I was scared to make this post after the 3rd of December last year… the worst day of my life- the day I lost my best friend. I knew what the subject would be and I didn’t want to write about it- I didn’t want to do anything that forced me to acknowledge the truth of the matter. I decided to wait until I’d finished his tribute video before posting about it, but by the time it was ready, another tragedy had struck in my life and I lost another person I loved very much. That double blow within a 6 month period was one of the hardest feelings I’ve had to over come and I’m still very much processing through it. After more time continued to pass, I began to feel overwhelmed by the idea of summarizing the events that had happened in my life after so long…. so I just…. didn’t.

But recently, Stephen’s condescending voice has come into my head and has scolded me for my irresponsibility. To tell the truth, Stephen was the only one that held me accountable for updating my travel blog regularly- and apparently I’m still not off the hook. I saw him laughing at me, shaking his head and telling me that it’s unbelievable that I’m going to let an entire YEAR go by without a word. It was at that moment that I knew- I needed to prove his punk ass wrong at least one more time!

So here we are, day 364, and I’m POSTING!

Now it wouldn’t really count if it wasn’t forward motion towards more regularly updated posts, so I’ve considered the options and have decided to clean up shop and start fresh. I’m moving my blog, and refocusing it more on media sharing and less of story telling.  In this past year I have upgraded my ‘moment-capturing devices’ and having been spending a lot of time behind my Canon 500D DigitalSLR camera. Having such a wonderful toy with such an abundance of features has opened my eyes to the world of photography in a way I’d never enjoyed before- and having finally gotten a desktop computer with decent stats, I’ve been loving the rich HD video my camera produces as well….

So anyway, on to the new. If you’re subscribed to this blog and are interested in continuing to receive emails, you will have to re-subscribe to the new one at:

www.1229moments.wordpress.com

Thanks everyone,

jess

They celebrate fathers day this weekend because it’s the King’s Birthday! Everyone is stoked and today all the staff is wearing pink shirts to honor him. Yellow normally represents the King, but when he was sick a few years ago and got out of the hospital, he was wearing a pink robe that the Queen gave him, so pink now represents good health for the King

I’ll be spending my 3 day holiday weekend on Koh Kood- a very beautiful remote island where Bonnie and mom are right now- cant wait to join them and put the lime in the coconut on the white sandy beach!

I havent been there before but from the pics I’ve seen, it should be nice:

Here are the kids with their cards:

And here are the cards:

I LOVE YOU PAPA!!! Happy Father’s Day from the far east

Mmmm, Buddha and drippy lights

busy busy road. It makes Adam say “alai wah!”

There was a beautiful photo gallery for everyone to enjoy by the river….

Hangin loose with some gang-stars

There are 30+ lanterns in the air at any given moment…. such a beautiful sight

a prego lady releasing a lantern

my home dawgs….

These are the floating candles that mom and adam and I made….. they had trouble floating in the testing faze so at the last minute we had to attach a styrofoam floaty to each one, lol  :p

releasing my candle- the action symbolizes forgiveness……..

I forgive you.

Mom sending off her candle and forgiving….

there were these incredible displays of art that were created out of flowers and leaves and plant parts….. very nice.

beautiful firework display too…

the fireworks sound deeper out here when they’re set off….. it sounds like war

just when we thought the firework show was over, the bridge exploded with light…

the bridge continued to shower sparks down for a while…… ravers shower.

Everyone is releasing their candles into the river to float away

my beautiful city lit up in all its glory. The tall lit building on the right is the general Hospital and the famous Wat SoThong temple in to the left (lookin like the Eiffel tower)

I know this last pic is blurry, but I just wanted to point out all the little orange dots at the bottom…. those are all floating candles coming from the next town up river…. how cool is that?

Thas all for now, you can see more pics on my facebook too.

love,

j

First off, I dont think I posted up a pic of all the “Get Well Soon” cards my students made me while I was in the hospital and I intended to, so better late than never-  here they are:

And I dont think I posted any of the adorable pics of my K-1 class either

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And did I mention I got a kick ass new still camera? It’s a DSLR EOS Rebel XT… not the latest and greatest, but still a rad camera for a beginner like me!

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Now on to my ‘island hopping’ trip with my mom. Here are some pics:

beauty all around

mommy found a baby- surprise surprise!

pretty waterfall…..

I found some animals- surprise surprise

HIGH FIVE!!

we got soaking wet on the roof during a jeep tour but we didnt care

And I found a spider…..

we had fun in the jungle……

good times!

we enjoyed some animal companionship too!

it was sooooo beautiful there….

and we found a nice looking spot to stay at too….

we had a very relaxing time there…..

and we enjoyed some temples too….

the landscape was breathtaking…..

and we met interesting people along the way…..

all in all a great trip in beautiful thailand….

THE END

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Ok, so next topic- The fundraiser dinner I went to. It was awesome.

Here are some pics from the S.C.A.D.  (Soi Cats And Dogs…. animal shelter) dinner and auction…..

the top of the food chain at SCAD

is was very fancy… I’m sure I was the poorest one there, lol. My fancy lamb dinner…..

is was nice to mix and mingle with other animal lovers….

and it was a great evening!

THE END

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OK, now for the sugar gliders.

Basically, I’ve got 3 baby sugar gliders now- they are awesome. There are 2 lil (unnamed) babies who are about 4-5 weeks and one slightly older boy (8-9 weeks) named Lucky. I got them from a very awful place where they mass-breed gliders in dirty lil boxes amongst pigs, chickens, and an assortment of exotic or illegal animals…. it was jacked. Anyway, so I intended to get 2 but there was a third one that would have been left alone in that awful place so I had to take him home too (hence his name, Lucky). Here are some pics from the first couple days:

Lucky is obviously the bigger one….. they’ve all grown so much already tho, it’s crazy!

here are a few from just the other day….. the get messy eating baby formula :p

I took some really cute footage of them the other day but I gotta cut it down still- soon!

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Speaking of videos, here’s a new one I made about a local skate contest my friends put on:

PROFANITY WARNING! The song says bad stuff right around the middle.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqVA4rB_c7Y

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Also, 11 of us had a lil Birthday party for Adam last weekend. We hired a private van to take him out to dinner and then out to bars and such to drink/dance. It was fun from what I remember, but luckily the camera left after dinner…. right before things got too outa hand to want pics on Facebook. Here are a few we got before things got sloppy:

I also used Animoto (thanks mark and linda!) to make a lil slideshow vid: http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=10150307721780366

THE END

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And last but not least, I made halloween masks with my Art class- they dont celebrate halloween out here so I thought it’d be fun for the kids to get a chance to ‘trick-or-treat’. So after they were done making their masks, I set up a lil playhouse and they all got a chance to knock on my door and I gave them candy. I gave Adam candy too so when they were done the ran down to the office, went to Adams desk, and trick or treated there also

It was good fun and a took a couple pics- can u see me in the house in this one?

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*sigh* ok, that’s alot of stuff. As for the future, aunt Bonnie comes out in a couple weeks to stay with us! WOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!! I can’t wait

And she’s been so kind as to offer to bring some of the fun toys and such from the states that I’ve wanted to order. So cool!

Anyway, there will be lots of fun pics and updates to share from the adventures we have out here together I’m sure!

Love you guys,

-J

The best part? We dressed up Mighty Boosh style! Check it:

basically Adam outlined my body, I cut it out twice, then Trish sewed the 2 pieces together- they told me it wouldnt work, but guess what

the party was sweet- it was basically only the fallongs that dressed up, but oh well- their loss, lol

the thai-boxing fighter and Old Gregg!

The scarecrow and the 80s punk rocker

the Greek!

and these punks dressed as skater kids, lol

I threw some shapes…. (check the screen below)

making new friends is good

live music is good

we had fun and got jiggy

big thanks to our bartender!

and to the gang that dressed up

So ya, fun night- and the rest of the pics are on my Facebook. Other than that, things are good- just finished the break and am now back at school. As most of you have heard, I got some gliders a couple weeks back- they’re doing great and I’ll have pics and clips up soon. I’ve got Lucky in a pouch around my waist right now actually

Couple sugar glider vids in case you have no idea what that is:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqSGJzSiz5s

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1V91ze6dvs

The foot’s doing well also- all sealed up and now a really big scar, but nothing new for me, lol. My tattoo artist had almost the exact same scar on his foot from a crash a few years ago too- haha. I still dont have feeling in part of my foot and dont have full motion just yet, but almost!

Anyway, hope everyone’s well and had a great halloween! Love you guys,

-J

This is a tattoo that I designed to display the words “Mai Balai” in thai lettering and in an artistic fashion. It essentially mean “no worries”, and I thought a sunset over the water would be proper- to me, it’s got a trippy kinda ‘Where the Wild Things Are’ kinda feel to it also…. it makes me wanna go to the place where the sunsets look like this

I had it done with the traditional sharpened bamboo stick instead of a machine…. it took a LOT longer and hurt like a bia but I’m happy with the outcome.

anyway, here’s the action:

And here it is a couple days later, still very fresh and bruised:

Oh, and note the 4 birds flying into the sunset? Thats me flyin with my momma, poppa, and sister

Also, momma got her old flower splashed with new life and color, turning a faded old rose into a beautiful new lotus flower (very appropriate in my opinion!)

Beautiful, eh? Well that’s it for now, and more to come later

So lets see…. by the time you get this I will be off to English Camp for the 3 day get-away english extravaganza we have planned for our kids at school (160 of them). Unfortunately, my little ones (K-1) will not be attending, as they’re a lil too young. We’ve booked the event grounds at a Nature Preserve a couple hours away- we’ve got tons of games and activities planned for the kids fulla non-stop entertainment. Thru the day we have workshops that are themed with different positive subjects- Ken and I are teaching team building with a military feel to it- we’re gunna look hardcore and make um yell

Did I mention there are only a couple more weeks of school till break? Looking forward to gettin out in the sticks and spending some time on the beach!

Some random facts:

Finally got a repair man over here to increase my internet speed now and I no longer have anything to complain about regarding my connection

I now have 7 chickens total- 6 hens and my lil Hot Stuff rooster. I love that boy. And torek built a cool ‘yard’ area for them so they’re no longer crapping on my carport but are still roaming free- joy!

My crashed motorbike spent a few nights at the shop and the Bat Mobile is now back fully functioning! I didnt replace the side panel tho, as a reminder to myself of just how easy it is to get owned out here- I’ll be driving like a granny for now on. I’ve spoken with soooo many thai teacher and such that all have a ‘when I hit a dog’ story- it’s madness. It seems that a bike accident is something that everyone out here goes thru- my Thai friend told me the only people that drive fast out here are Americans and young people- and it’s only because they havent had their accident yet.

I got a kick ass drum set and gangster cool electric guitar a month or so ago. I got a killer amp for it too that’s a big ol’ OEM Fender brand called ‘Mega’- same factory, same materials, same quality, different label printed on it and therefore a fraction of the cost. But damn does is sound good- and literally looks identical to a fender minus the logo. It feels great to play music again and before my accident I was almost back up to par on my drumming from how I was before. Soooo fun

In other news, my mom and Torek are headed to Phuket to enjoy some island sun- a vacation well deserved after weeks of sittin around here nursing me back to health! Last week I crutched around school all day and only fell down once (lol!). My foot’s been a bit more swollen than normal because it’s been down so much, but today I took my first steps, so YEEEHAW!

I made a vid as an update on how my foots doing now- VERY fast lil edit due to the fact that…. the content is boring. I just wanted to play with my new lil Helmet Cam

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvyl8C0JXZg

and here’s a pic of my fat foot, haha:

the swelling will go down…. it’s just like with my last arm break- all the swelling and bruising went to my elbow because it’s gotta pool somewhere until it can be redistributed. As for feeling, it’s still up in the air if it’ll ever go back to ‘normal’. Between the wound and my big toe is numb and the nerves/tendons going down to my other toes are prickly and…. off. But hopefully when the swelling goes down it’ll help a lot. Just stoked to be walking really

Anyways, I should get to bed because I gotta get up bright eyed and bushy tailed tomorrow morning! Damn, you know you’re going to sleep late when you can already hear your rooster crowing outside :/

Tomorrow might be an Asian Red Bull day ;D

love u guys,

-jess

hi guys,

As some of you have heard, I laid my bike down on Saturday night after trying to avoid (but still hitting) a dog on a straight away in my neighborhood at night. The dog ran right out in front of my bike at the last second and there wasnt much I could do…. this is a common occurrence in Thailand and 2 out of 3 dogs out here and a limp or missing limb to prove it, lol!

Anyway, so I kinda took the dogs legs out from under him and my bike and I went skidding along the crappy cheese grater pavement. I wish it was on film because as I was skidding, I literally said “Are you serious?!” as I did so, lol. Dogs around me were going crazy because of what just happened so I immediately popped up all adrenalined out and looked around to make sure I wasnt about to be attacked. Then I hobbled over to my bike, which was no longer running, and struggled to prop it back up. The sting of my injuries was starting to set in as I attempted to restart my bike. The first try I just got a very rocky sounding sputter, then I took out the key, put it back in, and tried again. This time it made the proper sound and after a little convincing it finally started. I thanked the stars, as I was far enough away that walking/crawling home didnt seem like a doable task. As I rode, I accessed the damage to my bike and to myself. My bike was decently scraped all down the side, had tweaked handle bars and brakes, and a broken front fender- and aside from dirt filled fan and muffler, the damage was pretty much cosmetic. As for me, I cursed as I looked down and felt my flop flop start to pool with blood and the sting that came along with it. My left hand, both knees, and right foot I could see were all pretty messed up, and I felt a big sting all along the outside of my right arm that I wouldnt be able to see until I found a mirror later.

At that time, I had some friends over at my house and was hosting a lil BBQ. We’d run out of refreshments and I was just taking a quick loop of the neighborhood to see if any of the local house-turned-convenience-stores were open. So as I rode back only minutes later to a bunch of (mostly drunk) friends, I didnt want everyone to freak out. Nothing was broken, and the only part that concerned me was my foot as the road rash looked deep and a bit…. hamburger esk. So I pulled up, and before even attempting to get off my bike I told everyone that nothing was broken, and to not trip out. Naturally people kinda did- “oh my god! Look at your hand! Look at your arm! Oh my god YOUR FOOT!!”

I was very lucky to have only gotten the injuries that I did, and even more lucky to have picked a time when my momma is out here stayin with me. With an entourage of good people, i was pretty much carried upstairs and into the bathtub. Cleaning out the wounds and sterilizing them was NOT fun. Mom, Torek, and Adam were particularly helpful- thank you guys!

Ok so pics

here’s just an hour or less after the fall…….

there here’s at the hospital the next day…….

(thanks for the photography skillz adam)

And then here’s today:

it hurts like a bia but the doctor put me on some pretty strong morphine…. not strong enough for the throbbing pain of trying to stand upright tho… all the blood rushing to my foot is ridiculous. And the only bit that concerns me is the lack of feeling in the area between my big toe and the hole in my foot :/

But, at least I’m in good hands- mother is nursing me back to health and making sure I’m well taken care of. Everyones been very nice and supportive out here, always offering a helping hand- thank you all.

The directors of my school stopped y today too to see how I’m doing and to tell me to please not feel any pressure about getting back to school. They told me to focus on feeling better, relaxing, and healing up properly… such good men

Anyway, just wanted to let you guys know what happened and to say I’m aight.

Love you guys,

jetski

So I took advantage of last weeks extended weekend and took a lil journey over to Kanchanaburi- a beautiful province a few hours from home that is famous for its caves, waterfalls, and the legendary Death Railway.

In a nutshell, back in the forties during the world war, Japan had taken over Thailand and basically wanted a dependable form of land transport between Burma and Thailand, and on foot thru the mountains wasnt cutting it. They had hella POWs on lockdown in Thailand, so they sent a grip of them over there to build this railroad to connect the 2 countries. The Japanese said they’d have medical clinics set up, sufficient housing, food, they’ve have transport to their camps, etc….. FAIL. None of that went down- they had to walk over 300k to their camps, makeshift shelter with what the carried and stuff layin around, and the only medical they had was what they’d brought with them. So naturally, as they forced them thru absurd  labor, barely enough food to survive, and no legit medical attention, they died all the time. The common cold could kill them easy in the conditions they were in- let alone all the crazy tropical diseases their body had never encountered before. (BTW, i went to the museum while I was there- can you tell? lol)

Anyway, they whole thing was hella tragic, the big steel bridge was the hardest part (and was the prime target as the allies bombed it/them time and time again), and the Britts got shafted more than any of the other westerners out there.

So the bridge was cool- walked across it a bunch and snapped some shots. Also went to this rad Temple that was inside a cave at the top of a big dragon staircase. Tight.

I went there with a couchsurfer I met up with in Bangkok. He was chill most of the time….

We also met another foreign teacher from the states while we were on the bridge making jokes- she teaches in Bangkok and was hella cool, so we invited her to ride family style (3+ people on 1 scooter) with us to the cool cave temple. When we finally got to the lookout  at the top, we watched the rain come across the surrounding land like a wave, pass over us for about 15 minutes of mayhem, then return to calm. It was a rad view for sure

Anyway, here are the pics:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sicahafan/sets/72157624611229495/

Unfortunately, I dont have time to do like I normally do and embed the pics into the story- I’m pickin my momma up at the airport tomorrow and I gots some last minute things to take care of prior. Plus, the momma dog that had baby puppies a few weeks ago in the office next to us went missing today…. I feed her a big bowl of lunch scraps everyday, but today, the bowl has been sitting there since morning. Unless she miraculously shows up in the next 20 minutes, I’ll be taking the 3 puppies home in a box. They barely have their eyes open and cant walk yet- I’m NOT letting them starve as it’s looking more and more like their momma may have been hit by a car or likewise

Aight yall, miss you, love you, keep being you!

-jetski

It’s mothers day tomorrow over here, so that means 4 day weekend for us!
Mothers day is on the Queens birthday out here, and her favorite color is light blue, so we all wear blue in her honor. The school is holding all kinds of festivities today, including this speaker who comes in and makes all the children cry. We dont know exactly what they’re saying, but we were told that it makes the children think about what it would be like if something bad happened to their moms- they literally are BAWLING after listening to this person talk, its gnarly. Some students also came up and gave speeches of appreciation for their mothers while sobbing, and then their mothers came up and hugged them and gave a response. Very endearing. Notice how there are mats in front of all the seats so that the kids can sit at their mothers feet? Awwwww

So in my classroom, we had a lil party. Not just cuz of mothers day, but also cuz it’s one of my students birthdays as well! So I bought little cookies and donuts and he got a special lil peice of chooclate cake. We sang him happy birthday, and did freeze dance to try to get a little bit of the sugar-high out of them…. fail.
So after that we played the classic game of ‘Pin the Tail on the Water Buffalo’ (not a lot of donkeys out here). None of the kids had ever played it before, so they loved it

My kids are the best- I love them so much!!