Only in Thailand...

Only in Thailand...

Photo swiped from Srall

Can you say "Game, Spicy, Tong, and Got" and be referring to your friends. 


Can you say "Nine, Four, Arm, and Noon" and be referring to your students. 


Can you eat a dessert based around yellow beans and think it is delicious.


Can you wear a full denim outfit (jeans, shirt, shoes, scrunchie) outside of an 80s themed party. 


Can you hear fireworks on a weekly basis.


Can you drink Pepsi from a plastic bag.   


Can you see families of 5 on one motorbike. 


Can an elephant come up to you during your dinner. 


Can you have a conversation with the gecko in your room and not find it disturbing. 


Can you spend at least 5-6 hours per weekend on a mini-van. 


Only in Thailand...


Is paying more than $1 for amazing Pad Thai ludicrous. 



Is it normal to whip out a 'talking dick' in a bar, class, the store...wherever. A talking dictionary, that is. 


Is it okay to pull a bug (or 6) out of your food or drink and continue eating.  


Is it considered a bad day if no strangers call you beautiful or ask to take your photo.


Is it okay to use the peace sign in every. single. picture. 


Is drinking beer with ice the standard. 


Is it okay to destroy the English language to have a conversation. "Where you go?" "Go Bangkok....tomorrow."

(Google Image)

Are you not judged for having an intense dependency on 7-11.  


Are you given a spoon to eat a chicken wing. 


Only in Thailand....


Will you consistently be covered in bug bites. 


Can you get to a tropical island for $20.  


Can you sing karaoke- judgement free. 


Can you see people rocking black skinny jeans, long-sleeves and a full face-mask in obscene heat. 


Can you be granted celebrity status just for being white (and even get more 'I LOVE YOU' shouts from Thai people when in the presence of legit superstars....Jing it.)


But most of all, only in Thailand....


Can you be surrounded by the most genuine and kind people in the world. 


Seriously- I heart everyone. Jub jub!

Things That No Longer Phase Me

I've been in Thailand for a decent amount of time now, and I've come to realize that a lot of the oddities/awkwardness/shockers that phased me in the earlier months, no longer have that effect. So I've compiled a list of the more apparent changes...


1. Being stared at: Pre-Thailand, I despised being stared at. I had a pretty awful "me-syndrome" where I became completely paranoid if I noticed someone staring my way. "Do I have something on my face?" "Is my hair a disaster?" "Is my fly down?" I would immediately consult a mirror to make sure I wasn't a total mess. But here, I'm stared at a lot. And it's not because there's something on my face, or my fly is down. There is a very high chance that it's because my hair is a disaster, but more likely, it's because I'm white. Like I've said, being white gives you celebrity status in Thailand and the stares are just a reminder. In the beginning of my time here, I was a little freaked out by the constant stares, but now I embrace it. I am farang. Hear me roar.  


2. Motorbike Madness: During my first four or five months here, I was 99.9% sure I was going to die via motorbike. But, now I kind of love them. Riding on one is so freeing, but I'm more impressed by their utilization. 

• A means of transporting a family of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8....you get the point. Seriously how do you fit 3 grown men, a teenager and a newborn child on the bike?
• Who needs a car seat when you have...well...nothing. I've seen one too many babies being held in one arm while the other arm is driving the motorbike. Scary! I've also seen toddlers riding on the back. 
• Thais are so comfortable on the back of the bike. So comfortable, in fact, that they can eat a bowl of noodles, text, read, or do homework, all while sitting (helmet-free, mind you) on the back of the bike.
• If you have to buy a 100 pound bag of rice, it makes total sense to load it on the back of your motorbike, right? No. 
• Or, if you are moving, you may as well bypass the hassle of renting/borrowing a truck and just strap on your ENTIRE life onto one bike.
• Opening a new restaurant has never been so easy. Just hook on a grill and drive around town, looking for hungry customers. 
• Even Thai dogs are motorbike pros. I love it when I see a dog standing in the small space between the front of the bike and the seat. I will never understand how they are able to balance. One of the most impressive things I have witnessed was seeing TWO dogs in that small space while the bike rounded a corner. Wow. Just wow. 

(Image courtesy of Google)

(Thanks, Google!)

                                          

3. Sweating and Humidity: ALWAYS. I am very aware of how hot I am, but I no longer fret about the size of my hair or how sweaty I look. I have a lion's mane look going on, and I think Simba would be proud. 

Sadly, I think Simba's hair looks better than mine.

4. Being dirty. See #3.


5. Not understanding 80% of what is going on around me: I can pick up the gist of a conversation, but for the most part, I am completely clueless about what is being said. Someone could be screaming bloody murder, and I probably would have no idea. 


6. The students not understanding 80% of what is going on around them in the classroom: I used to panic a little bit at the front of the classroom when it fell completely silent and all I could see was a sea of confused faces. I would awkwardly try to maneuver my way around a topic but fail. Now, I thrive on awkwardness. I like to sing little ditty's or pull out the "Bueller....Bueller...." line when no one has a clue what is going on. The kids probably think I'm a weirdo. 

7. Geckos: We are family.    

8. Bugs in my food: Seriously not an issue. I can just pull the ant or fly out of my water or out of my noodles and continue on. Out of sight, out of mind. 


9. Freaky food: Pig's blood soup, anyone? Or how about some chicken feet? No? I guess you'll settle for some fried duck beak, or chicken intestines. Yikes. I definitely don't eat these delightful sounding dishes, but I'm no longer surprised at what is considered a delicacy anymore. 

A particularly disturbing looking bowl of chicken feet

10. Restaurants in every way, shape and form: I will happily eat food from a restaurant, a shoddy little food stall, a portable stall while sitting on the side of the road on a plastic stool, the market, via motorbike or from a person walking roadside with a basket. No matter where it comes from, it is always delicious. 


11. Extremely loud noises (usually accompanied by bright lights): Be it a concert, karaoke, a dinner party, the radio or the TV, Thais LOVE to celebrate (or relax) with abnormally high volumes. Bus rides can be torturous when the driver decides to blast Thai rock for 4 hours straight. Everyday I become a little more deaf because my eardrums get a little more damaged with each passing minute. Any sort of festival is sure to leave my ears ringing for days, and my eyes a little blurred because of the neon lights accompanying the sounds. But I've learned to tune it out. It's some sort of superpower, I think. 


12. Thai fashion. Scrunchies? Check. Acid wash jeans? Check. Full denim outfits? Check. Bedazzled shirts? Check. One would think I was living in the 80s, but nope, that's just Thai fashion for you. 


13. Beer and ice. At first, I was weirded out when my beer was served in a glass with ice. But with the heat and all, it makes total sense. I'm actually more phased by it not being in my beer. I mean, no one likes a warm beer. 


Basically....what is my life? 

Random Ramblings

School has started. It has been about three weeks and it is completely different than last semester. I know what I’m doing (I think) and I have so much more control. During vacation, there was a good chunk of time where I thought “I can’t do this again.” I was loving the backpacker lifestyle, but now that I’m with the students- all my anxieties and dread went away and here I am, back in Suphan, as Kru Nell. And I CAN do it. What I can’t do, however, is write a coherent blog post. So here are my random ramblings....

1. I’m 25. Thanks to Kru Sarah, I have 120 birthday cards (and a tuk-tuk necklace!). Thanks to my friends, I had a great time in Bangkok celebrating and eating Mexican. Thanks to Thailand, I am not having a quarter life crisis....well, maybe Thailand is the quarter life crisis. Thanks to my family and friends back home, I had a big smile on my face the whole day. You all rock. 

2. I experienced Thai hospital #2 and it was so much better than round 1. I had an allergic reaction to a bug bite which led to me putting on a band-aid, to which I had an even worse reaction the adhesive, which led me to a swollen, disgusting, throbbing foot, which led me to the hospital where I was given lots of antibiotics and told I had a secondary bacterial infection. Fun! Slash.....gross!

3. I went to the Legend of Rock concert in Suphan last weekend. Four members from very reputable bands came together for one night and one night only for a night of pure magic. It was awesome. I fell in love with the drummer. 

4. A family of geckos has officially moved into my room. Pro: Less bugs in my room Con: The mother/father (how do you tell the sex of a gecko?) is a pretty loud squeaker.

5. I can’t stop listening to Adele or The Black Keys. I’m really digging the Coldwar Kids, too.

6. Should I go to grad school? I bought a GRE prep book as a motivator. Maybe I am having a quarter life crisis. 

7. One of my students is OBSESSED with Justin Bieber. All of the teachers simply call her Bieber. She puts it on her notebooks, her homework, her tests, her hand, her facebook name....you get the point.... she’s Bieber. Anyways, in a recent journal writing, she informed me that there was going to be a Bieber flash mob in Suphan. I committed. I think I’m a Belieber. 

8. I want to bake these....and these....and eat a lot of this. 

9. I bought a sketchbook and have spent hours consumed in it. I forgot how fun it was to draw. 

10. I re-watched Season 2 of How I Met Your Mother and was reminded of this gem. I’ve had Let’s Go to the Mall stuck in my head for 5 days.

11. Sarah found a photo hunt machine in Suphan. The next 4 months just got SO much better. It was an addiction back home...and I was pretty, pretty good at it, so this is really exciting news.

12. I miss my friends. 

13. I missed the NKOTBSB concert in Boston and it actually hurts to think about it. Seriously?! That duo is perfection. Jing jing!

14. I saw the Hangover 2. I thought it was funny, and I loved that I was in Bangkok while watching it, but it wasn’t as funny as the first one.  What did you think?

15. I have another student who randomly wants to learn Spanish, so I teach him what little I know and he is pretty darn good at it. His name is Arm (awesome). So, basically, I am teaching him two languages at once....no big deal. 

16. I want to play with Cam so badly. It breaks my heart that I can’t. 

17. It rains here a lot. It is officially rainy season and YIKES DADDY it rains hard. The rain brings out the frogs, which are, for the most part, cute. But the other day, on our way back from Pad Thai Lady, Sarah and I saw a pair of boys with a plastic bag chasing down the frogs and capturing them. So sad, but I guess they had a pretty good dinner that night. 

18. Thailand is hot. I’m sweating. I need to take a shower.

19. I still hate cold showers.