Yes, the year is now 2552 according to the buddhist calendar, and I hope it will be an auspicious one. It started off in the company of two of my favorites-- Vinny and Courtney. As a preamble to the following post, I want to say that despite the less-than-fantastic weather and other snafus of this trip, I still had a fabulous time on the island, relaxing, EATING, exploring, getting massages, having 'girl time,' and dancing. It was an absolute struggle for Courtney and I to find our way down to Ko Tao, to the point where both of us (I think) [View Full Entry]

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I got an interesting assortment of gifts at school this year. Most interesting of all was the gift from the director. She was handing out these sort of fancy health tonics and she gave me a little box containing two. There was a picture of something tan on the label and just as I was about to conclude that it was ginger, the director said that I didn't think I could have that one since I am a vegetarian. She traded me for two prune-flavored tonics. I was really perplexed by this exchange until I figured out that the tonics she [View Full Entry]

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On Sunday night soon after I got back from Bangkok and was settling back into being “home,” a tremendous noise began outside in the street. I went out on the balcony to see what the deal was, and I could see that across the way there was a performance of some sort going on that sounded suspiciously like Chinese opera (high-pitched voices, clanging that sounds like trash cans are being banged together, etc.). I knew I should go check it out, but I was really tired after the weekend and not really in the mood. I reminded myself that I am [View Full Entry]

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Back to Bangkok for more adventures, this time accompanied by one of my favorite travel companions-- Vinny! She and I have made appearances together in France, Holland, Switzerland, Germany, Italy, Guatemala, Belize, Charleston, Colorado, San Francisco, and now Thailand! Vinny's flight got in around 5:30 PM on Friday and I headed up directly after school on the bus. I made it to the eastern station in record time (1 hr., 20 minutes), but then it took me 2 hours to get across Bangkok to rendezvous with Vinny at our guest house, Rambuttri Village Inn, near Khaosan Road!!! I took a city [View Full Entry]

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For the majority of December, Christmas didn’t really enter into my consciousness. There were a few Christmas decorations here and there at department stores and at school, but nothing like the full-blown holiday bonanza, from pre-Thanksgiving onward, that it would be at home. The weather also didn’t help give me the holiday feeling, since it is continuously warm and balmy, a constant August feeling that makes it more difficult for me to mark the passage of time. In the mornings before school they play children’s music over the P.A. system, which is a nice touch, I thi [View Full Entry]

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Ok, so they’re not actually monkeys, but I call everything that is a primate (other than gorillas and orangutans), monkeys. I think most people probably do that (?) Anyway, I went to Khao Yai National Park on Saturday to escape the concrete jungle and get back into nature, of the forest variety. Khao Yai was the first national park in Thailand, established in 1962. It’s home to tons of different species of plants and wildlife, including tigers (just a handful left), bears, wild boars, snakes, lizards, birds, gibbons, and macaques, among many others. It is also an important hab [View Full Entry]

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Today I went to Cambodia for about an hour and then crossed back into Thailand. Why, you may ask? I had to leave the country (any other country would do, but Cambodia is the closest) to get another 90-day stamp in my passport. Or did I? It’s all very confusing and convoluted, and for every different official (bureaucrat) or non-official outsider you ask, you get a different answer. I have a one-year visa, which is why I was given 90 days off the bat, instead of the regular 30 days that tourist visas afford, but why, then, did I have to [View Full Entry]

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Why does whiter skin usually equate to more beauty (in the eyes of the majority) and more privileges, in every country on earth, no matter what the official anti-discrimination policy? There is a nation-wide obsession here with having light skin. Whitening creams, powders, and soaps line the shelves of every store. In fact, at the cosmetics chain, Oriental Princess, I had a hard time finding a cleanser that didn’t have whitening agent it. Actually I gave up and went elsewhere to get it. People also use umbrellas to protect themselves from the sun on sunny days. Curiously enough, ho [View Full Entry]

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Saturday was the big night--the night that every student at our school had been practicing for for over a month. The annual event is a big party/fundraiser for the school and each and every class does a dance. It was a full-on dance show with intricate costumes and hair-dos, as well as make-up and glitter hair for both girls and boys. A lot of the little girls came looking just like little Thai Jon-Benet Ramseys in that beautiful doll-like creepy way that little girls look when they are heavily made up. The place was packed with students and their families. The [View Full Entry]

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I made it over to Ko Si Chang (a little island off of Sri Racha) all in one piece yesterday, though I had my doubts at first. The ferryboat seemed to be packed just about to capacity. I asked to sit on the deck with a ragtag group that looked like refugees, rather than in the available seats on the bottom level. You know how passenger ferryboats in developing countries are always sinking and all. I’m a pretty good swimmer, but I might not get a chance at it if I’m trapped below decks, so I wanted to give myself a [View Full Entry]

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