War Eagle - from my P1 class!

THANK YOU TEACHER CATIE!

A little clip from one of my classes. A long blog post about work will eventually be published. I have gotten so bad at keeping up to date. At the start of every class my students say "Good Morning/Good Afternoon teacher Catie" and at the end they all stand up and say "Thank You Teacher Catie!!" 

Ohhhh Nichole - Chapter 2

If you thought there was only going to be one chapter then boy were you wrong. Nichole you are my hero! I am posting a link to Nichole's blog here because one day you will be reading her articles in the National Geogrpahic Travel magazine and I wanted to be one of the first people to highlight her writing - really I'm just taking some really early credit here :)

http://nbaldino.wordpress.com - enjoy!

While eating chili and basil chicken at The Blue Tile in Amata -

Nichole to Alex: Your sweat tache just got real.

 

While sitting in a restaurant -

Alex: Would you pull your skirt down!

Nichole as she fans herself: What? I am just cooling off.

 

A random night message -

Nichole: I'm just having a dance party in my room right now.

 

The Friday she came home to something missing -

Nichole: The maids hate me... I clearly ask them to remove too many bugs... I don't have a bathroom door anymore.

 

At "The Pub" in Amata -

Me: I wonder what type of music they are going to sing.

Nichole: I hope it is some slow and depressing stuff. That is right up my ally.

And the she started singing Ironic for us.

 

On the topic of respect in the classroom -

Nichole: My students are not afraid of me. I mean look at my stink eye. Is it not scary?

Are you scared?

At 1yolo in Bankgok -

Nichole: If it doesn't freak you out too much you can use my towel. Silly for you to rent one.

 

While walking back to our mansion listening to Nichole sing -

Alex: You would get us killed at a karaoke bar!

Nichole: I always knew I would die singing, doing something I love. It wouldn't shock my parents. I'm not allowed to sing around my family.

Me: Here lies Nichole taken from us too soon at a karaoke bar.

 

BKK, I think I love you!

So after a weekend of staying local and 2 weeks of work we decided it was time to return to Bangkok. Amata is only about an hour from Bangkok via mini bus so it is the perfect weekend escape. Friday right at 3.45, Alex, Nichole, and I legged it to the end of the road to grab a mini bus before the traffic hits. Apparently if you can leave Amata before 4.15 you are in the clear. After a comfortable mini bus ride, unlike the one to Rayong, we got dropped off near the Bang Na BTS (Bangkok Transit Station) to catch the skytrain to the station near our weekend pad. For all the traveling I have done in my life I have funnily enough never stayed in a hostel, however, this weekend I broke this trend and as Nichole stated while we settled in to our dorm - "you've lost your hostel vigrinity!" And no Alex and I would not let her make that her FB status. We stayed in a place recommended to us by some other Kaset OEGers called 1YOLO. I guess it is kind of fitting to stay in a hostel for the first time with You Only Live Once because what else are you going to do when you need out of Amata and a cheap place to stay in an amazing city?

Public transportation that makes sense!

1YOLO hostel model - Alex :)

1YOLO was clean and cheap. 400 baht per night so about 26 dollars for our weekend stay. We ended up getting a dorm to ourselves on the top floor so we got lucky. After arriving we headed out for some dinner and to wait on Melissa to join us. Robin Hood, an irish pub, was were we picked. We had a delicious and expensive meal but like I said in my Koh Samet post - when you travel outside of your local area it is okay to eat Western food because as soon as you get back on Monday you'll be feasting on the Thai food on your only street again! Dinner was followed by drinks. We headed up to soi (road) 22 and got a drink at a relatively quiet bar. I had forgotten that Nichole and Alex did not go out at night during orientation because of jet lag so they had yet to experience the site of an older Western man with a Thai lady hanging off his arm. Amazing to watch them stare and question it, well more like her. Melissa finally joined us and we got anther round, or two, and shared our Thailand life stories about school and locations. I have to say Melissa wins because of her stories. Her living really does make Amata Mansion sound and feel like a mansion. A quick break down of Melissa's Thai life: she has no hot water or sink, she has to hand wash her clothes, there is no real food shop where she is so she eats by getting ramen from a guy in her apartment that has a shop in his home, oh and she often walks by burning rice fields on the way to work. After getting her a pizza we headed to a bar advertising on its sign that it had an Ice Bar and we were very disappointed when it turned out to be a tiny room with no one in it. The plus side of this bar/club was the all girl Thai band rocking some No Doubt and Florence. Of course, we danced.

Saturday late morning we headed to heaven, Siam Paragon mall. I needed more school clothes and shoes, and of course walked away with much more. We spent an entire day in the mall. After hours of walking around we still did not manage to seen all of it. The girls started their day with Starbucks and I wasn't about to leave without one so before returning to 1YOLO I grabbed a Starbucks and relaxed with all my purchases. They hardest thing to find amongst all the stores was shoes. Apparently big feet is not a common thing in Thailand or it is and they just don't restock often? H&M, Forever XXI, Gap, Steve Madden, and the department store shoe section were useless. I finally found a pair of Thai brand TOMs in the sports section of the department store in my size and a decent color for work. It was a task and I wish I had gotten something a little more work styled but after looking for shoes for hours I just got fed up. Despite the shoe issue, Siam Paragon was a success and it was not the last time we will be there. The mall has a huge movie theatre with English movies and an aquarium in the basement - can't wait to lose a day in that mall again. I just need to only buy what I really need - a trait I never have known but maybe I'll develop it in Thailand!?!

 

After shopping we went back to relax at 1YOLO and get ready for a night out in Bangkok. All we had really planned before heading to BKK was having dinner at the Mexican place on soi 11. After Gina joined us, she has Sunday/Monday weekends because it's Thailand and why not, we headed to soi 11 with rumbling stomachs only to get to the Mexican place to find no tables and a long wait according to the owner. Who knew we should have called for a reservation? Not us! We settled on the French place down the way and then headed to a popular bar called Cheap Charlie's followed by the bus bars for bucket drinks. After meeting up with 3 other other girls from OEG, who we just happened to run into getting off the BTS at the mall, we laughed and drank more before heading to the club at the hotel at the end of the road - Levels. I had been there on a week night during orientation and on a Saturday night it is like another place. Packed with people from all over the world, great music, and lots more laughing as we danced the night away. As the lights came on Alex turns to me and says - "why is it closing?" I replied - "because it is 3.00 AM!" It was clear that time had gone by way to fast because her face turned from disappointment to confusion as she tried to figure it out. The dance floor, that is how!

Red cups in Thailand!

Benefit makeup counter giving away cotton candy - this never happens in America!

Thailand signs are just as good as signs in Qatar!

U S A

Alex is a woman with many beautiful faces - we found this out this weekend.

Sunday we woke up and after complaining about how tequila is no ones friend we all headed to find the other Mexican place on soi 18 - can you tell we really wanted Mexican this weekend? Turns out BKK didn't want us to have Mexican because after walking to the road we found out it was closed - how lucky! BKK clearly wanted us to see its malls though because just down the road was yet another one. Terminal 21 is a mall themed after an airport. All the escalator signs are airport signs, the guys at the entrance doors are dressed like a pilots, and every floor is a different location around the world. After lunch at Subway - boy was it nice to munch on a sub - we wondered up the floors to the tech floor so Alex could purchase some counterfeit beats and I could get a keyboard for my iPad. It is a good one and makes typing on my iPad faster but I am still missing my laptop.

The trip home was the BTS to a bus station where we got lucky and jumped on a bus leaving and heading past Amata. Total travel cost for buses to and from BBK was about 150 baht so it is clear that BKK is an easy and affordable way to get away from Amata but next time I won't take my credit card with me to the mall! It was so nice to spend the weekend in the city and to catch up with people in different locations. BKK was amazing and I had such a great time getting to know the city better - can't wait to go back!

I forgot to mention the grocery store at Terminal 21. So much good food!!! Such a better selection than Tesco Lotus and as we are walking around Nichole goes - "come look at this...cheese! I hate Tesco Lotus!!!"

 

Blogging from my iPad - not happy about this!

Blogger for iPad is horrible! It doesn't let you do anything. It is hard to edit and posting photos is so slow. I hate it. They really need to update it because it is impossible to blog efficiently from it. I have spent a good few hours researching other blog apps and I am now using Blogsy which seems much better than Blogger -so far - with some minor problems here and there.

I just wanted to say I have read over some of my previous blogs since posting from Thailand and I have had to do some major edits because of typos. Embarrassing since I hate finding mistakes! This is because I am writing from an iPad and I miss my keyboard! My iPad autocorrect clearly needs to be reset and the iPad touch screen is just hard to type long posts on - it is so annoying finding all these mistakes! I am trying to keep my blog updated but posts will be uploaded slower if this is how things are going to be. I just hope I can get past this silly struggle quickly and start posting more!

It happened! We ran into an elephant in Amata!

So we decided to stay local this weekend because we can't go away every weekend in November as we are living off half a months salary. Tough but we will make it! I'll probably end up saying - "thank goodness for visa!" - I just know it. Staying local for me has meant catching up on TV shows, laying by the pool, doing my laundry, avoiding Tesco Lotus (I have already grown to dislike that place, and will let Alex and Nichole inform me of all it's hidden treasures since they went to "get to know" it better), and going to the other local bar on our little main road in Amata.

 

Friday night started out with some really spicy dinner, all my fault as I forgot to say mai pet (no spice) and then we moved on to "The Pub." We walked in and order some beers, sat down, and enjoyed some Thai rap videos. They are exactly what you would think, very entertaining! We moved on to a drink that all the none whiskey drinkers were sipping on which was some sort of vodka slushy, and apparently a lot stronger than we thought. We ended our night early because we were just that tired. Oh but before we left we did get to listen to a local band sing some popular Thai songs and a good cover of Maroon 5. We also got a cheers from the whiskey drinkers at the next table and chatted with a few other Kaset teachers who live in Amata. Our night, and the highlight of our weekend, was running in to this little elephant. Okay it wasn't that little but it was a younger one! After freaking out, I bought some sugar cane and made a new best friend. Here are the pictures to prove it!

 

 

Ohhhh Nichole - Chapter 1

Before I start this section of my blog I feel it is necessary to introduce the MUSE.

 

Nichole Baldino is one of my new "roomies" - well we live in Amata Mansion together and she often sleeps in Alex's room because Alex doesn't have a cockroach problem. We all started teaching at Kaset at the same time together but she has a lot more high school classes so we are not in the same office. Sad. Nichole grew up in West Hempstead, New York. She had never had a Long Island Iced Tea until Koh Samet - shocking as she is from there right? She loves to sing even though she isn't very good at it and her favorite song is Don't Think Twice It's All Right by Bob Dylan. No need to go into detail about what she looks like because Nichole is (and will be) featured a lot on my blog because she travels with me and this "Ohhhh Nichole" section will not die out.

 

So over the last few weeks Nichole has said some really great things. Alex and I are often dying with laughter but don't worry we are allowed to laugh because if we didn't then Nichole would be worried. Only friends can laugh like we do. I wanted to start a s*i* Nichole says part of my blog but her friends from home have started a book named that already so I thought it best to stick with "Ohhhh Nichole" because after she says such funny, and random, things I often find myself saying that to her. I am not sure if some of these are "you had to be there moments" so sorry if you don't laugh - I am posting these so I never forget.

 

During our first week at work -

Alex: Did you get straight a's in college?

Nichole: I got a b once.

She is full of information!

 

Finding out a little more about each other -

Nichole: My dream when I was a kid was to work in a pizzeria. I gave up in 6th grade.

 

Glad we got this one (now if Nichole says no we say how upset JB would be) -

Nichole: My Thailand motto is never say NO... like Justin Beiber says, "NEVER SAY NEVER!!!"

 

I am not even sure how this one came about -

Nichole: I played basketball until they realized I wasn't growing anymore. I used to be good.

 

When Alex made a LeBron James reference -

Nichole: I thought you said Ron James. Guys I know who LeBron James is - hello - I used to play basketball!

 

Pretty self explanatory -

Me: I'm going be a hippy for Halloween.

Alex: You can wear your moo moo dress!

Nichole: I was always a hippy. One year someone said I looked like Janice Joiplin. I aspire to be her. It made my day.

 

On the topic of mopeds right before we had to get on one in Rayong without a helmet, never say never Nichole -

Alex: Nichole wants to invest in a helmet for when she has to take a motor bike.

Nichole: 1 - I would never get on one of those things without a helmet AND 2 - I would never put that one they give you on my head. Hello - precious cargo!!!

Another picture proof that Nichole really did say "Never Say Never!!!" :)

 

Our first weekend getaway - Koh Samet!

After a week of "work" we (Alex, Nichole, and I) decided that we really needed a weekend away on a beach. A lot of other OEG people were already posting pictures of blue waters and buckets, and it was making us extremely jealous!

 

A quick blurb about where we picked for our weekend getaway -

Koh Samet (or Koh Samed) is about 4 hours away from us and it is our closest Island getaway. From Amata you have to take a mini bus to Rayong, then find your way to the Ban Phe Pier, and then you take a speedboat or a ferry to the island. Koh Samet is one of many National Parks in Thailand and upon arrival you have to pay an entrance fee. It is one of the Eastern Islands and is located in The Gulf of Thailand. Basically it is a nice island paradise south of us and isn't polluted like our local beach.

 

So here is how our weekend went -

 

We escaped "work" (I am putting work in quotations this week because we really haven't been doing much... a lot of sitting around on our phones and computers googling all the places to added to our travel lists) a little earlier because school is not in session and we headed down to the main road to catch a mini bus. We were all a little confused about this because P.Pom (our amazing coordinator) told us something our mothers told us never to do - "walk to the end of the road, wave at a white van, and jump on!" Upon arrival at the main road the moped taxi men jumped up to help us flag down a mini bus headed to Rayong. After a short wait we jumped on a very full bus where we were squashed into the back. This bus took the LONGEST way to Rayong and it stopped SO MANY times. However, when it stopped it barely stopped as people jumped off and then on. The bus driver also was on some sort of speed mission. He was going so fast sometimes that I honestly do not know how he did not wreck. Sitting in the back of the bus meant we saw nothing so Alex started to feel car sick and when space finally freed up she moved forward only to sit where a child had been throwing up - yeh that happened. We finally got to Rayong only to find out that the bus station is 30 minutes away from the pier. This was a major problem as all the taxi cabs were no longer running. Our only option was a moped taxi or some sketch man who was trying to get us into his van. So really our only option was the motorbike taxi guys and this only happened after a. we told them we would not pay that much and lowered the price, and b. we convinced Nichole she would live (please see my Ohhhh Nichole - Chapter 1 blog post).

 

After the rather scary and fast motorbike ride to the pier, it wasn't that complicated to get to Koh Samet. We had missed the ferry so we waited around for enough people to get on a speedboat taxi and it dropped us off right at Tok's Huts (luckily no one charged us the National Park fee because the journey to koh Samet had already dented our wallets). I am pretty sure we got the last room at Tuk's because we were in #33 and it was a very steep walk up to our hut. The place was nice and despite the reviews we got the guy to laugh when we told him Nichole would sleep at the end of our bed at our feet like a dog.

 

With only 2 nights, and a day and half, in Koh Samet no time was going to be wasted. We put our stuff away and got ready to have dinner and drinks! We then stopped by to say hello to some fellow OEG people who told us which places to go for drinks and some more helpful tips for Koh Samet. The major one being - don't leave your stuff alone on the beach because people will steal stuff from you. Dinner was at Jep's - expensive but good because a. we finally found Pad Thai outside of Bangkok and b. it has a lot of Western Food on the menu. I love Thai food and the spice might kill me but after eating it for so many days in a row it was nice to have a break and eat things like an English Breakfast. Yay for a rice free weekend!

 

Koh Samet night life was sort of tame (as in not many people crowding the bars like Bangkok) but it was fun! We had a great time and we laughed a lot. Dancing was a must and laughter only increased as we all hit the dance floor - Nichole you need to teach me your moves! We laughed until Nichole locked us out of our hut and after an hour of trying to break in, and Alex hunting down someone to unlock the door, I finally found the manager and he let us back in before the bugs could take me away. The bar man was not happy I woke him up and the next day he did not let Nichole live it down. I believe he killed an ant and threw it at her at one point of the day.

 

Saturday was the best day. The beach. All day. The ocean. All day. The sun. All day. I don't think you could really ask for more, I mean I wasn't complaining. Sun-downers on the beach. A dribble castle. Sun burn because I forgot to reapply after one of my swims! It was nice to just relax on the beach all day Saturday and Sunday morning. Sunday we left around 2ish. Took the ferry to the pier to save some money, hopped on a songthaew (pronounced song tow) to the bus station where we thankfully got the quick bus back to Amata! I loved Koh Samet and can't wait to go back for more beach weekends. We need to do the snorkeling tour next time - there was just didn't have time to do it all! A beach getaway was the perfect way to spend our first weekend away before work offcially starts tomorrow... Well Alex and Nichole start tomorrow. I will be planning for the next week because primary doesn't start until November 4th!

Taught Nichole how to make a dribble castle. It got a lot of photos taken by other tourists.

Fresh fruit in the beach - oh yes!

The ferry home :(

GOODBYE Koh Samet!