Shake it Ricky!!!

Ricky Martin went off the deep end awhile ago. According to People magazine (the scholarly journal of postmodern sociology and geography) he was bopping around the globe after realizing that his last image was semi-exploitive. No kidding? So he went to all these different places to like "find himself" and eat his mother's food, get a bunch of tattoos, etc. Including a stop over in Thailand to help out with tsunami relief. What exactly that entailed, I will never know.** So I found a picture of our friend (and my mom's fantasy man) Ricky on msn.com today and it appears he also took a rest in Hawaii and chanelled Mr A for his CD release. Aloha Mr Martin!




**One of the best ways to help with the tsunami affected areas in Thailand now, whether you are running away from your former self or just want to do some good while not really doing much, is to travel here. Everything is open and running again, its perfectly safe AND its relatively cheap. There are tickets to Bangkok from the US for as low at $700. The places that were affected are some of the most beautiful beaches in SE Asia. So pick up your honey and take em on a vacation - youd be doing the victims good.

Its not that I compare myself to other girls...

But Ive noticed that Ruth's blog is like a forum of feedback and comments and none of my readers (of course they exist! you are reading this now, arent you? jerk.) leave comments? Are my topics boring? Does this hair color make my face look fat?

Anyways, so heres whats going on right at this moment:

1) Currently, Im on Koh Tao, which is as island mainly used for SCUBA divers looking to get their PADI certification so they can hang the paper on their wall and tell all their friends how cool they are. Obviously I cant dive so we are here for snorkelling and general interest type stuff. Today we used a kayak. Stephs idea of "paddling easy" was not paddling at all and watching me do it. And the sea slugs felt like sea boners on the end of our paddles (but I swear we didnt kill the reef). There was lots of screaming and giggling.

2) Koh Tao means Turtle Island and I figured that out the old fashioned way - by hearing the dude on the boat say it and going "oh, that means turtle island!" Rock on low tones!

Speaking of language -->

3) Ive been increasingly distressed by my lack of progress when it comes to reading Thai. Ive got all the consonants and vowels down for the most part but when it comes to tone rules, I might as well be reading guess what (all Greek to me, right?). We were discussing the other day about how I could probably learn Chinese relatively quickly now that I have a background in both Japanese (kanji using language) and Thai (tonal language). Not that I want to learn Chinese...or pronounce tones correctly all the time...or that I remember most kanji... But at least I know how to write them and/or tell them apart. And thats a start.

4) I drove another motorbike today and now I want to buy one desperately. But Im afraid of how shabby my already shabby legs would become if I was just cruising to school everyday instead of huffing and puffing and pumping those gams.

5) Lonely Planet, despite being the best guide book available, is delusional when it comes to the pricing of guesthouses. Either that, or its ALWAYS high season in Thailand. Hostelworld.com did not lead me astray and they deduct the $2 service fee if you have one of those Youth Travel Cards (or Student Travel Cards, but Im not one of those anymore). Here I thought that I had just gotten it for the plane ticket.

The Task Master

I finished another tea towel. This one is for my uncle and his English wife so I assume she will know what these things are for. Their kind generosity made my latest obsession possible.




Everything has been so chaotic since school got out for the summer break. Ive been entertaining guests, participating in local festivities, and trying to regain my crippled heath. Since Mr A has left, Stephanie has appeared and I have been in perpetual motion. I received her in Bangkok and we began our journey to the north - destination Chiang Mai, which is rumored to have the super most fun Songkran celebration in Thailand. We went through Lopburi (a town completely besieged by monkeys), Phitsanulok (to see the Chinnarat Buddha pictured here) and ended up in Chiang Mai where the moat water was already flying. We ended up at a party with some local lawyers and cops. Its a long story but I lost my D&G sunglasses to a cop who was walking around with a bucket on his head. Gonna go ahead and assume he was drunk.


Ive been thinking lately about all the stuff I have to do with my life and how theres just not enough time, at least not without efficient planning and/or forward thinking, to do all of it. Or most of it. I remember driving around in the rental car in Okinawa and Italian Guy & My Chris were talking about all these video games that they play and I was thinking "how in the world did you two have time to become bilingual, get stellar grades, travel around the world, read a bunch of literature, AND play video games to the point where you are almost frighteningly nerdy?" Italian Guy says that its all about time management. As long as you have good time management skills you can get all sorts of stuff done with the 16 or so hours that you are awake in a day.
I have 5 more months in Thailand. I have 5 bazillion things to do before those 5 months are up. Some of them are exclusively Thailand things such as studying Thai language and researching Thai art, and some arent so much (embroidery bazzar). I have the GRE to think about and an upcoming trip to Hawaii and I need to learn how to cook and how to get a job that pays me more than 300 bucks a month....
Im kind of over the stressing out thing. Any tips on efficiently organzing one's day?