flowers, candles, incense sticks etc. During the night of the full moon, many people will release a small raft like this on a river. Governmental offices, corporations and other organizations also build much bigger and more elaborate rafts, and these are often judged in contests. In addition, fireworks and beauty contests take place during the festival.

So that day at school, the EP department had a Loy Krathong party! It was so fun! We set up long tables in the downstairs of the school and Mei bought a ton of banana stalks and pins and some flowers, and the students brought in their own special flowers to build their boats. Most of the parents came to help, which was great, because I had no idea how to build the boats and so I was of no help to the students, but I got to learn! After all the kids built their boats, we had a contest of who built the best boat in each class. I thought it was funny that Jack won from my class, because he is all Austrailian, absolutely no Thai. haha But we had to choose two runners-up from my class- Natasha and Pete, because we just couldn't choose. They were all so good. Jasmine and Natasha even wore their traditional Thai clothes. They were so pretty. Natasha looked absolutely miserable. hahaha

Then that night, I went down to the market to see what was going on their for the festival. It was insane. I have never seen South Pattaya and Beach Road so packed before in my entire life, and that is saying something. haha People everywhere and cars and motorbikes everywhere. The roads were so backed up that the sidewalk has become another lane for the road. It's very dangerous to walk around. hahaha It was a lot of fun though. The temple across the street is holding a market to raise money for it. haha Boats are being sold at every stand and extra food stalls are popping up every 2 seconds. People are dressed in their traditional Thai clothes for the heck of it. Fireworks are randomly being set off. The beach was packed with people buying and floating their boats, making wishes. I'm wondering how long this is going to last. It's going to be really hard to get through the rest of the week after this. hahaha It already feels like the weekend.

That night at the market on Beach Road.

Yay Kindergarten 2! Miss Kat's class!

Jasmine and Natasha in their Thai dresses.

Building their boats at school!

Weekending in Bangkok

I got back from Bangkok last night at 10 pm and we had no water! Woke up this morning and still, no water! Got home from school this afternoon- no water! Do you see a trend? Do you think this is a problem?

That's a different story though.

This weekend was fun. It started off with going to see the best Elvis impersonator in all of Southeast Asia. I know it is because that's how it's advertised. haha It truly was amazing though. The rendition of "Wiwa Las Wegas" was fabulous and I will always remember it. He totally got into character and was feeling the groove.

Saturday, I took a car with James and Ryan to Bangkok while they moved into their new apartment. We got there early afternoon and we hung out for a while and waited for Kate and Lannie to come over. It was good to hear how everybody was doing in their new lives there. That night we went to Little Lebanon for dinner and had some amazing Middle Eastern food. Then we were off to Cheap Charlie's for a couple of drinks. On the way we stopped at this awesome little "Asian treasures" store, where I bought a couple of really funky humongous rings. We met up with Ryan's new girl- Fern, who was super sweet and nice. Then Ryan, Fern, James, and I headed over to Khoasan, the major backpackers area to go to a club for some dancing. This place was intense. The lights were insane and people had glow sticks and the techno was pumping. hahaha Anyways, we danced till 2 in the morning. hahaha

Candid me and James at Cheap Charlie's.

Me and Lannie and our new jewels. haha

The next day we were pretty tired, so we did a lot of hanging out. Took a dip in the pool with James and went paddle boating with Ryan before I had to get to the skytrain to take me to the bus station. I was pretty nervous about getting to the bus station and figuring out how to get back to Pattaya. I am really bad at the directions thing, but I must say, I am getting a little bit better. Just a little bit though. I found everything okay though, I just paid very close attention to all the metro stops and asked a lot of questions. hahaha

Anyways, back to the beginning of this blog and to where I am now. I have no water. It is really unfortunate. They aren't sure what is wrong. I tried to shower this morning using a small bottle of water. haha Don't worry, I showered at the kindergarten today. haha I might do that tomorrow again, just in case. Last week I had to deal with power outages and this week it's the water... talk about unfortunate.

Power

I'm definitely not feeling the power this week, in any sense. hahaha

The power in South Pattaya was out for 11 1/2 hours today. Lucky for me, I had a job to go to, that is just outside of South Pattya, so I didn't have to suffer the entire day without air conditioning, but I did have to come home to a pitch dark street. Plus my laundry didn't get done because of it and now my uniform isn't clean for tomorrow and I have nothing to wear. I don't know what to do about that, but oh well. I'm happy they got the electric going a few minutes ago though, because going to bed without a fan would not be a fun experience and I would be really grouchy tomorrow. haha

I'm not feeling the power in my classroom. hahaha My class is out of control this week. I have no idea why. It isn't a holiday or anything. I always got in trouble last year for being too much like a friend to my students and I think that might be happening again. I feel kinda weird saying this, but my kids love me way too much. hahahaha My little four year olds have also seemed to figure out that I enjoy coloring and playing with play-doh just as much as they do, and they have learned to take advantage of that. It's a problem. The Thai culture likes to see worksheets, even for four year olds. I've got to buckle down and get serious. hahaha

Not to mention my two year old class has 33 students in it now. Have you ever seen 33 2 year olds in one room before? It's really frightening. I'm having nightmares about it.

Their is one student who is definitely paying attention to me though, Plot. Oh man. If you remember, Plot is the baby (18 months now, I think) that I give "private English lessons" to after school. Plot's dad, Eric, and I were talking the other day and Eric went to pick him up and Plot started screaming his little head off and he ran straight to me and practically climbed up my leg to be held. Eric managed to laugh it off, but then Plot called me "mama" today in front of his Grandma. This is a HUGE problem. Grandma doesn't speak English, but I'm positive she knows what that means. I hope they don't fire me for this. It's really not my fault his parents are overacheivers and workaholics / successful business-people and he is confused by who his mom is.

WiFi, Barbeque, and Halloween

I got WiFi! haha It's such a wonderful thing to be able to check your email whenever you want and not feel bad about using one of the two internet connections. I can check my people.com, watch the music channel, and sit in the air conditioning all at one time! An unfathomable idea!

The reason we have WiFi is because my job starts in a couple weeks with the skyping and we need to be able to skype at all times. This week, Tim and I have started emailing people and answering their questions. I feel very official and sound much more knowledgable than I feel, but I suppose I actually do know this stuff, I just never say it so business-like. So, I've been busy with the skype training and the emailing and the languagecorping. haha I'm trying to get caught up on it today.

I'm a little behind because I've been trying to spend time with people before they all leave Pattaya. I really liked all the people that went to Laos and had such a great time with them and they are leaving this weekend to go off to their separate jobs and volunteer opportunities. A few of them are going to be in Bangkok though and I'm super excited for many weekend trips to visit!

On Thursday Phoenix Kindergarten had a barbeque for all the teachers after school. I thought it'd be like what I see on the streets everyday- chicken on a stick, hahaha, but it was a real thai barbeque and more like Chinese style hot pot. It was a lot of fun hanging out with all the Thai teachers and cooking our food together. It was the first time I got to hang out, not during school hours, with all the Thai teachers, and not just Mei, Kung, and Ooii. They are just all so nice! I can't even explain it! I just feel so welcome all the time.

Yesterday was Halloween and Thai people don't celebrate Halloween. Actually, nobody really celebrates Halloween except Americans. haha I keep asking other people, and everybody thinks it's kinda stupid. haha Anyways, it's kinda here in Pattaya because of the ex-pats. So, I went out for a "graduation dinner" for some of the people and then Ryan, James, and I split off and went down to Walking Street. I guess normal 20 year olds get really into Halloween, because they seemed really excited about it. They got all dressed up and decided to go as Pattaya Local Farangs. They got huge glasses to wear and tank tops that they stuffed to have a beer gut, fake tattoos... the works. It was hilarious! I laughed all night. It was such a nice change of laughing at the locals instead of being completely disgusted with them.

What an interesting place I live in.