ชีวิตของอาจารย์Erin

The semester is over and I have not stopped to reflect or share enough. Life is better than ever here in Khon Kaen. The weeks fly by sandwiched between weekends of jolly fun. Highlights include golfing, fishing, finding bags full of cardboard robots, and solving the world's mysteries at Sunset bar (bird's eye view of the band above) and Bamboo Palace which is now equipped with a pong table and cushions for the bamboo furniture.

Midterm break was another trip of a lifetime. I joined Isaac, my friend from South Africa, in Koh Chang for an extremely rainy long weekend at the beach. The highlight was meeting some hilarious Thai people and celebrating someone's 34th birthday on the porch of our bungalow overlooking the ocean. Isaac came back to KK with me before we headed up to Vang Vieng, Laos. Vang Vieng is a silly place. It's a small town, very beautiful like almost all of Laos, and overrun by the worst of the worst backpackers in Southeast Asia, including myself and my five friends. The draw is the river. You see, in a parent's worst nightmare, the scheme goes like this. Pay for tube. Get in truck. Drive up the river. Get out of truck. Get in river. Get in tube. Float down river. Stop at bar. Paint body (optional). Buy beer. Use rope swing. Float to bar #2. Buy beer. Use slide. Float. Buy beer. Use bigger rope swing. Float. Buy beer. Mud wrestle. Float. Beer. You get the picture. By the end of the day, we had minor cuts and bruises, were down a pair of shoes, a camera, a couple thousand kip, and up two cases of pink eye. Life list must-do. Here I am demonstrating fine form off swing #1.


After that rowdy segment of the trip, we needed to atone for our sins so we headed South to Si Pan Don, Four Thousand Islands. That's right, you geography whiz-kids, Laos is landlocked, how in the world are there islands? It's a miracle of the Mekong River. Wiki it. Google it. See it for yourself. There are more hammocks than power outlets and everyone seems content to take it easy. We rode bikes through idyllic palm-tree-lined rice paddies to see the widest waterfall in Southeast Asia. We watched two of the most beautiful sunsets I have ever seen. Grown men cried. We spent the rest of our time enjoying each other's company. In fact, that is precisely what we were doing when some guy who "forgot [he's] not a strong swimmer" leapt off his porch into the rushing river below. His head was barely above water as he floundered into our view. Eagle Scout to the rescue. Glenn earns Lifesaving Merit Badge.



Dad, this one is for you:




In one of my favorite travel writing pieces, Why We Travel, Pico Iyer writes that when an American travels, (s)he learns about a foreign place as foreigners simultaneously learn about Americans. We are like walking video screens. We might literally be the closest thing to Michael Jackson or Bill Clinton some of the people we encounter ever experience firsthand. Anyways, a few weeks back, I ran into my sculptor friend P'Prajak in our favorite coffee shop. He said it was fortuitous because he is currently making a Florence Nightingale statue for the Faculty of Nursing. Seeing as he only sculpts Asian faces, Flo was giving him some trouble. You can see where this is going...? Uh-huh. Currently, my beautiful farang nose is waiting to be cast in bronze on the face of a bigger than life-sized statue of the Lady with the Lamp because I am the closest thing to Florence Nightingale for miles.

Check it out:



The fortuitous meetings in the coffee shop get me into some things. Glenn says that if I were in any other country I would have been killed by now. A little background is necessary. After class a few months ago, I was walking with my adorable student Mita on her way to rehearse a play for kids with chronic illnesses. I said that was great and she invited me to join. After meeting the group a few times and learning the lyrics to a Thai children's song, I accompanied the troop to the hospital. So, back to the coffee shop. P'Sek, the leader of this troop, asks me in his very fast Thai if I would help him with something. I agree, "ได้ค่ะ. I can, kha. ช่วยได้ค่ะ. I can help, kha. Ok, see you then, ค่ะ, kha, ค่ะ, kha, ค่ะ kha." Not sure exactly what I agreed to help with, I later discover I will be acting in the puppet version of the Green Goose play. On another side note, my grandparents are under the impression that when I return from Thailand, I will be fluent in ภาษาไทย. I am going to squash those dreams for all of you now. It took me HOURS, hours, HOURS to memorize 15 lines as แม่ไก่, mother chicken. Anyways, I did it. The show was a big success. Here is a clip from the practice. In the first scene, แม่ไก่ is immobile because, at that point, I was still concentrating on the words, which I mess up and you will know when because I speak some accidental English. The premise of the enchanting story is similar to the Ugly Duckling, but in this case, a dinosaur egg hatches on a farm and the baby dino sees papa goose first and thinks that papa goose is his mommy. Scared he's going to eat my chickies, Kookook and Kookik, แม่ไก่ busts his bubble and says to my chickadies, "What kind of goose is green?! Feathers? He doesn't have them. A wings? Doesn't have 'em. How can he be a goose? He's a monster for sure." Then sad little Dino takes a hike to find animals that are green and lack feathers and wings. He finds frogs and some komodo dragon things, but his origins remain a mystery. In the end, papa goose convinces แม่ไก่ that the "Green Goose" won't eat her chicks and everyone is very, very happy and we run around and sing. Like I said, this video is just a practice and it's only half of the performance. Since none of you can understand Thai, I don't think you will mind, right? Skip to 3:24 for my main part.



Ok, let's talk about my job. I have the best one in the world. I really, really, really enjoy teaching and I love, love, love my students. Some of my most promising starlets dream of serving green curry at an altitude of 30,000ft working for Thai Airways, which I think is hilarious, but we have so much fun together and I think they love me almost as much as I love them. In fact, I have some proof. Exactly half of the feedback I got from my writing students include the word love. One winner from No Name says, "To begin with... I love you : ) I think you are the perfect foreign teacher. Thank you for everything that you gave for me and friends. You are a beautiful women and some day you look very beautiful. For the last, I wish you are happy with everything and everytime. P.S. Sorry with my bad English." Not one single piece of constructive criticism. Not one suggestion. Simply a love note, but I am okay with that.





The best piece of evidence has been misconstrued by my extended family as a haiku written for me. That is the problem with forwarded emails. In fact, it was not intended to be haiku. Sweet, sweet little Tiew (next to me below with the bangs) wrote to me

i feel very luv u
i dunno how?
i think
Destiny
><
from Tiew

She later clarifies her non-haiku,

i means i dunno Know what makes me feel close to you .
i feel like you since the first we've met.
i 'm very Impressive u when u fixed my shoes.
when we talk together on the beach that makes me feel
u r the best friend 'n the best teacher ^^
and everythings that make me luv u so...
thx 4 everythings นะคะ ><




Now my students await their exams and I await grading them so I can hop a flight to Phratet INDONESIA with my pals from KK plus two good ones imported from the USA. My hometown crew is repping in SE Asia via Brooke and Megan. YAY! And, just when I thought things couldn't get any better, Glenn decided to extend his stay and join the Indo trip before he leaves us for home turf which will be a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.

SANDWICH!!!

I'm so happy about this sandwich. Can you tell? I had to go to Laos to get my hands on some bread. Thailand should really start thinking about importing baguettes. How do I live without this stuff?

Pyromaniacal revelry: Americana at it’s best in Asia

This blog has been almost written a few times in the last weeks on a number of topics none of which captivated my attention enough to write a whole blog about. First, there was the visa fiasco, but, after last blog's cynicism, I just couldn't put you through it. The new PiAs, who are wonderful, deserve a whole blog, but they’ll be recurring characters so you’ll know James, Saba and Lizzie soon enough. I am happier than ever in my teaching career, and my students never cease to keep me motivated or entertain me so more on that topic at another time, too.

The runner-up blog featured the tale of a slow-motion head-on collision involving my motorbike and an old man aboard a bicycle. At first, the topic was too sore to touch, but I'm not losing any sleep over it now. I don't want to insult the man because, believe it or not, Thai culture and deference to my elders has rubbed off a bit and the crash wasn’t entirely his fault. Yes, that is code for it was my fault, at least partly. But, I will say, if the man had used his hands to brace his fall instead of save his cigarette, he would have saved me some scared tears and his week’s salary in forgone baht. He would have also spared himself an egg of a bruise which I saw when he took his pants off to show me. To answer your question, either none or skin-colored briefs, but I tried not to see. So, instead of cataloguing the current color of my post-collision bruises, you will get the story of my second July 4th in the Land of Smiles. It’s been a while since I’ve had a Fourth on American soil, and I don't want to insult anyone with whom I’ve spent the fine holiday by saying this one was THE best, but the Americans did pretty well for ourselves celebrating a holiday that you’d assume falls short anywhere outside the Land o’ the Free.

We inaugurated Saba and Lizzie's new house which has just enough bamboo “furniture” for a Thai girl, six Americans, a French-Ethiopian and a Spaniard to wish America happy birthday in style. The spread featured corn on the cob, fries swimming in a soy-oil-grease-meets-Heinz-ketchup combo, chicken which Thailand does better than America, and beers in a can which America does better than Thailand.

After the feast, we mounted our motorbikes and proceeded to shock and awe the people of Khon Kaen with our pyrotechnics. After taking off two to a bike on five bikes, our motogang shot a couple waterlogged and therefore lackluster bottle rockets in the KKU coliseum but bolted at the distant whistle of the KKU security police. Had they really seen us, it would have been fairly easy to peg us since there aren’t too many foreigners in these parts and seven of us are teachers at the fine establishment that served as our launch pad.

As our band of hooligans on wheels rushed off to site 2 with adrenaline in our veins, I asked my motorbike partner in crime, Lizzie, if she still had that Roman candle. She said yes and, anticipating what I was getting at, reached under herself for a lighter… bummer, it’s broken. Luckily, the Glenn+Saba team slowed down just enough to complete a side-by-side-lighter-hand-off and, grinning with the delight of a naughty kid, Lizzie detonated a progression of fireballs as we cruised across campus.

We arrived at site 2, haunted lake, after some serious offroading and branch-dodging. We busted out the big guns which really attracted the campus popo who were hot on our tails after the failure at the coliseum and our indiscrete get away. It was a very Thai-Farang run-in with the law. The altercation can be translated as:

What are you doing?
Fireworks.
Why?
It’s the birthday of America.
Stop. It’s very loud.
Ok. Sorry. Thank you. Goodbye.

Exhausting ideal campus locales, we set up the Grand Finale at the lake in Gung Sa Daan, my former neighborhood. At this point, it was 10:30, just early enough to have a good-sized audience of coffee shop chatters and Sunday night bar-goers. Parading down the well-lit street, we acknowledge “this is a terrible idea” and simultaneously “this is the best idea we’ve had in a while.” After facing the bikes in the direction of our escape, we lined up four big guys. One, two, three, light them, and three, two, one, BLAST OFF! 25 canisters of explosives which sent 25 balls of fire in 25 colors in 25 directions echoing with 25 deafening ka-booms like only your local fire department can produce in the States. It was exhilarating, maybe because they didn’t go quite as high as expected and we ended up dodging a little shrapnel. The tweenage boys in close proximity leapt for joy screaming “very GREAT, very GREAT!" We sped off and reconvened back at the bamboo palace where we rehashed the night’s excitement moment by moment and accounted for all 90 fingers in our crew of bandits.

my strange office and the urinator

Year 2, Blog 1: Ajustification

Hello loyal and not-so-loyal blog readers. Here I go again.

I'm back. I'm, well, what's the word, maybe "adjusting"? Yea, adjusting. Among other things, to
1. The heat. It's just so gosh darn hot. I mean, really, really, scorching hot. I'm talking sweat no antiperspirant could ever dream of beating in places you've never dreamed of sweating H-O-T.
2. The turn-your-stomach-inside-out stenches that lurk around the corner waiting to prey on an-already-slightly-queasy-from-one-too-many-Changs (Thai beer, more potent than you'd think) version of me. You never know what's rotting on a Thai sidewalk. It's not a place for the easily-nauseated.
3. The fact that my lunch today cost me a whopping 78 cents. Beat that, McDonald's value meal.
4. A puppy that pees when I walk through the door. Any door, really. It's nice to be loved, Micah, but I just went to floss my teeth and you're psyched to see me again, really? Oh, and now your tail's wagging through your piddle puddle? How special... Or when Neuki and I aren't home to excite the urine out of her, she pees on newspapers which putrefy in the heat I was just talking about and contribute to one of those smells I was just talking about. Although, I guess it can't quite be classified as a lurking shocker because it's an expected gag-inducer now.
5. The undrinkable water. If I could just close my mouth in the shower...
6. The comments about my weight gain. No joke, a friend today compared me to an inflatable device in that I look like I just added some air. Actually, it was cheese. Burritos, enchiladas, pizza, lasagna, god bless america... and I give it about 10 days in this sauna and the metaphorical tire that is me will have deflated again, okay skinny Thai girl?
7. Living in a country with a fragile government. Before I left, my dad said it will be formative and interesting to be in a country like Thailand in order to "witness the fragility of governments firsthand." My mom said that was the stupidest thing she'd ever heard. But, concerning your concerns concerning this concern, please don't worry. Things are calm for now. In case violence does break out, I will be sure not to follow my dad's next piece of what is usually infallible wisdom. While attempting to quell my nerves regarding leaving for Khon Kaen just as two municipal buildings were burnt to the ground, Bri says, "Don't worry, Bear, if things are on fire, just stay under the covers." Can you at least kind of sort of see where he was coming from on that one? It's almost good advice...barring my house being on fire or a few other contingencies.
8. Living on the opposite side of the world from 98.4% of all the people I love. It stinks. If this list were in order, this would be number #2, close behind the heat as the biggest adjustment.
9. Driving on the left. But even more, the left-side passenger seat location. Gets me every time.
10. The heat. Yes, I know, I said it before. But have you stopped to ponder how hot it could actually be here? Remember when your art teacher explained the kiln? This is what I imagined.
11. Being bowed to. And called "teacher" again.
12. ภาษาไทย The Thai language. Forgot that, oops.


Love,
@(oLo)@ It's a bear. See it? Ear, cheek, eye, nose, eye, cheek, ear. Maybe a koala. Thai people love things like this. All things "cute" really.

The Sisters Murphy+

Sisters Murphy+ do Thailand

Here are some of the photos, just from my camera. There are tons more!

Okay, okay, quit your bellyaching, here I am. A long overdue and apparently longed-for blog awaits you.

This past weekend my colleagues, 80 wannabe English-speakers, and I went to “where dreams come true” for English Camp. No, not Disney World, Rai Fun Ben Jing, or literally the place where dreams are real. In traditional Thai style, the buses stopped every forty minutes to refuel…the chips and meatballs on a stick, I mean. Also in traditional Thai style, we wasted absurd amounts of paper, plastic bags, water bottles, electricity and gas in a not surprising but still hypocritical slap in the face to our theme: let’s go green. No joke, one morning all 100 of us piled on two buses to ride what was probably a quarter mile, if that. We did, though, honor the theme with group names that included green fairy, green queen, green oil and green head. Moreover, yours truly graced the stage in the teachers’ skit as Snow Green. Besides the environmental destruction, camp was super fun. My time was spent secretly gambling with my colleagues (I came out of the weekend +11 baht or 35-ish cents), not-so-secretly posing for photos on every apparatus, in front of every tree, and in every pose you can imagine and then some, and running a game station at which the students attempted to match information to a particular country. For example, Doraemon (cat-like robot cartoon) belongs with sushi, Tokyo, and other things Japanese. No one missed that one, but Nelson Mandela certainly threw a couple kids for a loop. Perhaps the most fun was the karaoke…watching it, of course. Singing in public is not my bag, baby, but if I am ever asked why I live in Thailand, my video footage of the karaoke extravaganza should stifle all curiosity.

Now, what you have all been waiting for: the blog about my sisters’ visit. I sort of wish I had juicy stories of hair-pulling and head-turning, ear-bursting screaming matches in public places, but actually we got along shockingly well. Who knew it was the addition of parental figures that made the sibling combo volatile? Or maybe we are a few years older, a little wiser, and were definitely happy to be reunited in this wonderful place.

The adventure began in Bangkok. I scooped the girls from the airport, shocked them with my Thai language abilities (I have the vocabulary of an 18 month old now, and no grammatical structure to back it), and brought them back to our funky little hostel in Nana, the part of Bangkok that comes alive at night, if you know what I mean. We celebrated the start of the journey with the drink at this point in the journey known as Thai Whiskey. Caitlin loved it and continued to drink it for the remainder of the trip until she found out that it is actually rum, at which time she refused to drink it again because she does not like rum. (…?)

Days 2, 3, and 4 were spent in Chiang Mai. We toured Wat Suan Dok, braved the gut-wrenching songtaew ride up the mountain to Wat Doi Sutep, cooked 21 Thai meals at a wonderful cooking class, did more than some shopping at the night market, and made friends with elephants at Elephant Nature Park, which is one of the only humane elephant parks in Thailand. Side note, if you ever find yourself in this country, please don’t ride an elephant. I will educate you all on the issue at another time. At the park we got to feed the elephants and bathe them in the stream.

Pai was next on the agenda. On a really un-Christmassy Christmas morning, we made the windy journey. Even though Pai was much more crowded than when I was there in September, it still retained its charm and I think it won over the hearts of Sha, Cait and Jessica. After a hotel mess-up probably caused by my faulty Thai, we ended up staying in no-fuss straw huts on the river and we could not have been happier. In town, we were regulars at All About Coffee and the shops full of creative merchandise never seemed to get old. One day we biked to Pai Hotsprings where Shannon prepared us some boiled eggs in the 80 degree Celsius water. The next day we went around Pai on motorbikes seeing sights like Coffee in Love (a coffee shop made famous by a Thai movie and now probably the most visited place in Pai for Thai tourists), some cool waterfalls, the WWII memorial bridge and the Pai (reverse) Canyon. And in what will probably become as infamous as the Peter’s Family “Mokawk Reunion”, a major hair change occurred on the trip. Yes, Shannon has officially moved ahead of Caitlin in the ranks of coolest sister. Shannon Catherine Formerly Straight Edge Murphy has dreadlocks.

After a harrowing return journey to Chiang Mai, a flight to Phuket, a really shisty airport cab situation, a big boat ride, a long-tail boat ride and a fairly good hike with our luggage, we arrived at our next hotel in Ton Sai. I just made the journey sound much worse than it was, and trust me, most people would walk across hot coals to be in a place like this. Ton Sai is a beach a short but rather treacherous walk (especially done after dark with flip flops on, right Sha?) from the slightly more famous Rai Leh. Ton Sai is known as the more low-key, backpacker- and rockclimber-friendly side of the stunning peninsula. This is when you google image “Rai Leh” or “Railay.” I do have some photos and when combined with the ones Jessica took, we have a great collection for your viewing pleasure. Most of the camera was devoted to Shannon’s lover, Ben, a monkey that Shannon probably still misses. I think they were soulmates. Ton Sai was a wonderful, laid back place and our afternoon spent kayaking was one of the trip’s highlights.


To be candid, New Years Eve day deserves a blog entry of its own. I know your eyes are getting tired by now, so I will try to condense it. Basically we had plans to go to Koh Phi Phi to check out what all the fuss is about. Upon arrival, the hotel people tried to put us in this sketchy alleyway that was managed by the same company and we were not having it. After walking around the entire island, unsuccessfully begging hotels to remove their compulsory 1700 baht New Year’s Eve dinner, and discovering that there wasn’t anywhere else, we thought our problems were solved when we saw an advertisement for a camping trip to Maya beach (made famous in the Leonardo DiCaprio film, The Beach.) Well, that fell through, and the spring-breaky-ness of the place was overwhelming anyways. We wanted out, which was good because we did not have much choice but to board the ferry back to where we came from (for the same 450 baht! Ouch!) and settle for a wasted day.

We could not go back to Ton Sai so we set up shop on the not as glamorous marsh side of Rai Leh (the East) which is a short walk to the more spectacular west side. Happy to be back, we got some great drinks on the beach, almost got hit by crazy fireworks and brought in 2010 trying to avoid creepy Scandinavian men. A good low-key ending to a rather hectic day that almost sent me over the edge.

Back in Rai Leh, we went rock climbing one day and Shannon scampered up the cliffs like it was no big deal. I was fine at first, even got to the top on my first two attempts… until my limbs gave out like a weak old granny and I could not lift my own body weight to save my life. I had to beg the man belaying me to let me come down. Jess was certainly much more graceful than I was. There was no flailing about on her part. We have about 293,903,655 photos thanks to Caitlin who did not climb but showed up to be the photographer. You could probably line all the photos up like a flipbook if you are interested.

On our last day in paradise, sisters Murphy left our less-inclined pseudo-sister for a crazy adventure. On what was supposed to be a hike, we found ourselves using ropes to navigate our way up and over a steep mountain and down the other side, working our way through narrow crevices of a gorge. The trek was really fun and the end result was spectacular: a lagoon of crystal blue water surrounded 360 degrees by cliffs (hence the rope trail, the only way in). Definitely a highlight.

I parted ways with my sisters in Krabi town, headed back to Khon Kaen to teach for four days while the other three scuba dove, jumped off rocks into the ocean, played with dogs named Julian, continued to eat delicious Thai cuisine, and had an all around relaxing time on Koh Tao.

I joined them again for the weekend in Bangkok. They had already seen the Grand Palace and the Temple of the Emerald Buddha by the time I arrived, so we did some normal Bangkoky stuff like a boat ride on the Choa Praya, Wat Arun, and, obviously, a cabaret show. The ladyboys were enthusiastic, talented, and beautiful and we have the photos to prove it.

After a day of intense shopping at Chatuchak market where Neuki came to meet us (it was so wonderful to introduce my sisters to my best Thai pal) and a parting meal, we sent Shannon and Jess on their merry way. Not a dry eye in the house… I mean not on Shannon’s face at least. I just hope she was sad to leave me and Thailand and not just Ben the monkey.

Sunday, Caitlin and I came back to Khon Kaen and she lived my life with me for the week. She came to class with me, we saw a movie, we ate delicious food, she watched me try to learn Thai, met my friends, etc. Perhaps Cait can provide more details about this part, but my fingers hurt and its bed time. Thank you for reading.

Oh, by the way, as of right now I am 90% sure I am coming back for round 2 of teaching in Khon Kaen next year. Some things are still up in the air, but if the plan sticks, I should be landing in America for 6-ish weeks in April and May and I hope all of you will get on my social calendar. Love and miss you all!

Thanksgiving and not a cornucopia in sight!

Thanksgiving came and went. No one cares about the Pilgrims here, except us farangs. So we ate a fabulous meal at the Pullman Hotel where I wasted no stomach room on turkey, but filled it to the brim with the pasta bar, salad (a rare commodity here) and dessert after delicious dessert.

Apparently I say annoying a lot. My coworkers pointed it out and now it annoys me how much I say it. Not only because it’s a boring token word, but also because it must mean I am complaining a lot, and I really do not have much reason to complain these days. Neuki taught me a word for annoying in Thai which is guwan deen, but she failed to tell me that it is not a direct translation. I found out after I said it in class that it is not exactly G-rated.

So I went to Cambodia and it was great. I traveled from Thailand with the help of a new Cambodian friend appropriately named Mom. She helped me dodge the overzealous tuktuk touts at the border, took me to a hotel, to dinner, and literally fed me dessert with her own spoon. Mom and I parted ways in the beach town of Sihanoukville, though I had already met some Canadian pals and had quite the adventurous bus ride. A crazy drunk Italian Mario-brothers-look-alike attempted to hijack our bus wielding a small knife, after threatening to pee on the head of the driver when he failed to pull over promptly for the guy to relieve himself on the side of the road. We did eventually pull over and got a really nice moonshot of crazyman as he unnecessarily dropped his pants to his ankles. It was not until the rest stop that the attempted hijacking occurred. (Luckily, I was off the bus and got to watch from the sidelines). We left the guy at the rest stop and he chased our bus with his knife threatening to find us and cut certain body parts off. Anyways, I got along with the Canadians really well except that one guy doesn’t believe in human-induced global warming and littered on the beach just because there was already trash on it. Let’s just say, I had a word with him.

For those of you who are not aware, there was a genocide in Cambodia in the late 70s and I spent two days in Phnom Penh visiting Tuol Sleng or S-21, a former school converted to a prison and torture chamber, as well as the Killing Fields where thousands of people were executed by the Khmer Rouge in their attempt to rid the country of educated people and their families. I had just finished reading First They Killed My Father which is a book written by a survivor of the genocide and I was really glad to have the book to provide me with a background to the horrific story. No one really knows how many people were killed, but at least one million, so many that everyone in the country knows someone who was killed. Despite this incredibly recent tragedy, Cambodian people are the friendliest people I have encountered since the African village. On the whole, they speak pretty good English and although there is some petty crime I found everyone to be incredibly kind, from Mom to the questionably intoxicated tuk-tuk driver that drove Mere and I around the Angkor Wat Complex. Ah, Angkor Wat. There is really nothing more to say than Go. Just go. Sunrise over Angkor Wat. I checked that off my life list, but somehow seeing it again is back on the list. Is that allowed? Greedy? I knew I would love that temple, but I had no idea how amazing the rest would be. Mere and I spent two days exploring the ruins and it was incredible. Each temple had something unique to offer and some were downright mind-blowing. Have you seen Tomb Raider? Guess where it was filmed? Angkor Wat aside, Cambodia is one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. Rice paddies and palm trees as far as the eye can see.

So now I have been back in Khon Kaen more than a month. Teaching is frustrating because of the book that was chosen, a regrettable mistake in the Language Institute, but one that cannot be changed without incurring huge financial kickback. It is above the level of comprehension of even my best students. I supposedly teach six sections of the same course but in reality teaching 20 Radiology students who come prepared and already understand some English is radically different from teaching 45 Engineers, 42 of which are male, at 4:00 to 5:30 in the afternoon. They pretty much eat me for a pre-dinner snack, refusing to do anything I ask. But, I still love the students and just when I am about to give up, we have a class that seems like a breakthrough, even if all I do is get them to participate in a silly game.

The weather has really cooled off. Since I am used to South Bend, I thought I would never say that I am cold here. I went so far as to bet Alison that I could go the whole winter without saying it is or I am cold. Well, I lost the bet already. In looking for an excuse as to why I did not want to go to the dance bar, I said I was too tired and cold to go. Shoot. I guess it might have dipped into the 50s the other night and it feels much colder to my body! I bet 50 would feel absolutely balmy to some of you right now. During the day it is always in the 70s with a cool breeze and a bright sun like those once in a while days at ND where everyone crowds on the quads and throws Frisbees. Let me tell you though, my internal calendar is really confused about Thanksgiving.

I am learning to read and write Thai! Haha, it is pretty hilarious, but I know all the basics. It is proving to be difficult, but I guess not as bad as I thought. It is really rewarding and gives me another perspective on language altogether. The more I learn, the more complicated the language becomes and I realize how royally I have been slash still am screwing it up. Let me just say that the word for far is glaai, said with a falling tone, and the word for close is glai, said with a low tone. Really? Really? Come on!

Neuki moves on Monday and that is going to be a major bummer, but Cait, Jess, and Sha arrive on December 21st which will be here in a jiffy and for that I am so thankful! <3

Photos of the Trip

Midterm Break in 200

There is the link to my web album. There are plenty more amazing photos, especially because Jess took some too (more of which I am in so they are obviously great)...but they will have to wait.

Blog about Cambodia soon.

"The thing that annoyed me most on this trip is my haircut..and Vietnam."-Jess

Partly it was our fault, poor planning and decision-making (or lack there of). Partly it was luck (or lack there of again.) I am not writing off the whole country, much more of which I'd still love to see, but our time in Northern Vietnam didn't quite live up to the high hopes I had.

Despite some of the sights being closed on Mondays, Jess and I filled our first full day in Hanoi. We got scammed by multiple cab drivers, visited the Temple of Literature, dined for a good cause at Koto, and saw the changing of the guards at Ho Chi Minh's mausoleum (very odd since Ho's bod is in Russia for it's yearly visit with his similarly-preserved comrades, Lenin and Stalin). Back near our hotel in the Old Quarter, we checked out Ngoc Son Temple on Hoan Kiem lake, St. Joseph's Cathedral and dined again at an Indian restaurant we now call "Rat Kitchen." Guess why?...Yup, a rat ran plumb through the restaurant while we waited for our food. On the subject of food, to my surprise, we did not like the Vietnamese food much. We probably just did not know what to order (and they specialize in meats, which we were not eating) but it was not up to par with Vietnamese I've eaten outside of Vietnam. Actually, it was so disappointing that Jess and I returned to Rat Kitchen a second time. Can you imagine? We figured rats must just be everywhere if they were in that seemingly-clean place. Hypothesis confirmed. We saw two rats in the airport on our way out!

I'd been sold on Halong Bay since seeing a stamp-sized add on the side of my facebook page. Cheesy, but I'm sure the Google image would do the trick for you too. And, don't get me wrong, it is incredibly gorgeous. But we got unlucky (or all the photos on Google are photoshopped) because the sky was a hazy gray the whole time which really fogged up our view. Maybe nearby China was wafting over some factory air. But that, combined with the trash floating in the sometimes oily water, did not exactly add to the bay's beauty, which we had predicted would be astounding enough to keep us occupied looking around so that the boat (referred to as a junk, which it was) did not matter much. Disregarding previous warnings in order to save a couple lousy bucks, we went with the cheapie 3-day tour. Oooooops. You get what you pay for. It felt more like a school field trip than a vacation. Lots of busing around, loads of hurry up and wait coupled with terrible food and customer service.. not that Jess and I were expecting royal treatment, but it was downright b-a-d. At the end, my passport was held for ransom by one of the guides because I was refusing to pay for a beer that was mistakenly added to our tally. He really sent me over the edge in a country where public outbursts are frowned upon. Straw that broke this camel's back. I feel like I am making it sound awful so insert here warm thoughts of me knowing how lucky I am. And, we did have a good group: Some Germans who loved PDA (I just ran into them in Cambodia to show how the SE Asian backpacker scene is a small world), a Belgian on his last 3 weeks of a year- long world-tour (in Belgium, you can take a "career break" during which the government pays you to do roughly whatever you want!!??!?) four Brits on the beginning of their year-long trip, a Korean mother and daughter, and the strangest woman I've encountered in a while and her friend Gary who called her "Mama" and excused her behavior saying, "Mama not right in the head. Mama need medicine."

After Halong, with the literal and figurative bad taste lingering in our mouths, we made the very last-minute decision not to head South to Hue and Hoi An like we had planned. I feel like I need to justify our reasoning, which leads me to believe I feel some regret, but money, time, and monsoons were factors.So, we spent a non-Monday in Hanoi seeing Museums (Museum of Ethnology and Hoa Lo Prison where McCain was held as a POW... I am certainly not saying it was a day at the spa, but it looked better than how the French had previously treated the Vietnamese inmates there) and headed to Ninh Binh.

As a place to escape crazy Hanoi, the city of Ninh Binh did not thrill us, and Jess was overly peeved about these little bugs falling from the ceiling at our hotel's restaurant, but just outside the city we found some gems. We biked to Tam Coc where someone rowed us down a river through beautiful rice paddies and cliffs reminiscent of Halong Bay. We also biked to Bich Dong (yes, you read correctly), a temple in a cave that we were allowed to enter despite being in shorts. Whew, it would have been a lot of stairs for a rejection. We ate lunch at a place that served dog, cat and goat penis, all of which you have to order a day in advance... Shoot! What lack of foresight.

We spent the next day in Cuc Phuong National Park which features a really old tree and an ancient tomb in a cave. Our day began with a very rainy tour of the primate rescue center. As we walked along the mud path to get there clad in our mildewy ponchos Jess goes, "Bear, I am worried about the rest of our trip in Vietnam." Literally one second later, extremely loud thunder boomed, echoing Jess's hesitation with ominous and hilarious timing. The oh-so-anticipated primate tour lasted three minutes and the rain muffled the guide's explanation to the point of noncomprehension.Following the thunder omen and because of a monsoon coming from China, we decided to forgo our trip to Sapa, a beautiful mountain town that would surely be no fun in the rain since trekking and views draw the tourists. We threw in the towel. Doneskies with Vietnam. We left the next morning destined for Thailand and a couple days of recovery time on easily accessible Koh Samed. The mighty fine Thai meal at Ekkamai bus station in Bangkok assured us that we had finally made a right decision this time.

Though we lacked sleep due to extremely moist living conditions, our last days together were very peaceful... until we had to sprint the should-be-20-minute-walk from our guesthouse to the ferry landing through puddles of squishy mud with all Jess's stuff in tow. The boat had just pulled away when we arrived, but reversed to pick up my sweaty and frazzled cousin. I was truly sad to see her go and am really missing her. Some will be shocked to know that we did not have a single fight, and our only almost-fight was about the wad of dong we left Vietnam with, only to discover Thailand does not exchange it...figures.

I am in Cambodia now and it is a wonderful place and I have much to say, but I'll save it since life is about to slow back down and I will have plenty of time to recount my adventure. Thanks for reading! Sorry for the negativity.

The Lovely Land of Laos and a shaky beginning in Vietnam

Usually I sit down to write this blog full of excitement to share great memories and experiences that I have had. Like I said, we loved Luang Prabang after 3 hours...actually probably 3 minutes, even as we walked waaaay past our hotel with our packs on, too proud to take a tuktuk or ask for directions. But that is simply not the case in Hanoi. We hate it after 3 hours. But before I rant about Vietnam, I will recount the gloriousness of Laos and then maybe I will cool down, literally and figuratively.

Luang Prabang was simply magical. The French left their architecture, their baguettes and their crepes, the Buddhists are responsible for the temples and monks and Mother Nature provided the Mekong River and the surrounding mountains. After the French peaced, there were plenty of buildings just screaming to be turned into guesthouses and cafes and so the tourism began, but somehow, maybe because Laos is still sort of off the beaten path, it's very tasteful tourism at this point.

While in Luang Prabang, we walked the whole city on foot (it's becoming a pattern of ours to see more than we intend to due to wrong turns, poorly-scaled maps, wandering interests, etc.) tested the eateries, explored tons of wats, visited the National Museum, and climbed up hundreds of stairs to Phu Si temple to watch the sun set and get a view of the whole town. One day, we rented mountain bikes and went 15km to Tad Sae waterfall. Although I cursed the bicycles the whole way there, and while we pushed them up a giant hill on the way home because even 24 gears were not enough, and again the next day when my bottom was black and blue, the overall experience was wonderful.

Parting with the city even temporarily was difficult, but we ventured outside of LP to two different villages. After picking up many bicycles from the songtaew driver's house, hitting a chicken, and getting a flat tire, we arrived no worse for the wear in Nong Khiaw. The mountain scenery was even prettier than what we had seen before and our trip really hit a high note. Jess and I could not shut up about how great Laos is. We explored a cave which sheltered over 100 villagers while the USA dropped bombs on Loas during the Vietnam War. We could see what looked like small lakes dotting the rice paddies, but they were holes left by the bombs. That night, as Jess and I sat on the porch of our bungalow overlooking the Nam Ou, we contemplated why everyone who is able would not want to travel like we were...live out of a backpack, forget the finer things in life...until we went to bed on the equivalent of floor boards with sheets over top. I really mean it this time, THE WORLD'S MOST UNCOMFORTABLE BEDS. The next day, with stiff necks and spasming backs, we packed ourselves into a wooden boat like sardines and went an hour and a half up river to Muang Ngoi Neua. We also hiked to caves there and drank some BeerLao with some other falangs and Penny, the hilarious and talkative guesthouse owner who told long stories about former guests peepeeing the beds.When choosing Penny's place from the Lonely Planet, Jess said, "rat-free or river-view, my girl?" I went for rat-free...but we still had a view of them being grilled-up outside.

Luckily, when we returned to LP yesterday our big backpacks were still under a bench at our guesthouse where we had hidden them two days before. We checked off some last-minute things to do while in LP, did a little shopping at the handicraft market (definately the most laidback of its kind in Asia), and made sure to leave the LP cuisine scene on a high note.
Now that I wrote all that good stuff, your eyes are probably getting tired, so you can stop reading now and spare yourself the negativity.

Since entering Vietnam 4 hours ago, we have been scammed, harrassed, and almost run over many times. Additionally, we attempted to check-in to a hotel that told us they would have a room in 30 minutes. Two hours later, it still was not ready which was fine by us because by that time we had noticed that the Prince Hotel was probably just a nice-looking brothel. Furthermore, the air quality here is waaaaaay worse than in Beijing. Our new German friend told us that spending one day in Beijing is the lung-damage-equivalent of three packs of cigarettes. I think that is an exaggeration, but I want to get my lungs out of here after the must-sees which, by Murphy's Law, are all closed on Mondays, the day we planned for sighseeing in Hanoi. And lastly, gone are the days of endless choices for deliciousness so that making a decision is the hardest part of eating. Instead, we are looking for meatless options in a city that eats dogs. The squirrels in Laos made me a little sad, but I will just die if I see Fido-on-a-stick.

In other news, the conversion rate is 17,634 dong to a dollar, Notre Dame squeaks by again and Jessie Walker turns the big 2-3.

Post Script: since writing this, we have come around on Hanoi a little bit thanks to daylight hours, an upgrade in hotels, and a few good meals. ; )

Hair massacres, slow boats, and other happenings in the lives of Erin and Jess in Thailand and Laos

I'm writing this from the slow boat to Luang Prabang, Laos and indeed it is a slow boat. We boarded around 11 am and will dock around 7 or 8 this evening and then repeat the process tomorrow tacking on a couple hours for a grand total of 18.

The trip has been great and the lack of plans has been going semi-smoothly so far, knock on wood.

Jess arrived in Khon Kaen last Saturday and Neuki took me to the airport to fetch her. Naturally, we headed straight for the mall to eat suki which is Jess's second-favorite meal so far. I showed Jess a bit of my neighborhood and we had a mini planning session before she passed out. That was when we started freaking out about not having enough time in each place and we decided to leave on the night bus Sunday instead of Monday. So, with our new departure looming, we spent Sunday running errands. Jess still got to see my office, meet my Thai tutor and friend Gee, eat another delicious meal, and go back to the mall for some bowling with Neuki, Toffee and Meredith before we got on the 11 hour bus to Chiang Mai.

We arrived around 7am and immediately caught a minibus to Pai. I somehow managed to sleep for 90% of the windy journey through the mountains even after sleeping 9 of the 11 hours from KK to CM. We almost lost our lunches on that same minibus ride on the return trip which makes our sleeping feat on the way to Pai seem all the more incredible.

Pai is there-are-no-words good. It is a tiny town tucked away in the gorgeous mountains of northern Thailand. It is small enough to explore thoroughly on foot in a couple hours, but filled with coffee shops and arts and crafts shops and restaurants so that one could keep him or herself occupied doing nothing there for a while. It is becoming pretty popular with tourists and we did meet some cool ones, but I hope tourism does not ruin the magic of the place like it tends to do in Thailand. We stayed at a place called Aqua Resort and got a pretty good price since it is still low season. It is a really tranquil setting about a mile or 1.5 outside of the town. We got our fairshare of exercise since we did not rent motorbikes like most tourists, and the walks to and from town really allowed us to take in the scenery. Photos of stunning mountains and green rice paddies to follow.

Looking back, we definitely could have stayed in Pai for another day, but we opted to leave after two and a half days since we had seen the whole town, did some hiking, and gotten a good feel for the place...I hope to get back there at some point.

When we got back to Chiang Mai with no guest house reservations, the lack of Peters-planning bit us in the butt. We got stuffed in a dingy and sweltering room on the fifth floor of a stinky guesthouse with the world's most uncomfortable beds. We also had our first bad meal in Thailand that night after wandering for an hour on a quest to find an Indian food place recommended, though we are not sure why, in the Lonely Planet Guide. At least we learned our way around almost all of old Chiang Mai that first night...no better way to get to know a place than to get lost in it! I just recommend doing it in a cooler (temperature) environment and with a less cranky-if-she-has-not-eaten travel buddy.

With most of the bad luck behind us, we moved guest houses in the morning. The upgrade to Julie's brought a much nicer room with it's own bathroom and a crowd of really fun people and a helpful staff (well worth the extra 50 baht). Highlights of our stay in Chiang Mai listed in order of occurrence include:
1. Getting confused for a mother and daughter pair. If that is not funny enough... upon further investigation, I was told that I looked 41 because I have wrinkles around my eyes. Later, Jess did not deny the existence of said wrinkles but acknowledged them as laugh lines...ha ha
2. Our night out at this area referred to (I think by more people than just us) as the reggae garden.
3. Wat Suan Dok which is a temple originally built in the 1300s with a beautiful buddhist cemetery with ornate white stone graves. We sweated up a storm here and needed some refreshing so we headed to...
4. Nimmanheiman Road which is a sort of posh street with cool cafes and shops. We spent an hour playing rapido in iBerry, a quirky little ice cream shop recommended by a friend. For those of you who do not know, rapido is a card game Jess and I have been playing for ages. We are in an ongoing battle of rapido and yahtzee ("kniffel" to the Germans on our boat). After iBerry, we had amazing Thai massages, and to top off our day of indulgences, we proceeded to eat the best meal of our trip so far (yes, we have them ranked. That should not surprise you since Jess and I are into ranking systems and really into food). The place was this Thai vegetarian restaurant and we were the only customers in their trendy and serene little garden.
5. Going to this bar on the river called Brasserie to hear some of the best live music we have heard in a while. The opening band had a female singer with a ridiculous voice and the main attraction was a trio playing classic rock. The guitar player was incredibly talented and so captivating because he was a tiny Thai guy with a huge overbite that gave him the goofiest grin while he performed. It was so funny to hear such a raspy bluesy voice come out of this guy.
6. The Thai cooking course which we arranged at the time it was scheduled to begin...while we were still in bed. After Jess declined to be picked-up by car, we speedily dressed and hauled it a couple blocks on foot to discover we were the only students that day. We began with a market tour to get the ingredients and then went to the kitchen which was outside in a really shaded area. We made so many delicious things (since we do not love fish, there was a lot of chicken on the menu)... Green curry, cashew chicken, fried chicken cakes, red curry chicken baked in banana leaves, tom yam with shrimp, pad Thai, spring rolls and custard inside a pumpkin. It was all delicious and Jess is still talking about how someone cleared away the cashew chicken she was saving for later.
7. Small world experiences. My friend Mary just moved to LA to teach High school English as part of the Alliance for Catholic Education program. Think Freedom Writers. Anyways, Mary's roommate Sean, also an ACE teacher, has a girlfriend who just moved to Thailand to teach. Mary has been saying how well we would get along and encouraging us to make contact with each other via email. No need. As I sat down to write postcards, one of the few American backpackers started chatting with me and it took us about 10 seconds to realize that we had stumbled upon each-other. Her name is Lili and she had two friends with her. Jess and I had a lot of fun with them our last day in the city. I still cannot get over the coincidence.
8. Haircuts. Definitely our poorest decision to date. I have been needing one for ages and have been nervous about the language barrier in Khon Kaen and the precious mane that I had painstakingly grown out for the past two years. Needless to say, it is gone and what is left ain't pretty. I would be complaining more, but Jess had a little more trouble. First, the lady washing her hair got it so tangled that she proclaimed she could not brush it. Four people, including Jess, were needed to comb it out. Have you ever asked to brush your own hair at the salon? The Thai women are not used to foreign hair, but Jess's really threw them for a loop. After all was said and done, Jess had received quite the cut involving many, many inches of golden locks on the floor and a new layered do. It actually looks nice but it was a drastic "trim" and it might make her look a little younger. Oh, when the man guessed 41 for me, Jess got 17 and that was before the haircut. We both agree that our cuts really messed with our images, but lesson learned and it will grow back...by the time I'm 30.
9. Right before the bus to the border, we went to the Saturday walking market which was full of arts and crafts and delicious treats. It was a really good way to end our stay in Chiang Mai. Tourist-activity-wise, we did not do as much as we could have in the city which actually feels like a big town but we know it pretty well now since we explored it all on foot.

This morning, we had some meal issues, including stolen fried rice lunch boxes, inedibly fishy papaya salad and extremely expensive sticky rice that tasted like cement even before we discovered the ants steamed into it. So, besides being hungry and a little uncomfortable on the wooden benches, we are very happy. We are really looking forward to arriving in Luang Prabang, though taking in the scenery for two days on a boat is definitely a good way to see this beautiful place.

Since writing this, we made another day's journey on the boat and arrived in Luang Prabang, or Heaven. After three hours here, we are in love. It is so quaint with it's French colonial architecture and hardly any cars and it is right on the Mekong. There are lots of tourists here, but somehow it is more tasteful tourism than in Thailand. We are so excited to drink delicious coffee, eat French bread, do some trekking, and really just soak up the atmosphere for the next week.

In other news...English Camp Photos

I put up an album of photos from English Camp. I forgot to write about this terrible place we went the last day. I forget the name; it might be The Pattaya Center for Animal Cruelty. We paid to see this awful crocodile show...I am sure the crocs were on tranquilizers. There were tons of tigers and bears and zebras all in really small, smelly cages. It was the most awful place. Anything to make a buck over here.

There are also a lot of photos of students doing this Price is Right obstacle course Meredith and I made. It was pretty hysterical until it got extremely hot and we felt bad making the students do it at all.

There are not too many photos of me (disappointing, I know) but you can see me trying out some Thai poses in a couple near the end. Thai people LOVE to pose for photos and have really funny ways of doing it. I am really bad at it, but in this album you can see me trying to make half of a heart with my arms. That is a favorite one over here. Enjoy!

English Camp (the Aquarium, an obstacle course, and animal cruelty)

Thai Ghost Movies and Flexi Girl

It is my last week of teaching for the semester! How did that happen?!

I spoke to Jess who arrives here next Saturday and I think we will leave for Chiang Mai on the Monday night bus. We are very excited, but not very planned. I think we will have a session when Jess gets here. She is more like her mother and our grandfather than she pretends, so I am confident that we will have some sort of alphabetized-color-coded-calendar-meets-map after a few hours of work. I couldn't think of a better person to be my travel-buddy and I can't begin to imagine what our adventure has in store...Some hiking, eating, three days sitting on wood benches on a "slow boat" to Laos and a lot of sweating with no aircon in Vietnam, I think.

This friday I went to see a Thai movie. It was supposed to be a scary movie. Neuki warned me that I would need her to sleep over for a week after seeing it. Most of you know that I really hate scary movies, but since my coworkers invited me, I thought I should go to advance the friendships and because I didn't want them to know I am a baby. My bodily reaction to fright is to laugh, and I laughed the whole time, but mostly because it was so NOT scary that it was funny. It was about ghosts and karma, and that stuff doesn't usually scare me the way that murderers do. There is also a possessed "Took-Gaaay", which is a big gecko that we have here. I slept alone Friday night and did not wake up sweating in fright at all. I'm so proud of myself. One thing that I forgot to say about Thai movies when I wrote about Harry Potter is that everyone in the theater must stand for this song that honors the king at the beginning of the movie. It's like the Star-spangled Banner before a sports game, I guess. Photos of the King doing good things and scenic landscapes flash while the song plays. Another interesting window into Thai culture.   One more thing, they sell shuttlecocks and ping pong balls at 7-11, how convenient!?  I never knew why they called it a convenient store until now, but I am ALWAYS looking for a shuttlecock.  They don't sell nail polish remover or peanut butter, but who needs those things when you have odd sports paraphernalia? 

Yesterday, Alison, Mere and I went to see "Beijing Acrobatics Show." I had been under the impression that it was associated with the Olympics, but it was not. Anyways, it was really cool, sort of Circe du Soleil-ish. They had four motorcycles inside this little ball driving in circles and upsidedown. Meredith, the physisist, was not as impressed as I was because she could explain how it worked using formulas. Something about the three types of velocity. How boring. There was one girl, "flexi-girl" as Alison called her, who must have had rubber for a spine. At one point, there was a pole on stage with a soft covering on the tip, like a sock or something. Flexi-girl put the sock in her mouth, kicked her legs over her head so far that her gluteus maximi rested on her forehead. Oh, and, all the while she was spinning plates on her legs and arms so the only thing touching the ground was the pole that she had in her mouth. Shannon Traeger, I have some new moves for us to try in couple's yoga.

Tomorrow I am going with the Business English Department to the Pullman Hotel (that's the nice one) for dinner to demonstrate Western manners. My mom sort of freaked out when I told her this. It's drink on the left, bread and fork on the right, start from the inside, put your elbows on the table, chew with your mouth open and put your napkin on your head, right Mom?

This could be my last post before I head out next Monday, but hopefully I can post as I travel. Thanks for reading!

Just put some eggs

I am feeling the pressure to make my blog extremely awesome.  First of all, Mrs. Bannon, my sixth-grade teacher and the cornerstone my English grammar knowledge, is now a loyal follower of this blog.  Secondly, my oh-so-clever-and-remarkably-witty-bestest-pal Abigail Catherine Bertrand Poats is now settling into her Princeton in Asia post in Beijing and she, obviously, has upstaged me with her blog.  It is a lot funnier than mine and I only read the post that she wrote before she left America.  I have a feeling Abby's blog will get increasingly funnier as her Chinese students discover she is the world's most gullible person. God help her. I will include the address if you promise that you will only read her blog in addition to mine because I cannot stand to lose followers.  Plus, I know some of you have just started the monotony of the rest of your lives at a desk and will be looking for things to make it look like you are working.  (Poatsinpeking.blogspot.com)  Third, Magee is in the Dominican Republic for Peace Corps, and although her blog has more grammatical errors than mine, it is filled with wonderful descriptions of her life which seems way more interesting than mine and she has the whole e.e.cummings lowercase style thing going on which really makes her blog cool.  I am super jealous that she speaks Spanish because she has already had more fun encounters with Dominicans than I have had with Thai people in three months.  I REALLY want a charismatic 13-year-old to take me off the street, put curlers in my hair, and play dominoes with me!  

Just now, when I told Neuki that I needed to make my blog extra-super-dee-duper, she said "just put some eggs."  This, I think, is a semi-joke possibly related to a saying in Thailand which might have something to do with the fact that anything is better with an egg on it.  I mean, not everything, but as far as meals go, I agree.  Even before I discovered the Thai obsession with egg which is "kai" in Thai, I had my own love affair with adding a fried egg to everything I could put in my mouth in South Africa....pizza, bananas, croissants with brie, hamburgers, endless possibilities for deliciousness.  I know how to ask for an egg prepared in many different ways in Thai because all Thai food is better with egg.

So, it has been a while since my last post.  I have been busy.  Some of the classes that I was complaining about before have been postponed or cancelled but I have new ones in their places.  I am currently teaching a class on interviewing to Engineers which pretty much consists of me taking things from the ND career center website and giving it to my students, no plagiarism involved.

Last weekend, I was an honorary member of the Business English Department's English Camp in Rayong/ Pattaya.  Pattaya is a beach that is the Thai equivalent of Ocean City.  It is pretty much the armpit of the country, but camp was super fun.  The Business English students speak English very well, so it was nice to actually get to know some students personally.  The older students hazed the freshmen with the typical eating bananas and hard-boiled eggs with chillies inside, painting their faces, rolling in sand, chanting things and weird rules, etc.  There was the standard binge drinking one night, scolding the next morning, and secret drinking the next night.  The last night, after slightly painful skits and karaoke, I was lucky enough to witness the initiation ritual of the faculty.  Of course, I cannot say what it was, but it involved taking care of an egg (more eggs, ha) for the weekend.  The students whose eggs cracked were physically and mentally tortured at the hands of a fourth-year with a megaphone in front of the rest of the upperclassmen who were pretending to be extremely mad about the broken eggs.  I mean, how could the freshmen be trusted in the faculty if they can't take care of an egg??  Tears were shed out of pain and group-bonding and finally all things were made dandy again with candles and singing...typical.  Ms. Frank could have designed the ceremony herself (shout-out GV '05).

Now I am back to the grind in Khon Kaen.  I am really working on my Thai, but the stars have to align for me to be understood.  I have to remember the word, remember which of the five tones it has AND...here's the kicker... actually get that tone to come out of my mouth correctly.  This gets increasingly harder with the number of words I attempt to string together.  BUT I know the days of the week, lots of food, the colors AND...drum roll please... I can write my name, first and last, in Thai!  


This weekend I will judge a debate competition from 8:00 to 4:00 on Saturday and hopefully find time to clear the mud I have on my pig's tail, meaning grade a ton of papers.  I also need to do some serious planning because my adventure begins in three weeks.  Jess arrives the 19th and we will set out as soon as possible.  I cannot wait.

Love you all.  Choop choop.  Kiss kiss.
เอริน(Erin) เมอร์ฟื (Murphy)

Typing that name just took me longer than writing the whole rest of the blog!

Photos

Here is the link to my photos. Right now, I cannot seem to make them turn the right directions. Sorry!

Erin is in Thailand!!!

Not much is going on in my world right now. Thailand has beautiful butterflies and nothing to dry your hands with after you wash them in the bathroom.

I have to run or else I will miss the last bus!

Saturday, August 25th. I'm on a bus to Bangkok again with a belly full of all my favorite Thai treats: fried rice, frozen coffee, and roti. We even had a send-off/standard-Saturday mall trip for ice cream, but I practiced self control and watched the crew eat the sundaes this time. The word ice cream in Thai is "I-deem" like ice cream with a weird Thai adaptation. Computer is "khom piew duh" with the accent on the third syllable. There are a lot of these sorts of words in Thai and they make me laugh because the emPHASis is truly on the wrong sylLABle. Usually, the last one. BrowNIE and cooKIE!

I just fell down the stairs while descending from the upper level of this bus in a desparate dash for the hong nam. The bathroom on the bus is best characterized as tolerable, yet avoidable, if possible. It's not the worst I have seen which was in a bus station in Malawi but that's another blog entry. Anyways, embarrassment takes on a whole new personality here. Thai people will do anything to "save face" and therefore no one even laughed at (or with) me after the fall; they just avoided eye contact while I awkwardly giggled and assessed the damages which, by the way, are fairly minor but a little painful. I hope the people on the bus at least laughed to themselves at my expense. I might be reading too far into this, but the fall has shaken me to the core. You see, lately, everything has been going my way. Almost scarily so. I'll silently or not so silently complain about something and POOF! Problem miraculously solved. I have been saying that when and if my luck does a 180, I am in huge trouble. I sure hope my little spill isn't a sign from God that the game is up.

This was an extremely busy week at school because I was trying to get grades finished, prepare my 103s for their midterm, and prepare for the week when I get back. I am scheduled to teach some extra classes this coming block. One should be easy because there is no curriculum and it's only on Monday mornings. It's sort of a summer camp for Vietnamese students. The other, though, is a course on how to give presentations for the Commitee for Social and Economic Development (of Thailand??). Consdering I happened to major in those two disciplines, I can see where one miiiight assume I am qualified to teach this course. Whoever "one" is has no idea that I can BARELY work PowerPoint and generating a graph from Excel may as well be rocket science. I kid, but it should be interesting. It's two hours every night for a week which is not what I am used to either. Normally, I am more a messenger of a predesigned and inflexible curriculum than a teacher. To make next week's matters more interesting, or annoying, the curriculum for my beginning speaking and writing classes completely neglects to account for midterms week. Rather, the syllabus pretends the students will be in school as normal, learning up a storm. In reality, my naksuksas will be taking tests and then flocking home to various destinations. Since a writing block is only 6 classes and a speaking block 8, that's a fairly significant portion and those classes will definately have to be rescheduled in our "free time.". You try coordinating a good time for extra classes with 40 college students who don't speak English.

Hopefully you guys are not getting bored with the entries. I did not intend on writing again until post-Koh Samui, but I darted out of my room in a whirlwind and I forgot a book...and deodorant, but that problem's been solved already. If those are the only two things, I'll be surprised and relieved. I do have my camera this time though!

August 1:
So, turns out my luck has not run out. Powerpoint 101 has been rescheduled for a few weeks from now, giving me ample time to prepare...and this past week has been wonderful. As I write this, I am half way between the pool and the ocean on a stunning beach on Koh Samui. I woke up early this morning to kiss Jessie and Alicia goodbye with my stinky moning breath, as Jessie said, and caught some more Zs before my last visit to the complimentary breakfast buffet.

Before Samui, Jessie, Alicia and I spent two days seeing the sights in Bangkok. Sunday, we went to Chatuchak market and I was able to use my Thai bargaining skills (which just so happen to have been the subject of last weeks tutoring lesson) to help Jessie acquire a beautiful wall hanging and Alicia score a really cool and equally large ring. We explored Khao San road, the backpackers' area, where I would have had us staying if the idea of me picking the sleeping arrangments didn't freak Jessie's and Alicia's parents out so much. But really, I was overjoyed at the digs that the Billings and Walkers chose. Monday, we went to Wat Pho to see the reclining Buddha, which is 46 meters long. We also saw Wat Arun, which is an amazing temple made of ornate pieces of porcelain which broke in transit from China. We visited Jim Thompson's house as well. Jim Thompson was an American who came to Southeast Asia during WWII. Though he was an architect, he was also a savvy businessman and he is credited with exposing Thai silk to Western fashion markets. After his mysterious disappearance in 1967, his house was turned into a musuem and houses beautiful art and furniture from all over Asia. Can you tell we took a tour? The rest of our time in Bangkok was spent eating in our hotel which was right on the river and had a great view or at other various eateries and navigating our way around the city on the skytrain or in taxis, half speaking English and half attempting Thai.

On Tuesday we came to Koh Samui which is an island in Southern Thailand. It is very developed and a little too toursity in some parts but you can imagine why. It's gorgeous. The island is popular with backpackers and offers a pretty happening night scene. Its also equally popular with families and honeymooners and the swanky resorts definately outnumber the hostels.

Jessie, Alicia and I may as well have been old ladies most days. We usually just lounged on the beach in front of our hotel which was tucked into a little cove, more private and removed from the rest of the bustling Chaweng Beach. We picked places to eat out of my Lonely Planet and we were never disappointed. One night, we saw a cabaret show put on by the ladyboys that Thailand is famous for. Yesterday, we took a boat to Ko Tao, another gorgeous island, which is less developed because its harder to get to. J and A snorkeled while I scuba dove. It was fantastic. Hands down the most amazing coral I have ever seen, great visibilty, warm water and I had a divemaster all to myself.

I was so sad to say bye to my pals, but all the R and R I have been getting is giving me a guilty conscience. I am excited to get back to Khon Kaen.

Harry Potter and Buttered Privates

I am currently in my office even though it's Sunday afternoon. At KKU when there is a holiday like two weeks ago classes have to be rescheduled. I did my best to reschedule as few as possible but the classes I missed twice needed a make-up, so today was the day. In my last class, Speaking 101, my students who are studying in the faculty of Medicine turned in a homework assignment. The assignment was to list names of food that correspond to different countries. Silly, I know, I did not think of it. I knew the students would use the Internet for help because how else are they going to know the English names for Korean foods and French foods, etc. I told them that was fine as long as they did not copy. I got a couple "jumbo combos, "Hardrock nachos," "Fantasy 12. Oz Burgers" and other obvious misunderstandings coming from copying from English menus. The kicker was when I got to the Chinese food section and found "butter many privates" and "France many privates" on many students' papers. Haaaaahaaaaa. I have no idea how this happened but I laughed till I cried and it made Sunday class totally worth it.

Yesterday, Meredith, Neuki, Ing, Pi Lenk and I went to see Harry Potter (in English) in Udon Thani, which is about an hour or two away depending on who drives. Ing drives like my mom and Pi Lenk drives like my dad and if you have ever been in a car with either you will know what I am talking about. Although it might sound crazy to drive that far for a movie, my coworkers said the crazier part was seeing a movie with the swine flu running rampant in these parts. Took my chances, I suppose.

I ate breakfast with Neuki who told me after I had ingested 75% of my fried rice and fried egg that we would be eating again when we arrived to Udon. We went to a great Vietnamese food place then to the mall for Harry. The theater was really nice and the tickets cost us 140 baht, which is 4.5 USD. There are seats for 120, but we decided to splurge for the extra arm room. They offer candy and popcorn like the USA, but you can get many flavors of popcorn and the prices are only slightly inflated compared to the food and drinks outside the theater. The movie was good and it was a nice escape for three hours. After the movie, we took hilarious photos in one of those booths (probably a breeding ground for H1N1) and then headed home.

Other than that, it was a fairly normal week. I have been busy catching up on grades which are due in a week and preparing my students for their midterms. I will have more visitors during midterm week when Jessie and Alicia will pop into Thailand before heading to China. We will go on some fun beach excursion and you will hear about it afterwards. How lucky am I?

My Thai is progressing very slowly but it's ok. I have 30 new vocab words to memorize for my next session with Gee, my tutor, and each one liberates me a little more.

"Wanee sanook maak" which means today was a very fun day and you can say it when you are saying goodbye.

Rak maak,
Ting Tong

P.S. I said Ellen last time because some Thai people pronounce Erin like Ellen so I introduce myself like that to some people now. BUT everyone has a nickname in Thailand and I want to be "Ting Tong" which means crazy, but not necessarily in a bad way. Maybe like Ding Dong. Ching Chong means pee pee, so I have to be careful.

P.P.S. Some of you will be happy to know that Neuki has begun to call me Bear. It makes me feel at home. Most often, she precedes "Bear" by "Gummy." Although its a little endearing, I think it could also be in reference to the kilos I have been packing on. I REALLY like the food!

Koh Chang Slideshow

Living on a VIP bus

Where to begin when there's so much to say. I write this from my seat on the VIP bus to Bangkok where I have spent most of my time in the last week.

Last Friday, Meredith and I left Khon Kaen in the afternoon and arrived at the crazily crowded pre-Thai-Buddhist-Lenten-holiday Bangkok bus station at night. We followed the only westerner in sight in order to borrow the police officer that she had commandeered who apparently spoke enough English to guide her to her destination. After five minutes of pointing on maps and saying Koh Chang (pronounced "Chung") in as many tones as I could, we were led to the ticket booth. We waited around a little, were led through a small hole in a chain link fence, over a small trash dump, through a stray dog village and finally aboard the overnight bus to Trat where we'd catch the first ferry in the morning. I slept a little but it was hard because nightmares of sliding off the road in a monsoon were only partly dreams. After a fairly short but very moist songtau ride from where the bus dropped us, Meredith and I arrived at the ferry station where we were greeted by the first familiar faces I had seen since Chelsea's departure.

To backtrack a little, Christina and I have been living parallel lives for the past couple years. I met her in the study abroad office on our way out the door to South Africa and ran into her in glorious Cape Townian places like the streets of Mowbray, outside Babbo in Obs and most gloriously on the top of Lion's Head where we watched the sun set over the ocean and the full moon rise over the city last April. Back at ND our lives continued in this fashion with sporadic run-ins in not quite so glorious places. To make a long story short, Christina and her friend from home Danielle who I had met more than once (if the line for Fever and Pigtostal count) are teaching outside Bangkok alongside Clare who is a friend from St. Mary's College that I have known since freshman year. Clare, Danielle and Christina adopted us into their little posse of travelers teaching at Assumption University. Initiation began with beer for breakfast courtesy of Clare. Surprise me. (You can't hate it when you miss me so badly, can you roomies?) I cannot possibly explain how nice it was to be in a group of people who speak English as their first language and share a similar sense of humor. I laughed until I cried many times on the trip and there were some peed pants, though I can't say whose. I'm quite a bit more homesick, or peoplesick really, after the trip but equally as excited for all the travels that lay ahead. Yay!

I should not even try to describe how beautiful Koh Chang is. Google it. It's the gorgeous beaches and green jungles jutting out of the crystal blue waters that pop into a person's head when they hear "Thailand". Cheesy sounding, i know, that's why I should not have tried. Places like KC are pretty much the reason I wanted to come to SE Asia. I forgot my camera as I am known to do when I am going to see amazing things like thirty elephants cross the road to go swimming, ten lions lounging in the sun, or the entire city of Beijing, China and the Olympic Games. We had some serious amateur photographers in our crew so I'll get some pics ASAP and I miiiiiiiight be in some of them.

One day we hiked to a waterfall. This one put Tad Ton to shame. I again risked my life savings, or my parents', scaling algae covered rocks protruding out over jagged ledges and rushing water which I am sure is a danger outside my health insurance coverage. FYI Dad freshwater is dangerous because of crazy diseases I could catch... But I think only if it's stagnant. And there are 200 suspected cases of swine flu in Khon Kaen and all the dangerous places are marked with signs written in Thai...so I am in grave danger anyways. I think I might follow suit and get a mask.

Sorry. Back on track. We stayed two places. The first was a collection of straw huts on a pristine beach called Khlong Prao. I have seen some sickeningly beautiful beaches this year between Mexico and Costa Rica and this one is right up there. Absolutely awesome. Spectacular. Thesaurus needed. The place had delicious food but not much around it and we went to the more built-up White Sand to go out at night. I spent my 4th of July on a carpet on a beach watching a fire show. It was certainly more celebratory than eating Indian food and watching movies in Uganda which is what I was doing last year, but not quite sparklers and ice cream sandwiches at Lake Barcroft. I did rock my American flag tee shirt though.

I did not think things could get much better but I was wrong again. Twice as much per night, now an exorbitant nine dollars, bought us air-conditioned rooms with clean sheets, shampoo and toilet paper provided. AND a complimentary American breakfast. Toast!! We had a ridiculous view from our bungalow and spent our days on the beach or by the pool and our nights at the cool hostels and bars that dot the coastline and decorate the town of Lonely Beach. It has a very laid back traveler kind of vibe. Needless to say, I could have stayed for a while longer or maybe forever if I did not have all of you blog-readers to come home to or the guilt of having to make something of myself after paying ND tuition.

So I got back to Khon Kaen Wednesday night at 11 and I am half way back to Bangkok and it's Friday at 8. Tomorrow Alison and I are seeing Mae Naak which is a Thai musical about ghosts. Should be interesting. My goal is to not regret the semi-hefty ticket purchase which occurred a while ago...before I knew I would have just returned from an adventure and before I got used to the Thai baht. I am hoping to get to see some of my new found friends who spend their weekends in Bangkok. I can see this Friday night VIP bus thing becoming a pattern which is okay by me. Picture first class on an airplane. Uh huh there are even flight attendants and massage chairs. I'm eating a donut and there are certainly no chickens plucking at my little toes or dead fish on strings hanging over my head.

I know this was a long one but I am sure it took you waaaaaay less time to read it than it took me to write it...ON MY PHONE. Especially because the man next to me and I are having Thai lessons. I now know the word for divorced if yahhhhknowhatImeeeeeean. He just motioned asking for my phone number but does not speak a word of English, haahaaa.

It is now Saturday night and I am finally publishing this from my really cool hostel in Bangkok. The city is really really cool and the play was very entertaining. It was three and a half hours long, which was a little crazy, but I think it would have been out of this world if I spoke Thai. We did a boat tour today and I brought my camera so photos to follow. I did get to see my new posse of American friends which was very nice. I am glad they don't live in Khon Kaen because it's too easy to be with them. I would get complacent about my Thai...which is progressing. I had my first conversation in Thai while on Koh Chang and it was one of the most gratifying things I have accomplished in a long time.

Mucho rak,
Ellen ... which is what I may as well be named.

Post Script: my apologies for all of the passive voice and run-on sentences. I know only a handful of you care but I cannot be bothered with your opinions right now, even as an English teacher. I'd change it but I would be risking early onset arthritis in my thumbs.