Bye Bye Muang Thai!

In three hours we'll be well on our way to a week in Laos!

Most likely will not have internet while I'm there- will have the iPad with me just in case I find a wi-fi spot. I plan on keeping a journal so I can tell my 3 beautiful readers all about it when I get home (to Thailand.) :).

Yesterday was wild... Had our morning reflection/trip planning (Grant got into BKK last night) and Sarah, Torey and I headed for a day in the city "Sex in the City" style. Meaning, we did A LOT of shopping.

Now, the size of our purchases are not proportional to the amount of merch we saw. First we hit Platinum, a famous whole-sale mall of seven stories, and were promptly overwhelmed. 2,000+ stores. Most of the little stores do not allow you to try on clothes, and since we've already established that none of us are Thai-size, I do not need to depress you with the details of trying to find clothes. HOWEVER (glimmer of good luck #1), Sarah found a shop that sold really basic black skirts, and there was a cute little lady their who could measure us. Sarah and I can now officially go to work.

Spent a couple of hours there and on our way to Siam Paragon (the Somerset of BKK, remember from my first day in the city?) we found CentralWorld- another glam mall that had a Forever 21! (Glimmer of good luck #2) They had American sizes (awesome) but it was actually way more expensive than the Forev's at home. Shoot.

Glimmer of good luck #3- found a bookstore with English lit. HALLELUJAH. Picked up a Barbara Kingsolver and wanted to buy a magazine, but they were ridic expensive- around $14. Guess I'll be ok on the night train without any mind trash to consume me.

Hit Siam Paragon, found swimsuits (!!!) albeit in grossly misrepresented sizes, and saw The Fighter. Fantastic movie. Best part was enjoying it from plush leather seats that would rival your dad's lazy-boy. Weirdest part was standing for the national anthem before the movie played.

Also, went into a Thai version of a CVS at Siam Paragon, asked a dude in a labcoat for malaria pills and three weeks worth of doxycycline were given to me without questions. How legitimate. I'll be taking any drug requests next week. ;)

Central World

Siam Paragon

and Platinum all on the same block!

After... a while... the rest of the group joined us with Pi Nat, Pi Klong, and another friend we had met at Dr. Soparth's husband's funeral. They took us to THE COOLEST dance club. Except for one thing- there was no dance floor?! What the heck. It was just all these tiny tables and it was dark and crowded, but no dance floor. Also, cover was free for Thais, expensive for farang! How is that even allowed? Structured racism, I dare say! Anyways, it was totes worth. Awesome DJ's, awesome atmosphere, awesome friends.  Having Thai friends show you around is totally the way to go.

Also, would like to note that I've heard "Put Your Hands Up For Detroit" three times since I've been here (once being last night). I love this city. And I love hearing motown in the malls. Makes me feel like I come from an important place. PLUS, songs I've heard about New York?: a measly 1. (Jay Z).

We've also seen a bunch of people wearing hats with the Tiger's D on it, but whenever we say something to them they look at us like we are crazy. Same happens w/ UofM hats.

Today we spent sleeping in, pooling, and packing for the upcoming week. Some of the items on our itinerary include two nights in Vientiane, a stay at an ecolodge in a village (including a toilet made of a dirt hole, a bathtub made of a plastic bucket, and a mattress made of a wood floor, should be an adventure), exploring UXO land-mine-cleared land (Vietnam War really messed up Laos),  temples, museums AND A HANDICRAFT CENTER? Sounds like I might find some things for my 660 Spartan ladies...


Have a great week and I'll be in touch when we get home!

I Almost Swamped on a Gecko...

Sawasdee Ka!

Hope y’all are enjoying the 2 degree weather at home- we’re suffering a chilly 81 degrees today. Hehe.

We’re nearing the end of our third week here at AIT (my fourth week in Thailand), and I would like to update everyone on some of the things I have learned to appreciate… fiercely.

1. Bathrooms with toilet paper. Or soap. Or paper towel. Really, a bathroom with any of the three is a good find. A bathroom with all three is a treasure.

2. Massages. Nuff said.

3. Listening to someone outside of our group speak American English. Ahhhhh.

4. Real orange juice, not Thailand’s OJ, which is a cheap imitation of Tang.

5. Flesh Gecko

5. Flesh Geckos. These little critters (we don’t know their real name) help control the mosquito population. They also like to surprise me by crawling through the shower vent.

6. A filling meal. Thai food is superb but doesn’t keep us full for very long. A filling meal is awesome. Like a Mike Jones burger.

7. FDA food regulations.

I’ll keep you updated- there’s certainly more to come.

On Monday we sadly trudged back to class after a fun weekend @ Cha Am. We were allowed to skip Thai Survival class in the evening, and instead we went to Dr. Soparth’s husband’s funeral. We took a bus and hour and a half west and found ourselves in this temple-type thing. The inside looked like a really awesomely decorated garage or unfinished basement. The funeral was a very…surreal experience. It was the last day of the seven-day event, and it was weird to see no one crying. Like, nobody cried. Hm.

We ate dinner outside and were served family style a bunch of dishes made form Dr. Soparth’s family cookbook. Muy Rico. Freaky part: thought I was eating fried pieces of fish- was actually snacking on whole guppies. Looked down and saw their little eyeballs looking at me. Didn’t like that very much.

Went inside, waited for about an hour, and then listened to about an hour of chanting. Chanting in a different language + hot temp = a very sweaty and confusing two hours. Post-service, we got to ride back to AIT in this tricked-out double decker party bus. It was sweet. Will have to take a pic of one of those- we need them in EL. I'll alert Shaggin Wagon management. 

Yesterday was pretty typical- in the afternoon we had a loco professor who located Sarah and Torey and me and forced fed us ice cream and a cake thing with fake strawberry filling and a lump of purple play doh bread. He showed us all of his pictures, including pics of him donating blood, and had the sandwich lady take a pic of us. Goober.

After Thai class, our teacher, Pi Pi (who is also the English teacher for the kindergarten class- shoot) took us out to dinner. We had chicken liver. 

Afterwards we threw our hands up and succumbed to the desire to hit BKK on a Tuesday night. Went back to our favorite- Khaosan Road- and had a ton of fun. Nothing like some Pad Thai and spring rolls off of the street. Roamed the street for a couple hours occasionally stopping to jam to Lady or Taio Cruz or KPerry. We met some guys from British Columbia and some guys from WINDSOR! Felt like home. 

Had a very successful cab drive back and crashed immediately.

Chan Chop BKK!

Beautiful People

Typical  Thailand- "We Do Not Check ID Card"

FARANG haven

Fourth meal. And Fifth meal.

Now I’m sitting in our classroom watching about 20 Thai maintenance guys attempt to put up a new white board. Keep it up, MacGyvers.

Just got off the phone with Anna (love that she’s on an earlier time than Michigan) and had a great conversation. Love my sisters. Apparently she’s been telling all of her 3rd grade kiddos about my adventures here, and she has already signed me up to come talk to class J 

She said they like gross things.

Oh honey, I have plenty of gross things. Maybe I’ll just have to bring a flesh gecko home.

Love to America (and be thankful for your bathroom),

Rosie

Time Goes By, So Slowly...?

Holy Toledo- another incredibly packed 4 days!

On Wednesday we visited the Duang Pratheep foundation- a pretty amazing support org that provides services and education to children and families in the slum areas. Pi Paew coulnd’t come with us so Pi Nai was in charge… he kept us safe :)

We walked through a slum and it was pretty incredible. It wasn’t the sewage-in-the-streets-naked-children level of terrible, but it was still pretty terrible in itself. Most of it was built up on stilts and trashy water sat and stank underneath. What we really struck me was the lack of privacy- a family might have a room the size of a king bed and no complete walls.

A flat in the slums

We had a short presentation from the foundation (I think they were supposed to do more with us) and we looked around the school and headed out. We had our pimp bus for the whole day, so Nai took us to the Ancient City. We bumped to Madonna the whole way- so much fun. The Ancient City is kind of like a park with a bunch of cool buildings and a floating market. We rented bikes and toured around. Very fun.

Nai, Our Thai Cowboy 

On Thursday we were supposed to go to an agricultural thing, but while we were on the bus they cancelled so we went to the beach for the day. Study Abroad is pretty cool.

No but really. We went to Thailand’s largest floating market and it kind of reminded me of Millpond Park if it was over a river. It even had a wood bridge that wobbled when you walked over it. Enjoyed.

floating market

We went to the Pattaya Beach and got heckled by beach vendors all day and got stared at because were are so white and wear swimsuits. (Most of the locals swim in their clothes- no joke.) Paew got a foot massage, we looked interested, and before we knew it our group was ambushed by massage ladies wanting to rub our nasty FARANG feet. So, we got foot rubs. Please take a moment to imagine the lady in charge of my feet:

Mad TV's Miss Swan,

in a flat bill, studded, “Dirty South” hat (worn slightly cocked)

And a tall tee.

It was so entertaining. I liked her so much I had her give me a crappy pedicure too. So worth.

Friday day was pretty demoralizing… Sarah and I want to Future Park in order to hunt for work clothes. (MOM- I cant belive I left my editor pants and skirt at home!! :( ) Figured a dept store would have our sizes but apparently that is not so. We tried to make ourselves feel better with some gelato but we couldn’t even find the freaking gelato place. Psh.

BUT Friday was a totally awesomely THAI night. It was Pi Nai’s 27^th birthday, and all of his friends left him for the Reggae festival in Chang Mai, so we took him out. First, we went to his fav spot for dinner- a complete hole in the wall, garage-type place where we had THE BEST MEAL OF MY LIFE. Roasted pork leg. Right off the bone. With these awesome Chinese rolls. It was so incredibly carnivorous and fantastic. The kind of meal that makes you feel like life is going to be ok. That good.

Then we went to this place… it was like a Major Magic’s for grown ups- a big decorated warehouse with a stage where we saw it all- lip syncing ladyboys, live cover songs, a Thai pantomime. We had so much fun. Nai decided he “want to be American!” for the night and that was pretty funny. He wouldn’t even talk to the taxi driver in Thai- “No! I American tonight!”

I took Nai up to dance for his birthday and afterwards I looked down to see the cutest little  5 year old Thai girl wanting to dance with me. We danced for the rest of Mariah Carey’s “Hero,” and she insisted on a second dance. I twirled her a couple times and she wanted to twirl me too, so I had to do a limbo of sorts to get under her bitty arm. It was seriously cute.

Rise and shine at 5:30 AM on Saturday so we can get down to the beach for the weekend! We took the van down into the city and took another van from there 2.5 hours to Cha Am, where we took motorcycle taxis (hehe sorry dad) to a guest house. We splurged on a room for the night ($5 A NIGHT PER PERSON, UGH) and promptly crashed on the beach. Spent the day playing in the water and getting some (or too much) sun. 

Vay-kay!!

Sarah, Torey, Jordan and I got our first real hour-long Thai massages ($7, UGH) and thoroughly enjoyed it. They way massage is a way of life here is something I could definitely get used to. The Thai’s pay attention to areas that we don’t even think of- it’s not all about back massages here (even though their back massage is phenomenal). They pressed on the outsides of my shins and pushed their feet on my hamstrings and rubbed my armpits (weird but great). I think I’m going to take a massage class once my internship starts up. Resume builders, you know.

this is our spot! no happy endings!

Spent the night hopping around venues on the strip our guesthouse was on. On Sunday (this morning) we got up early, hit up breakfast, checked out of our room and hit the beach again. Worst part of the trip right here: some wild FARANG had one too many last night and puked on the beach- right where I happened to set my backpack. I looked like a wildy dragging my backpack in the sand, but I wasn’t about to let some bloke’s upchuck ruin my 8 year old LLbean. How gross.

Finished reading Incendiary on the beach and enjoyed it… Chris Cleave is awesome. Whoever hasn’t read Little Bee- you should.

We girls couldn’t contain ourselves… we went back to our new massage place. Torey and I got hour-long facials and Sarah got a back/neck/head massage. Loved my facial- my skin felt so new  afterwards! The treatment included a scrub, some lotions, a clay mask and a cucumber-wrap thing. I felt like a mummy. I also fell asleep and drooled a little.

WE HAD PIZZA FOR LUNCH. Something we’ve been craving basically since the night we got here. Wasn’t quite like home, but close enough.

Before we knew it, we were riding motorbikes to the van station, vanning it (with a PSYCHO VAN DRIVER) to BKK, vanning it to AIT (with a lesser but still PSYCHO VAN DRIVER) and walking back to our quaint dorm, ST2. Enjoying the aftermath of some delicious Indian bread, a cold shower (temperature not by choice), and some clean jammies, and a video chat w Dad.

Sarah and I risking our lives.

breaking the two-dude rule

Jordan and Torey being cute little FARANG

Crazy to think that this is our last week of classes. Next week we will be heading to Laos with Grant and after that we begin our internships!

Have to say that as much as a miss my people, so thankful that I do. Hope you all are doing well and staying warm.

Love to America,

Rosie

Put Your Teeth Back In!

Thoughts from last night:

Feels like it has been years since I last updated when really its only been a few days… maybe a few years worth of fun though!

Lets see, what have we done?

Friday: Finished up class and went to the Student Union party. Best Student Union party ever. One of those nights where everyone has a story to tell the next day. My favorite part? Doing a kickline with a bunch of people from Nepal. Awesome.

Saturday was… interesting. We hit up future park during the day and went downtown at night. At future park they had a couple of radio guys on mics in the central area and the four of us girls hear “FARANG! FARANG!” (meaning FOREIGNERS!)  over the speakers. Literally everyone in that part of the mall stared at us while they practiced asking us our names and if we had boyfriends. Embarrassing.

So Saturday night. Our new friend Abi from India joined us. We decided we were going to have a fun night of dancing even if it almost killed us (and it almost did). Ok not really. Would have been perfectly if the taxi drivers didn’t completely mess everything up. Instead it was just kind of awesome. Its seemingly pretty common to tell English-speaking passengers that they know where they’re going, and then drop you off at whatever restaurant or club their family owns. Really really frustrating when you have another taxi you are trying to follow.

Eventually got to the place: its called Nest- and it’s on top of the La Fenix hotel. (I know- La Fenix. Cute) but that was not before we had walked miles and Chad had asked the following people for directions:

1. Thai-speaking Police

2. Thai-speaking Taxi Drivers

3. Thai-speaking Street Food Vendors

4. Thai-speaking “employees” at TEEN LOVE MASSAGE.

It was a trip.

Got to Nest and danced for a bit and decided to hit the road and find a new spot. Found Club Welfare. (Welfare-Cute.) No one was there except for the staff and us. Before we knew it Chad was literally DJing. Like up on the ones and twos.

To make a long story short, we ended up having a two-hour Indian meal in the middle of the night (the length of it was not by choice) and another terrible taxi experience… This time he told us he knew where our university was and drove us at least 20 minutes in the wrong direction- makes a big diff when you’re 40-60 minutes outside the city. Grr. Oh well.

That was Saturday night. Like I said, it was interesting.

Thammasat

Sunday was pretty lazy seeing that we didn’t get home until the wee hours. Last night we went over to the Thammasat (our neighboring university) Market and enjoyed an awesome dinner of vendor food. Its so great because the food is cheap and if you don’t like it, so what? Someone else will eat it. Get something else.

Ayutthaya

Yesterday we went to Ayutthaya  (the old Thailand capitol) and saw some really cool temples and checked out a museum. We had a very… talkative… professor accompany us and he loved waving his arms around and standing in fourth position. He was seriously a goober.

goober

w Pi Paew

We got to ride elephants!! I shared one with Pi Paew (formerly Pi BAO… spelled wrong.) It was fun but I follow dad’s philosophy… 20 minutes is just about enough. But it was cool to ride the elephants around historical Ayutthaya and Paew could talk to our driver and find out more about our elephant. We got the biggest elephant that day, so that makes us lucky. I’d say so.

the gang

Today Sarah and I went for our “interviews” at the Agricultural Land Reform Office. And by “interviews” I mean “lets-ask-these-white-girls-questions-really-quietly-and-take-lots-of-pictures-while-they-feel-really-awkward.” Seriously. Boss man came in told us we can call him “Uncle Toe.” We also met a girl named Spider. And  a lady named Fat. Her name in Thai means fat. When Uncle Toes introduced us he laughed and said “it is becaw she no slender! Errytime we come into office, she eating!!” She just laughed and shrugged. Poor thing.

More awkward things include:

1. Meeting the head of the department (like a serious big wig) and being the only ones to sit at  his office table while all 15 others of the posse had to sit on the couches

2. Being interviewed by the 15 person posse

3. Having our pictures take 23453 times by 2 different photographers

4. Sharing a backseat with Sarah and the largest Thai man on the planet

5. Using a bathroom where there’s NO TP (not like its empty- there’s no TP holder!!)

But overall it seemed pretty cool and will be a rewarding experience. Aside from the fact that we have to bring our own TP to work. Sarah and I will be going on an 8 day field trip later on and staying on a super rural farm. I will be bringing a bug net. Prayers, please.

Tonight we just had an INCREDIBLE Thai dinner courtesy of our department head. We ate at the AIT golf club on the deck over a pond/lake. There were flags and lights that spread from the deck to the trees across the lake and the porch we ate on was lit by little lanterns the flesh geckos would crawl in and make silhouettes. There was a live band that played Elvis musicJ It was the best meal I’ve had here. So good.

____

Today:

In about 15 minutes we are heading into Bangkok to see a slum and a foundation that is working to improve it. Should be one of those hard-but-good-to-see things.

Miss you all. Have a great night to friends at home and a great day to friends in Thailand! 

In love with a Road...

What I wrote up last night:

Today was a GREAT day. It was totally one of those where you sit in bed at the end of it (as I am now) and you try to remember that morning or even early afternoon and it feels like memories from weeks ago.

We had class in the morning—interesting lecture about the sustainability and pollution issues in Asia. We thought it funny that our prof had been to Canada but not the U.S.

Hit the pool for a midday dip, grabbed sandwiches (our new go-to food), and hit the road for Bangkok. Bao and Nai and their friend whose name we can never remember took us to the Grand Palace and around town for the night.

Grand Palace was very cool. I’m not super big into doing those touristy big things if I’m not really emotionally connected to it, but this was very cool to see. Everything was so incredibly ornate. We had the cutest tour guide- she was not 5 feet tall but was very feisty. Came in handy when a rando lady leeched onto our tour

We are going to be super lucky if we get out of this trip without crazy cases of athletes foot: we had to take off our shoes 3 or 4 times today to walk in the temples. FEET GET SO DIRTY HERE.

By the time we got done with the temples I felt like a great-grandma: back was all achy and dead legs and was just zapped of energy. I think my back had a spasm or something during my time hunched over the porcelain last week… Actually we were all a little fried at that point. Time for a second wind SO…

We walked over to the river and took a quick ferry across. Had a great dinner overlooking the river while the sun went down. Nai ordered for us and we had a very… local dinner family style. Love family style dinners. As for the food, some of it I love, some of it not so much but it’s fun to try out the new tastes.

Afterwards we walked through a fun little market and tried some desserts while Chad was busy proclaiming “I LOVE IT” after everything he saw. Quickly becoming a motto of the groupJ Felt a little shopping-inspired after Torey found a really cute blouse but I quickly discovered that “Free Size” (their name for one size fits all) absolutely does not include Rosie-Size. I guess that ok… will save me money in the long run. It is funny how big we are. I think my mentality has changed from “they are so small” to “we are big.” Actually it is kind of more like “I feel like an OGRE.” Whatever, its funny.

THEN

We took Tuk Tuks to Khaosan Road. MY NEW FAVORITE PLACE. It famous for travelers from all over to go and shop and hit the bars and everything is open and crowded and friendly and loud colorful. There was a little cart that prints fake diplomas and documents and the display one was a diploma from Central Michigan University. We thought that was pretty hilarious. I bought an orange watchJ I know what I’m splurging on next time we go back: an electronic t-shirt. They are so awesome. I am going to look like the robot dude who shows up at Club Xcel and Kroger all the time. Maybe not that extreme.

hot.

The Tuk Tuk rides are fantastic. You feel like you’re in a go kart racing down the streets. You are definitely caught somewhere in between the adrenaline rush of riding in a seatbelt-less motorized tricycle and awareness of your impending physical doom. Hope Mom’s not reading this.

Note to Sloan: This is a city FULL of bunting. You would love. Its more like flaggy than cutesy decorative, but it gives the streets so much flavor. Makes me think of you and what you have probably assembled for the mantle for spring J

Went up to a restaurant/club/bar thing called Ga Zebo. Haha. This place was the bomb- it was pretty quiet because it was only 7pm or so (felt like it was 1 am) but we had fun just relaxing with each other and having fun with Bao and Nai and unnamed friend. Good music- nothing like “What is Love” to really get you in the mood to have fun.

Spent about an hour there and went back down to Khaosan. Hailed a taxi, promptly fell asleep during the drive, and now we are back home tucked in our “beds.”

As cool as everything we did today was, I’d have to say my favorite part was getting to know Bao better. She’s so kind. She spent a whole day answering our stupid questions and speaking English with us and teaching us Thai and bartering for us and was never short with us once. She told me a few bits and pieces of her life and its pretty remarkable how similar the events are in her life to us but the circumstances are so different. Hmm. And we had a good conversation about our celebrity waan-jai (sweethearts).

I LOVE IT!

Hope all is well stateside and I’ll be on the internet more regularly now that we are getting into a routine. Pictures soon?

Love to America,

Rosie

Asian Institute of ...what?

I thought it was "Asian Institute of Technology" but that can't be right because it took until today for us to be allowed to access the internet. I've had like a nervous twitch because I haven't been able to get on. But all is well now.

We just have a short lunch break until back to class, but wanted to take a chance to tell everyone that we are all alive and well. We have had a very fun couple of days and are starting to get into a routine. A routine that includes:
-Squeezing all 7 of us into taxis for 40 min drives
-Finding giant lizards around campus
-Braving the cold showers
-Fantasizing about our next trip to FuturePark (the crazy mall)
-And hanging out with Bao and Nai (sp?)-- our incredibly friendly and helpful graduate-student-babysitters

We just had our first class this morning and it was a lecture from a retired prof who also served on the Thai Election Commission. Kind of a big deal. Very cool.
(The thick accents remind me of math classes at MSU...)

Last night we took our first adventure into the city and we had a blast. Involved a lot of walking and wandering, a creepy encounter with Iranian men who wanted us to party with them (one had a cocaine pinky nail, yikes), and witnessing the balance of the very depressing  culture of prostitution and begging with the bumpin night life and "land of smiles" mentality. Chad and Torey got their first Dr. Fish massages and the rest of us got head and shoulder rubs that WERE SO INCREDIBLE. She used this Thai-version of Vicks vapor with these scents that were so weird but great. We ended up in an Irish pub with live music and had a lot of fun there. Got a Detroit shout out from the band although they refused to play Journey for us. Jordan and I danced and a lady from Boston told me "I have some Irish in me"... compliment?

Made it out unscathed and we are already busy planning brainstorming plans for our next excursion. Tomorrow afternoon we are going to see the Grand Palace in the the city, which should be a very cool experience. Excited to see the river on which the city lives on and boat around the floating market.

Very glad to finally be with the group and everything is going well for us. Had a hard time looking at the Koh Samui pics because I freaking miss my family, but that's a part of the package I suppose.

Hope all my MSU friends have a great first week at school!

Love to America,

Ro

LAME

That past 48 hours have validated my lameness, but I'm ok with that.

I was a blubbering mess when Dad, Kate, and Lauren left me at 4AM yesterday. It was seriously awful.

Rather than wallow in self-pity, though, I decided to do the most American thing I could think of: shopping. At the mall. Too bad I picked the fanciest -schmanciest-most-like-Somerset mall to hit! Instead of picking up the items on my list, I mostly lurked around Siam Paragon gawking at the Swarovski crystal Christmas tree, rows and rows of jewelers, and the largest department store I have ever seen. The food court had literally had a fast food place AND expensive restaurant for every ethnicity food you could think of. Wild.

Didn't spend too long in the city before my energy was depleted (low food intake hasn't been getting me too far) and headed back for home. Was so tired by the time I got to the hotel I was ready to sprint to my room just so I could be there, but for some odd reason all of the hotel security personnel happened to be on my floor. I decided to not make myself look too suspicious.

Plopped in bed and got all emo again finding all the stuff sisters and dad had left me... notes and food and dad left me some meds in his geriatric pill box (dad maybe next time we talk you can tell me what they are...). Kate left her ipad charger- dont think that was a gift- so I'll have to send that to her.
Fell asleep early watching seriously terrible movies on the movie channel (who picks "City of Ember?!") And woke up early. I could get  used to this normal person sleep thing.

Pretty easy to DO NOTHING here.

My strategy for today was "DO NOTHING." It was pretty great. (Again, it validated my lameness). However, I have found that doing nothing is much more fun if you're doing it with a friend.Wah Wah. The most intense part of the day was my internal debate on purchasing either "The Proposal" or "Just Friends" on itunes. Proposal won.
Just storing up energy for going to the airport, lugging my suitcases all over tarnation (after I reclaim my checked bag), locating my group, and heading up to my temporary home (AIT). I am so excited for the rest of the group to be here. Ready for a routine!

Until then, I'm about to head up and start packing up my things and will prob order room service for dinner:) Found some pretty reasonably priced things but $5 for juice?! That is so dumb, fo real.

5 hours till go time!

Love to America,

Rosie

It'll Be The Highlight Of Your Holiday!!

Well I guess you could say that I’m not exactly in the condition I anticipated for writing my first blog post, but I guess that’s the nature of being away from home. After spending 24+ hrs with awful food poisoning, I’m on the rebound. Thanks are due to my companions—one medical expert, one very maternal, and one comedian/hunter and gatherer. (Kate, Lauren, and Dad)

Business Class, baby!!

So here’s how it went down:

Day one:

-Rule #1 is established: no more than three people talking at a time.

-Flight from DTW to NRT (Narita/Tokyo)

-Business Class:)

-The sun never went down

-Rule #2 is established: if you are going to wake up Lauren after the hot towel, don’t wake her up at all

-We flew over the Hudson Bay and Russia (Rosie: 1, Sarah Palin: 0)

And in true Jones style, we didn’t stay together for long. Kate and Lauren made it on the flight to Bangkok and Dad and I stayed the night in Narita. Turns out my version of MIKE JONES is actually a celebrity—everyone seems to know him at the crew hotel and we ran into a friend at dinner. Even met a guy from Saline—small world, eh?

Cabbages and Condoms:P

Day two: Dad and I head down to Bangkok on Thai Airways while Lauren and Kate pamper themselves and hit up the famous Chatuchak Market. Apparently Kate is an expert bargainer and showed Lauren the real way to do it. We met up in time for dinner at our favorite (?) restaurant Cabbages and Condoms. So Cabbages and Condoms was all about sex education and family planning, and their proceeds go to educational programs. Awesome. However, would not recommend going with father. Posing with a life-size Santa made out of red white and black condoms while dad takes a pic was a little… wrong. The place was crazy (and pretty overkill) - condom lampshades, condom flowers on the table, condom party favors with the check, and a condom Tiger Woods that said “Hope you used ‘em Tiger.” That was my favorite part.

Afterwards we had our first (AND LAST) Dr. Fish- a big thing in Thailand where you dip your feet in fish tanks and let the fish eat your dead skin. Worst was when a big one bit.

IT WAS VERY STRANGE.

Note: Our favorite SkyTrain stop? Na Na. Pronounced very soothingly and reminded us of the sister we left stateside. Naaaaa Naaaa

Day Three: We learn what a “Boutique Airline” means: a two-engine Bangkok Airways plane that’s painted like the pet shop in Old Town. It was… quaint.

Landed in Koh Samui late morning and headed out looking for our hotel “Buddy Oriental.”

Found Buddy and we’ve been beach bums since!

Day 4-7: Well… sort of. The weather hasn’t been the best, but we’ve found fun things to do. Most are related to spa treatmentsJ Kate and Lauren got me a scrub/massage that was very relaxing. Except for the massage lady laughing at me more than once. My skin is now what they might say, ver soff!

I was excited to start picking up on Thai culture, but the island is mostly foreigners.

We decided there are three kinds of people here (not to generalize but…)

1. Euros

2. Roided-up Aussies

3. Neanderthals

**All of which have many tattoos.

Needless to say, excited to meet some Thai locals.

Other things we thought were funny:

-       D L and K went to an Irish Pub in Thailand. Dad ordered Indian, Lauren ordered Italian, and Kate had Mexican. (I was on bed rest).

-       The Irish pub didn’t carry Guinness

-        Kate melted a whole stick of deodorant on herself with one application

-       European swimsuit choices (many discreet pictures taken)

-       Gasoline sold in little bottles

“You can’t tell me a roided-up Aussie never had one too many drinks and was stumbling home and drank a bottle of gasoline” –Dad

-       Lauren noticing that the rather depressing “elephant-trekking” site was in-fact, the Irish Hills of Thailand

-       Lady-Boy cabarets are NOT high quality entertainment, but certainly entertaining in themselves. (Seems like plastic surgery is readily available here…)

-   And much more that the internet cannot hold

My favorite moment of the trip was  definitely lighting “happy balloons” (I really don’t think they’re called that) on the beach outside of the swing bar. (The swing bar had actually swings!! How fun.) I had wanted to see these lanterns so badly- hopefully I’ll be able to see a festival of them- and had no idea they would be as readily available as a beach vendor. It was so cool to watch the three lanterns float into the sky. Laur cried, thus making us all.

Right now we are at the cutest little airport ever waiting for Bangkok Airways to take us back to the city. In about 8 hours I have to say my goodbyes and am definitely dreading that. Already miss my people back home, especially Mom. PTL for skype and gchat- that will make my time away much more bearable. I’ll try to keep current with posts as well as pictures on my picasa site (which isn't up yet).

Love to America

Rosie