Pae and Guy

Pae in Japan

2012-01-29T14:35:00.007+07:00

I was gathering some information online at the internet cafe while I waited (am waiting) for my laptop to have a new hard drive installed and I came across some pictures from Pae's flight to Japan that she was tagged in on FB. Thought I'd post a couple of them before I go back home and take a much needed nap! Below is my favorite (so far) of the bunch!So, Pae's flight was into Osaka, Japan, where she's staying an extra night due to a flight cancellation. From Osaka, on her day off, she and her friends took a bus to Kyoto, which from the photos looks nice.When you're in Asia, you're bound to come across walled temples and fortresses and just homes and other structures that stick out to westerners, architecturally. This appears to be one such temple or fortress gate, I'm imagining some Samurai training inside the compound (too much t.v.)Pae has mentioned, when we've had a chance to talk on the phone, that it's really nice there. It's pretty cold, but I guess anything is cold when you're coming from Australia or Bangkok! What's a good remedy for cold weather? NOODLES AND TEMPURA, DUH!!I have few if any details about the photos, I just wanted to put two or three up to share with everyone!Okay, okay! Can't help myself, this is a super cute one too! I'll stop now...for now! Fly safely girls!

Hard drive fail

2012-01-29T11:03:00.002+07:00

No posts lately. My laptop hard drive began making grinding and clicking sounds the other day and everything on it is lost. Unfortunately, it's been a while since my last file backup. Boo hoo :(

I can't post photos from my phone, or I haven't figured out how to do it yet. I'll take laptop to get a new drive put in soon. Costs about $120. Photos however, are irreplaceable.

On a positive note, unrelated, marathon is in two weeks!

Friday Foto - January 20, 2012

2012-01-20T09:46:00.006+07:00

First Friday Foto(s) of 2012 and, as has become pretty standard, they are pictures of my sixth graders. I was going to post some cute pictures of Bun Bun but decided to make a whole post of it instead.So, here is my P6 class, again. This pretty much sums up my typical school day. It's your classic Before and After ;) Before sixth grade science class and after, hahaha.

The Cuteness that is Bun Bun

2012-01-18T13:30:00.005+07:00

We haven't posted many pictures of rabbit boy lately, so here are some recent ones. The little goofy boy is growing fast and changing in his behavior, habits, etc.He likes to run around the room looking for a way to get up to the highest vantage point. When he gets caught climbing up on our clean laundry or up on the table, he usually gets locked in his cage or picked up and flipped upside down. When he goes upside down or on his back, he goes into a semi-trance state where he's kinda out of it for a while. He comes out of it quickly though, but it's an opportunity to check him out for tangled hair, healthy feet and eventually to chop his sharp little nails.We don't travel around internationally or even domestically much any more since both Pae started her new job and since we got Bun Bun. He can't travel with us, not sure he'd be able to handle the airplane or even a long bus ride. He stresses out a lot when we take him to the park which is less than a mile away. But, he insisted that we take a passport photo for him...JUST IN CASE!He's certainly Mommy's boy, and he gets chased around often by a mommy who wants hugs and cuddles! His cheeks are squishable, his bottom spankable and his ears apparently biteable!When Bun Bun is not in a trance or being bitten by his mommy, he's hanging out on the bed or on the cooler tiled floor, and when he chills, he chills. His little chin sticks to the floor, his body flattens out and ears lop onto the floor. He is the definition of chilled.Daddy likes to pile stuff on top of Bun. If he's running around on the bed, making himself comfortable and spreading his fur all over, then I get to have my fun too. He actually likes when you toss a couple pillows randomly on top of the bed. He'll find a little crack between the pillows and squeeze his chubbiness into it and chill for a while.And what better way to end your day? Kisses from Mommy! Yay!

Back to Focusing on Marathon Training

2012-01-11T10:09:00.005+07:00

The date of the 2011 Standard Chartered Bangkok Marathon has come and gone...with no marathon being run by any competitors. The severe and prolonged flooding in the area saw to that! I was injured most of the past two or three months with bad knees anyway, so I didn't have to make the tough decision to cancel my marathon. Instead, the marathon waited for me.

So, now my knees (knock wood) have begun to deal with my runs a little better and are only sore when finishing long runs, rather than hurt. Before, after a long or fast run, the knees would give out, leaving me unable to walk well for days, unable to do stairs or sudden movements without being in severe pain. Too much to fast. If I went out tomorrow and tried to set a land speed record, guarantee I'm be laid up again for a couple weeks. The joints are just too flimsy, weak, aged and lacking in the proper musculature for pushing. They have limits and I just need to stay within those limits, no matter what!

So, the marathon has been rescheduled for February 12th, right around the corner. Eric, my training partner, and I recently ran a 30 kilometer run, our longest to date and came out of it okay physically and great mentally. Finishing a long run, one that you highlight on the training calendar, then being able to hop on the treadmill two days later for another 8 kilos is a boost for the confidence.

We have only a couple more long runs before we start shutting it down to let our bodies rest a little bit for marathon day. This weekend we'll do a half marathon, followed by next week's 33 kilometer run, our longest before the actual marathon. We'll taper our run distances down to shorter more relaxed runs, keep the cardio up and perhaps cross train more than we do presently.

For me, the big 33 kilometer run on January 22 is gonna be a big milestone, and once it is under our belts, I know we're gonna be just raring to get to marathon day. Now we just get our short midweek runs in, try to eat well and stay hydrated and pray that the knees, ankles and hips are getting stronger and that we can keep our egos in check...you know, the ego that tells you that we can finish 33 kilometers in 2:45 if we really push it!! Gotta just pace ourselves and finish the distance...I'm guessing we'll add some walking and stretching into the 33 kilometers and probably finish somewhere inside 3:30. but we can't think about time, it'll drive us crazy and eventually we're gonna break down and run too hard and hurt our knees!!

Our 30 kilo run this past weekend was right at 3hrs 7min which included walking the final kilometer as we saw a fruit vendor pushing his cart so we decided that a pineapple and coconut water + coconut were a great way to finish the last kilometer! So we pulled money out of our tiny running shorts pockets and grabbed our recovery drink and fruity snack and cruised to the finish. It was a good step, because any other time, the ego would have shouted "3 hours is right in front of you! Run Run Run!!!" Small victory that will help to get through training and through our marathon!

The marathon time limit is 6 hours but we're figuring to come in right under 5 hours.

Sixth Grade Graduating Class 2011-2012

2012-01-10T08:55:00.006+07:00

As a science teacher, sixth graders can go one of two ways; love you or hate you. Not "me" specifically, but perhaps the coursework and Science itself. From first grade to fifth the students are pretty much still excited about learning about planets, dinosaurs and all of the creatures of the Earth! The curriculum gets a little more "sciency" as they get to sixth grade, with the addition of subjects like matter, energy, sound and light, rocks, geology, etc. These concepts aren't as easy for them to see or understand visually. They understand it, they just don't get so excited about it. Solar system models = fun. Anatomically correct dummy with removable body systems = fun. Pictures and videos of animals in their habitat meeting their needs = fun. But when it comes to sound waves, continental drift, barometric pressure and other such concepts, it becomes more "work" to them than fun.

Add in half of the sixth graders just beginning to enter puberty and getting pre-teen attitudes and it makes for interesting times, cliques, passing of notes, gossip, dirty looks and sighs!

This year's sixth grade class has changed so much since I first taught them in second grade, this is my fifth year with them. Some have come and some have gone. Some have improved greatly, both academically as well as socially/attitude wise. Some, on the other hand, have kind of been separated socially and formed their own little group...their grades have subsequently fallen as has the level of effort that they put forth.

My class is 14 girls and 2 boys, and they say that girls tend to lose interest in science and math as they get older...and it shows with several of my sixth graders. I do what I can to keep them interested, but the curriculum doesn't help much with the previously mentioned "super boring subjects" that we have to power through in the final term of their Primary School careers.

Well, I figure since these kids have been a part of my almost daily life for the past five years, and that they will soon be separating and going to different high schools (high school here is year 7-12), that I'd give them their own collage post so that they will always be remembered in the pages of Pae-and-Guy! Oh, the above picture is a little out of the ordinary in that most of the girls' hair is down and all messy. They had just gotten back from swim class and were all putting hair conditioner in their hair as I was walking around snapping pix. They are usually wearing pony tails or pig tails with blue or brown bows. Part of the school uniform.

I actually made three more collages with the kids as you would find them between classes, on Facebook, pretty much socially. These are the three "cliques" in this year's sixth grade class. The funny thing is that the picture above has the group that can intermix with the other two groups. Outside of one student who consistently has the class's lowest scores, this bespectacled group tend to do the best in class with minimal effort and they are, mostly, mild mannered. They probably would fit into the "Nerd" category in most schools. Lovable nerds, not awkward, outcast nerds ;)The next group, above, would be the "heart of the class" clique. The gossipers, the laughers, the players, the popular (amongst themselves) kids. They pretty much run the class! Many of them weren't here in second grade, but transferred in from other programs or other schools. They mostly struggled their first year in the English Program, but now have adjusted and most of these six do pretty well. One of them still copies and does minimal work, but still manages to pass with an occasional surprise high test score.Our last group can be seen whispering in each other's ears as the other kids are laughing and being loud together. The twins used to be a big part of the class, before the kids started to clique up, and their personalities started to grow into what they are today. They have gravitated towards just cruising on their own with their friend who joined us when they were fifth graders. They still interact well with most of the glasses group and most of their bitter whispers seem to be directed towards the "popular" group. They spend most of their time just the three of them. Two of them do well and the other needs a lot of improvement. Their combined effort could be a lot better, plenty of room for improvement.

It's interesting to see the group dynamic now compared to when they were more innocent little third graders. It's interesting to see them interact both within their little groups that they gravitate towards as well as when they mingle with other groups during class or during their lunch period or after school.

All in all a bunch of good kids. We have fun in class even during what they consider the doldrums of science...the subjects that are boring for them. I end up just dancing around like a clown and making a fool of myself to keep things interesting! Haha...but nothing like anecdotal evidence that the things we study actually can be seen or noticed in real life, with a humorous or even self deprecating slant to make them laugh or to get them thinking ;) Good luck sixth graders!

Dusty Stairwell

2012-01-05T09:34:00.004+07:00

I haven't gotten on here and written any posts lately, since the flooding in Thailand really. It's not that things have slowed down any, but more like I just haven't been inspired to jot down much or post pics on Fridays.Walking to the bathroom in the mall the other day though, I snuck this photo of a man sitting reading his pay advice in a stairwell. Perhaps his single shoe drew my attention. Well, one shoe dude, you've inspired me to finally post after a long couple months! Thank you!

**For the record, my second period class was cancelled today so the fourth graders could practice for this year's annual show...hence, I had an extra hour to sit around and post on Pae and Guy ;)

Happy 236th Birthday Marines

2011-11-10T11:17:00.004+07:00

Today is the 236th birthday of our beloved United States Marine Corps. Happy birthday, brothers and sisters, past and present. I can't express how proud I am to be among the fold. Semper Fidelis.

Commandant's Award

2011-11-10T10:02:00.010+07:00

In boot camp we were subjected to a barrage of tests and exams after being under stress and awake forever our first few days. After these tests, they took a couple of us out to offer us to be reassigned our specialty.

I had signed a five year contract to be in Aviation Ordinance, basically affixing missiles to fighters as they fly out on bombing runs. This sounded fun and what I thought I'd be doing right out of boot camp.

I scored well on the tests and I was told that I showed a strong ability to learn languages...You can tell that from a test? Hahaha, I remember one of the tests had a totally made up language and you had to translate it, basically like an anagram but with total garbledy goop. So, they offered me a change from putting missiles on planes on the deck of an aircraft carrier to being switching to the intelligence field as a linguist, Morse code operator or even presidential guard (not sure how that is related, but the offer was on the table). I chose Russian but eventually, due to class quotas for Marines, ended up being changed to Korean.Language training was done in Monterey, California at the Defense Language Institute. There was a lot of rivalry between the different service members in my section and base wide for that matter. We had Marines, Army, Air Force and Navy intel people all training together. We, as young Marines, were pretty...well...lets just say that we thought we were "hot poop" and we let everyone else around us know it ;)There were many who expected us to fail and rock out of our classes, and many Marines as well as other service members did fail our or get recycled to other classes. Some of the Army boys were just as high on themselves are we were and they would always make comments as to how they were going to be awarded the Commandant's Award, for the best linguist in the graduating class. Graduating class being all languages, all services on a given graduation day.

Our first concern was not to fail, and for those of us who excelled, we targeted the Army boys. I didn't care about the Commandant's Award (winning the war), I just wanted to win every single battle, every quiz, every test, every "who knows the answer to this question?" I focused on that daily. My class started with two of us Marines (Me and Jesse Zimbauer)and several others from other services...We rocked several due to ability as well as some due to medical problems. But each time we rocked a soldier, we would get one from a class ahead of us. A section was three classes, 7-10 students per class. Our six Marines were evenly spread among the classes, outside of my class...we picked up a third Marine; Desmond (Falcon, Stewy, StewBirdy) Stewart.We were a force to be reckoned with, hahaha, just the perfect combination of mischievousness, cockiness, brotherhood and just all around enjoying youth. We all made it through, graduated and are forever brothers. In the end, I pushed the Army kids and they pushed me like no one's business. A combination of class scores, DLPT scores (Defense Language Proficiency Test), community service and an interview was used to determine each graduating class's top student, who was awarded the Commandant's Award...I knew that I was top for scores for all Koreans graduating, but I had no idea about the Russians, Arabics, Spanish, Philippines, Japanese, etc. scores. Spanish linguists generally had the quickest graduation times and generally scored super high on tests and DLPTs.
In the end, I was awarded the Commandant's Award for all graduates, with Kris (Army girl and study buddy) from my class being awarded another big award on the day...our class took the two biggest awards ;) Not tootin' my own horn, but I tend to think about stuff like this when it comes Marine Corps Birthday time...It was a very enjoyable time in my life.

Bunny wants to help with laundry?

2011-11-09T09:07:00.004+07:00

Here's a short video of Bunbun running around on the bed after I brought in laundry from hanging. He does a couple good crazy eights near the end of the video! When rabbits jump around, it's their expression of happiness, called a "binky". He was certainly a binky boy tonight!

I had the air conditioning on, when it's hot, rabbits just lay all spread our trying to get rid of as much heat as possible...they love the cooler temperatures. I make sure every time I defrost the freezer to give him a giant bucket of chipped ice to play in, he loves it!

You may have seen this on FB, but I'm posting here mostly for Auntie Judy to see ;) Love you all.

Another Sydney Opera House Photo

2011-11-09T08:43:00.004+07:00

Pae had another chance to go out with a friend during some time off. It's the same as last one basically, but I'm posting another Sydney Opera House pic anyway ;) Oh, I also found one circa 1990's from when I was in Australia doing a joint mission with the Australian Army as an Indonesian Linguist (*laughs). I'm guessing I must have been 22 years old at the time?

Cancelled

2011-11-01T12:26:00.002+07:00

My marathon has been cancelled due to the ongoing flooding in Thailand. It was only a couple weeks away and Eric and I were working hard to get ourselves ready for it. Our 32 kilometer (20 mile)run this past weekend was cancelled as well, but that's just as well since Eric evacuated his family a couple hours south to Pattaya.

The Standard Chartered Bangkok Marathon 2011 has been moved to February 12, 2012. I guess we have lots of time to train now and work out all of these physical kinks with the knees and hips and feet! ;)

Photo Essay: Thai Flood 2011

2011-11-01T12:16:00.004+07:00

Here is another collection of photos of what's been going on here in Thailand for the past month or so, and is likely to continue another month. Great picture essay.(photo by Sukree Sukplang/Reuters)

Thai Flood 2011

2011-11-01T11:35:00.003+07:00

Well, rainy season was pretty much normal here in Thailand except for a heavy September. Combined with other factors such as super high tides and long term problems like deforestation, were seeing some of the worst flooding in decades.

I'll not start criticizing the government, or the political scene or the social divide between the haves and the have-nots...but all of that contributes to the mess that has been made of the whole thing, as well as years and years of neglect by those in charge as well as the population as a whole. I'll not go into that...full stop.

Rather, I'd just like to let everyone know that it is happening, and it's all around us. So many people are suffering around the Kingdom, and not just those under water. The floods have tied up and pretty much stopped all supply chains for things from daily necessities such as food and water, to things that make the economy go here...industry (car parts manufacturers, hard discs, EVERYTHING). Tourism is taking a huge hit thanks to panic and hysteria in the media and social networking sites.

A photo essay like the one from The Atlantic found here (Beautiful pictures of a desperate situation) shows just a few of the areas worst hit by the flooding...the flood waters refusing to recede. Residents facing several months of meter-deep to neck-deep waters, stagnating, rotting, breeding disease-carrying mosquitoes...sad.

In the meantime, the average Bangkokian is on edge every day wondering when the waters are going to reach their part of the city. As of today, they've stayed away from our part of the city, but we are one of 5 areas that are the next to flood and considered "high risk" areas. I personally don't believe it will be as bad as it's being made out to be for inner Bangkok, but what do I know!? I'm just trying to take a more hopeful approach, while at the same time preparing for the worst. Water, check. Batteries and flash lights, check. Canned foods and ramen, check! Mmmmmm! Heck, Pae even brought back some dark chocolate covered macadamia nuts from Hawaii! We're set!

Anyway, for our family back home, we're safe. As of today, we're dry. We're prepared and we're hopeful. Those who pray, please find time for those in Thailand less fortunate than us. They need lots of prayers, luck...any good vibes going their way. Take a look at the link above, again beautiful photos, and there are many more but this is my favorite set so far.

Pae in Sydney

2011-11-01T11:21:00.004+07:00

Pae has begun flying again. This has given her the chance to see new places and meet lots of new friends. Her first few flights were Phuket-Sydney, Sydney-Bali-Sydney (x2), Sydney-Honolulu-Sydney and back home Sydney-Phuket.

Needless to say, being in Sydney, she had a chance to spend some time off with friends exploring the area...and when in Sydney...the opera house is obviously a must! Right now, Southern Australian winter is turning to spring.It was a really sunny day, causing the photos to be totally white and too bright and the photos came out a little off, but she'll have many more opportunities to go sightseeing and take more pictures!

More on Hawaii later!

Hairy Pooper

2011-10-06T12:41:00.003+07:00

I keep looking up from watching television, using the computer or folding laundry to find this little hairball staring at me from odd places. He usually looks guilty, but sometimes he just has that cute curiosity look about him.Here's a photo that I got after coming out from the bathroom. I had gone in there to cut some fruit or wash dishes. Expecting to take a while, I had put a bunch of junk on the sides of the bed in an effort to make the jump too high for little bunny man, because he likes to jump up on the bed when he sees us up there or when he gets bored (translation: he goes up there to poop).So I come out of the bathroom and hear claws scratch to a sudden stop. There's Bun, staring up at me, busted! But, I didn't get there in time for prevent him from leaving some little gifts for me.

I've started to put umbrellas on the bed now when I am going to be away for a few minutes. They add half a meter to the height of the bed. He found a crack between two umbrellas the other day though, so looks like he'll be spending more time in his cage!Another place I found him last week was in this small rubbish bin. We keep some bags of socks and electrical stuff in it...perfect, he has decided, to poop on. It's a good little spot for him to get a better view of higher up places, to plan his route up, up, up.

I catch him in the most random places, but don't always get the camera out in time. Some places that he "visits" I don't actually ever see him there...but the little "Cocoa Puff" looking dropping clue me in.

Friday Foto - September 30, 2011

2011-09-30T09:49:00.002+07:00

Pae is entering the First Aid portion of her training.Here are a few photos that she sent to me during some of the funner portions of the training. Longs days and nights for Pae and her friends, but there are only a few more weeks left! And it's almost their weekend! Shopping!

Happy Birthday Pae!

2011-09-28T15:24:00.010+07:00

Another year has come and gone and it's again time for me to call internationally to speak to Pae on her birthday!

This year, Pae was in Melbourne, Australia for her 27th birthday, training with Jetstar. Technically, I'm not sure that I'm supposed to put anything on social media or blogs about her flying with them, or at least photos...not positive.So, like for birthdays past, she was with a bunch of friends this year. All trainees, and I'm not sure of the whole story, they surprised Pae with a little hotel room get together/party on the 26th of September.Basically I know very little, outside of the fact that it was a special evening with all of her coworkers and fellow trainees who are spending their days and evenings together, learning, studying, eating, etc. for the next few weeks.Why don't I know? Hahaha, well, they have so much studying and testing that we try not to be on the phone all hours of the day. Helps her to be able to focus on getting through training, but we are able to text message, Whatsapp and call each other a couple times per day (lunch and nighty night time).

Hope to spend some more birthdays together, but as long as Pae is taken care of by her friends, it's all good! Happy birthday Pae! Joop!

Friday Foto - September 23, 2011

2011-09-23T14:25:00.004+07:00

It's Friday...finally! Bunny just hangin' outBunny boy is growing fast, pooping all over and peeing...yes, he's added peeing on my side of the bed to his repertoire!

Pae to Melbourne

2011-09-21T12:28:00.006+07:00

Pae left last night to Melbourne, Australia for three or four weeks of training with Jetstar. She just finished her initial training here in Bangkok.She'll be gone for her birthday, again. It's funny because out of the five years that I've been here, she's not been in the country for her birthday!! Odd! One birthday she was in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Last year, Amman, Jordan. This year she'll be in Melbourne. Random fact!Mom, Dad and I took her to the airport to see her off. One of her fellow flight attendants from Orient Thai (OX) is also training with Jetstar, so a bunch of OX friends came to the airport as well to wish them both good luck and safe flying.Good luck in Australia Pae! Have a great time, study hard and enjoy your time Down Under! (And Happy Birthday, September 26)

Friday Foto - September 16, 2011

2011-09-16T14:15:00.005+07:00

It's rainy season here in Thailand, one of Thailand's two seasons; Summer and Rainy. I think October should be less rainy, so there is only half a month of rain left hopefully...and I'm a person who loves the rain!

These are iPhone photos from three different days last week and this week, taken from the back of a motorcycle taxi, on the way from school to my bus stop or home a little under ten kilometers. The snapshots are showing three different levels of downpour. Top photo is just speeding through the sois with a proper rain, harder than a drizzle but not chubby rain. The problem with that is that the drops are coming sideways since the motorcycle is speeding along at a good clip. The facial expression is a go figure, "Yep, again!"The center photo is the type of rain that I'm less willing to ride the motorcycle in, but when I do it means that I really want to get home (a twenty minute ride on a moped vs. an hour and a half stuck in traffic on a vehicle of the four wheel variety). This is the rain that sees me wrapping all of the things in my backpack (laptop, visa, passport, work permit, notebooks, various loose candies, etc.) in plastic garbage bags and getting home pretty drenched but refreshed.

The bottom photo is just plain bad luck. It's a torrential downpour. It's an "I-was-on-the-bike-in-the-rain-but-the-drizzle-suddenly-turned-into-a-monsoon-5k-from-home" situation. Notice the black bag on my head trying to lessen the acid rain thinning my hair even more than age already has. Note the foggy glasses, squint and frown. It's not a sad frown, it's me trying to hold the camera backwards, in the rain, on the back of a speeding moped, between hundreds of cars crawling through the flooded streets frown, a frown of concentration! Just think "Michael Jordan's Tongue", body English so to speak!

You may ask why the heck I even take photos of myself in the rain on the back of a moped? Well, this is about the time of day when Pae is also getting out of training or wondering when I'm going to get home, and we're texting back and forth...and there's no better way to answer "How are you?" or "Is it raining there?" than with an expressive photo!!

Love to all, stay dry, TGIF!

Training????

2011-09-12T07:52:00.004+07:00

It's funny to think that I can get on an elliptical machine and push hard for an hour and feel nothing in my knee, but the simple task of ascending or descending stairs or even suddenly changing directions when walking or standing still can cause severe pain. The body is an amazing thing.

I try to get in as much elliptical as I can without getting bored with it, but I'm wondering how the cardiovascular training I'm getting on the machine will translate over to running long distances.

Last night while Pae ran, I did a long 40km "interval" workout, really just trying to push my lungs. When running on the track I usually struggle with my breathing, but can finish strong, but those runs are never more than 5-10km. A 10k running for me is just a little slower than 40km on the elliptical.

It's been one and a half weeks since my last run that re injured my knee. It felt okay for the first kilometer, but started to crunch around and scrape and rub and pop in my warmed-up leg, followed by pain. My response? I kept running like a jerk. I have to learn that "quitting", as I viewed it, sometimes is best for my health. I hate quitting, I started a 5k and by golly I was gonna finish it...which I did, and am paying the price for it, another two weeks of no running. I need to get my head out of my butt and do what's best for my body!!

I'll try to do that!! Only 68 days until the marathon so I need to start running soon...but only when my body is able. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!

Training

2011-09-12T07:41:00.003+07:00

Pae starts five weeks of training at Jetstar today. She'll have this week training here in Thailand, then three weeks in Melbourne, Australia where the airline is headquartered. When she comes back to Thailand in October, she'll have another week or so to train at the Thai Airways mock-up facility here in Bangkok.

She'll be flying again in no time!

In the meantime, my school has final exams at the end of September and then I have a week off of school. The school has ridiculously split the five days over two weeks, Th-Fr and then M-W the next week with only a weekend in between...rather than the more sensible M-F bracketed by two weekends. 7 days of time away versus 9 days. It may seem like only two days, but after a long 20 week semester of elementary schoolers, every minute is welcomed!!

Speedy!!

2011-09-07T11:15:00.006+07:00

Last night we headed to the gym for some running and cardio; Pae did the running and I got the heart and lungs working on the elliptical.

I did my 30km on the elliptical, trying to keep my speed at around 30kmh, which kept me at a decent heart rate. Good workout, especially since I'm still unable to endure the pain associated with running.

After hopping off of the elliptical and stretching a bit, I strolled over to see how much longer Pae had to run. I figured she was just about done with her 5k since her warm up and normal 5k time combined are somewhere around 50 minutes. I saw her distance was already to 5.5k so I assumed she was going to do the 6k again. She looked at me and excitedly said, "Can you believe I'm not tired yet?"

I stretched some more and ran back over when I thought she would be finishing her 6k, to give a little extra "You can do it" support, but Pae just kept going! Okay, surely she would stop at 6.5 or even 7 kilometers...

Huh! She kept going, pushing past 7k. The arch of her left foot started to hurt around 7k so she decided to stop at 7.5. Pae just ran seven and a half kilometers, 1.5 farther than she ever ran before!

She set the treadmill for a 7kph pace and ran it the whole way. Her 7k time, obviously, was four seconds more than an hour since the treadmill takes a few seconds to get up to speed. She finished a relaxed last half kilo in 4:16 for a total 7.5k time of 64:20! Not bad for the first time she pushed past 6k!

I know she's got some distance in her! I call her "Speedy" now, though she insists that it's a misnomer since she's breaking DISTANCE personal bests, not SPEED PBs. Yeah, she's right, but Speedy is just more catchy! 10k here she comes! hahaha!

Energizer Bunny

2011-08-30T07:44:00.003+07:00

Pae just ran 6k!

We went out to the track with P'Nut and his friend, our little running crew, last night. Pae went to get in some kilometers, the boys went to build on the 4 kilometers they had run the previous night, and I was there for moral support and to have another good walk and lots of stretching.

While Pae was running, I was keeping an eye on her and timing her 400 meter splits. Not sure why, I just like to compare split times when I run. Since I was walking, it was pretty easy for me to track her around the track, although last night she dressed in black and white which blends into the other black and white wearers like a herd of zebras at times.

I'm used to her running somewhere around a 3:30+ 400 meters, so her average of 3:16 last night was speedy. With that speed it was very exciting to see her continue running after she finished her last 200 meters. Previously, Pae had gone as far as 5.5 kilometers in her runs. Last night she just kept going and going! Not only did she keep going, but she kept right about her normal pace of 3:30 for her final 4 or 5 laps!

Usually after our runs, especially when Pae pushes hard, we both look super flushed and spent. Last night Pae was nice and sweaty, but looked like she could have gone another 4k haha (6 + 4 = 10). She's slowly running her way into better shape, better health and increased endurance.

I was pretty happy that she unexpectedly ran 6k and I think she was proud of that too! She teasingly said that "maybe" she had the energy to tack on the extra kilometer because I told her that she looked cute in her running shorts ;)

82 days - Bursitis in the Knee

2011-08-29T08:08:00.006+07:00

A little discouraged today as I look at my countdown timer to the Bangkok Marathon. I've been laid up with a bum knee for way too long and the training days are disappearing, especially since I still haven't gone over 10K yet. Gonna have to kick this knee pain in the butt and get out there and do some distance (slowly).

I think that's my problem in the first place, trying to go to far to fast. Combine that with weak, tiny, baby-man legs, I think I just wasn't ready to go all in like I did a week or so ago when I busted out a quick (for me) 10K. Self diagnosis, Pes Anserine Bursitis, fits my symptoms in every every way.Ice, Ice, Ice, leg stretching all day, leg muscle strengthening. The thing I find myself thinking about more often, since my classrooms are on the second floor of the school, is pre-planning my upstairs and downstairs activities so as to minimize the frequency of my ascending and descending those monsters. Other than running, that's when I have the most severe pain in my right knee.I'm going to take'er out for a spin this Friday or Saturday, giving me another week to rest it. Crossing fingers and hoping for the best. I can't believe it, but I'm severely itching to get out there and RUN!!

Pain Management

2011-08-23T08:17:00.002+07:00

Ice, Ice, Ice!!

A week or so back, before deciding to give a marathon a go in November, I tweaked my right knee. Not sure if I tried to go to fast too soon, old shoes, or maybe I'm just getting old!! Haha.

I missed two "running dates" with my marathon training partner Eric, meaning we've not yet gotten out for a run together since deciding to run the November 20 butt kicker.

Now, I'm cross training with the elliptical machine and bike as they are less stressful on my bad knee. I changed my shoes on Rebecca's advice. I've been taking it easy and trying to ice 4-5 times daily.

I'm getting to feel like it's going to be a matter of "pain management" rather than "healing". Only three months until the race. Still not sure if I'm going to be there for the marathon. Depends on if the knee can survive anything over 5k.

Plenty of time to figure it out!

On a more celebratory note, Pae improved her personal best 5k time last night at the track! 38:39 !! Sweet!

Bangkok Marathon and Personal Bests

2011-08-17T13:38:00.008+07:00

Part I Marathon

Okay, butterflies in my stomach as I think about the challenge I've undertaken. A friend invited me to run the Bangkok Marathon with him on November 21, 2011. I laughed at him initially, but as he is on my softball team and he is former Navy, I couldn't say no (Technically I said "Maybe" hahaha).

Now, I've had some pretty bad leg problems the past couple years, mostly with my right knee which sidelined me from running and even climbing stairs for many months. I also pulled a muscle playing softball (not enough stretching before our game on a very very hot day) which laid me up for half of the softball season. So, the idea of running any farther than 5 kilometers is kind of daunting. I know I can do it but I'm not sure that my body shares that sentiment.

Physical things aside, I really have no time goal, I just want to finish. I know I can finish, but the race organizers have added intermediate time limits at 15km, 18km, 28km, 34km and the final distance of 42.195km. These time limits mean that the race organizers will pull runners off of the course after a certain amount of time so they can open local roads and thoroughfares to morning traffic (something like that). Scary knowing that I have to get past the 15km checkpoint in 2hrs. Here are the other cutoff times:

15 km (9.3 mi.) = 2 hours
18 km (11.1 mi.) = 2 hours 20 minutes
28 km (17.3 mi.) = 3 hours 30 minutes
34 km (21.1 mi.) = 4 hours 40 minutes
42 km (26.2 mi.) = 6 hours

I think I'll be aiming for a sustained, steady 12 minute mile pace...probably get me there!!

I haven't ran farther than 5km at a time for many many years. In fact, I've never participated in a road race of any distance. Marine Corps runs don't count, plus that was 20 years ago when I was a kid with rocket fuel blood, and still then I was only running 18-20 minute 3 mile runs. Some of my buddies were down in the 15-16 range! Freakin' rabbits!

When I left the Marines in 1994, I was running 3 miles in about 24 minutes. This is where I find myself right now...back in the mid-20s for a 5km run. This is acceptable to me, I'm not young anymore, I understand that. But to be able to maintain that kind of pace over 42km is just crazy! I have to work my way up to a comfortable pace in the next few months...again, I'm just concerned about FINISHING the race! In fact, it's more of a "run" for me than a "race".

Right now I'm just nervous. I've registered for the marathon already, but If the next few weeks of training results in my knee giving out again (I have to resist pushing myself too hard too fast, I'm a beginning runner) I'll re-register for either the half marathon or 10km race. I'm cautiously confident that I will be able to line up for the full marathon though!

I have 94 1/2 days to prepare myself physically and mentally for this challenge! I won't be preparing alone though, Pae will be running with me during my short to middle range runs as she is also going to run the 5km race that same day!! Her running also depends on whether she is scheduled for flights that week or not. I'll also be running longer distance runs with my friend, probably on Fridays and weekends as we are both teachers here in Bangkok and that is when we have time to get together when the sun is not so high and hot in the Bangkok sky. It's freakin' hot here!

Part II Personal Bests

Pae and I have been running for the past 2 or 3 weeks. We watch a lot of The Biggest Loser, and it's motivated us to get off of our backsides and to be more active. We've played badminton, kicked the football (soccer) around, gone to the gym, ran at the track and gone for short walks to try to stay active, and to burn lots of the calories that we load up on daily!!! *Thai food rocks**

I try to keep track of some of our run times so we can measure improvement, etc. Yesterday at the gym (treadmill) we both ran personal bests for 5km, again, not including Marines.

Yesterday Pae dropped her best time by almost two minutes!! She ran 5km in 41 minutes flat! Every time she runs she adjusts her running style and mechanics and finds things that feel better, she's found a breathing rhythm that she's comfortable with, something I haven't had any luck with yet *sinus problems*. She's gaining confidence with every run we do. Watching her run now compared to even just three weeks ago, I can see such a difference in her stride, her posture, she looks comfortable, focused and confident! I know she'll definitely improve on that time and be in the thirties by this time next year, even with the challenge of finding time and energy to run when she's also flying 12-20 days per month and splitting time living between Bangkok and Australia.

Pae hopped off of the treadmill and stretched so I figured I'd hop on for a quick 5k after a half hour of spinning. I threw on my Korean pop music playlist and got to it between 12 and 16 kmh on the treadmill. The week before I had run a 23:42. Last night I shaved 17 seconds off of that (23:25), probably by running the last 400 meters between 14-16 kmh with Pae cheering me on. I know these times don't sound spectacular, but they're what our bodies and experience are capable of after less than a month of running. We'll get better, we'll continue to enjoy our runs and running together. The important thing is that we're moving our bodies instead of succumbing to a sedentary couch potato lifestyle.

Now I just need to similarly commit myself to a healthier, more nutritious diet!! Muhahahahaha!!

Training date confirmed!

2011-08-15T12:39:00.004+07:00

Good news last night! Pae casually started reading an email to me from her iPhone. "Blah, blah, blah, please report to the Jetstar office to start application for a U.S. and Australian visa and to sign a contract, etc. You (training) class will begin September 12."Yay! Great news! I was super surprised that she was so casual about it. We normally, when receiving a congratulatory call or email, release lots of stress and anticipation by jumping up and down, high fiving, and taking deep breaths because there is some kind of closure to the wait to find out if Pae is off to the next round of interviews or actually, in this case, off to sign a contract!So, she begins her training in a month, signs her contract in a couple weeks! All positive steps towards her flying with Jetstar! With her signed contract, we'll also be able to try to get her a tourist visa to the states, so we can visit eventually. Her U.S. visa through Jetstar will be a flight crew visa, not to be used for tourism.

Great job Pae! It's been a long wait, but we're on our way!! <3

Friday Foto - July 29, 2011

2011-07-29T12:08:00.004+07:00

I had a big decision to make today concerning the Friday Foto. I had to choose between some pictures of a rainbow that I took from our apartment after a small shower last week and a photo of a woman's boob salute...I went with boobs!Okay, so I was watching Top Rank Boxing. They sang the national anthems of each of the boxers in the main event. I was kinda half running back and forth during the pre-bout build up, so not paying too much attention. This woman was singing a nice rendition of the Mexican national anthem, when I looked up at the television only to see her standing there, singing, holding her microphone in one hand, saluting with her breasts and other hand! It seemed very Star Trek...

I mean, the military salutes, hand to head when we're weaponless or different variations of a salute using our weapon, okay. Civilians generally would put their hand over their heart, understandable. Even Hitler and his goons had their own salute. But this woman was poppin' a mammary salute and I couldn't stop laughing. I guess she was combining the military salute and civilian hand on heart.

In the Marines, we boys would flip a quick salute to our buddies, in gest, using parts of the male anatomy quite a bit farther south of the breasts or heart. I won't say the name of said salute...this is still a family rated blog ;)

Anyway, this is probably 100% normal south of the border and even in other places around the world, it was just a first for me!

Friday Foto - July 22, 2011

2011-07-22T15:16:00.005+07:00

Yeah, she's hot! **Sorry, couldn't help it!!** I know this post may embarrass her, but Pae is seriously a natural beauty, both inside and out! And super duper lovable!!
I cannot tell a lie!

FYI, this is the photo that she had to get taken for her pending employment with Jetstar. She passed her alcohol test yesterday too, so now she is just waiting for her training to begin, probably 80% here and the final 20% in Australia. Yay!

Sad Faces - High Places

2011-07-20T13:30:00.004+07:00

Little BunBun has been exploring more lately. We let him out when we are home so he has free run of the apartment. Sometimes we forget he is out and have to be careful where we step or walk because he likes to stuff himself in cracks and under folds of blankets, sheets, etc.Twice at school, I've gotten funny photos from Pae at home. The first time, Pae heard something rustling over in the corner near our phone. Bunny boy had crawled into a clear plastic package and couldn't find his way out. The package was pretty tight on his back, flattened him out, and his little bunny face looked so sad. Not to worry, Pae extricated him immediately from his little predicament and he was on his happy way.Today I got another photo message from home with BunBun up on our ironing board. This is probably the highest he's jumped so far. The funny thing for me was that he sat there and posed for the photo, haha. Cute. We usually open the door at home to let the breeze blow through the room, but we have to stack some shoes up to hold it open and to prevent him from running out in the hallway. We may have to work on either a higher stack of shoes or some better (higher) way to prop the door open. Heck, dude will be hopping on the bed in no time!

More love for the teacher

2011-07-20T13:16:00.004+07:00

I think this drawing from one of my sixth graders pretty much speaks for itself. The kid even taped it to my desk for me. I guess it beats "ugly" though!

Chillin'

2011-07-14T13:44:00.004+07:00

One of Little Bunny Boy's favorite things to do is chill. Probably only likes to eat more than chill, fits right into the family perfectly!!

If he hasn't found a little crack somewhere to wedge himself into and relax, he's flattened himself out on the floor, his cage, under the bed or with his head propped up on your foot (very cat-like).

Rabbits, in general, don't like to be handled too much, and he has his days. Mostly when he's trying to eat, or on one of his Eat, rest, Eat, rest, Eat, rest, Eat cycles and we try to pick him up, he'll hop right out of our grasp.

But there are the times, when he's scared, when he first wakes up in the morning, or just when he decides that he wants to be hugged, pet, rubbed, massaged, cleaned, etc. I like to flip him on his back and he kinda goes into a mini trance. It's great. Then we pet his cheeks and look at his little beaver teeth. The happier or more relaxed he is, he'll start to purr like a cat. A rabbit purr is actually them grinding their teeth, it's pretty funny.

Flipping him on his back and trancing him out is the way we are able to clean his feet and wash dried poop or urine-stained fur off of his underside after he sits in his little yellow puddles when he pees on the floor outside of his cage.Here are a few pictures of him when he's chillin'. I love his little pinkish "lips" hahaa(three lips by the way, cool). Pae's favorite is his little tiny four front teeth! We saw bunnies, about 8 of them, in the park yesterday before running (and walking) 5K on the track (yay us). A couple of them were pretty giant...Lops usually don't grow more than 1.8 kilograms, but a brown Lop yesterday certainly was pushing that! Maybe we'll take our little runt to the park to get some exercise and meet some other bunnies...see how he handles that! I'm sure he'll just sit there...CHILLIN'. Gotta get him a tiny pair of chill sunglasses!

Friday Foto - July 8, 2011

2011-07-08T13:07:00.007+07:00

I know, I posted this on Facebook recently, but every time I pass McDonald's in the mall and see this little popcorn display, I just can't help laughing.As if they don't already provide us enough junk that is OOOOOOOOOOH so yummy but OOOOH so bad for our bodies! I have so far resisted the temptation to buy a bag of the McPopcorn, but I know it's gonna happen pretty soon. I'm convinced (though I haven't tried it yet) that it's cooked in pork lard or something, or covered in caffeinated imitation butter. Either way, its buttery yumminess calls to me in my dreams!! If it's anything like their fries... Forget the popcorn, bring back the McRib!!!

I remember, back in the early 90's, in Louisiana, I had Cajun wings, way before McD's started selling fried chicken. I remember Samurai burgers in Korea. Malaysia has the Prosperity Burger and we have the Teriyaki pork burger, corn pies, pineapple pies and tuna pies and I think I've seen coconut pies sold as well. They sell the Majaraja burger in the middle east. They used to have SPAM and Portuguese sausage in the Big Breakfast in Hawaii when I was there! They sell BEER in some European McD's also!!

Any interesting regional menu items or even McPopcorn in your local store??

BunBun the Bunny Boy

2011-07-04T07:03:00.009+07:00

Our apartment complex doesn't allow pets, but we see and hear them in neighboring rooms often. We decided, since it's still not time for KIDS, that it WAS time to break the rules and get a pet. We're not brave enough to try to take care of a puppy in our tiny square box room, so we decided to delay the puppy until we find a new place to live. We decided on a Bunny.Bunnies are very popular here with people who live in cramped little apartments. They don't bark, they don't poop super giant stinky poops, and they are small. That's the presumption at least! We regularly see people siting in the park, chatting and watching their bunnies hop here and there. There are also dog owners in the park, dogs also running hither and thither...I'm always waiting for one of the dogs to chase or attack (either out of hunger or just playfully) one of the rabbits. Scary combo.

So we went to JJ Market, where we knew they sold bunnies. Pae did a lot of research online and found out that lots of the bunny sellers were selling the animals too early, taking them from their mothers before it was healthy. So we got to JJ knowing about what age and size that we wanted and what kinds of little accessories and foods we wanted to get as well.At first we were like, "How can we choose, there are so many bunnies!" But then we went with the "We'll know when we see the right one, it'll be like it was meant to be" and that's exactly how it happened.We went shop to shop looking at rabbits, lots of cute ones and many different breeds. There were the generic Thai bunnies, Holland Lops, Netherland Dwarfs, long eared, short eared, flop eared, skinny, chubby, hairy, brown eyed, red eyed, just so many. But we walked past this one cage with a little white and brown patterned bunny and I think we knew then that our search was over.The dude let Pae hold little bunny man, dug around in his little bunny private parts to find out that he was a he, and told us a little about his breed, age, price, etc.I think that even before he finished talking and only probably 1/3 of our way into the market we had found our bunny. We chose a little pink cage for our boy bunny, paid and left bunny boy with the seller so we could go grab lunch at our favorite food place in JJ (notice I didn't say "restaurant", it's really a hole in the wall posing as a restaurant, but the food is the best for miles!!) and shop for food and other accessories.We took a taxi home while BunBun took perhaps his first ride in the traditional air-hole-poked brown cardboard box. It was one of those new puppy feelings, taking an animal home from the shop, from the harsh conditions of nasty, overcrowded cages.Arriving at home, we immediately cleaned up all of the larger stuff that BunBun would chew on or eat and blocked most of the major crevices and let BunBun roam around his new home. An exploring bunny is very cute, head jutting up and down, sniffy nose going hundreds of miles per hour smelling its new surroundings. Cutest is when he stands on his hind legs, front paws under his chin, whiskers shaking up and down with his smelling!Eventually, over the next few days of the weekend, BunBun only peed when we let him on the bed. He first peed on Pae's covers, then on Smarty and ChocoPie (a bear and a puppy). In his "close call" moment he hopped over to Pae's iPhone, which was on my side of the bed, and sat right on top of it and started smelling his junk...that's been our hint that he's about to pee, the only thing that we've noticed so far that he does BEFORE he pees. All we've noticed other than that is that he hops and runs really fast every now and then. When that happens he's usually running away from a juicy yellow spot on the bed.SO, iPhone, as BunBun settled right on top of the phone, I joked to Pae, "I think he's about to pee." Pae said "Don't pee Bun Bun, not on my phone" and tried to pull the phone away, but it was caught on his claw so we were careful to pull it off gently...then he sprinted to Pae's pillow...At first we were like, WOW you're so fast BunBun! but then I looked at my side of the bed and Pae's finger...not only did he leave the warm yellow spot, but also some chunky little treats, like five of them. Yeah, so the little guy pooped and peed on our bed throughout the weekend, but that's cool, we went and bought new sheets last night.So BunBun is the new kid on the block, a Holland Lop mixed with Thai rabbit, maximum weight no more than 1.8 kilograms or around 4 pounds. The little guy spent his cage time either eating or eating or eating or sleeping.He does that, he'll eaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat then eat some more then suddenly he'll close his eyes. After a while he'll open his eyes, jump up and run to his little grass ball and start munching, then chill again.Even though he's in his cute stage, Pae is waiting for him to grow, grow, grow so he's more huggable and less fragile feeling...by that time, he'll have bigger poops too!!

Scouts

2011-07-01T08:46:00.005+07:00

I remember mom taking me to Scouts when I was a kid, in fact, I think mom was a den mother. I never went past Cub Scouts, but I remember the structure of the Scouts, earning badges, beads, etc.Here in Thailand, every student is a Scout. The Scout uniform is worn once a week as part of the required uniform in most schools as well. Thursdays here at my school. The whole earning badges thing is less noticeable and I don't think I've ever met or seen an Eagle Scout here. It means very little here, from my vantage point, its just something the Ministry of Education implemented into the system.Today, Friday, our school is having a special Scouts "ceremony" (for lack of any other description I can think of). They do this once a year it seems. What it comes down to is the day prior (yesterday) the teachers scurry around getting poster board and markers, tell the kids what to draw and write, and have the kids create posters concerning whatever is "the thing" at the time. Right now (Sunday) we are having general elections in Thailand, so all of the posters are probably about the voting process. I won't start on Thai politics...we (Pae and I) are very cynical when it comes to that subject. Perhaps cynical is the wrong word. I think "Honest" and "Realistic" is more appropriate.So, the kids are currently marching around the school grounds, with the Scout master (I call him "the microphone dude") shouting cadence and instructions. The students will share their posters with the rest of the school and I'm sure a winning poster will be chosen. I'm hiding from the festivities, preparing for my second period science class (first period was cancelled) and typing this short post.Here are a couple pictures of the kids.

Friday Foto - July 1, 2011

2011-07-01T08:03:00.005+07:00

This year has been pretty weak as far as movies go. Perhaps there have been some good movies, but since Pae was away for the first half of the year in Amman we didn't have the opportunity to go out often.

Now that she's home, we've gotten back to the salty popcorn, super-sized Coca Cola and greasy cinema seats. Perhaps the best way to ease back into going to the theater, Transformers 3, yeah!! Like.

One of the best parts of most movies are the previews/trailers for coming attractions as well as the movie posters plastered everywhere in and around the theater. Today's photo is of two such posters near the bathroom in the theater at the mall.Now, I'm not really sure which of these I'm more likely to see, or which one Thais would choose to go see together; the movie with a half naked dude jammed in a giant ghost woman's cleavage or the latest 80's remake, The Smurfs. We asked some of the kids at school if they knew what a Smurf was. Only one boy knew and he couldn't name any of them. As far as they know, The Smurfs could be a cartoon version of Avatar.

So, nothing extraordinary, just giving a feel for the lack of excitement I have right now for any "Coming Soon" movies this summer. Transformers will have to hold us over until Harry Potter comes out!

Random- Red Vines Lose! Twizzlers Win!

Been there done that

2011-06-30T15:39:00.003+07:00

Saw these direction signs at the movie theater. Always like the arrow towers in touristy places showing the directions and distances to other main cities or nearby places.Try to guess what two of these places I've been to. Unfortunately only two of them so far, but we'll get them all ticked off of the list eventually! More importantly, which have YOU been to?

Sixth Grade Fish Dissection

2011-06-24T11:18:00.002+07:00

Part of our sixth grade curriculum, in the unit covering classification of animals, body systems, etc., is a lab assignment to dissect a fish. When we were kids, in America, we did earthworms, eventually moving to frogs in the higher levels and finally dissecting fetal pigs in high school.Thailand, being a Buddhist country, goes with fish. I'm assuming this is why we don't dissect frogs or pigs here...maybe other schools and other textbooks do, but we don't.As long as we tell the kids that we will give the butchered fish to the school cook, and he will fry them up, they don't seem as concerned about killing and butchering the fish. Again, I'm not sure if religion has anything to do with the fact that we slice and dice fish here instead of frogs.This year's sixth graders, being mostly girls, was always going to be fun. The kids had been asking for a week already if we were going to do the dissection project and I kept telling them that we might.They made disgusted faces every time I said maybe. One Monday morning I told them that I had spent Sunday at the market and that I had seen bunny rabbits for 140 baht each, about $5. I told them that since the bunnies weren't so expensive, that we would be dissecting bunnies instead of fish. The 13 girls in the class were quite disturbed by the thought of slaughtering a cute little bunny, but the boys were overly excited! I even went as far as to ask their preference, flop eared bunnies or normal eared bunnies! Yes, they call me evil.I spent my lunch hour (50 minutes somehow is called lunch "hour") at the market buying knives, gloves and fish. I let the Thai teachers make the purchase for me last year and 8 frozen solid small fish showed up in a freezer a few hours before our class...so I decided to go get the fish I wanted to get and fresh ones, not frozen ones.I got some pinkish or peach colored fish, similar to the black ones we dissected last year. I got one special long fish for whatever team wanted to do something different.We spent the 50 minute class cutting and chopping and mangling with our little knives. Lab knives would be nice, but the school won't reimburse for those as they cost about as much for one of those as it cost for all of the kitchen knives combined! No big deal though. For the level of dissection that we were doing the detail wasn't important, as long as we could get into the abdomen.The kids had fun finding the organs that we had talked about in the previous day's class and were interested to finally see the actual swim bladder (air bladder) in the fish when filleted in the proper way. They especially liked the eyes, popping them out and acting like they are sucking on them.Several girls had nothing to do with the lopping off of body parts and organs. Others dug right in and had a good, hands on learning experience.They want me to bring a cow and dissect it next week when we move on to mammals...I SURE WISH I COULD SWING IT!!

Friday Foto - June 24, 2010

2011-06-24T10:54:00.004+07:00

Match Made in Heaven - I'll probably take heat for posting this photo...but it just made me laugh to see it after like four years! I think both of these photos were taken in November 2006 or 2007, 4-5 years ago. Mom used to warn me that if I kept making that face that it would stay like that...I should have listened!

Jealous

2011-06-24T10:43:00.004+07:00

Pae Whatsapp'ed (MMS) me with these pictures of her lunch! Man! Just so happened that I had ordered a glass noodle salad at school and got more of a spicy pepper salad basically "garnished" with noodles! SPICY!!! All chilies, very little noodles!So, when Pae sent me these pictures, I was wishing I was with her eating lunch at home! Granted, I'm not much for chicken livers or the fried fish with the broken neck...But she also had an Isaan mushroom "stew", some fried rice, and a long bean version of Somtam Thai that looked awesome. I'm glad it's almost the weekend so we can sit around and eat together for the next two days!!!

Dad and Pae

2011-06-22T14:48:00.004+07:00

Just flipping through files on my laptop and came across this one that I never uploaded anywhere (blog, FB, etc).

Photos are from before and after our wedding, of Dad Uda and Pae. Most of the photos I took during that week were taken with my phone, so they aren't the best quality, but they'll do!

I do believe that Amanda and Dad are the only family members who have met Pae so far! One of these days...It'll be worth the wait, I promise *smiles*.

That time of year again

2011-06-22T13:49:00.005+07:00

There is always some type of fruit available here, whatever the season. Not only do we have regional fruits, but we also get fruits imported from all over the world. We seem to see a lot of Australian kiwis, apples and oranges. We get pears from Korea and America, cherries and strawberries also from America. Peaches, nectarines and certain apples from either America or Japan. So we get our home-grown fruits if we're willing to pay a steep premium. Example, about 25 dollars from a box of 16 strawberries. 12-15 dollars for a pint-sized tray of cherries. Expensive.

But one thing about here, Thailand, is that we pay mere pennies for the fruits that are likewise super expensive back in the States. A kilogram of Mangosteen, for example, in this picture is just under $2...but this photo was taken at the beginning of the season, now we are in the middle and towards the end of the Mangosteen season and we are finding them from between $.50 to $1 per kilogram (2.2 lbs!!) You couldn't buy a single mangosteen back home for a buck I'm guessing. I remember they were like $25 per kilo in Amman when Pae lived there.

So yeah, we may be strawberry starved, but we have all kinds of tropical fruits here and recently we started eating them a lot more, while they're in season!

If you can name all five fruits (there is actually a sixth fruit visible in one of the photos) you're pretty awesome! I'm sure I post a fruit post annually! Been here over 4 years and I still love looking at all of the different fruits!

Orchids

2011-06-21T12:02:00.005+07:00

I had some orchid photos from Singapore which I stuck into a small collage. Thought I'd bring some color to today! Flowers are nice, even though they often get my allergies going.Thailand has plenty of orchids also. They're quite lovely when you look at them closely. Click the photo for a closer-up view...they're really pretty.

Fourth Graders 2011

2011-06-21T10:18:00.004+07:00

I try to put up some pictures of our students every now and then, especially when they are "new" students. I didn't teach this group last year, so they are "new" to me.Our fourth grade class is down to 20 students and they are an absolute handful. The difference in levels of ability (English language ability to start with) is drastic which complicates things. No student left behind? I think some of these students were left behind in previous years, and their parents refuse to put them in a more appropriate program at our school or another school. And our school isn't going to turn down the money that the parents are paying by saying that the students don't belong in the more difficult English Program. It's a business. That's perhaps all I should say about that. That's a rant for another day; a day when I'm no longer employed here...

So, as you can see from the collage, a couple students have a hard time staying in their seats! We have ways of dealing with that...ever hear of "water boarding"??? hahah!! Random fact...they call me "Teacher Gaga", hmmmmm.

Anyway, these are my 4th graders, crooked glasses, beaver teeth, chubby cheeks and all!!

Friday Foto - June 17, 2011

2011-06-17T10:13:00.005+07:00

Clothes hanging out the windows on poles to dry. I mentioned in a previous post that I felt Singapore lacked personality. I think little things like this add to the personality aspect of a city. This isn't the best photo cuz I just whipped out my phone quickly and snapped.As I sat at taking this picture out of the window of the bus we were on, my friend's third grade daughter asked, her voice seemingly echoing through the entire bus packed with locals, "Why do they hang their clothes outside of their window? That's stupid!" All of the Singaporeans on the bus tried not to stare, but you could feel their gaze as I tried to quietly explain to her in that awkward moment.

Weekend Reunion in Singapore

2011-06-16T14:07:00.010+07:00

This past weekend had been planned for a long time. I got a Facebook message from one of my high school buddies saying he and his family would be in Singapore for a few days on their way to Indonesia. The last time I saw this kid was after Marine Corps boot camp, when we almost got beat up or shot by some high Puerto Rican kid in a convenience store parking lot. Territory issues. ;) We didn't even have enough time to get into a pissing contest, the kid just came to the Geo Metro I was driving and started throwing punches through the window. Stunned and like "Oh no you didn't!!" I stepped out of the Bad-A Metro, puffed my chest out, squinted my eyes, furrowed my brow and squared up to him and his friends. Then someone yelled, "He's getting his gun!" at which point my brain overrode my testosterone and we got the hell outta there!!Anyways, Pae and I had just returned from our honeymoon in Indonesia. Singapore is only a couple hours away by plane, so Pae and I purchased two tickets on Thai Airways and decided that it would be a cool weekend to go to Singapore, where neither of us had ever been, and meet an old friend, best friend back in the day.As the weekend approached, Pae began the interview process at an airline and passed the first round of interviews. If she kept passing interviews, she would be required to pass a swim test on Sunday...rendering her unable to spend the weekend in Singapore.She, luckily, didn't go to Singapore, but I did. Pae would swim at the weekend (British grammar), I would spend time chatting and checking out some of the city with my friend and his family.As you may be able to tell, I'm intentionally trying not to use my friend's name as he likes to try to leave a minimal www footprint. Big Brother IS watching!! I guess he could technically google the web with Facial Recognition software!! Haha. Florida family will know who he is of course, everybody else, let's just say I had an enjoyable weekend catching up on the past 23 years with an old friend.Singapore is a beautiful city, but it seems to lack personality. A friend described it to me like that at school, and I tend to agree, so I stole his description. The place is not overly Chinese, not super western, not at all S.E. Asian...It's just there, it's beautiful and it's very very clean. I'd say that you run into pockets of culture and personality...Chinatown, Little India, clothes hung out windows on poles to dry, but as a whole it seems very sterile and sanitized.All of the bars are closed off, windows filmed over with the muffled sound of music bursting out only when someone leaves to have a smoke. No trash in the streets or floating in the little canals or rivers. Stray cats, no stray dogs. An expansive public transportation system. Very clean air. Very few street vendors, and absolutely nobody bothering me to buy souvenirs around every corner.I didn't care about these things this time around, as I was there for a single purpose. Reunion. Next time we'll find out more about the place, we'll explore, we'll find some fun. I had a good time catching up with my friend and meeting his wife and third grade child.Anyone else ever in the region, we'll try our best to hook up with you...Bangkok is a lot easier though! Hint hint!!

Honeymoon in Bali - Part III Pae and Guy

2011-06-15T12:40:00.011+07:00

The final installment of our honeymoon blogs. We had a great time in Bali, relaxing together, especially after the stress of not only the wedding and wedding preparations, but also of travel back and forth here and there so much in the previous month.Our honeymoon was a great chance for us to be away from students, be away from passengers and just be together. We'll have to do this more often!! I guess after the honeymoon, you call them "weekend getaways" or something right?One thing that always happens when we go places is that we don't get enough pictures of both of us together. We noticed that we didn't take a lot of photos during our honeymoon as well, but did collect a few that we asked other people to take for us or auto timed photos.Believe it or not, this is the only photo we got of us together at the beach! Nice sand, good weather. Too bad there wasn't food and snacks sold by hawkers walking up and down the beach. In Thailand you can get all kinds of awesome food while sitting on your chair or towel on the beach! I guess in the resort area they are considered a nuisance and an eye sore though.The next three photos are from the day we visited Tanah Lot temple. This one below is of the gate to the entrance of where the temple is located. Most temples and gates and even highways had these "bookends" that you would walk through. Pretty cool looking and different.There was a small inlet or cove where the waves made their way in and crashed against the rocks. I liked the sound of the crashing waves, it looked cool and in places the action of the waves and the movement of the water reminded me of "The witches brew" at Hanauma Bay in Hawaii.This photo was taken by a couple who we did a "photo exchange" with overlooking Tanah Lot. Photo Exchange? My made up term for when you see a couple taking individual photos, then you offer to take their pic as a couple if they do likewise for you! Everybody wins. You do often end up with photos of camera strings, horrible framing or composition, and blurry, out-of-focus pictures, but it's better than not having any pictures together after your trip!At Monkey Forest, we had less opportunity to take pictures together as most tourists were too busy making sure the monkeys didn't steal their belongings. The things would actually jump on you or just grab something right out of your hands or off of your head or face! So, passing your camera to another person just wasn't in the cards it seemed.When we got to certain places with a low concentration of little begging thieves, we actually got brave and did the auto timer thing! It's a very paranoid ten seconds as the timer ticks down to the opening of the shutter, with fat monkeys (fast fat monkeys) just around the corner waiting for something to steal. We made it out alive and in possession of all of our belongings...except for a pack of wet wipes that were unsalvageable after being ripped off and muddied earlier.Photos at Uluwatu, with the temple silhouetted against the backdrop of the setting sun, were fun. We got to Uluwatu right on time, with probably only a half hour before the sun sank into the ocean.The filtered rays and orange tint of the sun, the chubby monkeys, the rising tide, the multiple sets of waves you could see from the upper vantage point (top of the cliffs) stretching as far as the eye could see and surf crashing into the base of the huge cliffs was a beautiful combination and made for the perfect atmosphere for "just being somewhere". But the thing that made it most special was being there together!We had a great wedding, a great honeymoon together and now we're beginning a great life together, just the two of us for now and whatever new family additions might come along the way! *In the form of people AND puppies of course!

Honeymoon in Bali - Part I

2011-06-15T12:10:00.000+07:00

This post is a little late, but we've been busy with all kinds of things lately. This post will have less of us and more about our trip in general. I hope to post two others, one with pictures of local people and another with us together...actually we got very few photos with us together! Need to invest in a small tripod.

Wedding, drop Dad off in BKK and the airport the next day, then run to the airport ourselves a couple hours later for our honeymoon!! We began the process of both getting visas to India once we figured out that Pae could get some extra days off of work following our wedding. Her friends who had recently come back from India begged her not to go there for her honeymoon, citing it as not so romantic and super super hot! Hawaii wasn't an option as we don't have a visa for entry into the U.S. That took Hawaii off of the short list as well as many European places.We instead decided to go to Bali, Indonesia, a short 4 hour flight away and south of the equator. Now, for me, Bali had always struck me as one of those places I'd never be able to visit. Pae has spent her whole life in this region, so Bali probably doesn't even register as anything out of the ordinary for her or others here. I mean, Thailand has some of the most amazing beaches and little islands in the world, so it's hard to beat! Am I complaining about going to Bali on our honeymoon? NO WAY!! We could have spent a week in 7-11 as long as we were together and I would have been happy! I think we both enjoyed being honeymooners for a week!

Well, I'd always known Indonesia as a Muslim country, which is correct. Indonesia is more than 90% Muslim with the remaining ten percent split up between Hindus, Buddhists, Christians and Catholics (as a taxi driver explained to us "two different kinds of Christians")Bali, on the other hand, is just the opposite, with over 90% Hindu. The tourist maps actually mark "Muslim areas" which I found interesting. I almost felt like the maps were marked as a sort of "warning", especially after the terrorist bombing of a night club area in Kuta that killed over 200 locals and tourists, back in 2002. Two of the terrorists blew themselves up, and several were eventually captured, prosecuted and killed by firing squad. While we were there, we felt no negative vibe from any of the people, be they Christian or Muslim, Hindu or Buddhist. People seemed generally nice, out to make a buck, but nice and mostly polite.We flew Thai Airways and stayed at the Laguna Resort and Spa Nusa Dua. Nusa Dua is one of three main areas we spent time at, a resort area, perfect for a relaxing honeymoon. Before leaving Thailand, we decided not to cut off the strings tied on our wrists during our wedding ceremony. We figured that we might be able to get an upgrade at the hotel by telling them that we were honeymooners.Figured that was more legit than complaining about every little thing in the room on arrival and hoping for an upgrade...common practice for frequent travelers, it works sometimes, but kinda cheesy for a honeymooning couple to start off by complaining So when we reserved online, we got the medium level room...and left a comment asking for a free upgrade for honeymooners. Being low season in most areas around South East Asia, we had a pretty good chance at getting an upgrade to a "Lagoon Access" room, with a personal entry to a small lagoon outside of the room.Checking in, the front desk dude asked if we were just married and explained that Hindus have a similar custom of tying strings around the wrists during the wedding ceremony. He congratulated us and gave us the upgrade, "for good luck" he said. Honestly, we were probably happiest that the room came with free breakfast daily! You know us, and food! Funny thing was, since they had originally booked us for and prepared for us a standard room, they were a little late preparing our upgraded room for a honeymooning couple. So, while we were unpacking and getting comfortable, two ladies from the hotel knocked and brought flowers for the bed, the shower and for the desk in the room. It was funny, they set them all up, then left...a little awkward but nice of them.We shopped and got supplies at the resort area shopping mall called Bali Collection. High priced everything from convenience stores to name brand clothing and handbags. Considering its location (well manicured resort area) and its target demographic (middle age rich people, honeymooners and frequent flyer business people types)the prices seemed right on. Food here was the basic Indonesian fare but at inflated prices for tourists.This was really the only thing, other than the nice beaches, that Nusa Dua offered. The beaches were probably the best on the island, with minimal surf and well maintained shorelines, white sand and a noticeable lack of surfers, jet skis and parasailers. It was a very relaxing area, perfect for a nap on a beach chair. I did walk about 500 meters up the beach and found a local beach only separated from the resort beaches by a small peninsula that jutted out between the two areas.There was a stark contrast between the local beach and the stretch of beach owned by the hotels and resorts. Cleanliness and the amount of hawkers being the main two differences. It was almost like they limited the amount of hawkers to come down the beach into the resort area, there was actually security regulating locals going down the beach. You could see a "staging area" for the hawkers, with their sunglasses, paintings, shell creations and other things all stacked and ready to take their turn down the resort beach. Interesting to see. Here in Thailand, most places, the on beach sales" seem unlimited, with somebody always in your face trying to sell you food, local merchandise, or a ride on a pony.Area number two that we visited with a rented taxi was the Ubud area. Ubud is the artsy area, the hippy area so to speak. You know, those who talk to the trees, gain inspiration from the water flowing down the stepped rice patties, and sit on their Apple laptops in coffee shops reading online literature. Ubud was this kind of place!
I loved the drive into Ubud from Nusa Dua. The roads were winding, narrow and green. From the edge of the road outward all you could see was "life". Not an industrialized area, not a cement and concrete city, but little houses, shacks, showrooms, fields, rice patties, temples, everything that you want to see when you travel was in Ubud, except for the beach as it is an inland city.There are several "Monkey Forests" and "Monkey Temples" in Bali, mostly for the tourists who pay a small admission. I really wanted to go to the Monkey Forest, not for the monkeys, but to be in the forest, to hear the water flowing through the small ravine, to smell the damp moss growing on the rocks. I love green, I love the forest, and I love listening and looking up into the canopy, a totally different world than down below on the forest floor.My camera threw fits in the shade, with little beams of sunlight randomly making their way through the thick ceiling of leaves that were woven together over head. Almost all of my photos were out of focus, and I don't take out of focus photos! Small disappointment, but I have the photos recorded in my memory! And my memory doesn't require rotating, resizing or backing up on my hard drive!!

The monkeys offered some entertainment though, as they were naughty little boys and girls. Anything not tied down, hidden or super glued to your person was fair game and would surely become monkey toys or lunch. The little buggers even knew how to open zippers! I had two literally "jump me" beneath a large rainforest tree. At first it was cute, two little furry monkeys on my waist and backpack messing around, until I heard Pae say, "They got the wet wipes!" Then, "Be careful, he's after the sunscreen!"Too late! Once the little punks got their muddy little hands on stuff with twisty tops and sticky tabs, they hopped off and ran off with their booty. I couldn't very well let the little primates leave the area with a full tube of sunscreen, so I attempted to trade the lotion for a handful of crushed banana that was also in one of the pockets of my backpack. He wasn't having it and jumped on a small cement pillar overlooking a Japanese Koi pond. He gnawed at the cap of the lotion, eventually prying it off. It dropped right on the edge of the pond and he started smelling the lotion and squeezing it. He was preoccupied with his lotion when I snagged it out of his little monkey boy hands, grabbed the cap and put it IN my backpack instead of in the side mesh pocket.

Later, on our way out of the forest, another little fella ran up my leg, straight to my shoulder and I messed with him for a few seconds. When I didn't allow him to grab my glasses, he grabbed my face! I let out an unexpected "eek!" walked a few yards then spun him around until he bit me and then hopped off and walked away. I'm sure they play like this daily.
The third area we went was Kuta. This is where you find the under 25 crowd, the surfers, the partiers, the high on weed folks, and the "You want marijuana" whisperers. Quite the atmosphere during day light with people shopping, eating, surfing and hanging at the beach. When the street lights go on, the roads fill with youngsters looking for the hippest bar, the best music and apparently the freshest pot. I couldn't walk more than 50 meters without some seedy looking dude whispering "Cannabis? Pot? Mari-hu-wana?", "Weed man?", "You smoke?"I wanted to reply, "No, but can you help me find a eighteen inch penis?" Haha, okay, you won't get that joke unless you've walked the streets, and even the shopping malls of Bali! Everywhere you go, there are wooden penises for sale. We have them here in Thailand too, some phallic religion, and they are often displayed in a case or on an altar in restaurants, in taxis and in people's homes. We showed dad a stack of them here in Bangkok when we were strolling the streets and I think he had to avert his eyes, such was his surprise or disgust (one of those). So I asked a taxi driver if they had any religious significance for Hindus and he was like, "No, they're just funny to look at. Make people laugh." It's true though, every corner I turned around...magnets, book ends, bottle openers, you name it, it came in "penis". I'd post some of the many dong photos I snapped but I don't want to risk getting our blog shut down...although they're just wood.We sat in an upstairs bar, listened to music, wet our whistles and watched the people below rush towards the center of the party street (Legian Street) looking for fun. This is also the location of the terrorist bombing in 2002. As you'd imagine to see a bunch of American college students on spring break in Jamaica or the Bahamas, the proximity of Bali to Australia makes for 50% or more of the tourists in Kuta (and Bali in general)being Aussie. Getting to Europe or America for them is a long haul! Bali, Borneo, Malaysia and Thailand are much shorter, cheaper and more manageable flights. The surf on the west side of the island and Kuta's western location probably also has something to do with that.

After several trips to the bathroom and as the concentration of people on the dark streets below increased, we made our way out and went and found a little wicker love seat with cushions in the We Ai Pe (VIP) club right down from the bombing memorial. Here we sat (lounged) and listened to a live rocker band. After they did a couple sets, Pae heard them sing a requested song...yeah, so she requested "Don't wanna miss a thing" that so fun to sing (translation: scream) song "for the honeymooners".

A couple songs later the band, lead man and woman, came down, found us congratulated us and the four of us danced as they sang. Half way through the song, right about where all of the screaming starts, he handed me the microphone. I did my screaming, we traded dance partners, me/him, Pae/her, then I gave him back the mic, to everyone's relief! So we got our honeymoon song, our dance, and then a sweaty same-sex dance with a couple leather clad rockers as well! Haha, good stuff!

We did actually make it to several popular cultural destinations as well. We had seen many places that looked interesting, but many of them required 6+ hours of one way travel to get to the temple or volcano, so we scrapped those ideas in the interest of relaxation. We did go to two places popular with tourists; Uluwatu and Tanah Lot Temple.Tanah Lot is located a little north of Kuta and is rocky with very little if no beach. Tanah Lot temple is out in the water, with a small land bridge making it accessible when the tide is low, making it an island during high tide. We got there as the tide was coming in, so weren't able to enter the temple grounds. We were able to take some pictures, even though the sun was sooooooo bright. I'm not a sweater, but my shirt was nice and damp after a half hour walking around the area. There were several religious ceremonies taking place in the temple area (on shore), with people dressed in their traditional or religious garb everywhere. Most people were dressed like this, so honestly I'm not 100% sure that this isn't just their daily dress.Next we headed down, past Nusa Dua to our east, through the hot seafood city or area of Jimbaran, and to Uluwatu. Here there is a temple on a cliff overlooking the ocean. We went around sunset time, got some good photos of the cliffs, the surf and the temple, then sat down for a show called the Kecak Dance, a cultural dance where the dancers chant and go into a trance and a story is danced. It was getting dark so we didn't read the story of the dance, but instead just watched and listened to the 60+ dancers doing their thing.Bali was both culturally interesting and very relaxing. The food was sub-par but I thing we're just too used to eating awesome Thai food. If it's your first time in S.E. Asia, I would recommend a visit to Bali, with a stopover in Thailand (of course) for a visit to Pae and Guy!!We loved our honeymoon and want to thank everybody for their love and best wishes. We're now entering a new stage in our lives and in our relationship and it's very exciting! Wish us luck and hope to make one of our next trips together back to the States for a visit and to meet everybody. Update on that later...stay tuned.

Together

2011-06-15T07:32:00.004+07:00

Family and friends probably know that Pae and I have been living apart for the past year, due to her working with Royal Jordanian Airlines and my continued employment here at my school. It was a very long year to spend so far away, as friends, as bestest buddies, as a couple engaged to be married. I won't lie, it was difficult being alone. It was difficult not being able to be there for each other when we felt the need to have that special someone nearby.

Long distance relationships are a challenge for a myriad of reasons, but something as simple as the absence of a just-got-home-from-work hug or the indecisiveness of "what should we eat for dinner" reminds you just how empty things seem when the other person isn't around.

Happy to report that we did it. We did our year. Pae completed her contract with RJ. She was offered a new contract, but considering we were just married, it seemed the better option to live together. Since I couldn't work in Jordan, even at McDonalds, due to my lack of Arabic language ability, we decided that Pae would come home.

Pae is officially home. We are officially together at last!

One concern for the long run was that Pae would have difficulty finding employment that she enjoyed here in Thailand. She didn't want to come home from a productive past year, full of new experiences and life lessons, to a small room and a television and 9 hours of me being away at school all day. Such a sudden drop in productivity and daily interaction with people would make it difficult for her emotionally and even physically, but we were willing to work really hard to get out and find a good job as fast as possible; hopefully one that she enjoyed waking up to daily.

This continues to be our challenge, although there are some great opportunities that are within our grasp. We'll hopefully have good news on that front by the beginning of July. It's a job that will allow her to live here in Bangkok and still do what she enjoys. We're crossing our fingers. She's done all she can do and done her absolute best throughout the interview process with this company and we're working hard to get her that final few steps and officially employed!!

I'm always impressed by Pae's willingness to "do what it takes", even when she is putting her emotions on the line (in the case of rejection), to achieve the things that are important to her and to her family. Either way, if she gets the job or not (knock wood) we're gonna have to go and drown ourselves in a celebratory avalanche of ice cream, fudge sauce, fruit toppings and whipped cream!! Pae has worked hard the past year or so and continues to reach out with all of her power and diligence to grab and pull closer to her the things that she wants for herself and for us at this point in her life and our life together.

Like they say, "It's not where you end up, it's how you got there" (or something like that, you get the idea!) No matter what happens, we know that we have always done everything, given our all, the best we could give, to try to make the things in our mind's eye real. There is no failure when that is the case.

Thank you my jaosao naawy! You're awesome and I love you!

p.s. Having a little trouble getting Part I of our honeymoon posts to post...it'll show eventually I'm guessing, although it may be backdated...Part II and III are in works in progress ;)

Honeymoon in Bali - Part II - The people of Bali

2011-06-14T23:08:00.012+07:00

Got all of the basics out of the way concerning our honeymoon to Bali, Indonesia, so here are some pictures that we took of local people doing their thing there. I kept accidentaly calling them "Balinesians" to which Pae would always correct me. I guess they are "Balinese" hahaha. Oops!

I particularly like to watch people when I go places. See them smile, see them work, see them go about everyday things in their own ways, taking into account their culture, economy, etc. I guess you call it "people watching", one of my favorite things to do.The resort area where we stayed had very few hawkers trying to sell things or offer us services. There were however a few guys on the beach walking around offering activity packages such as snorkeling, scuba, parasailing, jet ski, glass bottom boat rides, etc. Their boats were anchored outside of the swimming area, sitting at the ready, hoping for some takers.I got several photos, taken from a moving van, of farmers tending their fields.Bali, much like Thailand, is full of mopeds and motorcycles. For the narrow streets in Bali they seem a much more fitting form of transportation. The biggest difference in Bali was that most of the riders wore helmets. Our driver told us that the helmet laws there were very strict and harsh. Here in Thailand, you'll get ticketed when a cop is in the mood to come chase after you in the heat, when they are running low on their quota near the end of the month, or when they need a little extra pocket money.Here's another farmer in another field.This kid was with his mom and family attending a ceremony at a small pavilion near Tanah Lot temple north of Kuta.I believe this was part of a funeral ceremony on the beach. There were wreaths, lots of people, food vendors and two guys with a giant torch, propane tanks and something burning under two pieces of corrugated tin roofing.In Kuta this caravan of school buses passed us, caught in traffic, going towards the beach. On the left of the picture is a group of masseurs taking a break.One of these ladies sold us a couple paintings, claiming that her husband was the one who painted them. We saw them many other places on the island, perhaps her husband distributes them island wide, or not.Another picture taken from a moving vehicle. This truck was parked on the side of the road with it's driver unloading coconuts. This area of the world has an abundance of coconuts, which are used for desserts, drinks as well as cooking.Another important food product grown in much of Asia and SE Asia is of course rice. These stepped rice terraces were nice looking. They were just being planted, they must be beautiful when they are ready to harvest!This lady was placing an offering at the gate of a temple.These kids at Tanah Lot temple were not shy at all when I asked them to take a picture together. And of course they giggled to each other as Pae and I walked away.A bunch of high schoolers hanging out at Tanah Lot.After school girl talk. These two girls just sat on the side of the street outside of their school chatting and watching traffic go by, perhaps waiting for a ride.A mix of students mingling right after the final school bell went and tourists cruising the shops along the road.Balinese men playing a card game under a palm-roofed shelter at the beach in Kuta. Very animated when playing, similar to when Korean ajumas play Hwa-do.Chillin' with some guys who were sitting watching people pass. They all looked so comfortable and relaxed in their "church clothes".

The two most important people on this trip, the honeymooners, will be featured in the next and final post dedicated to our honeymoon in Bali...Until then, Aloha!

Friday Foto - May 27, 2011

2011-05-27T14:57:00.003+07:00

It's been a while since we put any Friday Fotos up. Here's one from school. Spaghetti for lunch. Feel bad for the first to third graders, because the food is prepared and dished out up to an hour before lunch. So their food gets nice and cold before they eat. Fourth to seventh grade are luckier because they have second lunch which means their food is still warm. If it's not warm, at least it hasn't been sitting on a plate for an hour.

Pae's Colombo Flight

2011-05-24T15:17:00.009+07:00

Recently, before our wedding, Pae was scheduled for a flight to Colombo, Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka's official name is the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, wow, lots of stuff going on there! Along with North American flights, Delhi, London and Bangkok, this is one of the flights that the RJ flight crew looks forward to seeing on their schedules.Pae would spend the better part of two days in Colombo, both relaxing after her flight in her hotel and exploring the area both on foot as well as by "Tuk tuk" as we call it here in Thailand. A Tuk tuk is basically a motorized rickshaw. They're tiny, cute and are a good way to tour around, as long as the tuk tuk driver doesn't "take you for a ride" so to speak when it comes to negotiating a fare.Pae visited a couple temples, the beach and even was able to get pictures with an elephant along the way. Most elephants that we see here in Thailand have no tusks or they have had them cut off. This one, in the pictures, had some pretty good tusks going on. I almost forgot what a tusked elephant looked like until I saw the pictures she brought home from Colombo.When traveling, I enjoy trying to capture some of normal everyday life with my camera. When looking through Pae's photos of Colombo, I saw some of this, from couples using umbrellas at the beach to block the sun, to a woman in her bright orange dress selling balls, Pae captured a little of the atmosphere, real life, with her pictures. The collage below looks a whole lot better if you click on it to see it in full size.A funny thing in the pictures were some of the signs on the walls in a Buddhist temple that Pae visited. These signs had proverb-like stories that taught doctrine or I'm guessing lessons or concepts that the Buddhists try to live by. This is the "Indian Buddhism" as I like to call it rather than the one more familiar to me here in Thailand and much of Asia; "Chinese Buddhism" and "Thai Buddhism". I remember when I was in Korea, a Buddhist taught me that, just like there are many denominations of Christianity, Buddhism has the same thing, with tens of different denominations or even types of Buddhism.Above are some of the signs, you know, "don't gamble" and "don't kill animals," but my favorite being the one entitled, "Marrying an extremely young women, even when one is old". "When an aged person marries a young woman, both are unhappy. The young woman does not derive much pleasure out of the marriage. The aged person spends sleepless nights worrying if his young wife will think of a young man. This situation is a source of downfall." Hmmmmmm, I wonder what they consider "aged" and "young" hahaha!!As Sri Lanka is about 70% Buddhist, with a spattering of Muslims, Christians and Hindus, a Hindu temple was also on the list of places to visit. The temple Pae visited was one that most non-Sri Lankan crew like to go see. I love the pictures of this temple. So many characters, so many poses. (I think it is a Hindu temple. It could be a Buddhist temple. Both religions in Sri Lanka are derived from India, so the characters, gods, Buddhas are unfamiliar to me)One of the most interesting things is that there are two main buildings of this temple, one of which is well kept while the other is dirty and needs to be maintained. You can see both of them in one of these pictures. Such a stark contrast between to two temples, situated just meters from each other, on the same temple ground.I actually enjoy just sitting and zooming in on the pictures of this temple and trying to pick out each different character and try to figure out what he/she is doing and his relationship with the other characters that adorn the outer walls! Its visually stunning to look at, even just in pictures, must have been awesome to see it in person!Sri Lanka being an island, Pae had the ocean all around her and made it to the beach before she left, although she didn't swim. Just out to the beach near her hotel, look at the water, see the people out, together, eating and enjoying their lunch breaks, or those selling snacks and drinks to the beachgoers. The tide must have been in because the waves were coming right up to the little sidewalk where people were taking their mid-day strolls. The small grassy area along the beach, beach parks, were great places for people to fly kites as well.The architecture in Colombo was a mixture of old and new with construction and upgrades of government buildings, according to one of Pae's Tuk tuk driver/guide.Tamil Tigers and all of the past conflict in Sri Lanka aside, Colombo seems like a nice place for a stopover or weekend trip! Maybe we'll stop there for a few days on our way to the Maldives (IN MY DREAMS!!) hahaha. We'll have to put that one on the bucket list! Scuba diving in the Maldives...For now, I'm totally happy and satisfied sitting and listening to Pae tell me about her hotel, her tuk tuk driver, the food and her cultural and social experiences in those two quick days in Sri Lanka. I see the amazement in her eyes of an explorer who has discovered a new world, the excitement and sense of pride of an adventurer who just summited Everest. Hearing these things in her voice and seeing it in her eyes and smile brings me great happiness! Vicarious living!

Just Married!

2011-05-16T01:13:00.009+07:00

Well, here we are, no longer "Pae and Guy" the girlfriend/boyfriend couple. We are now officially "Pae and Guy" the married couple!I'm not going to go on and on about the ceremony too much, or our history as a couple, rather I wanted to mostly thank our family and friends for supporting us on our big day and throughout the past few years.

Dad Uda was actually able to make it to town thanks to Erin and Josh donating a bunch of frequent flyer miles and hotel points. It was great having him here for our wedding. It was especially funny when everyone kept saying that I looked older than him! Now looking at the pictures, I have to somewhat agree! Yikes! The years catch up fast! Dad and I actually talked about it and all of the wrinkles and cracks and crevices on my face and elsewhere are from all of the weight I lost in the past year or so since Pae was away in Jordan. I need a nice little layer of fat under there smoothing things out! Pae, on the other hand, always looks flawless! My favorite smile in the world!The family in Ubon worked very hard to get things ready for our wedding day. With me all the way here in Bangkok and Pae in Amman for a majority of the planning, a lot of the responsibility rested on Mom, Dad and the brothers in Ubon Ratchathani. We certainly did our share whenever Pae was in town or over email or by whatever means we had available to us, but the family really made things happen.Pae and I took care of her dress, my outfit, rings, announcements, gifts and other odds and ends. The Ubon family took care of planning the brunch that was after the ceremony, the dinner, Dad's Ubon hotel, flowers we chose together during one of our visits to Ubon. Mom and Dad did a lot of home improvement for the big day such as tiling the driveway, installing air conditioning in all of the rooms of the house, and even getting the lot across the street weeded and bushes hacked down and tents put up for the brunch. They hired pretty much anyone who needed to be hired like photog, video dude and even the little parade group band and DJ who ran karaoke later in the day.

P'Neung and P'Nut ran around for the two days of the wedding and never stopped for over 48 hours. Both of them sweat like crazy with little to no rest for the two days. They wanted to make sure their little sister had the perfect day. All of their hard work was noticed and we surely want to make sure to show our appreciation to them times a hundred.Auntie Laura and several uncles helped translate or explain things for Dad whenever we weren't around. I'm sure Dad found himself lost at times, but there was just so much going on visually, I'm sure he was just soaking a lot of it in. It was great to have the family help trying to make Dad feel comfortable, even before the wedding.

Other than me having to go for makeup unexpectedly (haha) an hour before the wedding, things were absolutely perfect! Face and hair issues aside, seriously, everything was perfect from our perspective. We do realize there were probably people running around putting out fires as they flared up, but we didn't feel any of the heat so to speak. The family did a great job, again. Thank you all!Pae looked beautiful in her traditional Thai gown. We chose it over some more colorful ones at the wedding dress shop, and she was able to make it to fittings during her flights from Amman, her days off and her through flights to Hong Kong and Kuala Lumpur. Her hair was beautiful, fresh white flowers braided into it. She's always told me how much she loves the way Aung San Suu Kyi always wore fresh flowers in her hair, even as a prisoner in her own Myanmar home. Pae was amazingly beautiful as always!

I also wore a traditional Thai outfit with what I kept calling my "Hammer pants". They are actually called Jongkraben, but Hammer wore them so well, he should get a little shout out!Without getting too much into things I don't know too much about, haha, here's a little how things went after we showed up a little bit late to our wedding from the makeup salon. I think we made the monks wait a tiny bit!First we made an offering to the Buddhist monks who were all lined up with their offering bowls. The family also helped filling their alms bowls and then the monks chanted a little chant. I'm used to this chanting now after hearing it in school on Thursdays, although probably not a wedding chant at school! I think it may have been interesting to see and hear for Dad though.Bowls filled and chanting finished, the monks made their way back to a van to be ferried back to their temple. Pae then disappeared into the house (the brides home) and waited for the groom (me) to come calling! This would be the longest we were apart for the whole day. We, the grooms party, took a walk up the soi and prepared to parade to the brides home, Thai steel guitar, drums and all! Dad was the only one who was technically there as a member of the groom's party, but many other friends and relatives helped out. May have looked funny, just me and Dad and the "band", haha. A bunch of Aunties and Uncles as well as friends of P'Nut and P'Neung joined in the parade. Many of our friends (Pae's high school friends) also made the short 200 meter walk with me!We paraded down the soi to the house where I had to pass through two gates, one silver and one gold, to gain entrance to eventually see my bride. After N'Nam washed my feet (twice since I failed to take my shoes off the first time) I made it to the silver gate. After some discussion with the "gatekeepers", with the help of an Auntie, I was allowed to pass, giving each gatekeeper an envelope with 100 Baht in it (roughly $3). Custom, tradition, kinda cool.The golden gate was a little more "expensive" but super easy to pass. It was Pa Sin and N'Som who were the gatekeepers and they didn't want to hold up festivities with a long, drawn out negotiation!! I got through giving them each two envelopes! I had prepared ten envelopes, so I had four left! Not really sure where they ended up!After I got into the house, we spread a little cloth and busted out a bunch of gold, chains, bracelets, wedding rings, incense, cash, etc. A lot of this is cultural and the way it used to be done, with the groom offering the bride's mom "payment" or "insurance" that he wouldn't leave the daughter high and dry one day by leaving her. A dowry of sorts along with the jewelery.The relatives spread rice or something grainy over the whole setup, asking that it multiply and be blessed. Dad even took part in the spreading of seeds, Auntie Laura explaining to him what was going on I'm sure...meaning Dad probably understands the significance better than I do! I was just kinda trying to bow and "wai" at the right times. (So many of the pictures look like I'm so concerned, or like I just woke up!) Happy time, but oh so stressful, especially when it's in a different language! (When Pae eventually showed up, I just copied her!)After the "SinSot" or dowry was blessed, it was wrapped up in the cloth and I had to give it to Mom. She put it on her shoulder and walked into where Pae was "hiding", acting like the money and gold were sooooo heavy, cute. The mothers always seem to get a kick out of this part of the ceremony. Pae finally came out! All I could do is smile when I saw her, even though we had only been apart for like thirty minutes.It was perfect timing to see Pae and her smiling face. A Buddhist priest gave some blessings, I lit candles, Pae lit incense. P'Nut (brother) and N'Luke (Auntie Laura's boy) were my "Best men" of sorts, literally translated to "friends of the groom" and sat behind me the whole time taking care of anything I needed. Pae's "bride's maids" or "friends of the bride" were N'Nam (cousin) and N'Som (Luke's girlfriend). The friends of the bride and groom have to be single, random fact.Pae and I sat through prayers and having water splashed on us by the priest. I put several pieces of jewelery on Pae and eventually her wedding ring! She also put my ring on me. Dad kept asking, "Are you married now?" to which I kept answering either with raised eyebrows and a shrug, or with "I think there's more!" Numb legs eventually caused me to change my seated position, letting a little blood flow, but the incense was blowing right at me, and I found it hard to hold my breath for the hour long ceremony, so I just sucked it up and luckily the normal drippy nose and sneezing didn't hit me. I was concentrating so hard on not getting all allergic and sinusy during the wedding! Maybe the endorphines and adrenaline blocked the receptors up in my head!After I peeled myself off of the floor, we went to these green benches where we would sit for the next hour or so. Here the elders would pour holy water out of a shell, over our hands and "bless us" with their words and advice. We had three white dots painted on our foreheads and our heads were connected by string. We got to keep the string that connected our heads during the water ceremony, I'm sure it will eventually be placed in a display case one day when we have our first home!We purposely limited the number of people we invited, so the wedding would be small and more intimate, but it seemed like the line of elders never ended! My hands were pruned by the time it was finished! Can't have enough blessings though and never can get too much marital advice from the elders!I think somewhere during one of these ceremonies, Pae pointed out GM, one of my fifth graders who begged his mom to bring him all the way to Ubon for our wedding. A great kid, sixth grade this year. He brought his mom, brother Guy and brother Guide along for the ride. They own and run a tour company, so I'm guessing that getting plane tickets wasn't so hard for them! I was really happy to see GM and his family there, especially since he has always gone out of his way to make sure that I knew that he wanted to attend our wedding "someday". Well, someday finally came and he was there!When the pouring of water finished they dragged us into Pae's room where we were again given blessings by the elders, presumably fertility blessings, hahahaha. Technically, according to custom, I think we were supposed to sleep in the bed for the first three nights following the wedding, but I had to get Dad home and Pae had very little time for Honeymooning, so Mom let us off the hook :)After the bedroom portion of the proceedings, we were out for brunch, which ended up being us on stage being interviewed, and then out to the tents to take pictures with all of the guests (Not a lot of those photos here, there are just too many). This was a hot, hot, hot part of the day. P'Neung told us later that the temperature had gotten up to 41 degrees Celsius...or somewhere around 106 Fahrenheit!! Yeah, it was hot! I think I broke before Pae, and requested a couple glasses of ice water from a friend in the crowd.While making rounds in the guest tents and taking pictures, we saw and heard Dad Uda singing Karaoke! Pae's Dad sang as well. We got off without having to sing (until dinner later). Dad showcased his singing AND dancing skills with one of the uncles as we were busy. Many of Pae's high school friends made the trip from Bangkok also, we spend a little time at their table. They always said that Pae would be the first of the group to wed...they were right!When we finally made it to eat, many guests had already left and there wasn't much food actually remaining! But it was just nice to sit beside Pae and pick at our first meal together as husband and wife!After we ate, everyone had a nap and then we made our way to a family dinner later in the evening. There are bunches of pictures so I just put lots of them into collages for now. Thanks to everyone for their support and wishes!We're MARRIED, yay!!!

Auntie Judy I need your address!!!

2011-05-03T00:43:00.000+07:00

Hi, I don't have Aunt Judy's address, and this is the only way I know how to contact you! Sooooooo, I'm asking for you to send your mailing address...

I love you and hope you are doing well, and hope you always enjoy our blog!

Small annoyance

2011-04-30T12:18:00.008+07:00

Tiny little rant of the day. It's been a while since I've really had a rant on here, I usually save it for tiny snippets on my FB status...micro-rants.

Today, while cleaning my bathroom and folding laundry, I noticed two of our apartment's cleaning ladies pass by my room. They are middle age women, probably in their 50's or early 60's. I've never ever ever ever been satisfied with the quality of their work, which mainly consists of keeping the apartment common areas clean and cleaning rooms of tenants when hired to do so for a small fee.

I'll skip all of the examples of why I think they suck, as far as the quality of their work goes, and get straight to today's annoyance.Before they passed my room, I had thrown away three small bags of trash in the bin at the end of the hallway. The bin was full. The cleaners, whose job it is to empty the bins, sat at the end of the hall for thirty minutes, going through every piece of trash, every envelope, every thrown away credit card statement, every, every, every envelope they opened and read. I stood at my door and watched them. To get a closer look I drank what was left of a 1.5 liter bottle of Coke Zero (that can be seen in the photo below) and went to throw the bottle away, or give it to them to recycle, as they also collect bottles, glass and plastic to recycle once a month.They were sitting there, by three bags already gone through and the rest of the trash strewn all around them. They were seriously reading all of the bills. This is precisely why I always, always, always shred all paperwork that I put in the bin. I'm not being mean, but I do know that this is safer, and today's events only reconfirmed that in my brain. Not only do I rip my bills and letters and other paperwork to shreds, but when it's all sitting in the bottom of the plastic trash bag, I take spaghetti sauce, old soup juice, brown banana peels, pretty much anything nasty and put or pour it all over my shredded docs...I've even squirted Tabasco on my trash before to try to keep people from scavenging and jotting down account numbers if they were patient enough to sit and piece together all of the shredded parts. Paranoid? No way, realistic. Mean? Hell no! It's trash. I even massage the old food into the contents of the trash bag after tying it shut and before throwing it away.The most annoying part for me, since I don't really worry too much about identity theft or invasion of privacy since I go through such anal and seemingly psycho steps to keep them from putting my stuff in a file in the mop closet, was that after they were finished, they didn't even finish their job. They left the bin half full and rubbish strewn all at the end of the hall. Their job is to clean, or to keep the area clean, and they do just the opposite.

As they passed by my room I saw one lady with two small 7-11 bags filled with papers and envelopes, an old cell phone, and two bras. The other lady, whom I think is the laziest person on this Earth (after seeing her "work" for the past 4 years) had three boxes of birth control pills, Yasmin brand and she was opening each box as she walked by, and counting the remaining pills...OMG!!! When I went to take pictures of their mess, there were fully-used packs of birth control pills amongst the strewn about rubbish, so they left the empties behind.Just yesterday I put out a big bag of used clothes, specifically so anybody who saw them at the end of the hall and needed them could take them. Many people do this and I think it's great. One man's old stuff is another man's treasure...that is so true. But, one man's cell phone bill or credit card statement should stay in the trash! I guess people just need to be more careful with their stuff.

Hey, as a kid we used to collect Coke bottles and return them for the ten cent deposit. We would get clothes from wherever, but we didn't collect peoples' personal information!

Okay, now that I'm thinking about it, and honestly, I am guilty of going through people's mail in their trash too!! When I was night guard at an apartment complex just blocks from BYU when I was a student, kids would toss their garbage bags outside on the stairwell, rather than walking 50 meters to put it in the dumpster. There was not telling who's trash it was, so I would tear it open, look for a bill or letter with an address and apartment number, then I would toss the garbage back in front of their door with a note "Throw your garbage in the dumpster, Love, The Management". So, technically I have done similarly, but for a far different purpose...I was actually doing my job...

Family Trip to Korea - Everland

2011-04-30T00:10:00.010+07:00

More Korea posts! Had to take a break- busy with pre-wedding stuff! So, I'd heard of Everland forever, but never did any research on it or even had any desire to go. It turns out that even having only three hours to play and walk around at the Korean theme park, I had a good time.The atmosphere was what I imagine the atmosphere at Disney to be like, with music playing all around, bubbles gently floating in the cool breeze, kids waiting in line for cotton candy, the clickity-clack of roller coaster cars slowly making their way to the top of the tracks and the excited screams of the riders free falling to the bottom!Having only three hours, we had to prioritize our activities. Lines for rides were from one to two hours long, so rides were out of the question. We decided that the flower gardens were a must, and also agreed to go on the short safari ride.On the safari, we saw Lions, Tigers (guess what's next?) and Bears (OH MY!!) The zoo also has several Ligers, and white tigers as well. There were elephants, giraffes, etc. Funny moment: when we drove around one corner, two elephants suddenly appeared, to gasps from the other tourists in our safari bus. It was so loud, their gasps of excitement. Funny. I guess I'm desensitized having lived in Thailand for so long!The Bears did all kinds of tricks; waving, standing, kissing, etc. They were cute. The safari line was over an hour long, but the actual "ride" was less than 15 minutes!! Hahaha, but we had fun looking at the animals.The flowers were starting to bloom as we went in the middle of spring. They had so many tulips and other colorful flowers, iris, pansies maybe? Pae and I are both pretty big on "nature" so flowers are a bonus for us.If you ever find yourself in Korea and have an empty day on your schedule, I think Everland is a decent way to spend a day, especially if you have time to jump on a couple rides, see the animals, flowers and spend time with loved ones!

Friday Foto - April 29, 2011

2011-04-29T12:25:00.005+07:00

Friday, finally! The other day, my taxi forgot to turn into my soi (road) on my way to school. I was early already, so I decided to walk the rest of the way after I got out of the taxi. It's no more than a kilometer from the main road to the school, but there's one side street on the way that is very narrow, and dangerous for pedestrians.

Instead of walking down that road, I decided to go what I hoped was a shortcut. I always see construction workers coming from that small soi. This means they must live down there somewhere. I also see the same uniformed workers walking out of a canal entrance in front of our school. So, i put two and two together hoping that the four I got was a shortcut to work!

I walked down the small soi, no cars, one bicycle and many workers passed me. It wound around several high-priced properties with nice, big houses built on them and hidden from the outside by thick, cement walls. As I got to where I thought the little canal should be, I found where all of the construction workers were coming from.

In Thailand, this is on par with what they call "slum" or the very poor area where people, many who are selling their food in carts on the sides of the road or selling flowers in the streets, etc., live. But this is not a permanent slum, it's placed somewhere near a construction site and pretty much stays there, with hundreds of construction workers living there for as long as the construction site is ongoing.If you see a high rise or new building going up, you can guarantee that there is a construction worker slum somewhere nearby. When I first got to Thailand and worked at our Rangsit campus, there was such a slum next to our school, where our golf range would eventually be built. I saw the workers every day. I hear that many of them are illegal immigrants from Burma (Myanmar), Cambodia and Laos. If their homes (I don't like the term slum really) are farther away from the work site, they are stuffed, and I man STUFFED, into the back of pickup trucks like sardines and driven to site.

It's not uncommon to see a truck, normal size pickup, filled with 25 workers, dark leathery skin hardened by years working under the Bangkok sun, rarely smiling. I'm sure the wage is near nothing. I mean, for example, a 7-11 worker will make about 5,000 baht per month in salary, or around $150 per month. These laborers can't be making even half of that I don't think...I've never asked. Another funny thing is that it seems like immigration and the police (traffic police) seem to just ignore them. There are many laws being broken but seriously, construction would take a HUGE hit if they started cracking down on the illegal workers...also, condo prices would skyrocket as the companies would have to pay Thais more to do the same jobs as the illegals...a couple reasons why I think these workers are allowed to work under tha radar of authorities.

The workers aren't only men either. There are an equal number of men and women working on construction sites and living in these makeshift homes, made of a wooden frame and tin sheets. If they're lucky, they will have a string of lights also. When they were building the badminton facility next to our apartment, the workers would bathe right under our window, using big bins and barrels of water, men and women bathing out in the open, together. I've watched grown men and women together, in shorts (not fully naked) pouring water on themselves, shoving a bar of soap down their pants to get all sudsy, then rinse with another bucket or ladle or water, almost like they are bathing in shifts actually, a constant stream of worker as the sun is going down. Right as I got used to it, the badminton structure took full shape and I couldn't see them anymore.

I do hear that once the building begins to take shape, these workers are sometimes allowed to live in the skeleton of a room until such time perhaps when the decorating and furnishing starts. I've seen this in several buildings on our soi, on the way to the gym.

So, a different side of Thailand, in this case, sometimes hidden, sometimes right there for everyone to see. I found it though, and right past this slum was my canal, inaccessible thanks to a high wooden fence...but luckily, there were two panels busted out of the fence. A hop skip and jump later, I was at school, ready to go!!

Family Trip to Korea - Seoul Tower

2011-04-25T20:39:00.005+07:00

Our first night in Seoul brought us to Seoul Tower. I think it's actually referred to as N Tower these days, but I've always known it as Seoul Tower. In 2009, Pae and I started at Hanok Village, a small Korean Cultural village at the base of Namsan, the mountain upon which Seoul Tower is situated. We walked through the mountain forest, up a few kilometers to the tower. The mountain was beautiful and the hiking path was well maintained. We even passed a high school cross country team or P.E. class running up and down the mountain!This year, we bussed almost to the top of Namsan and walked the rest of the way to the tower. This year it was lit in blue. It lit up the sky and could be seen from most places in Seoul if you could find it through the cracks between buildings. It's a good landmark for city explorers.It was a little windy and chilly, but Pae and Mom made good use of their twinner jackets to stay warm! Taking pictures in the dark without a flash is not always the easiest, but we tried anyways and these are the results.Other than the Teddy Bear Museum, the restaurant and the view from the top of the tower, one of the popular things to do there is to leave a lock on the fence. In 2009 we left two "Puppy n Piggy" locks on the fence facing west on one of the main observation decks at ground level. They have since renovated and moved these lock-filled fences to a higher level that wasn't there last time we went.This year, as a family, we all put tour-provided locks on a new span of fence on the second deck. It's obviously a brand new section as our locks are the only ones to be seen and you can actually see the lights of the city below. By spring next year, we'll likely not be able to find our locks, they'll be covered and hidden by thousands of newer ones! It was fun and we took our keys and chucked them over the edge of the deck, never to be found again!This is a romantic date place for boyfriends and girlfriends to symbolically lock in their love! It's definitely best in the evening, with the crisp clean air. They ran out of fence a few years ago and started putting up little iron "trees" for people to stick their locks. They looked goofy in 2009, sparse and empty. This year they looked awesome! I'm surprised they didn't fall over, they were so full of locks!

Family Trip to Korea - Wawoojeongsa

2011-04-25T14:09:00.008+07:00

I'm always a sucker for big Buddah statues or temples. We stopped off near a small mountain somewhere between Yongin and Icheon where there is a Buddhist temple.The temple is called Wawoo Temple or Wawoojeongsa (Waujeongsa, 와우정사). The temple was built in 1970 and has Buddha statues from many countries including Thailand, Burma, Sri Lanka, China and India.The temple also claims the largest wooden reclining Buddha in the world, although I thought that was in Thailand. Or Maybe Thai's is not made of wood. Ah, The reclining Buddha at Wat Pho here in Bangkok, at 46 meters in length is the largest in THAILAND, not the world, and it is gold plated, so, definitely not going to win any size contest for wooden statues! Thank you internet and google!Anyway, we walked around the grounds of the temple and saw many different types of Buddha statues, as well as mushroom houses, owls and a bunch or bare-chested warrior looking guys, apparently guarding the Buddhas.I saw some pictures of the mountain when the cherry trees are in full bloom, very pretty, but we were there when the buds were just starting to open, a couple weeks too early.This place was pretty cool, a good hike up the mountain stairs about 100 meters, you know, a good photo opportunity, especially if you're not from a Buddhist country and the Buddhas are still "Ooooooh!" to you (me).

Family Trip to Korea - Soju boys

2011-04-25T14:07:00.003+07:00

Our tour to Korea was mostly filled with visiting interesting historic places, places from Korean Dramas and shopping. Quite honestly, a lot of "girl" activities, outside of eating. Our tour had 23 people total, and not including Dad, P'Neung, P'Nut and myself, there were three other boys on the whole trip.

We decided to take the boys out for a midnight snack and to introduce them to the "green bottles" that they had surely heard of and seen advertised everywhere, soju. We didn't want to go to a "bar" or a "club", the boys wanted to go somewhere laid back, relaxing and something where a normal Korean person would go after work or on the weekend for some food and drink.We took them to Hongik intersection, a night spot with a little shopping and lots of bars, clubs and food. This place is in between four universities, so it's always full of people. We found a tiny kamjatang joint (potato and pork bone stew)down one of the alleys and sat by a small window on the 1 and 1/2th floor, however you say that! We ordered spicy potato and pork bone stew and one tiny bottle of soju. Soju is your basic rice wine type drink, similar I guess to a Sake or vodka maybe...not sure what vodka is made of. Soju is also made of other grains as alternatives, there are many different types of soju. I do know that it isn't good for you and you probably shouldn't drink it, for many reasons (health, religious, social, etc.) The average Korean adult drinks about 100 bottles of soju per year!! I remember, as a missionary in Korea, giving up alcohol and paying tithing were the two most difficult commitments for new members or investigators to make and keep.As we sat, waiting for our stew to cook, I taught the boys how to ask for another bottle of soju or beer or coke in Korean. Basically taught them the grammar and sentence construction and let them insert their choice of beverage. The Ajuma (middle age lady, auntie), who we started off calling Nuna (big sister), insisted that we call her Imo (aunt), and thought it was cute that we chose to call her big sister because we didn't want to hurt her feelings by calling her Ajuma. Similar meaning to Imo, just a softer feeling I guess.

Well, the potato stew got ate, and several bottles of beer and soju got drank. Many trips to the nasty downstairs toilet later, and we were the only ones left in the little stew joint. They close at 5AM, so Imo told us that we could basically stay all night.P'Nut decided to sit straddling the window, half in, half out, hollering "Ahnyoung" to passers by, never fazed by the terrifying 9 foot fall to the cold concrete below, haha.

Yeah, so eventually we left, leaving a trail of empties behind, some tired Imos and an emptier and quieter Hongik intersection than when we first arrived. Before leaving the hotel, knowing the effect soju has on first timers, we got a bunch of business cards from the front desk to show to a taxi driver if unable to get home on our own...you know, language differences, in case we got separated, right?Well, the boys had a hard time staying on two feet. Long story short, and not to glorify the evening too much, we got help from a couple Korean students stuffing them into a taxi, and got to the hotel safely. We pulled them out of the taxi and P'Nut was able to make it to the room. P'Neung on the other hand had to be dragged, by me, by his feet to the lobby, into the elevator, and to his room.Now, I have pictures of this, but they were deemed a little too graphic to show, with his pants around his thighs and tighty whities flashing everyone to see. The funniest thing was that I got him about two feet into his room and just left him there on the floor to sleep. P'Nut eventually passed out on the floor as well. We found them both in the exact same spots the next morning, about ten minutes before the bus was supposed to depart for Gyeongbokgung.They remembered very little, they laugh at the pictures we took of them, and I'm sure they now have respect for soju, if not a legitimate fear of the green bottle! Same intersection 19 years ago I had a run in with soju, I woke up naked in a local YMCA, remembering nothing but drinking lemonade all night. Turns out we were drinking "kettles" so called because they are fruity drinks mixed with a bottle of soju in a kettle, the type whistles when you boil water in it. Luckily I made it back to base the same day via train and back out to our mountain top "resort" for ops on time. Seriously, watch out for soju, it's a sneaky little mutha.The picture above is me making fun of them the next day at Cheungyecheon. Haha!

This night ended up being less of a drinking exercise (though the photos would suggest otherwise) and more a couple hours to sit together and talk, share a little Korea that doesn't come with the tour, and just relax and enjoy each other's company as brothers and sister. For the brothers, a Korea 2011 highlight that they'll remember very little of. Better that way, twenty years from now they'll be able to tell embellished versions of the night, and probably still won't hit the mark! The dudes were hilarious, classic, legend!

Family Trip to Korea - Making Kimchi

2011-04-25T10:18:00.006+07:00

What's the first thing that pops into your brain when you think of Korea? Well, before I switched from being a Russian Linguist in the Marines to a Korean Linguist, when someone mentioned Korea, I just imagined the Korean War or Klinger from M.A.S.H.

During a quick introduction to Korea, it's customs and cuisine when I made the switch to Korean Linguist at The Defense Language Institute in Monterrey, California, I was introduced to KIMCHI! Eating kimchi at the time was more of a dare, a "I bet you can't eat two whole bites of kimchi" kind of thing.Over the years, I have grown to love kimchi in all of its different forms. There are hundreds of different kinds of kimchi, using different sauce ingredients as well as different vegetables.

One of my all time favorite kimchi memories is a kimchi eating contest I participated in a Korea Day picnic we had in California. All of the Korean Linguists from the whole base participated in the picnic that day, several hundred of us, Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines and Coast Guard. I guess the Koreans thought it would be funny to have a kimchi eating contest, so they got volunteers, 4 or so members of each branch of service, lined us all up around a long banquet table out under the trees, gave us each a giant plate of bright red fermented cabbage leaves.

Rules were simple, first to finish their approximately 2 pounds of kimchi (think paper plate with a Close Encounters mashed potatoes size pile of kimchi) was the winner! Well, We munched the crap out of that kimchi, many of us eating it for the first time, or eating more than a chopstick full at once for the first time.

The results, though a little controversial at the time, saw all four Marine participants finish in the top three! Two Marines tied for third, an Army dawg got a solo second place, and two Marines, myself and Jesse Zimbauer, tied for the WIN! The awarding of first place had to wait until the judges went to the instant replay and then to the rule book (haha, not really). Jesse stuffed his chipmunk cheeks with his final bunch of spicy, limp kimchi leaves and stood up to indicate that he was finished, but he hadn't chewed and swallowed yet. I remained seated until the last leaves made the trip down the esophagus, quickly stood up, opened my mouth wide showing that all of the kimchi was eaten. At that exact moment, the already standing Zimmy gulped down his last chunks of kimchi, and we were declared co-champions! Brothers! I have photos somewhere of us and our kimchi sauce faces. Classic.So, part of our tour was actually MAKING kimchi. We were bussed to a little kimchi "factory" and a funny Korean man who spoke just enough Thai to give funny instructions, walked us through an abbreviated lesson on the actual process of massaging the kimchi sauce into the cabbage leaves, and then wrapping it to prepare the kimchi to ferment. We didn't actually mix the ingredients for the sauce, or salt the cabbage, but it was an opportunity for people to see how kimchi is made, as well as a chance for the tour to sell Duty Free kimchi (there were many of these sales pitches after activities).

I'd made kimchi, the full process, two or three times previously. Several times with my Aunt Sharon prior to my mission, and once with some members in Incheon during my mission. Difference, other than ingredients, was that we ate the Utah kimchi would be stored in a giant pickle bottle and eaten the same week it was made. The kimchi I helped make in Korea would be stuck out on the balcony or in the back yard in a clay or ceramic pot (we lovingly call them "kimchi pots") and eaten several months down the line.For me, you can't eat a proper Korean meal without kimchi. Other than being super yummy, it helps to fix any meal! Kinda like Tabasco. Squirt that stuff on bland tuna sandwich or overcooked bowl or mac-n-cheese and it fixes it right up. Kimchi has a similar ability!! There are five bags of kimchi in my freezer...anyone guess what's for dinner tonight!?

Family Trip to Korea - Gyeongbokgung

2011-04-24T19:39:00.005+07:00

Seoul has many palaces and temples that are pretty big tourist attractions. Our tour passed through Gyeongbokgung (경복궁), a palace in center of Seoul and right next to the prime minister's residence, The Blue House. Gyeongbokgung was one of the main palaces during the Chosun Dynasty.Breaking down the Korean (actually the Hanja, or Chinese characters with Korean pronunciation), "Gyeong" 경 means bright or shining, "Bok" 복 means happiness and "Gung" 궁 means palace. So, Gyeongbokgung translates to "Palace of shining happiness" or something like that!One of my favorite buildings on the compound (pictured above)is The Gyeonghwaeru Pavilion 경회루. The pavilion juts out into a small lake and was used way back during the Chosun Dynasty for meetings and banquets for VIPs and politicians.We spent an hour or so in the Museum on the compound and walking around. P'Neung and P'Nut didn't leave the bus for this particular tour as they were recovering from the previous evening's cultural activities, haha, pictures of that soon ;)

Family trip to Korea - Nami

2011-04-24T16:32:00.009+07:00

Trees, trees, trees! One of the stops on almost any tour from Thailand to Korea is the Island of Nami, a small island in the middle of a river. Popularized by a Korean Drama, people flock to Nami Island during all four seasons.Nami has thousands of trees, many of which are growing in double rows and form little tunnels to walk through. We've only been there at the end of winter and beginning of spring, so the leaves on the trees were either not there yet, or just starting to sprout.I guess since we go in April every time, the April showers haven't had time to bring May flowers, or leaves. But, it's still very beautiful and awesome to look at and be around.Nami has many different species of trees, but the ones that you see on most adverts and in the drama are the giant Meta sequoia. I'm waiting to go during summer or fall, when the canopy of the trees are full of greens or autumn colors. It's gonna be beautiful! Nami also boasts a good number of white pine, white birch, ginkgo trees, cherry trees, tulip trees and many many more!There are ponds, museums, a little train that goes from here to there, cottages, bungalows and other places for tourists to enjoy during their time on the island. We even ran into some furry-eared little squirrel boys there! Curious little buggers, or just looking for food!We spent over an hour on Nami this time around, the first time we spent a lot of time on the train, standing room only, to get there and spent a good half day walking around the island. Both times, not only were there foreign tourists taking the short ferry ride to Nami, but Korean families from all around, spending a weekend day together.I saw kids kicking soccer balls with their dads, grandmas and grandpas riding tandem bikes together down the forest trails, and couples taking a bike break and sharing snacks on a bench beneath the white pines. Lovely place to hang out!The boys shed our jackets before leaving the tour bus and wore t-shirts, P'Nut actually brought his sweater, lucky for him, it was nipply!! The wind was blowing hard, that's what made it so cold! Lesson learned.

Family trip to Korea - The Food

2011-04-24T14:43:00.010+07:00

Food seems like a good place to start! Korean cuisine has so many great foods! You can eat them at a Korean restaurant wherever you live, but to get the full taste and Korean food experience I think you have to have it in Korea. You'll get the full flavor, fresh kimchi, the freshest side dishes, and the authentic punuigi or atmosphere!Here's Ttalkkalbi or Chicken Kalbi. Chicken, hot sauce, cabbage, rice and all of the sides and condiments to wrap it in and stuff it in your face with!!Grilled meat is always a favorite! Grilled pork was the food of the day in these pictures. Lots of garlic is also a plus, I just kept asking for more garlic! The most important vocabulary of the day! GARLIC!Before and after, both look awesome. We had to wait for later in the trip, during a "free for all" meal, to get our grilled beef from "bonga" that we had last time, simply awesome beef! The pork held its own though, an occasional chunk of fat, but otherwise, loved it.Here we are stuffing our faces!We also had a Korean Shabu Shabu. I always thought Shabu Shabu was more Japanese, but I guess all places have their kind of Shabu. Thai Shabu is pretty good, basically soup, veggies, meat, and most importantly, sauce. This shabu was average, the tour leader brought Thai shabu sauce hahaha. The highlight of the meal was that the tour company bought Dad a birthday cake since he had an April birthday coming up. Everyone sang happy birthday and ate cake in celebration!Later that evening, after returning to the hotel for the night, the kids taxied out to the Hongik University area and had some after hours Potato bone soup and squid stir fry! And beverages.The ginger chicken stew this time was below average. Last time Pae and I went, the restaurant we chose was one of the more popular ones in Seoul (researched it before our trip). It was great, this time was a tour group joint, with the cooks pumping out below par bowls of tasteless chicken soup. Good traditional meal however, if you go to the right place!One of our last meals in country was Bibimbap or basically rice mixed with sauce and veggies and some meat. The meal also included Bulgogi, another popular dish in Korea. Notice my face in the photo where I'm mixing my Bibimbap...There was a giant raw egg hiding under the shredded seaweed in the Bibimbap. Usually if I don't see the egg, in any dish, I'm fine. But I took a peak under all of the ingredients and saw the gooey white and runny yolk and had to mix it fast so the rice and hot bowl would somewhat cook it, or at least hide it from my sight. Not a big egg eater, especially if I see the runny part...ewwwwwwwww!!

You're probably wondering, "Where are the Bonga photos of the beef bbq?" Yeah, well, we were all so busy eating, none of the six of us even bothered pulling out a phone or camera to take pictures! We had over 6 servings of beef for about 100,00 won! Seafood buffet is also not pictured, king crab legs and tepenyaki steak were the highlights of the meal, ask the boys, they'll probably tell you the free draught beer and wine!Oh, and to be fair, I should also show one of the airplane meals. We flew Business Air (8B) which is a low cost, has a fleet of 2 aircraft (haha) and pretty much flies tour groups back and forth Bangkok or Phuket to Seoul. Teriyaki chicken on the way to Seoul, Pork chops on the way back, The chops were surprisingly awesome.We didn't have too many chances to eat food off of the street, one of the best things about visiting Korea. We did run out of a ginger museum/sales place and grab some tteokbokki and I left a Duty Free shopping hour to walk around and bought some kimbap. Otherwise, we had an icecream at Everland and a Hotteok at Nami Island. Can't complain though! We were never starving, they kept us well fed.

Family Trip to Korea - The Family

2011-04-24T13:54:00.006+07:00

Well, I've been here in Thailand for over four years already, and have known the Hakam family for nearly five years. We've all traveled together before, domestically here in Thailand. I believe we went to Chantaburi together. We also traveled to Laos and Chiang Mai together, but there was always one member of the family missing. Our Korea trip was our first trip out of the country together, all six of us.

I've always felt the family relationship with Pae's family, they're easy to love that way! In two weeks we'll be married, in Ubon, and I guess you can say that we will "officially" be family, but like I said, I feel like we've been family for much longer already!

So, here are the members of the family you'll see in the next couple blogs, and years to come for that matter.Parents-
Every family needs a Mom and Dad. Here are Mom and Dad. Dad retired when I first came to Thailand and Mom is considering early-retiring later this year. Both work or worked for the local government. Dad was a teacher early in his career and a government worker near the end. He worked with the Americans during the Vietnam War and actually met Niel Armstrong (after his moon landing) who was on a USO visit to the camp he was working at! Mom is a trained nurse and has worked with the local government for years, I think she's in more of an administrative position these days.Big Brothers-
Pae has two big brothers, each of them separated by about two years each. Their names are Itthipon and Ukrit, but Thais go more by their nicknames (or play name, cheu len) so I call them Neung and Nut. Pae, being younger, adds "Pee" to the beginning of their names, "pee" representing someone older and "nong" for someone younger. So we call them P'Neung and P'Nut, even though I am older than them. I call them "Pee" cuz I am referring to them as Pae's elder, not my junior...make sense? Haha.

P'Neung, born on New Years day and being the first child, is nicknamed "Neung" meaning "One" (first, one, etc. His real name "Itthipon" means "Influence") He is an engineer or architect, I always confuse the two of them and I feel bad that I don't know...He designed the small apartment that is currently being finished next to their home and works as a government worker in Ubon. The first thing I knew about him before I moved here is that he donated a kidney to his mom when he was in school. My first year here, he always questioned my motives for leaving everything behind (a great job and "American lifestyle") and moving to Thailand. Several years down the road already, and he knows me better and sees Pae and I together and sees that we're both very happy, and he's very happy about that and no longer questions motive or my mental state, haha. He now insists that our lives would be better and easier if we lived in Thailand forever.

P'Nut is the middle child, a couple years older than Pae. Pae and P'Nut have lived together here in Bangkok for many years as they both attended school at the same time. They have many of the same friends from back home here in Bangkok and again, share a room near school. P'Nut is studying law and is hoping to graduate soon. My feeling is that once he graduates, he will try to get back home to Ubon and get a job with the government like Mom, Dad and P'Neung. When we talk about local government jobs, it's kinda like a State job back home. P'Nut is the brother I've been around the most since I live across the hall from their room! P'Nut is the playful brother, P'Neung is the thoughtful one, trying to unravel the universe and our place in it.Us-
I don't think I need to tell you too much about us, since this blog is going on three or four years of sharing who we are and what we do! Pae and Guy, since meeting each other 6 years ago, we've gone from strangers, to friends, bf/gf, to fiance, and in two weeks husband and wife!

Family trip to Seoul - Tour Package

2011-04-24T11:24:00.007+07:00

Korea is a lovely place to visit, a good place to work and a nice place to live. I've done all three there, although they were all about ten years apart, working as a Marine in the early '90s, missionary late '90s and as a tourist in the past few years!

I've spent about twelve years around the Asian Pacific, if you will. I can't be more thankful for the opportunity I've had to spend big parts of my life in Korea, Hawaii and Thailand, especially as an adult, not from birth. Being raised in South Florida and then living in these places, eye-openers all. Cultural experiences all. Places where I've gotten to know myself. I have considered all "Home" at one time or another. All places where there are people whom I consider family in one form or another.

The beginning of April saw us head off on a package tour to Seoul, Korea. We, Pae's family and I, decided to purchase tour packages rather than get everything separately, make our own schedule, pay for everything ourselves, entertain ourselves, etc. When Pae and I went in 2009, we flew on frequent flyer miles, stayed in our first hotel on points, then a hostel for the ramainder of our stay. We were there for 9 or 10 days, free to go wherever, do whatever, whenever.

This time, a tour package made more sense as it is all inclusive, airfare, accommodation, meals, tour guide (Thai speaking), and pretty much everything for five days is all laid out for you. You just sit back, listen, look, eat, sleep, eat, take pictures and eat some more. I have always seen tour groups in Hawaii, in New York, and here in Thailand. Many times all of the members will be wearing the same color shirt or something to distinguish themselves as a member of a particular group, and they will always be following a guide or tour leader with a little wavy flag or placard. Our group was no different, we had a guide who lives in Seoul and "knows" Seoul, and we had a tour leader who pretty much made sure we were always accounted for and on time to the bus or breakfast in the mornings. We also had pink buttons (pins) that had the name of our tour on them, but not many people wore them after the first day.So, our tour hit pretty much all of the Seoul spots that people would try to go on a quick couple days in the city. Our tour had an equal amount of pretty much four things- Historical/cultural, shopping, sales pitches at tourist trap-type places, and eating. It was honestly a smattering of everything packed into 5 days for a person who had never been to Korea. For Pae and I, we'd pretty much "been there done that" but for the others, I think there was a lot to see, different from here in Thailand, and for Pae and I, and the others, it was really nice to be somewhere, doing something with the whole family, Mom and Dad, the two brothers P'Neung and P'Nut and us. It was nice to spend pretty much a whole 5 days together, doing things, experiencing something as a family.

I wasn't sure how I was going to blog our experience, but I think I figured out how I want to do it. Instead of one long entry with a bunch of pictures, and instead of breaking it up into days (we did so many things in a day), I think busting it up into small activities or excursions and lots and lots of pictures of the whole family together.

For reference purposes, here are links to our first trip together in 2009-

Pae and Guy in Incheon
Pae and Guy at Dongdaemun
Pae and Guy at Myeongdong
Pae and Guy at Seoul Tower
Pae and Guy in Jinhae
Pae and Guy take it easy
Pae and Guy at Gyeongbokgung
Pae and Guy at Seoul Grand Park
Pae and Guy at Nami Island

We hit some of the same places, but also had a lot more freedom to do what we wanted and stay as long as we wanted in one place. I guess I should throw up some pros and cons of going with a tour group.

TOTAL IMMERSION- Part of being in a new place or a different place is to get out in the streets and "get around" in an unfamiliar environment, both language-wise and as far as transportation is concerned. A tour definitely takes this part of the adventure out of the equation, as there is always a coach waiting for you around the corner to take you to the next attraction and almost no interaction with Koreans, outside of renting an electric adapter from the front desk at the hotel. When you go alone, you HAVE to figure all of this stuff out, by yourself, with body language, trial/error. There's nobody there holding your hand, speaking for you, giving the taxi driver directions or even figuring out what subway stop to transfer at. WINNER = GO ALONE

FOOD- When you go alone, you spend a lot of time thinking where the next meal is coming from or just eating at some restaurant or food stall in the area you just happen to be at that time of day. This leads to many great cultural experiences, but also you may walk right by a "diamond in the rough" hole in the wall restaurant unaware. On a tour, you don't have to think about anything. The tour food selection hits many of Korean cuisine's main offerings, Bulgogi, Bibimbap, BBQ, Ginger Chicken...etc. (and lots and lots of kimchi) so if you're a Korean food newbie, and have no idea what to eat, a tour will suit you well. Every restaurant you eat at though has five or six tour buses parked outside, and your tour guide and leader help serving food! Odd. For me, personally, WINNER = GO ALONE, but for the purposes of our trip as family, I'd have to go with WINNER = DRAW because people are different, and as busy as we were on the tour, its nice not to have to decide between 6 people "what should we eat for lunch" and where, not to mention cost.

FLEXIBILITY- Flexibility was one thing about our 2009 trip that was important. Being in Seoul for 10 days, we didn't have to really stick to a strict schedule to see the things we planned to see. If we were worn out after day 4, we could move an excursion to another day or cancel it all together. Low stress, although we were tempted to be lazy in the hotel for the whole morning more often than not, and risk losing several hours of exploring time that way. The tour seemed just as flexible, shifting this to here and that to there, depending on time of day, weather, traffic, etc. The only thing with a tour is that wherever they advertise as part of their package, they have to go, or it's a bit of breach of contract. Actually, I'm sure there is small print in the contract and brochure saying that they reserve the right to change the itinerary based unknowns and unexpecteds. We were (supposed to be) up at 6:00 AM each morning on the tour, "6 wake up, 7 breakfast, 8 bus." WINNER = DRAW

COST- This is not even a competition. A tour includes airfare, accommodation, three meals a day, visas, transportation, bottled water, everything. If you go alone, you pay for all of this, and your airfare alone is almost the same cost as the whole tour package (from Thailand to Korea, I'm sure from other locations to Korea is a different story). If Pae and I hadn't been able to use points for free flights and 5 nights in The W Hotel in Seoul, we would have spent triple of what the tour cost. WINNER = TOUR

PLANNING- Another category that will probably end in a draw. Planning activities before you go on vacation is part of the excitement of going. The lead up to your flight is always full or "Where should we go", "What should we do", etc. That is fun and gives you that vacation anticipation feeling for weeks prior to leaving. A tour package is all laid out for you. You look at several packages, look at the activities, decide, and it's done. No more thinking. Maybe you pull the pamphlet out and look at it again before you go, but there is not that "plan-it-yourself" feel to it. Again, different strokes for different folks. WINNER = DRAW (although my preference is obviously to plan ourselves!)

INTIMACY- The winner of this one will obviously be "go alone", but there are some positive points to going as a larger group. The main plus to a tour is that there is always going to be a person or group of people who will take a picture of your whole group for you, in exchange for the like of course, so, when you get home instead of one person missing from every photo, you have enough with all members of your group. A member of your tour will generally take a good photo and is willing to take several poses for you, whereas a passerby on the street might actually refuse to take your photo, may run away with your camera, often takes a picture of their own finger rather than your face, or just takes a picture of the group with no consideration for the composition of the photo. Look at many of our pics from 2009, we would prop the camera on the dirt or on a post or trash can to get pictures of us together, hahaha! Fun, but it's nice to have proper photos. Our tour was 23 people (25 originally but two "escaped" after immigration, entered Korea as if they were tourists, but actually came to work, and disappeared into the concrete jungle after we got to the airport) 23 people isn't exactly intimate, you're always with them for five days, and often you end up eating with them as most tables are for four people, and our group was only six, so one table almost always had two strangers from our tour eating with us. WINNER = GO ALONE

Overall, both are good. In 2009, going alone was perfect and met our needs, budget, level of fitness, group size, etc. This year, as a family, the tour was perfect for us!

I personally had a great time. We even got the boys out one night to experience Korean night life...not a part of the tour, hahahahahah!! It was great fun to be with the family on vacation.

Pictures to follow (of Korea)...

P.S. Wedding countdown to May 7th...two weeks!!!

Forgotten video of Songkran 2010

2011-04-19T14:05:00.005+07:00

Last year, after Songkran, I tried to put this video on both Youtube and on the blog. Neither worked. It only worked posting it to Facebook if I remember correctly. Looking back, I only have pictures from 2009's festivities.

The thing is, 2010 was so much fun and is pretty much LEGENDARY for all of the happenings, the fun we had, the crowd that gathered in our little part of the street, peeing on ourselves for three straight days in a phone booth, etc. hahaha. Probably, 2010 was the funnest Songkran to date, although each one is special in its own way.

Here is a short video (click link)of some of the things you'll see both FROM the side of the street and ON the side of the streets during Songkran. And remember, this goes on for anywhere from three to ten days depending on the province!! Just imagine this video times 10,000 and that's Songkran in Ubon!

Songkran 2011

2011-04-19T12:00:00.008+07:00

The Thai New Year festival just ended and summer is pretty much in full swing...Hot, hot, hot!! Songkran is always a very fun holiday for us, as the whole country shuts down for three days and a weekend. This is a great chance for families and friends to gather from near and far and hang out and celebrate the holiday together.This year, we again went to Ubon for Songkran. We missed the first day as we were returning from our family trip to Korea, but we still got two days of water play with family and friends.Our first day we hung out with family, brothers, cousins, significant others, drove around in the back of the family truck and then found an empty spot to park and "fight" with our many barrels of water.
Pretty subdued compared to past years, but it was fun to "len sat nam" (pour water) with the likes of N'Kok, N'Gaeng, N'Mai, N'Nam, Fai, Pae, P'Nut and P'Ing. In a more relaxed, less alcohol, more family setting. The final day we hung with friends at the same place we celebrated for the past two years.This was my 5th Songkran in Thailand. Funny, but I never ever counted the number of "New Years" celebrations I had in any other place, Songkran is just so unique and fun! We party from afternoon pretty much into the darkness.We've posted multiple times concerning the partying during Songkran from previous years as well as the gentler more religious side, so I won't go too much into the details here, only wanted to post some photos to memorialize the occasion and to share as well.I remember reading a comment on Facebook from friends in Ubon saying that the theme of this year's celebration (for our group) was going to be "Colorful" theme. From these pictures, it seems that the theme turned into kissing and biting! Hahaha. For many of us, it's the only time we see each other for the whole year, for others of us, it just seems like a good chance to bite each other. Odd, now that I think about it! Hahaha!We have to thank Nammont (blue shirt) for most of these pictures, as he was the only one that dared to whip his iPhone out every now and then and risk it getting soaked! Most of these pictures are his, thanks Monty. I got some pictures, but not a lot close to the action. My pics are more wide views of the action, targeting nobody in particular.Happy Thai New Year everybody! Pictures of the family trip to Korea soon, I just got back to work and Pae is preparing to go back to work as well soon, along with wedding preparations, we're busy-ish right now ;) Aloha!! Love to all, and again, Happy New Year!!

Don't call it a comeback!!

2011-04-05T01:49:00.004+07:00

"I specifically asked for two scoops of chocolate dipped in fudge!"Emile didn't appreciate me bringing him a falafel with hummus and Doritos instead of an ice cream cone!

A long walk in the rain

2011-04-05T00:35:00.001+07:00

Today while Pae flew to Tunisia, I decided to get out and take a walk. Problem was that it was raining all day. Cold drizzle in the morning, rather heavy rain noonish, then drizzly again in the evening. Really cold rain too. I put my jacket liner on and went outside about two hours before sundown and decided to walk towards 8th Circle.Amman is basically a city built on a series of hills, and there are eight areas called "circles" 1-8. The physical circle is only a traffic circle or roundabout at a certain point. You can see them in the map above that I ripped from a hotel website :) You pretty much tell a taxi driver 1-8 and he knows the basic direction to go. As you near your chosen circle, the taxi driver will look at you in the mirror and you tell him "left", "right", "straight", etc. until you arrive at your exact destination.Anyway, the drizzle was light and it felt like I was walking in a light snow, with the little snow pieces (not flakes) hitting my jacket and making little sounds. Only about a half hour into my walk in the rain did I realize that I was getting REALLY wet, hahaha. My ears started stinging so I made an occasional pit stop in a mini mart or grocery store or kebab joint to partake of their heat.Call to prayer soon sounded and people slowly filled the streets and all started wandering towards one direction, so I followed them. It was getting dark so I had to make sure that I remembered where I was, but I've got a pretty good sense of direction, so I was less worried about navigation but more aware of my surroundings, people around me, small groups of teens scowling as I passed, smiling old ladies, dudes not paying attention and almost getting creamed by a speeding dump truck...etc.I have to say, that compared to the other areas of the city I've wandered, 8th circle area seemed a lot more "ethnic", a poorer area, a less touristy area (not that there's much touristy in Amman). I saw many more children in the streets, many more women rushing through the cold, wet streets with bags of groceries and fresh vegetables for the evening's meal, many more men sitting under battery powered lights on the sidewalk polishing shoes, selling used electronics, fruits, vegetables, steamed corn, Turkish coffee. Where Pae lives, 7th Circle, I see many more suits, dress shirts, ties, slacks, shiny shoes, sunglasses and nice cars. 8th circle I saw more soiled white robes, mud-stained sandals, grubby kids in tattered corduroys, dark wrinkled faces with the permanent Clint Eastwood squint from working under the intense sun for years.I had seen this blue domed mosque from up on a hill earlier in my walk, and as I followed the mosque goers down through little alleys and muddy construction sites, I found myself right on the proverbial doorstep! It was getting dark and I was taking pictures with my phone, so these are the best photos I could get for the blog. I don't even know the name of this mosque. All I know is that it was in the 8th circle area of Amman and about 2 hours into my wandering.After I snapped a couple pictures and listened to some of the speaker in the mosque (over the loudspeaker) I started to work my way to where I though the actual roundabout "8th Circle) was. From there I'd be able to almost see the area where Pae lives and could comfortable find my way back to the warmth and dryness of the apartment, although it has no heat! They survived all summer last year without air conditioning and Pae spent the whole winter without a heater! The other two girls experimented with space heaters but they kept blowing out the circuit breaker, so they gave up on them. A giant Winnie the Pooh quilt and an even bigger Pooh comforter keep Pae warm, along with her Snoopy, gingerbread man and bumble bee pajamas!Nothing too interesting on the way back home. I did eat some great kebab and fries at a hole in the wall for around 2 dollars (USD). So that was a bonus!! Nothing better after a cold wet walk than grilled chicken, hummus, and dill pickles on a pita slack tortilla slash naan type wrap.

Not the prettiest hospital

2011-04-03T23:41:00.007+07:00

I remember posting a picture of the Philadelphia Hospital close to Pae's apartment a while back, with the ambulance with flat tires. This week we went to the King Hussein Medical Center, a much larger hospital with many more services and was reminded of that photo.

This picture is taken from the hospital parking lot, looking down the hill over part of the city north of 7th and 8th Circle. I honestly don't know the name of the area, it's near the two larger shopping malls in Amman.There were military guards guarding all entrances to the facility, which is several stories high with a separate Maternity Wing. Two things that struck me the most were the darkened hallways on several levels of the hospital that I passed as I was trying to find a working elevator or unlocked staircase after getting lost. It was like in a horror flick, dim light coming from under the doors, but dark, dark hallways.The second thing that I found interesting, other than the good view of the northern part of Amman, was the fence and wire that marked the edges of the hospital grounds. The fences and barbed wire were all ripped up and rusted. I stepped over the wire into the road, and back, and the military dude, with is automatic weapon, just looked at me and did nothing...of course, I was just packing an iPhone. He had live rounds and a couple buddies at the coffee stand by the bus stop!

I just thought it was a little out of place for such dirty, rusty wire to be surrounding one of the city's main hospitals, much less one that carries the King's name. I guess if they sew up all of the cuts and patch up all of the boo-boos, the condition of the outside grounds of the hospital is just peripheral. Perhaps I'm just a spoiled westerner. I guess aesthetics are less important than saving lives.

Let's give the mosques some love

2011-04-03T22:51:00.005+07:00

I remember when we first started "Pae and Guy", that I was new in country (Thailand) and one of the things I liked to share were the many different Buddhist temples (wat) that we would encounter. There are wats everywhere.

Similarly, while here in Jordan, a mostly Muslim country, I see a mosque pretty much every several blocks. I take the occasional picture, even if from afar. I thought I'd give the mosques some love today!There are mosques everywhere and I can usually tell that they are mosques from the high "tower" where the call to prayer is played several times daily, even before dawn, we're talking just after 4 AM!! I'm sure there is more meaning or symbolism to the spires, but this is merely a visual sharing today, not a religious or religious symbolism sharing! I'll give Wikipedia a break and next time I'm outside and feeling brave, I'll ask someone to explain to me a little more about the mosque. Lately, with the idiot in Florida burning the holy Quran, my American accent coupled with my curiosity about the mosques might ruffle some feathers. Better safe than sorry.I only say this because last time I was here I got talking to a guy that frequents the corner down the hill. Our relaxed conversation about the the difference between Middle Eastern male outfits and head dress (white Saudi looking clothes with black braided head ring vs. the one with the picnic table cloth looking head dress), suddenly escalated to politics (West vs. Middle East) and religion (Christianity vs. Islam) and even 9/11 conspiracy talk.Haha, not bad in itself, it's nice to hear other people's views, but a month later Pae told me that this dude had been taken in by the police and released later for firing a gun in the air right in front of Pae's apartment. He lives across the street. So, better not to bother this guy...he's young and even posted a photo of himself participating in the Jordan Protests this past week on his Facebook page.

Anyway, here are some of the pictures of mosques that I've passed in my wanderings. They are much like church houses, whatever domination you choose, with little classrooms where men and women are taught separately, and children to "Sunday school", but obviously they don't do it on Sunday! I walked by one the other day and there were kids playing inside, there were several women taking care of a nursery class, and there were people rushing inside as to get a good spot for the sermon or teaching of the day.As I type this, the call to prayer is playing outside. It's loud and echoes through the community. The mosque in our area is less than 100 meters from Pae's apartment. The picture below is of the mosque that people in this neighborhood go to. The call to prayer is beautiful although it occasionally will wake you up during a nap or during your dawn hour deep sleep! All I understand of the words to the "chanting" or "singing" that is the call to prayer, is "God is good". Beautiful to hear it reverberating through the streets several times a day. It gives this place a cultural feeling...maybe just because I didn't grow up with it.It's kinda like I love standing at attention on military bases during the evening playing of taps, or at a sporting event for the playing or singing of the National Anthem. Or in Thailand, at 7 PM on campuses and many public places the Thai National Anthem will play and everyone will stop what they are doing and stand reverently until it is finished. I always have a good feeling, proud feeling when I witness or take part in these things. I feel similarly when I hear "God is Good" pierce the din of passing cars and market goers outside.

There are many more beautiful mosques and even Christian church buildings here in Amman, these are just some of the ones that I captured while passing with my iPhone camera. Enjoy!

From the supermarket in Amman

2011-03-29T04:49:00.005+07:00

Here are a few things from the supermarket here in Amman. I just thought that the cereal was cool, a local Middle Eastern brand. Here in Jordan, not all women wear the "hijab" or head scarf. I'd estimate it at about 50/50. So, I thought it was cool that the company who makes and markets this cereal (Fulla) put pictures of girls both wearing and not wearing the hijab on the boxes of their four different flavors of cereal. Interesting fact about the hijab, among its many definitions is "the veil which separates man from God." (Thank you wikipedia) Sounds a little familiar.This same company makes juice boxes with similar cartoon girls, some with flowing blonde hair, some with playful and colorful hijab, one with a very conservative black hijab and the other a dark haired girl not wearing a head scarf. Again, 50/50, right down the middle. The marketing people have obviously done their homework. Not a branding/marketing strategy for somewhere like Afghanistan though.Piggyback packaging. In Thailand, we get a lot of both food brands, electronics and clothes that have similar logos and packaging to a well known western brand. I won't start naming all of the "fake" brands that do this, they're just blatant about it. While walking through the supermarket, we passed the Pepsi section of the soft drink aisle. If I hadn't been paying attention, I would have easily mistakened this "Proud" soda with the Pepsi. The cans are the same color, have a similar "logo" and even the names of the soda start with "P". Piggybacking off of Pepsi! Good stuff.Nothing really mind blowing about this picture, it's just a bunch of spices. When I say "a bunch" I mean, lots and lots and lots of spices. This photo shows just one side of a four-sided spice island in between the seafood section and fresh vegetables. If you want spices or nuts, this place is the place to come! When you get about three aisles away from the spice station, the smell just hits you like BLAM!!. Its hard to separate all of the different smells, but I can say that it smells so good and for somebody with horrible allergies and sensitive sinuses, this bothers me not. I could just chill by the turmeric and nutmeg all day long!I didn't take too many pictures, just a couple to share today. I had a good sandwich for less than one Dinar yesterday. I got it at a little hole in the wall sandwich shop around the corner from Pae's apartment. They toasted and flattened the sandwiches panini style after stuffing them with all types of odd looking meats and falafel and even french fries. I'll go again tomorrow probably for lunch while Pae is flying. Maybe I'll take some pictures, maybe not. If I do, you'll be the first to see them...however interesting sandwiches might be, hahaha. Good night.

Scenes that couldn't be imagined

2011-03-27T01:04:00.005+07:00

I snapped these pictures a week ago from the front page of a local Bangkok paper. A couple days after the Earthquake and Tsunami in Japan, photos showing the damage and devastation started coming out. If not for Japan's uber preparedness for tsunamis, the death toll would surely be like this world has never seen. A 500-600 kilometer stretch of the Japanese coastline was affected by the tsunami.People in hospitals just kept going up to the next floor, the next floor and the next floor as the water rose higher and higher, trying to bring those in hospital beds, too injured or too old to move themselves, until they reached the roof. Many had to be left behind. For those who made it to the roof, the water kept rising.

No amount of preparedness could have saved some of them, who had mere minutes to make it to higher ground. And for those who sought the roof of a strong, sturdy 3 or 4 story building...very sad. The water reached the fourth stories of some buildings that were lucky not to be destroyed by the power of the waves. Ships were left on top of buildings, vehicles left teetering on the top of the fourth stories of some. Absolutely amazing, unexpected even for the tsunami preparedness groups who planned and set up all of the evacuation plans, meeting points, etc. How could they have known that something like this could have happened?Ten meter high seawalls, built specifically to defend small fishing villages against the power of the ocean, were tossed aside by natures ferocity.

Scientists are predicting "The big one" somewhere in California in the next twenty or so years. How do you prepare for something like this?

I've lived in Thailand since 2007, and have been to areas affected by the Christmas tsunami of 2004. The land has fixed itself, the people have buried their dead and continued their lives, the tourists are back, but everyone always has one eye on the ocean.

The Japanese are a robust people. They have shown the world a level of dignity, of community, of behavior in the face of what must seem like "the end of the world" circumstances, that must be admired. They will rebuild their ocean side fishing villages, they will again till and sow their fertile soil, they will mourn their families and friends who were taken by the sea. They will eventually be okay. But they will surely forever have one, or both, eyes on the ocean.

A stroll through the market

2011-03-26T21:09:00.006+07:00

Passed through a little market the other day on my way to have wedding invitations printed. This is one of the cool things about living over here, food everywhere. You could seriously go a year without ever buying food at a grocery store.Anyone for some fish head stew? Well, this soup seller was definitely popular for the size of her fish head. The stew is in the giant vat under the fish heads that are arranged so carefully after being fried with herbs. I'm sure the rest of the fish went to good use somewhere else in the market. Actually, right across from her was a man selling fish and clams, so perhaps they worked together. I imagine that she may go down to the pre-dawn seafood market to get the best pick of the freshest, largest fish heads everyday before opening up shop! You take your stew home in a plastic bag, mixed up together, and bound with a tiny rubber band. Almost everything you buy on the street here is clear plastic bagged and rubber banded shut. Here is a picture of some yummy fruit and vegetables, freshly picked of course. Bananas and various veggies, all ready to be whipped up into a scrumptious meal! I was looking at the picture of veggies and noticed something cool, or at least I though it was cool. Many of the vegetables shown have a common "word part" in Thai. Many of them contain the word "ma keua"...or I guess you could say that they are all different types of "ma keua". Hmmm, the dictionary says "ma keua" means "eggplant". Tomato is "ma keua tet" meaning "foreign eggplant" hahaha, of "alien eggplant". The long zucchini-like veggies in the picture are actually called eggplant here, but they are long, so they are called "ma keua yao", "yao" meaning long. The little round ones are just called "ma keua" even though they bare no resemblance of eggplant to me. The typical western eggplant, the purple one, is called "purple eggplant" here, or "ma keua muang". There are a few more veggies in this picture that I'm not familiar with. They may be types of "ma keua" who knows!Mangoes here are eaten many different ways. Americans will be familiar with Mango Sticky Rice, a western favorite. Here, you see a mango sticky rice cart every now and then, I think there are two on our soi. We'll only eat it once or twice a year though. Preferred here are various levels of ripeness of the mango. The picture looks like mangoes that will be chopped up and eaten sweet, or even on sticky rice with coconut milk. Mango is used as a flavoring here, mostly for SOUR! We, Pae actually, loves green unripe mango dipped in sauces made from shrimp paste. I like the mango that is about half ripe, a subtle yellowish color, so it's sweet but mostly sour and eaten alone, sliced into long slices. Love mango!!This picture is one of my favorites...one that I would use in class to see if the kids can either give me the proverbial "1,000 words" or to see if they can notice anything queer about the picture given. Well, this was a woman selling chicken, obviously. She has presented them pretty much as nicely as you can present a piece of dead animal. What I thought was weird, or what got me curious, was that these are all the left half of the chicken. There are no right halves. I didn't think at the time to ask the lady where the right halves were.And for our final photo, something you'll see at most dinner tables all around Thailand, Somtam (papaya salad) and clams. Somtam is a Northeastern (Isaan) food. (Thailand is broken up into four main areas; North = Neua, South = Dai, Northeast = Isaan, Bangkok area = Glang) Not a day goes by in Isaan that somtam is not eaten, like rice in Japan, somtam is just what we eat up in the northeast. It is of course prepared hundreds of different ways, so there is a variety. Pae is partial to "somtam bubrala" which is your unripe papaya, hot chili peppers, long beans, tomatoes, pickled crabs and "brala" or, well, I'm still not sure what brala is...I don't eat it anymore. I used to eat it when I was new here and trying to be polite when visiting family. I just don't really like the flavor though. I prefer my somtam to be sour and a little bit sweet, with peanuts and dried shrimp "somtam Thai". A great starter somtam and probably what is served in most Thai restaurants in America.

The clams in the picture are usually steamed. The funny thing about this type of clam is that they have blood inside. When steamed properly, the blood just stays inside and the clam is very tender and moist. If too chewy, not yummy, so I'm told by Pae and her brother. I don't eat this type of clam, just can't get past the blood. The clam is dipped in a spicy seafood dipping sauce called "nam jim talay". "Nam" means water, "jim" means to dip, and "talay" means the sea. SO, it's a seafood dipping sauce! Regular "nam jim" is used with most meats like grilled pork or chicken, beef, satay, and even fruits and toast are dipped into sauces. A little Thai language lesson for the day.

Oh, the prices on the foods in the photos are all Thai Baht (THB) per kilogram. The exchange rate is at about 30 THB to 1 USD right now. And a kilo is 2.2 pounds, duh. ;)

Well, hope you enjoyed the little stroll through the market. I did. Until next time, love to all.

Friday Foto - March 25, 2011

2011-03-26T02:32:00.004+07:00

Here are some more pictures of the Elephant building in Bangkok, pretty close to my school actually. Out of all of the buildings, sky scrapers, etc., here in Thailand, this is my favorite to look at. Not including temples of course.I was walking from the wedding invitation store to the mall after school and took the route that brought me closest to the Elephant building. I took a couple pictures with my phone along the way...No matter where I went, I could always see him through the trees or out of the corner of my eye!

We used to call Seoul, Korea, "The concrete jungle". That's the feeling I got with the elephant following me!

Happy Friday.

Friday Foto - March 18, 2011

2011-03-18T09:36:00.003+07:00

Here's a photo that I took at the Royal Jordanian head office in Amman. Pae and I had gone there to register me as her travel partner. Entry into most malls and other buildings require passing through security. The security at the airport as well as this building has a separate little room for women to search the bodies of women. The dudes just grab your junk and pat you down in the open. We just grin and bear it. The women get their little room. Is it like this in other places or is this a religious culture thing specific to Muslim countries in the Middle East, Northern Africa, and Southeast Asian countries like Malaysia and Brunei? I'm imagining these majority Muslim countries and regions have similar screening procedures.Thailand has a relatively large Muslim population, in fact, where I live has a very high concentration of Thai Muslims and mosques. Yet our airports don't have a separate screening line for women. I'm sure they have a small room for Muslims and for those who request to be patted down by a woman in private, but not "one line for men" and "one line for women."

I just liked this set up because rather than have a room for the women to be searched in, they just made a small booth attached to the wall stuck out to me. Perhaps I just needed a distraction after being groped gently by the medium-sized Jordanian dude. All was good though, it was cold and rainy outside, but his hands were quite warm...(Thankless job it seems. I mean, usually you smile at someone who takes your order at McD's, smile and say thank you to the dude who opens the lobby door at your hotel...but it's a bit strange to smile at each other after a guy just grabbed your man stuff...just a side note)

Precious time together

2011-03-15T04:50:00.011+07:00

I spent the past week in Jordan with Pae. For those who think it's "a trip" or vacation, honestly it's less touristy for me and more like "going home". Pae had no flights as it was her four days off plus a few available days where she was not scheduled. The various "revolutions" in the Middle East have caused RJ to experience a much slower "slow season" than usual since many flights were not fully booked as tourist avoided areas of unrest. Some flights were even cancelled completely due to airport closures (Tripoli, Libya).Outside of visiting Jerash during my first few, sunny days in Amman, we did a lot of eating, watching videos, talking and just basic "being together". The weather turned freezing cold with wind and rain so staying inside was preferred to venturing outside and risking sickness. We did however make it down the street to Starbucks for HOT COCOA and a cinnamon twist! As you can probably tell from the photos above, we spent a lot of time in Pink Pajamas!We took the occasional picture, must messing around or whatnot. We had a good time being together during a time when Pae was actually supposed to be visiting Bangkok and her family in Ubon. Ticketing issues and unreasonable prices, even with a discount, made me flying to Jordan the better option.Actually, Pae flying to Thailand was so unreasonable as she would have had to purchase Business Class seats both ways plus domestic tickets between Bangkok and Ubon. It was just out of reach for us money wise, especially since we are planning and paying for our wedding.We'll be trying to get me back to Amman for the second half of my school break (in 2 weeks) if we can secure some heavily discounted tickets on RJ. As Pae's "travel partner" I am able to buy tickets at 50% or 90% discounts, each having a different level of priority. If a flight is full or overbooked and I'm holding a 90% discounted ticket...I'm poop outta luck and I make the long ride back to my apartment in Bangkok and try again the next day. We're gonna give it a try though! We've had no luck with discounted "partner tickets" yet, but we're crossing fingers!We're also trying to work out a family trip to Korea, which would be a tour package rather than going it by ourselves with a subway map and guidebook. Pae and I have done that on our own before, but this time is more about taking her parents. A tour would put us, P'Neung, P'Nut and mom and dad in Seoul with a larger group of tourists, being shuttled here and there to attractions and hopefully to some Cherry Blossoms and good food! A lot easier for the parents. Actually, it seems that Thais prefer tours, almost all vacations here are sold as tour packages. Hoping La Nina doesn't mess with the Cherry Blossoming time period...colder weather further into spring in the area could lead to later blossoms, again, crossing fingers!So, here are some more randoms from the past week. I flew back on Pae's flight, RJ 182. I actually slept while she worked for 9 hours. Feel a little guilty about that, but I had taken allergy meds after the first meal service and that stuff puts me out like a light. Plus, the flight departed Amman at around one in the morning and flew overnight to Bangkok...so it was time to sleep, or in poor Pae's case, time to watch over all of us sleepers!Pae looked super cute, the most lovely flight attendant on the plane to look at and to watch make her way back and forth up and down the aisle! The prettiest smile and often a shy one when she caught me staring and smiling every time she passed by my seat! Hahaha, I'm glad I got to be on her flight at least once! How often do you get to spend a whole shift at your girlfriend, fiance or spouse's place of employment, much less at 39,000 feet? Good times!

Seasons Change

2011-03-12T02:41:00.003+07:00

I posted this on FB but wanted to put it here as well.This is a collage of Jerash in Jordan, one taken in November (bottom photo) and the other in March (top photo). Such a different feeling. I thought the place was just deserty, dry, plain and kinda boringly scorching. Little did I know, until this week, that spring here brings green grasses and even weeds that bloom with lovely yellow flowers! Glad I made it here for the spring version of Jerash!

Here in Amman, the temperature dipped below zero one night, bringing snow flurries, nothing that stuck though. Froze bones for the past few days anytime we ventured outside in the freezing rain. Back to Bangkok now though, back to warm weather, cheap food, work...home. Not long until Pae joins me there for our wedding and eventually to start our little family in Thailand! Yay!

The Roman Army and Chariot Experience

2011-03-11T04:26:00.006+07:00

Such a grand name for a show. The actors looked like they were into the parts. They did a good job. The show was a little short, but it was fun to watch and hear and see lots of the stuff that I'd seen in the movie "Gladiator" and the series "Spartacus"On our trip to Jerash we ran into this show in the Roman hippodrome. The hippodrome is where, in the days of the Roman Empire, you many have gone to watch the chariot races or to take in the gladiators running around beating the crud out of each other. Basically, fighting for their lives, to the wild, bloodthirsty cheers of the crowd.The gladiator battles were a little weak, but the actors tried their best. I think I enjoyed the boob dance the biggest, shirtless gladiator did nonstop...hahaha. Marc Uda used to do the boob dance, alternating flexing his pec muscles. Hahahaha.

The show made for some cool pictures, the narrator tried to crack an occasional joke, and the performers were very Arab looking in their Roman armor and ill fitting sandals.The narrator explained some of the tactics of the Roman army as the performers marched across the dirt and sand into position in front of the "spectators".Next, he explained the armor and weapons as well as certain fighting formations and strategies that the Romans would use in battle. Interesting.After the soldiers marched off of the field, three chariots entered and raced around the hippodrome for about ten minutes, with little or no narration. Funny actually that the narrator said almost nothing. We were just watching the horses and chariots running around in circles...or ovals as it were.The chariots finished and the show was over and we got to go down and take some pictures with the guards, gladiators and chariots. Pae has a nice pretty smile on her face as if she's enjoying the fact that she has a blade at her throat! Good times.If you ever go to Jerash and want to see the show, try making a funny face and walking away when the ticket dude tells you that the entrance fee is 12 JD per person. He'll surely give you tickets at half price.