Attack Scorpion!!!!!!!!

PSU Krathong and Beauty Contest

One of the giant krathongs...

made by the students

3 of the beauty contestants
(2 girls and one lovely boy)

At the River!
My bread Krathong!

My students!

Me and the girls!

Trying to light things on the boat...
and not topple into the river!

Bye bye!

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So last night after getting off the phone with my family I had an adventure in my bedroom! To explain I have to go back to Tuesday night (I think). On Tuesday I walked into my room to get ready for bed and as I went to turn off the light I was confronted with the most terrifying sight I've seen in Thailand. About a foot under the light switch was a HUGE HAIRY SPIDER! This thing was about the size of my hand! I jumped when I saw it but decided to go get a bowl and just throw it out of the apartment...but no! As soon as I took 1 step towards the door the spider SPRANG off the wall toward me causing me to scream (usually creepy crawlies don't even make me bat an eye) and then he scurried into my wardrobe...and I couldn't find him again!

So last night I walk into my room again and there he is...the spider is sitting in the middle of my floor! So I backed out of the room and grabbed my camera and a bowl...I snapped a few pictures and then tried to capture him with the bowl. Sadly, this did not go as planned! The damn spider ran away and hid up by the ceiling...and there was no way I was going to be able to fall asleep knowing the creature was right there above me! So I went back out of the room and grabbed my lethal bathroom cleaner and my 'Off: Deep Woods DEET 40' bug spray (it's got a better range than the bathroom cleaner). Once I had my supplies I went back into the room and assaulted the spider with chemicals until I was able to trap it in the bowl and pitch it out of my apartment!

I probably killed the spider and my room smelled like a camping trip afterward but I was able to sleep calmly. After some research I believe it was a cane spider which eats cockroaches (good) and baby geckos (BAD!), so he had to go even if he was harmless to me.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cane_spider

Pictures of the scorpion, spider, and Loy Krathong coming soon!

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So Sunday was Loy Krathong again. The sky was lit up with floating lanterns and the river was covered with handmade banana leaf boats.

I started the evening at the schools celebration. I got to see the giant Krathongs the students made and see the girls (and a few boys) dressed up for the beauty contest. They were all beautiful in their traditional Thai outfits. Most of them were wearing the sparkly Thai 'evening' gowns but a few had on more playful costumes.

Then I went down to the river with some of my students. I was on the back of one of the students bikes since mine decided to kill itself on Friday. Getting to the river turned into a playful race as we swerved in and out of traffic...occasionally driving in the wrong lane. We were all laughing and making faces as we got down there...the race wound up being a tie. Then we walked along the river looking at all the different Krathongs we could buy before we all settled on some dyed lotus shaped bread ones.

Once we had our krathongs we snipped off some hair and part of a nail to get rid of our bad karma. Then we got onto a long boat and went to the middle of the river to light the candles and set the krathongs free. The boat ride was frightening and fun at the same time...I cringed and Sai shrieked every time someone shifted which made the boat feel like it was going to flip over.

After making it safely back to the shore we walked around some more. Grabbed some snacks and relaxed until about midnight. Then it was time to go home and get some sleep.

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Well besides arguing with my boss on Friday and catching a cold I had a fantastic weekend!

I started my weekend on the rainy night of Thursday. It wasn't raining that hard when I left so I pulled on a rain poncho hopped on my motorbike and battled my way into town for pub quiz. Of course it began raining harder as I drove but it didn't stop me from making it all the way into town. I had a blast a pub quiz with my random team of awesomness...we surprisingly got 3rd place (at half time we were 5th or second to last). Sadly, this was the last pub quiz for both Paul and Kelsey...they both left on Sunday to return to their homes.

On Friday night I trekked back into town for Korean barbecue and got completely lost. I wound up going about 10 minutes too far before I turned around. It started raining lightly during the time I was lost:( I finally got to the barbecue house just as everyone showed up :D We had a blast eating and chatting...even though Andre insisted that my name is Jessica again. After gorging on the 99baht all you can eat/cook buffet we followed the guitar player to his friends restaurant/bar. We hung out there for the rest of the night (the guys played with the guitars and played random songs). I wound up leaving first at 1:30 cause I was exhausted.

When I got home I got a scare! As I was walking towards my sink to brush my teeth I just happened to look down and saw my foot hovering over a scorpion (How did it get to the 5th floor!?)! After looking down at it like a deer in the headlights I promptly changed course for the kitchen. I grabbed a small bowl and flipped it over the scorpion. I watched him scurry around his little cage for a while before getting ready for bed. Before bed I looked at him again and saw that he was collapsed on the floor (seemingly dead). For some reason I decided to leave the bowl on him over night.

Saturday I woke up with a cold :( but that didn't stop me from having a good day. I checked on the scorpion 'carcass' and thought I was going crazy cause it didn't seem to be in the same place as it was when I went to bed (but I was slightly sleep deprived so I left the whole thing alone). That night I went out to Coolin' Out bar for Paul's goodbye 'party'. I had a great time hanging out with everyone and making new friends. Time flew by and before I knew it, it was 2:30am! Well at 2:30 almost everyone had moved on to new places so I decided to head home.

Sunday morning I decided to sweep the scorpion 'carcass' out onto the balcony. So I removed the bowl and the damn thing sprang to life and bolted! Which scared me to death! I jumped, yelled, screamed and then chased it down and got the bowl back over the faker scorpion. After he was trapped again I slid some paper under the bowl and threw him off my balcony!

It was a good weekend minus the scorpion scare!

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So this semester started with a number of headaches which have just gotten progressively more frustrating. All of these headaches have been predominately caused by the ineptness and disorganization of the PSU registration system.

Headache #1: trying to figure out my teaching schedule.

Now you would think this would be an easy thing. You'd assume that before classes started I would have student lists and know which classes would be canceled because of a lack of students. However that's not how things seem to work anymore. We have to wait for the first week of classes to be over just in case the sneaky students decide to not sign up for their classes until the end of the first week, effectively putting everything a week behind! Then we have to tell them during week 2 that we are closing the class and they have to find a new class.

Now I remember being in college and having to register before the end of semester to be considered a student for the next semester. But, obviously that doesn't happen here. I also remember getting emails during the break about classes being closed for lack of students and that I was being removed from the course, well before the semester started.

SO, the registration system is a mess that needs to be organized to cause less confusion before a semester starts.

Headache 2: Dealing with my boss who wants to suddenly give me new classes 3 weeks into the semester.

Ok I understand that AJ.Tim suddenly had an emergency and had to be hospitalized (baby issues). But, we already knew she was VERY pregnant before the semester started and by doing a little bit of research they would have known that she might have complications since this baby #2 in less than 18 months. They should have had a contingency plan just in case she couldn't finish teaching her classes before she took maternity leave. But, NO we can't plan ahead for a just in case...since Becky had to cancel a class she can suddenly take this one over even though it's at the same time as another class she IS teaching.

I had to explain to my boss that I cannot teach the class and that it is impossible to move the class since the students are all from different majors and will not all have the same free time. On top of that I do not have time to figure out how to teach this class and make a midterm in the time I have before I go home for vacation.

Headache #3: Still dealing with my boss who wants me to teach a short BS class after I get back from my trip.

After she gave up on the real class my boss wanted me to teach some work practicum course that they just decided to suddenly add more sections of after midterms. I cannot figure out why they decided to do something so asinine since we are lacking in staff and half of the staff is already working overtime every week.

During this half of the conversation I had to point out that again I will not have time to plan this course. I also would not have time to teach it since I have to do make up classes, grade midterms, and make finals after I get back.

It would make much more sense to me to put these extra classes off until next semester and to stop offering so many classes each semester so we stop running into the problem of not enough students in each class.



Having to to put up with this 2 semesters in a row has made me start to rethink staying here for so long. I still love my students but I'm getting really sick of the office BS and the inept people who are in charge of my department.

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So recently Thailand has been getting slammed with rain...and by slammed I mean it's rained for a majority of the day everyday for a week. Yesterday we had an almost consistent 36 hours of rain. This led to the schools in town getting closed for 2 days...sadly PSU was open both days (but a lot of students didn't show up yesterday). All this rain has made it so I've been cooped up on campus and when I do go out for a walk (cause there's no way I'm driving in the rain) I get soaked. Luckily the town hasn't flooded yet...I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Today the rain stopped at 8ish and didn't start up again until 3:30ish. Unfortunately I have terrible timing! I decided I should take the bike out and get gas since it needed to be used after almost a week of sitting. So I made it all the way to the gas station and almost home before I got hit by the rain. It sneak attacked me!

If this rain keeps up I'm going to have to turn in my motorbike for a longtail boat or start swimming into town.

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So nothing much has been happening here in T-land since my last post. Technically I've had the last 2 weeks of between semesters but I've had meetings and paperwork sprung on me so I really only had 4 days (not counting weekends) off...but not consecutively :(

Anyways, semester starts on Monday and I'm now teaching 4 classes, 3 sections of reading/writing and job applications, and I'll have 3.5 day weekends every week (super yay!). I finish teaching each week on Thursday at 10.00 am! My 5th class, telling stories in English, got canceled. It would have been a fun class to teach but now I don't have to teach from 8:30-5 every Monday :D


And I finally have a picture of me and my bike...and my silly helmet :D

Thanks AJ. Tor

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So I have officially been in Thailand for 1 year :) It has flown by...I feel like I've only been here for about 6 months. It's crazy!

In the past year I've done and learned a lot of things:

1. Traveled all over Thailand (mostly in the South), this year I've been to: Bangkok, Koh Tao,Koh Samui, Trang, Krabi, Ao Nang, Hat Yai, Songkla, Chumpon, Pattani, Pai, Chaing Mai, Chiang Rai, Mae Sai ,Phuket, and Burma.
2. Learned that tonal languages are a pain in the ass...and I will probably never actually learn good Thai
3. Learned how to ride a motorbike...and in the process learned that all Thai drivers are insane!
   
4. I've experienced a number of Thai festivals.
5. Ridden long distance on a train.
6. Met people from all over the world
7. Learned that I'm not that great at pub quizzes but they're a lot of fun.
8. Developed a hatred of VIP buses and their lack of leg room.
9. Learned that I am terrible at processing my pictures because I'm lazy.
10. I'm also occasionally bad at updating this thing.
11. I've worked 4 English Camps and had a blast at all of them.

There are probably other things for the list but I've forgotten. I love being in Thailand and I hope that the next year is just as fun and

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The Hotel

My Bungalow

The cute elephants


My Room

The students rainbow rooms

The Old/New Palaces
Old Palace

New Palace

View of the river from the New Palace

Wat Wang (Low Temple)

I want the lion statues!

Wat Khu Ha Sawan (High Temple)Reclining/Sleeping Buddha (in the cave)

The sitting Buddha (in the cave)

Royal Graffiti

The temple buildings

At the Meditation retreatThe students carrying bricks up the walkway

The view from about halfway up

My Gift Basket of treats...the green
bag is the best (I love banana chips!)

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Last weekend I went on a trip to Pattalung to help run a Junior Tourist Guide English Camp. Before we left I wanted to read up on where we were going so I broke out my lonely planet (edition oldish cause I bought it at the used bookstore) to see what they had to say about Pattalung. The only problem was that once I got to the Southern Thailand section Pattalung didn't have it's own sub-section...they were just a place on the map that LP decided wasn't interesting enough to mention. I'm sure Surat would be given the same treatment if they weren't the most convenient way to get to Samui (and LP basically says you don't want to get stuck here on our few pages). Well after becoming highly disappointed in my handy-dandy guide book I shrugged my shoulders and packed an overnight bag.

For some god-forsaken reason they decided that we had to make the 3 hour trek to Pattalung on Saturday morning which ment we had to leave at 5am. I was not a happy camper when I was told that but I woke up at 4:30 got ready and then promptly passed out in Tor's car once we hit the road. Once we arrived in Pattalung we headed to Lampam Resort to start the camp. We spent all day Saturday teaching the students about being a good tourist guide, I taught them how to introduce themselves and give directions. We had a lot of fun...especially when they got to correct me because I screwed up the readings or couldn't find the 15th word on the WordFind (because it was freaking backward).

After we had dinner we had yet another session (I'm pretty sure 12 hours of teaching is a Thai thing) where the students wrote and practiced their groups tourist guide speech. I had to help them adapt their speeches from the examples they were given because they didn't realize that they couldn't copy word for word since most of it wasn't relevant to the group they would be leading. After this ridiculously long day I got to go crash in my bungalow which surprisingly I didn't have to share.

On Sunday we woke up at 7am for breakfast and then piled into the buses after it stopped pouring rain. We went to 6 different 'tourist attractions' around the town. We started at Lampam 'beach' which was basically across the road. It wasn't really a beach...more like a walkway on the edge of Songkhla Lake which was huge!

The next stop was the old/new palace which was an interesting example of old Thai architecture. For the homes of the provincial lord the palaces were pretty small. They were just a couple bedrooms, cooking area, and a few rooms that weren't described.

The third stop was Wat Wang (or the low temple, because it's in a valley). We didn't spend much time at the temple and we weren't able to go inside. But I did get the students to explain to me why the year on one of the signs was from the 'future' 2536 (AKA 1993).

Then we went to Wat Khu Ha Sawan (or the high temple, because it's on the mountain) which was the first royal temple in Pattalung. At first it looked like just a normal temple with a little more glitz but then we went into a cave behind the main temple. In the cave there were a bunch of Buddha statues including a large reclining Buddha (which the students called a sleeping Buddha) and a large sitting Buddha. Also in the cave were the initials of the royals who have visited the temple. The initials were carved into the walls and gold leafed. Honestly, this temple alone was definitely worth the trip down to Pattalung.

Our fifth stop was a small 'temple' in the middle of a roundabout. The Buddha was a gift to the province from the king.

Our last stop was a meditation retreat. We climbed up part of the mountain and got to see an awesome view of the city. Then Tor, Ying, and I were given gift baskets full of Pattalung treats before we headed back up to Surat.

While Pattalung city was not the most breathtaking city in Southern Thailand and the sites were not the most exciting...except for Wat Khu Ha Sawan. I am so glad I went on this trip since I never would have made it to Pattalung otherwise.

Pictures will be up soon.

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It's a good thing I took the medical test 2 weeks ago since I have just come down with the dreaded coughing disease...ok not really but I am sick. This week I caught a cold and it's made work an adventure!

On Monday I canceled most of my classes cause talking hurt and then went home to get an amazing 11 hours of sleep (after I found my NyQuil tablets).

Yesterday I only had one class but trying to prepare materials for other classes was next to impossible since my brain felt like it was crammed full of cotton balls.

Today I felt a lot better but my throat still hurts. My head has cleared up and I don't feel like the air is actually molasses. I hope my throat is better tomorrow cause it still feels like sand paper :(

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Alright so many of you probably don't know this...but every other Thursday in Surat Thani is Farang Quiz night at one of the bars in town. I go to quiz ever time (unless my bike is broken or it's raining cats and dogs). Quiz is a blast even though I usually don't know many of the answers. Topics usually include: music, movies, and random knowledge (geography, history, etc.). You play on a team of 4 people and it costs 50baht ($1.50) a person to play, winning team gets the cash. I am usually on a random team of people who just got there (so we always suck).

Last Thursday (the 16th) I got to be on Paul, Kelsey, and Joels' team, they had won the previous 2 quizzes. At the half-way point we were in the lead and pretty confident we were going to keep it. Then we got to the second half of the quiz...it was terrible! We did alright at the music portion, but we were clueless on most of the art questions and who said which quote. At the end of the quiz we were pretty sure we had fallen to second place if not further.

Surprisingly, we won the quiz by exactly 10 points! I finally won a quiz and took home 395 baht($13)...I think I'm about even now with my losses :)

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So I've been really bad about updating recently...and instead of talking about open week that happened 2 weeks ago...I'm going to talk about my medical "exam" today. So to stay here in Thailand legally I had to go to the doctor and get tested for 7 diseases: (List translated by Aom at the Dr.'s office...she didn't know what all of the diseases were but I like her explanations)

1. Mental illness/craziness
2. Skin disease (I think they ment leprosy)
3. Coughing disease (yeah this could be anything)
   
4. Big foot disease (I think this is supposed to be elephantiasis)
5. Drug addiction
6. Alcoholism
7. Stage 3 Syphilis

So this means I underwent a battery of psychological and physical exams right? Wrong I was at the doctors office for a grand total of 55 minutes. The only test they really did was draw blood and test for syphilis...to test for everything else they put me in a room with a doctor for 2 minutes where he listened to my heart and asked "where are you from, where do you work, and how long have you been in Thailand?". I'm assuming that was the addiction/craziness test...but who knows.

While the test was sub-par to say the least I am pretty confident that I'm not a crazy drug addict coughing big foot leper but I could be wrong. My big toe has been looking a little bigger than normal recently...hmmmm.

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Ok so I discovered this weekend that I needed to clean ASAP! How did I figure this out...easy I found a cockroach on my toothbrush Friday night. While the cockroach was disgusting luckily he was small (probably around 3/4 of an inch). But I did discover that while a cockroach can supposedly survive a nuclear explosion and live without is head...they cannot survive 3 sprays from my purple bathroom cleaner. This leads me to believe that my Magiclean bathroom spray is even more deadly than a nuclear bomb...which makes me slightly worried about using it as a cleaner (but it's cheap and has a flying superhero on the bottle).

Watch out cockroaches I'm armed and dangerous!

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Saturday night was a night of Booty shakin’, pelvic thrusts, yelling, screaming, and shimming by the students. But before you get the wrong idea I should say that all of them were dressed in track pants and T-shirts as they yelled and chanted while doing choreographed ‘dances’ in a contest that they call Boom. Now the students have been keeping me awake for the past week or so practicing, which includes beating on a drum to provide the music, and they would practice until about 11pm.

So when I found out that they were going to be having their contest this weekend I made sure to be there. During the performances almost every group did a high kicking version of the bunny hop, one group did part of Shikira’s Waka Waka (It’s time for Africa) dance, some fun drums, and a rendition of Shake Banana.

In-between the Boom Groups they also were doing a Mr./Mrs. PSU award show (aka snooze fest). This contest was only saved by the poorly executed martial arts (come on guys put some power into it) and a dancing robot. Everyone else sang really slow and boring Thai songs.

I left before the contest was really over because it was already 11pm and the LCB students (my major) had fished performing. The LCB kids did an awesome job they had a lot of enthusiasm and were nice and loud.

The Boom Circle!

Crazy drums!

Glitter patrol

The Bunny Hop...Thai Style!

Goofin' off

Makeup check!

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For the past 2 weeks I've been helping Noy with her Elementary school project. We go to a bunch of elementary schools to show them an English program Noy's been making. We also play a bunch of games with the students...one's a vocabulary game where I call out a word and they have to find the matching picture on a plate, and the other is an activity where they draw a picture of a house with different things in it. I really enjoy the second game because I'm trying to explain what to draw with motions and my very limited Thai...The kids in my group really seem to have fun too. We've gone to 3 schools do far and at the end of the activities the children all come up and want everyone's autograph which is adorable. We're going to 1 more school in 2 weeks and they're a really small school so it should be fun.

In other news! We've finished midterms! And my students still can't spell my name:(

I had to get my motorbike fixed recently because it kept dying when I would ride it...stupid thing wouldn't idle! I had to get something in the engine replaced so it cost me around 2000 baht!

Next week is Open Week so we don't have classes but we do have to spend Tuesday doing activities with kids from a bunch of different schools.

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National Park Hiking Trip

Minibus dance party

View from the room/ the tree I climbed like a monkey

Tubing river!

Welcome to the Park

Group shot (all of the girls and Brian)

The big waterfall

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