ambtraveler

Bangkok: January 2012

It seems like forever ago I landed at the Bangkok airport at the ungodly hour of 3am, to begin my traveling journey throughout SE Asia. Ironically, Jack and I were on the same flight with fellow Changsha teachers out of the beloved homeland, and it helped with all of the waiting. Once we arrived in Bangkok, we had to wait three hours till any type of transportation into the city began running again. We chowed on some goodness from a FamilyMart, all in eager anticipation of what was to come. When Jack and I finally arrived at our hostel, HI Suhkumvit, it was about 7:30 am and I was itching for some shut eye and shower. Of course, we were not allowed to check in and get our room till noon, forcing us back out into the loud, noisy, and hot city. We decided to just begin walking around and find stuff to do along the way.

Jack and I began our meandering and somehow ended up at the Jim Thompson House. Basically, Jim Thompson was an American who fell in love with Thailand and began the Thailand silk trade and then vanished without a trace in Malaysia during the 1960’s. it was a cool little museum and tour and helped waste the hours away. Our next stop was for lunch at a highly recommended joint called Cabbages and Condoms. Basically, all of the decorations and statues were made out of condoms. The restaurant was started as an initiative to curb the spreading of HIV that Thailand struggles with everyday. We had a hot, filling meal of Thai food and then headed back to the hostel. Finally able to check in and settle, we relaxed for a bit before venturing back out for a dinner stop and some Muay Thai boxing. The boxing tent was intense, with a few rounds ending in KO’s and competitors leaving on stretchers, but the locals loved it all, betting and gambling their hard earned Baht away.

Day 2 a nice slow pace day, everyone needs one of those after being thrown into a new country and city. Jack and I made out to get out Vietnamese visas at the embassy and were able to pick them up later in the day, for an extra charge of course. Then we headed to the Chinatown area to check out a temple and golden buddha. Of course, we never ended up there. As many as you know, Jack is one of  the friendliest and easy going persons I know, and in Asia that gets taken advantage of very easily. As we were trying to get our bearings after exiting the subway station, we were approached by a nice Thai local. He asked where we wanted to go and we told him. “Oh, that is closed right now because the monks are having a ceremony.” and we completely fell for it. Within the matter of minutes we were in a tuk-tuk, our first one at that, on our way to partake in a river cruise along the chao praya river in a long tail boat. We paid about 1700 Baht and wasted an hour cruising up and down the river, looking at temples, the little canals and Bangkok craziness. We needed to waste an hour so it worked out ok but after looking at other tours, we probably overpaid by 500 baht or so. These scams are everywhere! We hurried back to the embassy, grabbed our passports and then went back to the hostel. We met up with a group of friends we made and got some street dinner and then headed out to see the town. Jack dragged to gogo bar/ lady bar street which was an experience. Soo many old white men. Gives me chills just thinking about it.

Day 3 was our most jammed pack day yet. We did the two main temples, Wat Po and the Royal Palace. They were absolutely gorgeous!! But also lots of people and very hot since I had to wear sleeves and pants to these places. Each place took a good hour of our time, if not more with us stopping in between for some grub. We ended the evening with sitting at a rooftop bar, watching the sunset along the river. Once again, GORGEOUS. If you haven’t seen my photos on facebook, check them out. I think we just chilled at the hostel that night with out friends and talked, drank some Leos, Singhas and Changs and then headed off to bed. I was exhausted.

Our last day or should say morning/afternoon consisted of getting a blind thai massage. It was quite the experience and I really didn’t know what to expect. We had clothes on and head these little blind men sitting  and prodding us in weird ways. At the end of my one hour, my massuer completely cracked my back both ways, what an ending. Jack and I then packed up and shipped off to our next destination of Chonburi for a meet up with Jill and Sarah. We will leave the rest of my Thailand adventures to the next one….

Stay tuned!

Top ten: You know you live in China when…

1. Seeing a skinned dog in the market doesn’t have the affect on you it should.
2. Watching mothers’ hold their kids as they urinate into a trashcan on the bus.
3. Having cigarette smoke blown into your face at any venue and on any mode of transportation is the norm.
4. Always carrying toilet paper and planning outfits according to squatting capabilities. 
5. Dousing your food with la jiao (spicy peppers).
6. Crossing the street is a life or death situation and the number of scrapes with death continues to rise.
7. Getting asked to have your photo taken is an everyday activity.
8. Being told you are beautiful when you are most certaintly not looking your best.
9. You become a pusher in any crowd situation.
10. Getting rides from strangers is O.K.

Oh December…

So after just hitting the 4 month mark, I have a very busy month ahead of me!!

4 more weeks of teaching… 4 more long weeks of teaching because I feel numerous scheduling changes happening similar to this week.

Movies to Hobbies to Christmas and then Review and a Test! I have decided to give tests and grades to all my oral English classes. That’s ten classes to grade and roughly 600 students. But, I feel that my students need to see that oral English is important and needs to be taken seriously, therefore they will be getting grades ranging from A+ to B+ since a B is considered the Asian F. I don’t want any parent calls…

Then there is the holiday and birthday celebrations! Christmas weekend is filled with Patty and Tom’s Birthday, lunch buffet, party, gift exchange and more.

The following weekend is another birthday celebration, our liasion’s chinese wedding and New Year’s.

Also have assignments due, classes to observe and a month long trip to plan!

We leave for SE Asia in less than a month. I don’t even know where to begin. During all of this I also want to find time to really buckle down and study Chinese, lesson plan profusely and reorganize my life! Ahh, where does the time go? 

So this is winter…

Winter has finally arrived here in China, but without the typical holiday festiveness in the air. Holidays are the hardest time while living abroad and you need to make sure you find ways to make it your own. As I sit here, freezing my little buns off because China has yet to discover central heat or insulation, and because winter in Changsha consists of rain, lots of it and a constant temp between 39-45 degrees F, I realize I am still happy to be here. This past week was Thanksgiving and although it felt weird and not nearly like a normal Thanksgiving, it was still special.

Thursday, I taught my two classes of students, who were very eager to learn about Thanksgiving, (Gan En Jie) and even gave me gifts and cards to share their appreciation for Miss Alyssa. It really moved me and made me realize how much of an impact I have on these childrens’ lives and how important it is they grow up knowing more than what they are surrounded by. After class, Jack and I hopped on our usual gyspy bus to big bus route and made our way into downtown for an expensive but much needed all you could eat Thanksgiving dinner buffet at the Sheraton hotel.

We were joined by thirty of our closest friends here in China. It was truly enjoyable. Everyone indulged on turkey, mashed potatoes, wine, desserts, real coffee,chocolate fountatin, pretzels and the list could go on. We spent close to 5 hours just talking, laughing and fulfilling the waiguoren stereotype to its fullest, including a dessert eating contest off spoons. (see below)

Everyone filled their bellies to their fullest and just enjoyed each others company with the make shift family we have created. Friday, thank god China does not do Black Friday, was filled with relaxing, sleeping and once again a nice evening with friends for dinner and games. Saturday, we headed off bright and early to Hengyang for our 2nd Thanksgiving celebration with all of WorldTeach. We had a fun train ride, playing cards and loosing yuan as the Chinese men watched over our shoulders, curious of our actions.

Our fellow volunteers, Julie and Lisa, opened up their homes, kitchens and hearts to all of us lonely waiguoren and delivered us a feast we could never forget. We had stuffing, mashed potatoes, corn, KFC, pasta, beans, and some apple cobbler to top it off. The rest of the evening was spent relaxing, playing games and snuggling up with one and another. Of course there was lots of wine, beer and bai jiu involved and a hard nights sleep on the floor, but it was a Thanksgiving I will never forget.

All of our shoes….

Now Christmas is fastly approaching and our Spring Festival vacation. It’s hard to believe four months of this journey is over. Time flies in China. However, as I said during our chessy what are you thankful game: I am thankful for the wonderful opportunity WorldTeach has provided for me, the wonderful people I have met and befriended and experiencing it all with the charming bf. 

Look forward to some posts about Christmas, attending a chinese wedding and the adventures of  J&A in Southeast Asia during Spring festival. It should be entertaining to say the least.

Until then, stay warm everyone!