so i missed my buss stop, and i find my self trudging through downtown nam phong trying to get to my hose, when i take stock of myself,
i realize
1 im carrying a massive backpakers backpack full of wet clothes and my guitar
2 i havent showered like 2 days
3 ive got jungle mud in my hair and on my clothes
4im wearing the cleanest clothes ive got (which are not clean at all)
5 i smell terrible
6 my nalis are painted
7 ive gotta be at a meeting in one hr to renw my visa, or i get sent home
8 the last thing i ate was boilded chicken feet over 15 hours ago
9 and i couldent be happier
how did i get in this position
well let me enlighten you
(and mom dont worry i made it to the meeting)
so this week was pretty much the same as the last, only i finnaly started to take thai lessons my name in thai is
the lessons are ok, im still learning the alpha bet, theres 47 characters! so it might take a while!
anyways, at the end of the week,i was told i was going to some trip with the other exchange students, we really didnt know where we were going at all, but we had an ideqa that we were going camping and i was kinda afraid of what that ment, seeing as we were in thailand, and the only place we could really camp was the jungle!
so friday, i went to khon kaen to stay the night with the other exchange students and leave in the morning, so that night, we went to this carnavale that was going on at the lake, first we lit candles in these bouquts, and floated them down the lake(its a buddhist tradition and looked beautiful) they only do it twice a year, then and in november!
then we had the brilliant idea to go into a haunted house thing that was set up,
for those of you who know me, you know that underneath this manly physique im pretty much a pansy, so anyways w go in and they have things dropping from the celings (which are scary on its own) but the scariest thing there was this thai dude who had bones painted on this body(there was a blacklight on) who chased and came pretty close to molesting me until i threw that thai carnie into some 12 year olds and ran away!
ok i over reacted, but theres nothin scarier that a thai carnie!
the next morning we left and had a very long boribng bus ride to some ladys house, well actually they played some movie that was dubbed in thai, and those kind of movies are hillarious !(all the voices sound the same
hmmm when we got there it was a massive house, but what really drew my attention was thw yard, beside its beaing huge and full of plands fountains and a gazeebo, there were about ten little two man tents piched uyp all ove the lawn!
so i guess i didnt have to worry about the tigers, as much as i had to worry about the sprinkler system!
after exchanging pleasentries with our hosts we took off again to visit this massive resort(owned by the lady who owned th house) and our rotary guides decided, that instead of sleeping in the tents weed stay there, (finne by me!)
so after that we went out hiking, which led us to this massive river that we were alowed to plya in!
so pretty much i have to ad mit i am now ryan the rver king, becasue basically i forded the freezing watters and when i got suck, i actually CLIMBED VINES THAT WERE HANGING FROM A TREE and swung to the side of a massive iverturned tree, climbed the stump(it was like a ten foot climb in serious!!!!) and used the thing as a bridge to get to the other side!!!!!!!!
oh yeah i felt like freakin' indianda jones!!!!!!
after my conquest we went to a memorial for a some battle ontop of this one hill, it was awesome it overlooked the valley down below, and the place was absolutly increadible!
later that night we had dinner at the resort then all the exchange students went to a spot by the lake to hang out, play guitar and cards,snd after that, i was walking back to my room with my guitar when i ran into this dude with a guitar, he asked me if i wanted to play with him, i said sure, we started talking and his nmae was ryu(awesomw, just like street fighter!!!) he lives in bkk, hes chinnesse and has been playing guitar for 13 years and let me tell you this dude was amazing!!!
he was a little bit drunk, and he would periodically take his shirt off to play certain songs, but he was so cool!
the funny thing was he could play amazingly and everything, but he didnt know any of the words to the american songs,hed just make up words that ryhmed, so id sing and play my guitar like a jimbae, while he shredded his way through tears in heavean, texas flood, hotel california(this son had an awesome drum part that was fun to play) wonderwall, and just tons more, around midnight, i was tierd, so i said sawahdee krup and left him to his shirtless guitar playing and went to bed!
the next morning right befoer we took off to go hiking again i ran into Ryu again, words to me were ryan, i think im a little sick, was i drunk last night?"
i laughed and told him yes, and piled into the van to go to this waterfall!
when w got there, we foud out the place had a cave, so we went to explore, this place was huge, it went about 10km into the mountain, we couldent go the whole way, cause the thai dude that was leading us said that rains made it flodded!
but the part that we went to was amazing, there were bats, stalagtite/mites and in some spots was pitch-cant-see-your-hand-infront-of-your-face-balck!
after we left the cave we wentout to swim in the waterfall, and inderneath the fall, we found an underwater cave and it was soooo cool!(we carved out intitals on the wall!)
so we swam and fed the fish and swung on vines for a couple of hours before we headded home,thuis time to the tents, after dinner some monks came to pray the lady wo owns the houses mom, she died 100 days ago, and its tradition for monks to come and pray after 100 days, pretty sweet!
after that the five of us(sarah, maria, freya and cart(art is our thai friend hes cool)) started to get bored hangin out...
this is where i got my nails painted...
pink and lime green, the girls all agreed that i have very pretty feet, so i went ahead with the toenails too(i had to remove the paint on my finger nails for the meeting, but the toes remaim!)
after that we went hunting for fire flys, but wereunsuccesful in our mission and went to bed losers....
the next morning i woke up and had a breakfast of dragonfruit(its this awesome fruit thats pink and green on the outside, but white black on the inside! delicious!)
and we left to go and visit some mountain temples, the second one was way up in the mountains, and had this old monk that was literaly tatooed head to toe in charge.
then we went to another waterfall, this one was even cooler thatn before this one we had to wike over this rock bed, but the cool thing was that the rock bed wasnt total rock, it was more like honeycombed rock bridge that is 10 feet over the raging water, you had to hop from rock to rock to get to the water fall, until we got to the water falland climbed down to the bottem and swam for a while, after that we were allowed to ride in th back of this safari like pickup as it took us the 20km to the highway, the waterfall was in the middle of a valley, so to get out we had to go over a mountain or two, and every bend we turned around was higher than the last, and the view just kept on getting better and better as we flew(i really mean that this driver was nuts!)across the mountainside, calling out to the villagers!
after that we were all beat, so we got back in the vans and drove home, we got back to khon kaen around 8 o clock, and i was exhasted, so i stayed the night at carts house, and he showed me his favorite food, and that is, gai tao, boiled chicked feet!!!!!
they actually werent half bad, considering i was eating skin and cartilage, kinda tasted like chiken!
i imeadiatly konked out abd woke up late, threw on dirty clothes and hauled myself into the bus(th "busses" are actually pickups with benches and roofs on them)and well thats my story, you know the end already!
hmmm oh yeah a thai word/ phrase
oh hers one i use often!
"ไปนอน"
"pai nohn krup/kaa" (kaa if your a girl and krup if your a dude)
what it means is
"im goin to bed!"
i use it alot, cause welll... i get tierd!
there you go another thai lesson!
well that about sums it up
oh i met a girl,
but i bet you dont want to hear about that though
till nex time!
ryan
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Monday, October 22, 2007
an adventure cut short
ok so last time I left off, I had just gotten into Bangkok,
so heres what happened, so I got there the first night, ind I had 2items of business that I had to take care of,
1ticket(for te concert)
2 a place to stay, so I was supposed to stay with another exchange student, but he was called away last minite to go to an English camp early the next morning(he would miss the concert)
so after I go there, I met up with him, got my ticket, and set out looking for a place fot me to stay the week, “I know he says, you cvan stay on khosarn road!
(khosarn road is basically were all the backpackers stay, it’s a road with youth hostels and shops, its like a major street party!
Sop when we arrived there, I was blown away! It was like dreadlocks and sandals as far as the eye could see, this was hippie central(I LOVED IT!!!)
There were shops, resturaunts and dance clubs all down the road, so we set out to look for a hostel for me to sleep in,when we finnaly found one, it was called the MARCO POLO YOUTH HOSTEL, and was 300 bhat a night(like 9 bucks, also the room had a/c which I paid alittle extra for, so my friend and I went to see the room after i checked in(in hindsight we probably should have looked at it BEFORE i checked in)
we got to the room to see it, i opened the door and burst out laughing!
the room was entirely taken up by the bed inside, there was a 2x2 square for the door to swing in to stand on, but other than that, the room was a bed!
then i turned to look at the bathroom, first off there was no door it was a broom closet with a toilet in the middle(no sink) so i was puzzled, "where was the shower?"
i looked up, and a shower head was poking out the wall right over the toilet!
talk about 2 birds with one stone!
haha!
so whatever, its a place to sleep, and it does have a/c so itll do...
after that alex and i walked down the road, just taking in the sights, things like that, after dinner we went to a to some dance place, that was fun, after dancing like crazy with wierd thai people till like 3am
we went our seperate ways, me to my cubicle, and him to his acutally nicer and cheaper room across the road, the next day id try to change hostels and get his room.
so i woke up early the next day bought banna waffles from some old lady in the street for breakfast, and got a new room across the road, since i was in bangkok, i decided to go and see the city, and see the sights, and the best way to to get aroud is the bts.
whats the bts?
im glad you asked
i think it stand for bangkok transport system, or "Big Train in Sky" or sokmething like that
but what it is is a SKYTRAIN!!!
its basically a faster version of the monolith at disney land, is it called the monolith, or am i getting cofused, no matter you know what i mean!
but so i got on this thing and rode for quite a while, just seeing bkk form like 5 stories up, until i got to a shopping center, then bought some english books and went looking for a place to eat, after lunch i walked all over bkk, just following the tracks of th bts, so id be able to find my way back,
that night i got a table right at the street line, and just read ate my pad-thai(its famous there)and did some serious people watching, it was funny you could tell which people just got there, cause they were draggin massive backpacks around and looking hopelessly lost, and you could tell the people that had been there too long cause they had massive beards, dreadlocks and were wearing clothes that looked like they haddent seen a washer in a month!
i would of gone out again that nigh, but i didnt have my wingman with me you know so
i just checked in early, and started to think(scary huh?)
what id do tommoro, when i checked my bank accnt, and reaklized that if i were to stay for the next4 days until the concert, there was a good chance id runout of money and end up getting stuck in bkk!
so after some agonizing decision making i realized that id just have to cut my losses(my ticket)and go home early..
which was pretty lame and i was kinda bummed out about losing 20 bucks for the ticket, but i started thinking, and i realized i couldve lost that 20 bucks on a bad date, and i wouldent be sad about it, sowhy ami i gonna let this get to me?
(also if you look at it this way i happen to have a very expensive piece of cardstock in my pocket! whooohooo!)
so the next day(like a pro might i add)i found my way to the buss station and in broken thai explaind where i wanted to go, bought my ticket(you can travel almost any where in thailand by bus for under 15 dollars, pretty cool) rode six hours, found another bus, and arrived at mydoorstep by 6'oclock and scared the heck out of my host mom
(oh yeah my phione broke while i was in bkk, so i wasnt able to contact her)but after i explained what happened, she was glad i came home
and that ladies and gentlemen is my grand bkk adventure, a little brief isnt it? oh well atlest i learned how to travel thailand on my own, and get around bkk by myself, its like a wise dude i know said, im here till june, therell be plenty of concerts in the next 8 months or so, so dont sweat this one!
so i got back mid week, since then things are actually getting kinda.....
boreing,
i mean its wierd for me to say this, but i actually am looking forward for school to start, so you know i have things to do more people to meet!
one of the big things that happened though, is i was able to start putting videos on youtube!
to view them just go to youtube, and search for"thai chronicles"(without these"")
and you should be able to find some videos, to view the rest, there will be a link next to the movie that is playin that says more from this user, click on that, and itll take you to a page with all of my vidoes on it, enjoy!
wait heres the link
http://youtube.com/user/rynalias
so i had a thought the other daywhile i was trying to learn more thai, why dont i teac you guys some while your reading my blogs
welcome to
RYANS THAI WORD O' THE WEEK!!!
this week the prase/word ill teach will be
ไม่เป็นไร(cool trick huh?)
it is pronounced "Mai-Ben-Rai"
this is one of my favorite prases to use, and due to the laid back nature of thai people i hear it alot, what it means is
"whateva"
in short, its a dismissal phrase like "no problem" or "no worries"
and i can use it to pretty much get out of any situation!
so next time you guys are feeling forgiving, in trouble, or just dont care anymore just think "what would ryan say"
and go
Mai-Ben-Rai!
wel there you have it, my week, a video link and a lesson!
Alias Out!
so heres what happened, so I got there the first night, ind I had 2items of business that I had to take care of,
1ticket(for te concert)
2 a place to stay, so I was supposed to stay with another exchange student, but he was called away last minite to go to an English camp early the next morning(he would miss the concert)
so after I go there, I met up with him, got my ticket, and set out looking for a place fot me to stay the week, “I know he says, you cvan stay on khosarn road!
(khosarn road is basically were all the backpackers stay, it’s a road with youth hostels and shops, its like a major street party!
Sop when we arrived there, I was blown away! It was like dreadlocks and sandals as far as the eye could see, this was hippie central(I LOVED IT!!!)
There were shops, resturaunts and dance clubs all down the road, so we set out to look for a hostel for me to sleep in,when we finnaly found one, it was called the MARCO POLO YOUTH HOSTEL, and was 300 bhat a night(like 9 bucks, also the room had a/c which I paid alittle extra for, so my friend and I went to see the room after i checked in(in hindsight we probably should have looked at it BEFORE i checked in)
we got to the room to see it, i opened the door and burst out laughing!
the room was entirely taken up by the bed inside, there was a 2x2 square for the door to swing in to stand on, but other than that, the room was a bed!
then i turned to look at the bathroom, first off there was no door it was a broom closet with a toilet in the middle(no sink) so i was puzzled, "where was the shower?"
i looked up, and a shower head was poking out the wall right over the toilet!
talk about 2 birds with one stone!
haha!
so whatever, its a place to sleep, and it does have a/c so itll do...
after that alex and i walked down the road, just taking in the sights, things like that, after dinner we went to a to some dance place, that was fun, after dancing like crazy with wierd thai people till like 3am
we went our seperate ways, me to my cubicle, and him to his acutally nicer and cheaper room across the road, the next day id try to change hostels and get his room.
so i woke up early the next day bought banna waffles from some old lady in the street for breakfast, and got a new room across the road, since i was in bangkok, i decided to go and see the city, and see the sights, and the best way to to get aroud is the bts.
whats the bts?
im glad you asked
i think it stand for bangkok transport system, or "Big Train in Sky" or sokmething like that
but what it is is a SKYTRAIN!!!
its basically a faster version of the monolith at disney land, is it called the monolith, or am i getting cofused, no matter you know what i mean!
but so i got on this thing and rode for quite a while, just seeing bkk form like 5 stories up, until i got to a shopping center, then bought some english books and went looking for a place to eat, after lunch i walked all over bkk, just following the tracks of th bts, so id be able to find my way back,
that night i got a table right at the street line, and just read ate my pad-thai(its famous there)and did some serious people watching, it was funny you could tell which people just got there, cause they were draggin massive backpacks around and looking hopelessly lost, and you could tell the people that had been there too long cause they had massive beards, dreadlocks and were wearing clothes that looked like they haddent seen a washer in a month!
i would of gone out again that nigh, but i didnt have my wingman with me you know so
i just checked in early, and started to think(scary huh?)
what id do tommoro, when i checked my bank accnt, and reaklized that if i were to stay for the next4 days until the concert, there was a good chance id runout of money and end up getting stuck in bkk!
so after some agonizing decision making i realized that id just have to cut my losses(my ticket)and go home early..
which was pretty lame and i was kinda bummed out about losing 20 bucks for the ticket, but i started thinking, and i realized i couldve lost that 20 bucks on a bad date, and i wouldent be sad about it, sowhy ami i gonna let this get to me?
(also if you look at it this way i happen to have a very expensive piece of cardstock in my pocket! whooohooo!)
so the next day(like a pro might i add)i found my way to the buss station and in broken thai explaind where i wanted to go, bought my ticket(you can travel almost any where in thailand by bus for under 15 dollars, pretty cool) rode six hours, found another bus, and arrived at mydoorstep by 6'oclock and scared the heck out of my host mom
(oh yeah my phione broke while i was in bkk, so i wasnt able to contact her)but after i explained what happened, she was glad i came home
and that ladies and gentlemen is my grand bkk adventure, a little brief isnt it? oh well atlest i learned how to travel thailand on my own, and get around bkk by myself, its like a wise dude i know said, im here till june, therell be plenty of concerts in the next 8 months or so, so dont sweat this one!
so i got back mid week, since then things are actually getting kinda.....
boreing,
i mean its wierd for me to say this, but i actually am looking forward for school to start, so you know i have things to do more people to meet!
one of the big things that happened though, is i was able to start putting videos on youtube!
to view them just go to youtube, and search for"thai chronicles"(without these"")
and you should be able to find some videos, to view the rest, there will be a link next to the movie that is playin that says more from this user, click on that, and itll take you to a page with all of my vidoes on it, enjoy!
wait heres the link
http://youtube.com/user/rynalias
so i had a thought the other daywhile i was trying to learn more thai, why dont i teac you guys some while your reading my blogs
welcome to
RYANS THAI WORD O' THE WEEK!!!
this week the prase/word ill teach will be
ไม่เป็นไร(cool trick huh?)
it is pronounced "Mai-Ben-Rai"
this is one of my favorite prases to use, and due to the laid back nature of thai people i hear it alot, what it means is
"whateva"
in short, its a dismissal phrase like "no problem" or "no worries"
and i can use it to pretty much get out of any situation!
so next time you guys are feeling forgiving, in trouble, or just dont care anymore just think "what would ryan say"
and go
Mai-Ben-Rai!
wel there you have it, my week, a video link and a lesson!
Alias Out!
Sunday, October 14, 2007
life in general!
sorry about the late post again, ill tell you why later!
so this past week, as you know ive been on vacation from school, things havent been too exciting, id wake up in the morning, shower, get dressed in my thai clothes(baggy capris, a t-shirt and sandals...everyday Ilove thailand) go downstairs, find out what i was eating(its really a surprise every day... it almost feels like christmas!)
then id go and chill with my host brother, maybe weed watch some tv, or go into town and eat lunch, then ill go and play guitar(thankyou mom and dad!),thats basically how monday and teusday whent, ive also been reading alot, ill just pull a chair onto the lawn in the front yard, and you know.. become one with nature and read my books, (i finished pride and prejudice the other day, and i have to ad mit, i actually liked it!)
hmm oh, sdo then the other exchange students got back to khon kaen, so each day id take the bus out there, and just hang out in the big city, one of the things that i love to do there is go to the tukom(it means paradise in thai, and is a massive mall) and play GUITAR HERO!(if your not familliar with what could possibly be ther greatest video game since mario! its got a controller shaped like a guitar, and you play rock songs on it) at the arcade, ok ryan sounds like fun, but wheres the twist?
glad you asked, the twist is, NO THAI PERSON KNOWS HOW TO PLAY!!!
\basically the machine sits there and collects dust, until a forienger like me comkes along, and the cool thing is, since nobody knows how to play, people crowd around the machine and and are like an audiance(oh yeah they clap and everything!), for americans like me, so i play that with some of the other exchange students, and i teach them skills that ive learned in the countryside
ie. the kids at school taught me how to open a coke bottle with my teath, thats pretty hot right?
hmm, the next day, we were just sitting around trying to think of something to do when one of the girls said something about her hair color, then the idea was bourn(may not have been the greatest) that weed all go out and color our hair(you dye easter eggs, you color hair)
so long story short, i no have black/blue tinged hair, my host mom thought it was awesome she said that i dont look like an american anymoe(yeah right)so that was fun,
earlyier that week i learned of a concert in bangkok, As I Lay Dying(another band my dad loves) so i pleaded my host mom to let me take a bus to meet my friend there, so i could go, after a little deliberation, she aggreed, and i was able to ride in a buss acros thailand by my self tosee an amazin concert, the shows on the 18, and i think ill leave my blog off with my leavin for bangkok yet again, cause techincly that was the start of a new week, asnd im in an tiner net cafe,and im just about out of time, all i can say is that i stayed in a youth hostel last night!
it was glorious, i had about a cubicles worth of space!
Agian sorry for the brevity of this one, next blog ill be at home, so itll be nice and long
till then
ryan
aka
world traveler extrordinaire
so this past week, as you know ive been on vacation from school, things havent been too exciting, id wake up in the morning, shower, get dressed in my thai clothes(baggy capris, a t-shirt and sandals...everyday Ilove thailand) go downstairs, find out what i was eating(its really a surprise every day... it almost feels like christmas!)
then id go and chill with my host brother, maybe weed watch some tv, or go into town and eat lunch, then ill go and play guitar(thankyou mom and dad!),thats basically how monday and teusday whent, ive also been reading alot, ill just pull a chair onto the lawn in the front yard, and you know.. become one with nature and read my books, (i finished pride and prejudice the other day, and i have to ad mit, i actually liked it!)
hmm oh, sdo then the other exchange students got back to khon kaen, so each day id take the bus out there, and just hang out in the big city, one of the things that i love to do there is go to the tukom(it means paradise in thai, and is a massive mall) and play GUITAR HERO!(if your not familliar with what could possibly be ther greatest video game since mario! its got a controller shaped like a guitar, and you play rock songs on it) at the arcade, ok ryan sounds like fun, but wheres the twist?
glad you asked, the twist is, NO THAI PERSON KNOWS HOW TO PLAY!!!
\basically the machine sits there and collects dust, until a forienger like me comkes along, and the cool thing is, since nobody knows how to play, people crowd around the machine and and are like an audiance(oh yeah they clap and everything!), for americans like me, so i play that with some of the other exchange students, and i teach them skills that ive learned in the countryside
ie. the kids at school taught me how to open a coke bottle with my teath, thats pretty hot right?
hmm, the next day, we were just sitting around trying to think of something to do when one of the girls said something about her hair color, then the idea was bourn(may not have been the greatest) that weed all go out and color our hair(you dye easter eggs, you color hair)
so long story short, i no have black/blue tinged hair, my host mom thought it was awesome she said that i dont look like an american anymoe(yeah right)so that was fun,
earlyier that week i learned of a concert in bangkok, As I Lay Dying(another band my dad loves) so i pleaded my host mom to let me take a bus to meet my friend there, so i could go, after a little deliberation, she aggreed, and i was able to ride in a buss acros thailand by my self tosee an amazin concert, the shows on the 18, and i think ill leave my blog off with my leavin for bangkok yet again, cause techincly that was the start of a new week, asnd im in an tiner net cafe,and im just about out of time, all i can say is that i stayed in a youth hostel last night!
it was glorious, i had about a cubicles worth of space!
Agian sorry for the brevity of this one, next blog ill be at home, so itll be nice and long
till then
ryan
aka
world traveler extrordinaire
Sunday, October 7, 2007
bangkok, its the capital of thailand you know...
ok...
so when i left you guys last time, i was just about to head out for bkk(thats how the locals abreviate it, so that tats what ill do to sasve time... isnt it ironic how abreveate is such a long word?)
ok, so forst things frist, the drive to bkk is bout 6 hour, thats not that big of a deal to me now, cause ive been travelin alot recently, so that was just fine by me, but unbeknownst to me, my host mom had a few( when i say few im lying) stops for me to look at, ok, t=hats a bit of a hinder but hey im cool, the first place we stoped at, was actually pretty cool, it was a 1000 year old(ogh yeah one thousand years) buddist temple, it was actually the ruins of it, and walking through it made me feel like i w2as indianna jones or in some video game ready to doge a giant boulder or some thing!
ok off track...
oh yeah, so were goin through this thing, it was really intrestin, and really beautiful land scape and all, then i thought to myself, how cool it would be to have a piece of this to take withme, so ummm i "liberated" a few pebbles that had broken of of the foundation, andthen we took off, thats all i have to say about that...
so weed drive, stop, drive, and stop, i dont think we were on the road for a hour and a half continuously, wed stop for drinks then for food, then for snaks, than bathroom again, then to look at the countryside ect!
(by this time i was going alittle nuts), the last place she had us stop at was a COW FARM! yes you read that right a COW FARM, and my host mom was just ecstatic that there were actually real live cows there, my host bro realized that i didnt adtually share her excitement, i broken english he asked why, and i replid "dude, i live about an hour out of Davis, do you realize whats in Davis, cows- hordes of them loathsome scores actually, thats alll there really is!oh yeah they have a college too i think"
of course he couldent understand my rant, so we bought some ice cream,and i got back ito the car with them
so we left the house at eight in the morn, by the time we actually got in to bkk, and stopped at the gas station to meet my hm's(host mom takes too long)friend it was EIGHT PM!!! it took 12 hrs to drive a six hour trip!
but then some thing wonderful happened, when we pulled into the gas staion in bkk to mee her friend, i saw some thing that i was sure was a mirage, or daydream- so i rubbed my eyes and looked out the window again, and sure enough, there was an A&W resturaunt connected to the gas station!
so with rapturous delight i lept from the car and bolted into the sanctuary of rootbeer to buy a float( i havent had rootbeer, in two months,layoff me!)
so after that episode i had to explain to my shocked host mom that i love rootbeer
and that i was sorry for scaring her by jumpin out of the moving car like that(mom its fine, it was like five mph she was parking it!)
so we met her friend at dinner, she was with her 10 yr old daught er, and the introduced her to me, sayin her name was Nam-than, i nodded, then my hm told me that in thai nam-than means sugar, at that i snorted into my pad thai, and asked her to repeat that last part, she did, and asked me what was so funny, how do you say term of endearment in thai?
i just laughted and said nothing, but always felt wierd calling her that!
ok so my hb(you guessed it, host brother)and i stayed in a hotel room, while my hm stayed with her friend
they next day they took me on a whirlwind tour of bkk visiting all these crazy temples and sites(ant this piont i still had a pretty bad headache and was recovering from sinusitis, see last blog for details, so that day was kinda a blur.
the next day we went to an english book shop, which was awesome for me, cause bkk is the only place where you can buy english books, after i bought a few, we went shopping agin, or should i say my hm and her friend went shoppin, my hb and i just got dragged along ha!
that night i checke my email and everything online, and was done at 10, then my hb wanted to play this online game, you know the ones that you pay money for and can eventuall suck the life out of you if your not careful, any ways i played a little guitar, read then fell asleed, i woke up the next morning to the sounds of swords clashing and monsters screaming to find my hb still at the computer with empty water bottles laying all around him STILL PLAYING THE GAME 9 HOURS LATER!!!
so i put and end to this self destructive behavior and promptly kicked his butt out of the chai, befor he passed out on the bed, he asked me very nicely to not tell his mom that the had done that, what can i say i guess im an enabaler!
that day, my host mom had a meeting, soatom and i were with my hms friend, and she said we were goin to a funpark, ok sounded... fun
so we arrived out side a rainbow colored disney looking castle and went into a pretty shady looking amusement park good thing tough was they had a pretty sweet roller coaster, one of those suspended-nothing-under-your-feet things with double corkscrews and flips the works, so when i said hey i want to try this thing, for some reason my hms friend and host brother would direct me to some other ride, or distract me from the BEAST with something else, after a while iasked what was goin on, they looked at eachother and connfessed that my hm, sincewe were at the hospital and i told her that i had heart surgery, told them not to let me on the roller coaster, i one weord i was well... pissed, i calmly explaind to my host brother that only one mom knows whats best for me, and that would be my real mom and since tuk(thats her name) is not her i was goin on that ride, by myself if i had to(ok i kinda overreacted, but i mean whose gonna know my limitations better, the person whose been living with them for 18 years, or they lady who ive been living with for 2 months?)
my hb was actually relived cause he wanted to do the coaster too, so we rode it, and went on with our day.
our next activity was going to be, ice skating(i hadent ice skated in almost 2 years, and when i did i almost broke my butt by falling, sadly to say after all this time my ice skating skill and reflexes had barely improved, and i clung to the wall like a sissy, but my hb was worse than me, so i didnt feel too lame(the rink was on the top floor of a mall, malls here are absolutly ridiculous, there atleast 6-7 stories and have basically anything you could need)
the next day we went shopping again, i bought some thai elepahnt riging pants, thier basically these super lose and flowy pants that come down to your mid calf, its what people in the countryside whear, and ther are the most comfortable pants ive ever worn!
the next day we drove home, it took about 11 hrs this time, we stopped often, and the roads home were flooded, so i guess its lucky we made it home that night, any ways that concludes my trip, i had a good time, and want to go back soon
this past week, and till the 24th im out of school(the semester just ended here) so ive just been hanging out with my hb watchin movies, reading playing guitar, and lighting off fireworks, so nothing too exciting has been going on since ive gotten home, well except for this massive lizard called a toukay in my living room that i had to chase out last night, they bite, so i was scared out of my mind!
but i cant complain, i ejoy it alot here and im having a good time, oh yeah the second marks two months gone by, wow thats wierd, im like a fith the way done..
oh well see you all next week
ryan
ps, if any of you were in jr high youth group with me, the title is a dave constance refference, if you dont remember ask him about it, im sur hed love to tell you!
so when i left you guys last time, i was just about to head out for bkk(thats how the locals abreviate it, so that tats what ill do to sasve time... isnt it ironic how abreveate is such a long word?)
ok, so forst things frist, the drive to bkk is bout 6 hour, thats not that big of a deal to me now, cause ive been travelin alot recently, so that was just fine by me, but unbeknownst to me, my host mom had a few( when i say few im lying) stops for me to look at, ok, t=hats a bit of a hinder but hey im cool, the first place we stoped at, was actually pretty cool, it was a 1000 year old(ogh yeah one thousand years) buddist temple, it was actually the ruins of it, and walking through it made me feel like i w2as indianna jones or in some video game ready to doge a giant boulder or some thing!
ok off track...
oh yeah, so were goin through this thing, it was really intrestin, and really beautiful land scape and all, then i thought to myself, how cool it would be to have a piece of this to take withme, so ummm i "liberated" a few pebbles that had broken of of the foundation, andthen we took off, thats all i have to say about that...
so weed drive, stop, drive, and stop, i dont think we were on the road for a hour and a half continuously, wed stop for drinks then for food, then for snaks, than bathroom again, then to look at the countryside ect!
(by this time i was going alittle nuts), the last place she had us stop at was a COW FARM! yes you read that right a COW FARM, and my host mom was just ecstatic that there were actually real live cows there, my host bro realized that i didnt adtually share her excitement, i broken english he asked why, and i replid "dude, i live about an hour out of Davis, do you realize whats in Davis, cows- hordes of them loathsome scores actually, thats alll there really is!oh yeah they have a college too i think"
of course he couldent understand my rant, so we bought some ice cream,and i got back ito the car with them
so we left the house at eight in the morn, by the time we actually got in to bkk, and stopped at the gas station to meet my hm's(host mom takes too long)friend it was EIGHT PM!!! it took 12 hrs to drive a six hour trip!
but then some thing wonderful happened, when we pulled into the gas staion in bkk to mee her friend, i saw some thing that i was sure was a mirage, or daydream- so i rubbed my eyes and looked out the window again, and sure enough, there was an A&W resturaunt connected to the gas station!
so with rapturous delight i lept from the car and bolted into the sanctuary of rootbeer to buy a float( i havent had rootbeer, in two months,layoff me!)
so after that episode i had to explain to my shocked host mom that i love rootbeer
and that i was sorry for scaring her by jumpin out of the moving car like that(mom its fine, it was like five mph she was parking it!)
so we met her friend at dinner, she was with her 10 yr old daught er, and the introduced her to me, sayin her name was Nam-than, i nodded, then my hm told me that in thai nam-than means sugar, at that i snorted into my pad thai, and asked her to repeat that last part, she did, and asked me what was so funny, how do you say term of endearment in thai?
i just laughted and said nothing, but always felt wierd calling her that!
ok so my hb(you guessed it, host brother)and i stayed in a hotel room, while my hm stayed with her friend
they next day they took me on a whirlwind tour of bkk visiting all these crazy temples and sites(ant this piont i still had a pretty bad headache and was recovering from sinusitis, see last blog for details, so that day was kinda a blur.
the next day we went to an english book shop, which was awesome for me, cause bkk is the only place where you can buy english books, after i bought a few, we went shopping agin, or should i say my hm and her friend went shoppin, my hb and i just got dragged along ha!
that night i checke my email and everything online, and was done at 10, then my hb wanted to play this online game, you know the ones that you pay money for and can eventuall suck the life out of you if your not careful, any ways i played a little guitar, read then fell asleed, i woke up the next morning to the sounds of swords clashing and monsters screaming to find my hb still at the computer with empty water bottles laying all around him STILL PLAYING THE GAME 9 HOURS LATER!!!
so i put and end to this self destructive behavior and promptly kicked his butt out of the chai, befor he passed out on the bed, he asked me very nicely to not tell his mom that the had done that, what can i say i guess im an enabaler!
that day, my host mom had a meeting, soatom and i were with my hms friend, and she said we were goin to a funpark, ok sounded... fun
so we arrived out side a rainbow colored disney looking castle and went into a pretty shady looking amusement park good thing tough was they had a pretty sweet roller coaster, one of those suspended-nothing-under-your-feet things with double corkscrews and flips the works, so when i said hey i want to try this thing, for some reason my hms friend and host brother would direct me to some other ride, or distract me from the BEAST with something else, after a while iasked what was goin on, they looked at eachother and connfessed that my hm, sincewe were at the hospital and i told her that i had heart surgery, told them not to let me on the roller coaster, i one weord i was well... pissed, i calmly explaind to my host brother that only one mom knows whats best for me, and that would be my real mom and since tuk(thats her name) is not her i was goin on that ride, by myself if i had to(ok i kinda overreacted, but i mean whose gonna know my limitations better, the person whose been living with them for 18 years, or they lady who ive been living with for 2 months?)
my hb was actually relived cause he wanted to do the coaster too, so we rode it, and went on with our day.
our next activity was going to be, ice skating(i hadent ice skated in almost 2 years, and when i did i almost broke my butt by falling, sadly to say after all this time my ice skating skill and reflexes had barely improved, and i clung to the wall like a sissy, but my hb was worse than me, so i didnt feel too lame(the rink was on the top floor of a mall, malls here are absolutly ridiculous, there atleast 6-7 stories and have basically anything you could need)
the next day we went shopping again, i bought some thai elepahnt riging pants, thier basically these super lose and flowy pants that come down to your mid calf, its what people in the countryside whear, and ther are the most comfortable pants ive ever worn!
the next day we drove home, it took about 11 hrs this time, we stopped often, and the roads home were flooded, so i guess its lucky we made it home that night, any ways that concludes my trip, i had a good time, and want to go back soon
this past week, and till the 24th im out of school(the semester just ended here) so ive just been hanging out with my hb watchin movies, reading playing guitar, and lighting off fireworks, so nothing too exciting has been going on since ive gotten home, well except for this massive lizard called a toukay in my living room that i had to chase out last night, they bite, so i was scared out of my mind!
but i cant complain, i ejoy it alot here and im having a good time, oh yeah the second marks two months gone by, wow thats wierd, im like a fith the way done..
oh well see you all next week
ryan
ps, if any of you were in jr high youth group with me, the title is a dave constance refference, if you dont remember ask him about it, im sur hed love to tell you!
Monday, October 1, 2007
how the health academy saved my life...
hey guys welcome to my somewhat exciting week, i dont think this one will be that long, but here we go!
So this was supposed to be mylast week IN school(as a student) before the month log break that thailand has in october(OH YEAH!!!!!)
but this week they were doing finals, so when i got to school on monday, the teacher took one look at me and said go "go home."
well he didnt have to tell me twice,
i was halfway out the door before he started to explain why, and basically, its because, i cant read thai at all, or speak it too well, and ive already graduated highschool(my favorite) so it would be pointless to to take finals, that i would fail and would make no difference to my academic standing!
so it looks like i was out of another week of school!!!
oh i mean um... lame...
so i went back to teaching english at the elementry school, and that was awesome, its way better than goin to school, and i get to relax at the house when ive finished teachin my classes for the day, also my favorite part, is that i can go into the market and buy my own lunch, and well ive had pad thai FOUR TIMES this week a personal best might i add!!! ive found the best place for it too, a little hole in the wall(hmm i guess they all kinda are)and i have no idea what its called, i just know how to say pad thai with pork!
oh! how could i forget?!
this week i found out where they sell thai fireworks in the market, and well, my host brother and i bought asmany as we possibly could,(roman candles and m-80s are like 20 cents american!!!) we went home and, with the utmost saftey and caution, turned our front yard into armmageton!!
So you know those fire works that spin really fast and kinda look like a ground floer or something, well i lit one of those off, about 2 feet from me, but apparently in thailand, after thier done spinning and lookin all pretty, the thing EXPLODES! and sends flaming shrapnel everywhich way!
end result, my arm had a nice little burn and my nose turned bright red due to scorchmarks, i could go on about the bottle rockets, but my mom reads this thing too, so id better not!
the whole week i was feeling a little under the wheather, probably due to what happened in my last blog, but so i woke up friday morning and somehow overnight my my little headache that i had all week grew to a gigantic mind-numbing-axe-in-the-forehead-brainache( oh i have to say this, cause i find it hillarious, but that night i had a dream i was in lord of the rings fightin off tons of orcs and bad-dudes, but i died in battle cause i got shot in the head with 2 arrows, so the first thing i thought when i woke up was "dude! those orcs are gonna get it, those arrows hurt!" and then i realized i wasnt dreamin anymore, and that sucked)
so i stumbled down stairs, where my host mom took one look at me and anounced that i was goin to the hospital(shed been tryin to make me go all week, here in thailand they go the hospital for colds all the time) i was in no shape to argue, so i somehow showered and got in the car, i dont really remember the trip there,but i do remember once i got there they had to get me a wheelchair, cause i kept falling asleep, they took me to a specialist, who proceeded to hit me in the head and aked if i was in pain, i could of whaked that doctor, if it didnt feel like my brains were on the floor,
then after some test, which consited of stickin ametal tube up my nose and doin blood tessts they diagnosed me with sinusitus, my sinuses were infected, lame huh?
the doctors decided to keep me overnight, so that consisted of them giving me an IV, after that was over i was enjoying pain meds and thai cartoons im my room, when my host mom started freeking out and pointing at my IV hand, i looke over, and i saw that my blood was going out of my hand into the line, the nurse forgot to turn my drip on, no biggie, so i called her over and started to explain that she needed to turn the drip on, but she just gave me a look like i just asked her the square root of something... apperently she didnt speak english
so i pointed at the blood in the tube, she freaked out at first,she got the ideawhen i started pointin at the IV bag, she started to fiddle with the control for the IV flow, the control is a very basic piece of equipment, thers a little wheel thingie, that when rolled down compesses the tupe and closes the line, when rolled up it opens the line, min was currently in the down position, and this nurse for some reason forgot how to work the thing and was trying as hard as she could to roll it down further, so i let her go at it for about 20 seconds before i finnaly snatched the control away fromk her and started my drip on my own!
lookin back on the whole experiance, i realize that she may have not been the nurse at all, i may have just taught the cleaning lady how to use a iv control
ha! i love pain meds!
in short the next day they realeased me, and gave me a huge bag of antibiotics meds to take with me, along with some saline that i have to use to flush out my sinuses 4 times a day with(i almost drowned the first time i tried it)
the next day i left for Bangkok......
and thats where ill leave you guys, my trip will be in my next blog!
muahahaha!
ryan
(sick boy)
So this was supposed to be mylast week IN school(as a student) before the month log break that thailand has in october(OH YEAH!!!!!)
but this week they were doing finals, so when i got to school on monday, the teacher took one look at me and said go "go home."
well he didnt have to tell me twice,
i was halfway out the door before he started to explain why, and basically, its because, i cant read thai at all, or speak it too well, and ive already graduated highschool(my favorite) so it would be pointless to to take finals, that i would fail and would make no difference to my academic standing!
so it looks like i was out of another week of school!!!
oh i mean um... lame...
so i went back to teaching english at the elementry school, and that was awesome, its way better than goin to school, and i get to relax at the house when ive finished teachin my classes for the day, also my favorite part, is that i can go into the market and buy my own lunch, and well ive had pad thai FOUR TIMES this week a personal best might i add!!! ive found the best place for it too, a little hole in the wall(hmm i guess they all kinda are)and i have no idea what its called, i just know how to say pad thai with pork!
oh! how could i forget?!
this week i found out where they sell thai fireworks in the market, and well, my host brother and i bought asmany as we possibly could,(roman candles and m-80s are like 20 cents american!!!) we went home and, with the utmost saftey and caution, turned our front yard into armmageton!!
So you know those fire works that spin really fast and kinda look like a ground floer or something, well i lit one of those off, about 2 feet from me, but apparently in thailand, after thier done spinning and lookin all pretty, the thing EXPLODES! and sends flaming shrapnel everywhich way!
end result, my arm had a nice little burn and my nose turned bright red due to scorchmarks, i could go on about the bottle rockets, but my mom reads this thing too, so id better not!
the whole week i was feeling a little under the wheather, probably due to what happened in my last blog, but so i woke up friday morning and somehow overnight my my little headache that i had all week grew to a gigantic mind-numbing-axe-in-the-forehead-brainache( oh i have to say this, cause i find it hillarious, but that night i had a dream i was in lord of the rings fightin off tons of orcs and bad-dudes, but i died in battle cause i got shot in the head with 2 arrows, so the first thing i thought when i woke up was "dude! those orcs are gonna get it, those arrows hurt!" and then i realized i wasnt dreamin anymore, and that sucked)
so i stumbled down stairs, where my host mom took one look at me and anounced that i was goin to the hospital(shed been tryin to make me go all week, here in thailand they go the hospital for colds all the time) i was in no shape to argue, so i somehow showered and got in the car, i dont really remember the trip there,but i do remember once i got there they had to get me a wheelchair, cause i kept falling asleep, they took me to a specialist, who proceeded to hit me in the head and aked if i was in pain, i could of whaked that doctor, if it didnt feel like my brains were on the floor,
then after some test, which consited of stickin ametal tube up my nose and doin blood tessts they diagnosed me with sinusitus, my sinuses were infected, lame huh?
the doctors decided to keep me overnight, so that consisted of them giving me an IV, after that was over i was enjoying pain meds and thai cartoons im my room, when my host mom started freeking out and pointing at my IV hand, i looke over, and i saw that my blood was going out of my hand into the line, the nurse forgot to turn my drip on, no biggie, so i called her over and started to explain that she needed to turn the drip on, but she just gave me a look like i just asked her the square root of something... apperently she didnt speak english
so i pointed at the blood in the tube, she freaked out at first,she got the ideawhen i started pointin at the IV bag, she started to fiddle with the control for the IV flow, the control is a very basic piece of equipment, thers a little wheel thingie, that when rolled down compesses the tupe and closes the line, when rolled up it opens the line, min was currently in the down position, and this nurse for some reason forgot how to work the thing and was trying as hard as she could to roll it down further, so i let her go at it for about 20 seconds before i finnaly snatched the control away fromk her and started my drip on my own!
lookin back on the whole experiance, i realize that she may have not been the nurse at all, i may have just taught the cleaning lady how to use a iv control
ha! i love pain meds!
in short the next day they realeased me, and gave me a huge bag of antibiotics meds to take with me, along with some saline that i have to use to flush out my sinuses 4 times a day with(i almost drowned the first time i tried it)
the next day i left for Bangkok......
and thats where ill leave you guys, my trip will be in my next blog!
muahahaha!
ryan
(sick boy)
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