October is Over

Things are getting back to routine for me now.

School is going, although slowly. Only a few kids came last week, but it should be normal this week.
I've been working a little, Paradox Halloween concert Saturday night.

Not too much else. Watched "Puen Sanit" with Ton and Baeu Thursday, afterschool. Thinking about buying some appliances. Namely a refrigerator, microwave, and washingmachine. I'll probably just buy the frige and microwave for now. :P Thats about it.

It is Halloween. No tricker treating, but a few costumes and decorations. I can't really remember the origin of the holiday anymore. All I can remember is the door-to-door part of it.

Back

On the 11th of this month I woke up about an hour late because my alarm clock battery died. Most days this wouldn't matter much, but this Tuesday I had a 8:30 flight to catch and woke up only an hour before the departure time. I have never before put pants and a shirt on so fast. Grabbed my enormous black bag, took that down flights of stairs, then did the same with Dekker's 20kg box. Climbed up the stairs a third time and grabbed my carry-on, light switch, and locked the door. My luck that there were no taxis this particular morning. Momo's uncle ran and found one not-so-eager driver to take me to the airport. I made it, but barely.
China Airlines was wonderful. I was very impressed. Myself and a 70 year old lady had our 4-seat middle isle to ourselves. She laid down on three seats, but one was plenty for me.

My mother, Dekker, and Charley picked me up in the afternoon that same day. Mom and I went to IKEA and bought some things, had dinner, then drove home. I remember falling asleep on the drive, I was pretty out-of-it. I also remember being saved by my mother twice crossing streets that day. I do mean saved, I was within centimeters being hit while looking the "wrong" direction for cars. Nice to see everyone right away. I was really glad to see my sister again. For some reason let-lag had me urinating every night at precisely 3:15. Just for the record...

I slept my second day. I meant to just nap, but woke up late afternoon. My dear aunt Connie left me her battle-worn 83' Toyota pickup to drive in town. Remembering Wednesday night indoor soccer, I drove to Blue Heron to visit. Or tried to. Grandpa ended up driving me as the truck just wasn't liking the idea of a new driver.

It was the truck that took up the next day, Thursday. In all fairness, AAA only took up a little more than an hour, but it was a decisive hour. Lunch and wandering around the house took up the rest of my day.

Friday I jumped back into sailing. G'pa apparently bought a Star. A wooden one, actually. Complete with brass winches, original cotton sails, and wooden spars. After lunch with Sara, my dear cousin (daughter of dear aunt Connie), we spent several hours prying the boat and its trailer from it's home. Both my grandfather and I dismissed the sounds of bad bearings, rusted springs, and a faulty trailer hitch, just for our own peace of mind. The plan was to drive really slow. I woke up in the driveway, so mission accomplished where I was concerned.

Saturday I got to see my good friend Cheyene. She has been pretty damn busy with school in Bellingham but got to come to PT for a couple days. We just hung out. I don't remember how it went down, but I know we had Waterfront Pizza, rented a movie, played with the puppies, and met up with Renae (another friend from PT) that weekend.

My last real day, dear aunt Connie loaned me her jeep and I ran errand for a couple hours. I bought a nice case for the guitar Chey loaned me, bought some presents for kids in the village, EmergenC for Elye, and other odds and ends. Later that day, I met up with Chusana, Elye's parent's Thai Exchange student. We took my Mom's car, haha, and went downtown to walk around and talk about PT. I gave him some VCDs we will be nice when things get slow. Apparently John, Elye's large-bearded father, can now play ngom ngai by Bodyslam on guitar.

The true last day, I packed. That was about it. Said goodbye, and drove with Mom to Seattle. We stayed in a hotel close (20 meters) from the airport. Mom ironed my shirt. We woke up at 1:30 and checked in at EVA. I was a little sad to leave again. I actually think its harder to think about it now, writing, than it was to get my boarding pass and say goodbye. The flight was pretty uncomfortable, which didn't make things any better. I normally wouldn't complain about comfort things, I can usually just deal with it, but 16 hours in a seat can drive one crazy. Luckily I had some Tylenol PM to numb my body a bit. I thought this would help with sleep too. Yesterday I read the small bottle: 500 mg pain reliever, 25 mg sleep aid.

Cant say I'm glad to be back but I can't say I would be glad to stay in Washington. At the moment I'm indifferent. I can however say that I am having fun.

Since then I've worked a little, with Da Jim in Pattaya. Slept a LOT. And gone out with friends some. Considered going to the village, but didn't think I had enough time. Yesterday was a holiday, I never have class on Tuesdays (today), so I start school again tomorrow with an hour of Communicative English. After class I'm gonna go see Puen Sanit with Ton and Bow.

What do I do today? I'm not too sure. I do need to wash dishes.

Chiang Mai

Thursday I went to Mo Chit. I bought a ticket and sat chatting with another photographer for 2 hours. He was a really nice guy and offered to have me assist with some wedding photographer friends of his. At 7:30 I took a tour bus to Lampang which dropped me off in Thoen around 3am. Tum (Yui's younger bro) came and picked me up in the truck. We were hungry, so we stoped at the Thoen market and bought meat and veggies.
I slept for a couple hours, woke up, and sat with the kids for a bit. Cam took off to Thoen for Rotary stuff so I walked to the school to hang out for a bit. A. Awon decided to announce on the loudspeaker that I had arrived and demanded a short speech. She also felt the need to tell everyone that I worked for Grammy. I'm hoping karma isn't going to kick my ass on that one. With so many people thinking Grammy PAYS me, it might not come true. For an update: I never did apply. Tum said to wait until the 19th and he will try to get me a spot instead.
So after about 30 minutes saying hello, I said goodbye and took off with Dam (older bro) to Lampang/Chiang Mai. Half way to Chiang Mai I freaked because I lost my wallet (ie. money, method of reciveing money, and ID). We went to the Chiang Mai police station and filed a report. Really nice policemen in Chiang Mai BTW. We bought stuff for Yui and Dekkers shop and found (a long time later) a hotel for me to stay the night. P'Tam and P'Dukta went back to Phapang and I chilled in the hotel room for the night. I found my wallet in my bag.
The next morning I went and met up with Noon at Ban Suan Gaew. We took Noon's girlfriend's motorbike (Noon lives in BKK, GF in CM...) and raced around looking for the Airport Central. We found it, parked the bike in a sea of others, and went up to the fifth floor. The fifth floor has a concert arena hidden behind inside the mall. Noon went and did a sound check and I met up with the guys from Potato. Bangkaew and So Cool arrived a little bit later.
The concert was part of O:IC's Rock Delivery Concert series. Ended about 7:30. I caught another song taew to the Come Mon Inn and showered. Then I went to Bang Suan Gaew to meet up with Noon and the guys from Peacemaker, who played at the hotel while I was at Central. P'Ohm called and envited me to Warm Up. Peacemaker went out to eat, Noon went and slept, and I went to meet up with P'Ohm and P'Da (Ohm's girlfriend, singer for Endorphin) at Warm Up. Peacemaker came after a couple hours, then I headed be to my hotel. 8am I threw everything, minus wallet, into my bag, grabbed Dekker's 20kg box and went to the airport. 10:15 flight to BKK, arrived at 11:15, taxi to my house, drop box off, taxi to HP to meet P'Momo. The two of us went with co-worker friends to their house for a bit, and later Impact Arena.
BigBody was great. Lot of fun. Both Big Ass and Bodyslam, two of my favorite bands, played together in a very well planned show. P'1 and P'6, from HP, and I really had an awesome time together. Exciting Concert.

So today... I went to the immigration office. Not so exciting. Lotta forms, lotta waiting, but I do now have permission to leave and re-enter the county without loosing my hard-earned student visa status. Tomorrow I leave at 8:40 for the US.

Test(s).

Friday I had my English Grammar test. Not too bad. You wouldn't know it from my blog, but I have decent grammar skills on paper.
Yesterday (Saturday) was Economics. A little bit harder but pretty simple if you went to class. Examples such as "cup of noodles" and "meat vs. potatos" made identifying the correct answer on her multiple choice test fairly straightforward.
BTW, testing is pretty spaced out for midterms. BU stops all classes for 3 weeks. We (I) have no more than 1 test a day, 3 tests a week. The tests are only 1hr long and start at 2pm. Lots of "free time".

I filled that free time by doing more work.

Thursday I went to do a television show with Bangkaew. Lotta fun, New is still dying to have me translate dirty-words he can think up.

Yesterday, after testing, I took a 3 hour bus to Saraburi to do a concert with Kala. I'd never really liked Kala. The band seemed kinda boring and a little arrogant. Therefore it was really fun to meet the real Kala: very laid-back and anxious to be friends.
Another small (but unbelieveibly packed) bar, but twice the size of Paradox's last show. This meant I could go anywhere. I could wander all over the stage, pretty handy. The bad part was the lighting; the essesence of good photography. I managed to pull a few shots, I think, but likely only 3 or 4.
Last song ended, we ran (yes we) offstage and took pictures and gave autographs outback. Screaming fans mobbed the van. One girl managed to open the window by Num and I, grabbed our shirts, and wouldn't let go until we forced the window shut again. Crazyness.
We picked up cartons of to-go food (people followed us there too) then went back to the hotel. I didn't realize that we were staying the night so I didn't bring clothes. Oh well.
We all showered, and drank until 4 am watching music videos on tv. I got to sleep with Pern (the godfather/van-driver).
Wake up, drive to BKK. yadayada...

So tomorrow, yes tomorrow, should be the day I "apply" for a job. Please let me get it.

Tuesday is Intercultural Studies mid-term, which I hear is now a 3-4! page essay, make your own prompt. I don't know what this guy is thinking but it sure is a different way of teaching. Management is Thursday. Bodyslam/Big Ass concert Saturday (HUGEEEE). China Airlines flight home on Monday.