The past few weeks have been busy. Blogger has been down for me, so I wasn't able to post for a long time. I'll try to sum up the big things but I may have forgotten some already. I do that from time to time. These days it's the daily surprises and changes that make things so enjoyable. I am so lucky to be having this much fun going through school that I almost feel ashamed sometimes. Am I supposed to be tired of school and long days? Shouldn't I have something to complain about? Is it right to feel more at home outside my apartment than inside it? These are things I always wonder about when I think of studying in the United States. Can I always have this much fun or does it stop after four years?
Drew Kurata and Sam Nowak, old high school friends, came to Thailand last week. P'Mo and I took a taxi out to the airport to pick them up and bring them back to my room for sticky rice and grilled pork/chicken. In addition to Drew and Sam was my new (HUGE) rolling suitcase. This thing is as big as my refrigerator. Inside was my new amplifier head, cookies, shoes for P'Pup and P'Ohm, and some t-shirts. The boys were obviously tired, as they slept the rest of the day on my bed and floor mat. After dark P'Mo took them to look at hotels in the Sukumvit road area while I rattled off a 30-page presentation for Modern Presentation class.
Boy was I proud of that presentation. What did I come up with when our group was asked to come up with a unique informative speech using PowerPoint? Goats. Goats produce milk and cheese similar to dairy cows, but many people allergic to milk products aren't allergic to goats' milk. Goat meat has a taste and texture of chicken meat, but with far less calories. Some types of goat skin can be non-allergenic. Cashmere is cool.
Fainting goats are even cooler. All of that was combined with some pictures and a few videos of goats fainting when excited, then presented the next day. Full credit. We got an A+ on the last one too, our entertainment presentation.
Our final one (next Monday) will be to persuade our classmates why nobody should be embarrassed from buying condoms or confused about their use. We have a major problem here in Thailand that anyone who has a condom and doesn't look married should be stared at or scorned. High school and college aged kids having sex, will have sex with or without condoms! This simple fact, and senior-year 1-day long sex ed. classes, have to why teenage parents are so common. Kids don't know how to use condoms even if they have the courage to buy one. Parents are too shy to talk about condoms, the four of us aren't, so that's going to be our presentation topic.
Tuesday I don't remember well. I think we had band practice at a studio in On Nut. Afterwards, I took Sam and Drew to go eat all-you-can-eat sushi at Oishi. I love sushi. After eating, P'Momo met showed us her office and then we all went to Lumpini Park across the street. We all rode the ferris wheel together, I bought a t-shirt from an artist, then Sam, Drew, and I sat and watched soccer and the house band in the beer garden. Taxi ride home with P'mo.
Wednesday I took a test about networking in my computer class. Ahhh. That was the day we practiced at On Nut, not Tuesday.
Thursday I remember well. I woke up and turned my alarm clock off. Woke up again an hour later... one hour late. Rushed to the the Skytrain to see Sam and Drew sitting on the ground waiting. They weren't pissed, but I was pretty embarrassed. It's a good thing that I was late because this put us at Hua Lumpong train station after the express train had already departed. I bought the three of us 3rd class tickets to Hua Hin for a total of 130 ฿. We rode in the caboose, a wooden floored car with benches parallel to the tracks and large open windows. The car was empty except for the ticket puncher guy and a family of four sitting across from us. Great trip. Nice breeze, yet sunny the whole time. The 3 in. thick doors on each side of this 1950's era car were open, so we would sit on the step watching the fields, mountains, and bushes go by as we went. Once we got to Hua Hin station (Slow train = 4 hours) we took a taxi (read: pickup truck) to Kao Ta Giap or in English: Chopstick Mountain. Other than the thirty or so German sunbathers by the hotel entrance, the beach was ours. The Chopstick Mountain is a gigantic cliff that divides the beach from busy Hua Hin. The sand was powdery like the sand I remember on Siesta in Sarasota. We walked down the beach to an area of sand under some large shade trees. An old man was renting out his five lawn chairs and table for 60 ฿. We set our stuff down and went swimming for a while, then I went in search of a ball. I borrowed a ball from one of the huts on the beach and we kicked it around for a couple hours. Around 5pm we walked up to one of the huts and got some seafood and papaya salad. By 6pm the sun was starting to set and Drew, Sam, and I were sitting in our beach chairs drinking beer and chatting. The first train back was at midnight, so we just kept chatting. Throughout the evening we went skinny dipping, had ice cream, and built a small fire. It was great to catch up with friends I hadn't seen in a few years and even better to get away from the noise and business of Bangkok for a day. The beach by train was the perfect day-trip. At 23.00 I called the pickup truck that dropped us off and we went back to the Hua Hin train station. Bought tickets on the fast
er train (300 ฿+ and arrived in Bangkok by 4 am. Train ride home was packed and not as fun as our personal caboose/lounge, but it wasn't near bad enough to ruin our trip.
Friday I woke up at 1pm and went to my 2pm speaking class. After class finished I came back home and packed my bags. At 6pm I met Drew, Sam, and P'Momo at Mor Chit station and we took a taxi to the bus terminal. This was a 4 day weekend, so we were lucky to get 4 seats on a bus to Lampang. I don't even remember getting off the bus. I was fast asleep the whole ride I think.
I do remember P'Tam, P'Yui's older brother picking us up though. We got dropped off in the village at the house that is now known as "Robbie's house" named after our college teacher in Port Townsend. The house is empty most of the year unless Robbie and his students are there. In the morning we walked through the village to the gas station where P'Mo and P'Tukta were waiting with food. The village is the heaven for me. The food, old friends, P'Yui's family, people who know my name, very different from the city of 10 million. We hung out for the day. Played a little ball with the M.1 kids. After dinner at the restaurant we were invited to a house blessing party. A new two-story house had been built into the cliff on the hill facing the mountains. Easily the nicest house in the area. Stone and boulder (yes, boulder) inlays throughout the bottom floor. A rock garden bathroom upstairs. Japanese style sliding doors on the two rooms above the deck. Very nice. Everybody in town showed up to tour the house or just get to drink their whiskey and sing karaoke. The four of us hung out with A.Arwon, the school teacher who is like an aunt to me. The next morning we slept in pretty late. Arwon brought us some barbecue sticks, coconut milk, and sticky rice to eat at Robbie's house. The next door neighbor brought us a bunch of bandannas from her tree. Heaven. We hung out again, just like Saturday, until late-afternoon when everyone went on a little trip. P'Jos, P'Tukta, P'Tum, P'Mom, Drew, Sam, and five kids squeezed into the pickup truck and drove to the waterfall. We hiked up a ways to the third level of falls where there is a large pool created by the granite. The water was ice cold to me, but the others seemed to adjust quickly. P'Mo and I came back that night, arriving yesterday morning in time for work and band practice.
No school this week. Monday was canceled because of the Tuesday Father's Day break, as was Wednesday's class. Thursday is a day off but I have to get my wisdom teeth removed. I hadn't though about this long break last week when I committed to band practice for Monday.
Today was Father's Day, HM The King's 79th Birthday. 10 of our students were picked to represent Bangkok University at the King's Park. Thousands of people from all over came to light candles for HM The King. Bangkok University sat on the sidewalk for four hours waiting for things to start up. No worries really. There was a nice breeze and lots of food vendors, so everyone was happy sitting. Once the police secured the area we got to see first the "dummy" one, then the real cream colored Mercedes Benz limo. The queen and king drove by waving and smiling at the people lining the way holding flags. I couldn't stop smiling afterwards. Many Thais never have the chance to see HM The King in their lives. After the rest of the royal family and secret service went by, sprinted across the road together and jumped into a taxi as the light turned green. I've never seen such perfect timing. Six college students dressed in matching T-shirts rounding the hood of a taxi, one jumps in the front seat, one, two, three, four take running dives head-first into the back seat, and the last person jumps on somebody's lap while slamming the door shut. All before other cars noticed the green light.
We got to Siam Center quickly as the traffic jams were following the king. TV screens above Siam center had crowds packing in to watch the televised event we had just come from. The six of us looked at the Lamborghini's and Ferrari's on display then went to the food court. Then we all took the skytrain separate ways.
Tomorrow I plan to work on my new computer. An angry white guy at my apartment, fighting with his stereotypical dark-skinned North-Eastern Thai spouse, got sick of buying his cheating girlfriend expensive stuff and preceded to snap a Toshiba notebook over his knee. He was about to throw it off the balcony, but P'Noom my mute caretaker started waving his arms expressing his interest in this gift gone wrong. He brought the computer to me. Luckily the screen was open when the man snapped it, cracking the LCD screen, but leaving the body undamaged. Noom even managed to get the charger too! Hopefully I can buy a spare screen or a cable to use a desk monitor. We'll see. At 17.30 the senior student government is taking the underclassmen out to dinner.
Thats about it. If I didn't write all this stuff down I'd forget within a month.
