Oh the squirrel….. May 23, 2009

So I’m gunna let Chai free this week. Suree (dude that works at out school) lives out on the outskirts of town and there’s a group of about 4 squirrels that had once escaped and now live outside in the trees behind his property. They come by every so often for handouts (which they get) and run around in the trees playing squirrel games.

I obviously cant bring Chai with me to Cali, and frankly I cant trust anyone out here to give her the amount of attention and free time (out of cage) that I give her. Whenever I’m home, that cage door is open, so she’s got plenty of runnin around time…. but its still not enough. She’s a wild animal and you’ve only got to spend 1 hour with this squirrel to understand how bad it just wants to run around. She belongs outside, not in a cage.  Sometimes it’s real annoying trying to get her to go back in her cage after runnin around, and I know that if I gave her to a student or something, it’d only take a few of those experiences before she wasnt taken out of the cage much anymore. The pet stores out here just say to feed her banana, which is crap. Right now she eats a balanced diet of cucomber, mango, banana, rose-apple, pineapple, tomato, sweet pees, carrots, calcium, and critter staple. I cant expect some kid to provide her with the home I think she deserves.

A free meal ticket in exchange for a life in prison treated like a hamster? No thanks- I’m gunna give her a chance to live like she was meant to. She’s gunna join that squirrel family by Suree’s house.

Here are a couple recent clips of her playin her squirrel games and doing her squirrel stuff. Enjoy

Well that was fast! May 21, 2009

we found a replacement for me at my school. She’s great, speaks Thai, has experience teaching, already lives out here, and can start in less than 2 weeks  :)

Booked my flight to the states already- June 10th, I’m SoCal bound bia!

 

Looking forward to seeing everybody

Skater Zoe- video May 19, 2009

There’s a little skate spot right next to the river- it’s just a few minute scooter ride across the bridge to get to it, and I go there and mess around often. The other day, Zoe and I decided to go out for a little ride so I could play on my freelines and give her a little lesson on the longboard. It was her first day out and she did pretty damn good….. that is, until tragedy struck…..

Cali-forn-I-A May 17, 2009

Howdy partnerz,

So as some of you know, Brandon whisked me away to California the other week for a quick little visit. I’m very sorry to those of you I wasn’t able to visit- my stay was short and my prime mission there was to have a little relaxing time with my fiance who I hadn’t seen in over 2 months    I did get a chance to surprise my dad, and give my mom a birthday/mothers day hug in person. I also got to say goodbye to my old house in Ojai, as well as some of the animals I wont be seeing again. And of course, I got to meet the rest of my new family (brandons immediate family), and spend Cinco De Mayo all with people I consider my family at rachel’s restaurant (thank you sis).

If I missed you last week, the good news is, it wont be long before I get a chance to redeem myself and come visit with you in less than a couple months. I’m throwing the towel in over here- it’s just too hard to be away from the love of my life for these long periods of time. I feel like an empty shell out here and it goes against everything I preach if I don’t follow my heart and pursue what I know makes me happy. Life is really good out here and the job is going well- but the richest life in the world isn’t worth the heart ache of being away from the one you love. Happiness and family- it’s that the whole purpose of why we work and strive to be successful anyway? Without it, you forget what the point is….

Anyway, so I put my notice in at my school. They weren’t stoked, but they understood. We’re looking for a replacement and I expect to be in SoCal within the next couple months at the most.

Also, I’m currently on the Master Cleanse on day 3, and things are going well. For those of you that dont know the Master Cleanse, it’s basically a fast to help clear out old toxins you’ve been carrying around in your body. The only thing you’re allowed, is water and a mix of fresh squeezed lemon juice and maple syrup with a bit of pepper mixed in. At the end of every day, you do a ’salt water flush’ (chug water full of sea salt, which is unsalable and comes out the other end very quickly). Yesterday we took a bus to the mall to get some more overpriced import pure maple syrup. It was rough walking thru the delicious smelling mall. You dont notice how many incredible food products are sold out there till you try not eating for a few days, haha. It wasn’t too hard tho- I brought my ‘lemonade’ with me and took a shot whenever a hunger pain came along as I passed the amazing smelling pastry shops. Here’s more info on the master cleanse if it interests you : http://themastercleanse.org/

See ya soon

-jetski

a different type of festivity April 12, 2009

Yo guuuuys,

Happy Easter! We don’t do easter overhere, but it actually is a different holiday here for the next few days and it’s called the Songkran fastival. Someone yesterday told me if was Thailand’s new years, but I havwn’t confirmed that as true yet.

Basically, it’s the water festival- you throw buckets of water over each other and party in the streets. There’s also this powdered clay type stuff that they mix with water to create a light grey soupy mud, and people rubit on your face. Everyone’s got squirtguns and it’s an all out battle. Traditionally, pouring waer over someone for this festival is a sign of respect and good fortune on them, so basically they just have to take it and thank you

There was a parade yesterday and I was in it too! I met up with my workout group and they gave me the same flowery shirt they were wearing, and we were off! We had a sweet lil float and a crew of hand drummers with us and we danced around and played with all the water. I had a supersoaker and got in all out battles with all the lids on the sidelines- it was great.

After I dropped off one of my workout friends, I went back to the park (ground zero of the festival) and met a buncha fun young people and had some beers with um. There’s a main road that goes thru the park, and there were cars and trucks lined up on each side blasting music with people dancing all over them. There was a constant flow of slow moving carsand bikes coming down the road, and they were all getting covered head to toe with clay and water. I’venever seen such a thing.

Given the wet state of everything, it would have been suicide for me to bring my camera… but today I’m gunna try to find a way to get some shots.

As the day went on, we were drunk, and as one thing led to another I ended up in one of the ponds along the road… I donno, everyone was doing it and it seemed like a good idea at the time. It wasn’t until my 2nd or 3rd trip in that I relized my keys had floated outa my pocket at one point… but luckily Zoe was there to give me a ride home when I could grab my extra set and go get my bike. Time to make an extra backup set again :p

After going back to the park later in the evening, Zoe and I shopped around and ate some food. I got a chance to show off my freelines and saw some great handmade crafts, so it was a great success! And just before I left, I grabbed a little snack to-go so that I could share it here with you:

  

 

goon fun, eh?

Anyway, I’m off to join the festival again- it’ll be going down for the next few days, so no school for me!

Jetski on a jetski! Oh, and skype :D April 9, 2009

So the oher day I was out jetskiing- it was fuuuuuun. We went all up and dow our big wide slow river and the jetskis (wave runners) were reeeeally fast.

At one point we all wanted to go out at once- it was me, seth (other american teacher), fai (govners daughter), and toh (govners son). Toh and I were on one and led the others a couple miles down the river before seeing a dam type thing in front of us and flippin a bitch. The others zoomed ahead of us, so they didnt hear us yell as we lost ability to control our steering and ended up coasting into a wall, haha. We bailed out and flipped the jetski as we laughed.

Toh’s english isn’t too good, so I tried to ask and figure out what happened as we turned it back rightside-up. He wasn’t sure why, but it was clear that the handlebars were no longer deturmining the direction of the jetski, lol. After a short investigation we discovered the rutter’s controlling arm snapped. Damnit. We waited for rescue for a while, and then gave up and decided to try to ride without steering ability. I came up with the genius idea to hang onto the back and BE the rutter…. which kind hurt, kinda tickled, and totally cracked me up. It wasn’t long before my arms startin gettin real sore and we had to find another way. I then realized I could sit on the very back of the jetski on the ground part, and kinda wrap my legs around the sides of it, and reach back and grab the plastic jet tube and control it’s direction from there.

So I did the steering, Toh did the throttle, and we made it back eventually!

It was a good adventure followed by a good skate session :)

He’s getting a halfpipe put in his backyard tomorrow, so I’m STOKED!

Aw, and summer school started again, so that means I’ve got 24 new lil kindergarteners under my wing. They dont speak a WORD of english…. hopefully I can change that, haha :p

OH! And most importantly, I HAVE A NEW LOCAL USA NUMBER:

 805-426 -9259

If you call it, it’ll charge you exactly the same as calling someone in Ventura, and I’ve got voicemail too if I’m not around. So hit me up!

What’s new, with pics n vid :) March 28, 2009

Whats new, lets see….
Brandon is in Cali right now, so missing him like crazy obviously. I’m on break right now from school, so I’m watchin alot of movies, learnin new computer skillz, readin books and doing crafts, and becoming nocturnal.
Today I went skating all day with the gov-or-nir ’s son (i misspelled andaltered the word for searching/keyword reasons, so please dont comment back with it spelled right). I had breakfast with our director and the gov-or-nir over at his house, and then they took off and we skated. Tho it felt set up a bit like a playdate, it was fun We went to the only skate spot in town with him, his mom, their assistant, their driver, and their bodygaurd. It’s just some broken old ghetto ramps under an overpass, and no one was there cuz NO ONE in their right mind skates in the daytime out here. But the assistant took measurements of all the cool features because he’s gunna basically build them their own skatepark in the backyard of their amazing country home on the river (and 10 minutes from my pad, yeeyee). Did I mention they have jetskis?
I’ve also joined a free arobics class that meets 5 days a week beneath an overpass… that’s fun
I did the English voice over for a parade that’s going on in Bangkok tomorrow, but I can’t go see it tho cuz I promised the arobics people I’d meet up with them tomorrow for some dance/arobics contest thing or something…. not really sure whats gunna happen as everyone who explained it to me doesnt speak english. Should be fun tho, haha.
It was my birthday a few days ago too, and Zoe and her visiting spanish boyfriend took us all out the night before to eat fancy food and drink shots of teh-kill-ya…. which it did, and I was wasted and threw up the next morning. Happy birthday, haha! BTW, Mom and dad, THANK YOU FOR GIVING ME LIFE. I’m very excited to have the opportunity to enjoy it.
Ken and Trish went to bangkok last weekend too, and brought me home a tiny surprise present- a little squirrel-type friend! I think she’s a Asian Pygmy Squirrel… but she’s cinnimon colored with a long tail, and is about the size of a chipmunk! I love her to bits and her name is Chai. We’re in the bonding process right now, so she’s still pretty skiddish, but she warms up to me more and more every day. I’ll be bringing her to school too once the year starts.
Here’s a 2 mintue vid of her being cute:

 

OK, now I’d explained what my pad was like previously, but I also said I’d show pics. I finally got motivated with my uploadin’, so here we go.

This is my building:

This is my courtyard:

This is my bike:

This is us gettin crazy on the bike:

This is my hallway:

This is the photoshopped panoramic version of my room (blue door is bathroom, white is balcony):

This is my desk:

This is my fridge:

This is my bathroom:

This is my Thai music thing that I use to annoy Zoe by playing it at night in front of her door (next to mine):

And this is me with the view from my balcony in the background:

 

well folks, thats about it. More content to post is in the pipeline!

Love you,

-jetski

ma kidz March 18, 2009

here’s a short vid I threw together for my school’s open house event.

These are my K-1 kids that I work with everyday. The other teacher in there is Trish.

The school year is over and the next term starts in more than a month, so I’ve got some free time on my hand now! I GET TO SLEEP IN!!!!

Anyway, here’s the vid:

so guess what….. February 23, 2009

it’ll be in Cali.

hope to see u all there

My Thai life February 7, 2009

WTF:

I arrived into Bangkok at 1:00am after my 15 hour lay-over in Beijing and a few cups of coffee. It was Chinese New Year so I was lucky enough to experience seeing hundreds of fireworks exploding all over the cities from a birds eye view.  When I landed, they lost my luggage- but after 30mintues of waiting in the baggage claim office, they meraculously found it. Hazzah!

I was greeted by Ken and Trish (2 of the american teachers), the 2 school directors, and Suree- an almost overly-friendly thai all-around type guy who wheres alot of hats at the school and does a lot of driving for them. We all jumped in his 15 passenger van and began the 1.5 hour journey home.

We arrived at Ken and Trish’s house, where I bid farewell to the directors and Suree, and flopped down on the couch that was to be my bed for the night. After relaxing and chatting for bit, Ken showed me to their extra room and explained that I could sleep there if I prefered. I casually strolled into the room saying that I’m happy to do whatever is easiest, but stopped in my tracks as I observed the room and realized what was in the corner of it.

It was a person. Wait, it was a person I knew! WAIT! A person I knew well! Holly sh*t, it’s BRANDON!

That’s pretty much what went thru my mind as I attempted to comprehend that I was lookin at him. He apparently flew in over a week ago, and had been just playin it off like he was still in India. It was sooooo awesome to see him.

My City:

My big town/little city is called Chachoengsao. It’s supposedly like 60,000 people… but there’s a big bridge across the big river that runs thru it, and my whole little life is on the ‘country’ side of the bridge. So on this side, it’s small town life. I havent had a chance to explore the city side, but I’ve heard theres nothing too exciting happening there. We’ll see….  There’s a big ghetto mall down the street that’s got lots of fun stuff (including massages), and then there’s a big K-Mark esk place called Big-C, and thats where I got all my apartment supplies.  There’s a big night club called Dome, and a bunch of little restaurants I’m excited to still explore

My House:

I live in a huge white building around the corner from the Yamaha store and 7-11. My building has a marble floor lobby and key-card entry. I have air conditioning.
My studio apartment is furnished and included cable TV and a cleaning service… both of which I canceled, as I’d prefer to not have either. I did sign up to have the wifi installed tho…..

It didnt take me long to realize what a bitch it was to constantly trying to hail taxi scooters and tuk-tuks, and then fighting with them after about them trying to rip me off because I’m white…. so I got a motor scooter. He’s a blue Yamaha Mio and his name is Matote. Muuuuuch more cost affective (and yes, I’m being careful).

My School:

I work at a big school and I am a Kindergarden teacher. Right now I’m joining in on Trish’s classes, as she is teaching K1 right now. The next school term starts in May, but I’ll be doing a summer school in April as well. Until then, it’s just training and breaks. I have just over a month of paid vacation time before the new year

I’ll be taking a few trips with the school this month- the first of which is to Chang Mai next week. They pay for all of it and it gives the teachers a chance to bond, so thats nice. Then the next week I go to Loas for a visa run- it takes a few months to process the work permit, so in the mean time, we do visa runs paid for my the school. Zoe is the other new teacher this year and is also my neighbor, so we’ll be taking the trips together. By next month all the american teachers (5 of us) will be living in this building- it’s the Teacher Tower, lol.

Pics and vid soon to come- Still getting settled and setting things up. Just wanted to give everyone the basic idea