andblahandblahblah: Teaching Course- Phuket

By the time I arrived back in Bangkok by the train I was legitimately sick. I had a persistent cough that wouldn't stop and I was beginning to get these awful cramps that wouldn't go away. Despite this I still chose to not go to the doctor and instead decided to go back to Lub D, which was the first hostel I ever stayed at. The day I moved in I slept for most of the day and wasn't really up to going out so I slept through most of it. That night there was a guy in my dorm room who I discovered was an oil worker working down in Angola, who had previously worked in Qatar, which was cool because he was the first traveler who I had met who had visited Qatar. That night we decided to go out and have a beer, and we walked around Bangkok for a bit looking for a good place to have one. After a while we found a cool bar on a little side street and decided we would have one there. Once sitting there for a few minutes I began noticing the flamboyant nature of a lot of the servers and when I took a harder look around I noticed a lot of older white men sitting and having a beer with young Thai men. We had adventured down a street that caters to the LGBT community. I wasn't really bothered by the fact, but instead found it slightly fascinating that it was almost the same exact thing you would have seen on a normal bar street. On a normal bar street you would have seen old white men with young Thai women, and on this street it was the same just with young Thai men instead of women. I honestly never thought of that side of society, but I guess homosexual men seek the same thing in Thailand as heterosexual men. A few minutes after I had this revelation the guy I was sitting with looked at me and was like I think we are on..; Me- I know; Him- Okay. After that realization we both just continued on with our conversation.

The next day Thomas Norman showed up to Lub D, and we gave each other a hug because we hadn't really seen each other, besides the quick reunion in Lao, since we both embarked on our Southeast Asian trips almost two months prior at this point. We hung out over the next two days grabbing some lunch, I went to the pharmacy looking for some medication to stop my sickness, and he filmed his video blog. Beyond being sick it was a pretty fun time. Tom took off the day before I did, as he was now heading to Australia. Since I can't remember if I explained much about Tom in the this blog I will now real quickly. He was a friend I met the first time I was in Bangkok. His goal was and is to finish his around the world trip which included/includes Southeast Asia, Australia, North American, and Africa. Since this would be the last time we would see each other for a while, we decided to go to the Sky Bar, and Tom decided to treat both of us. We talked about our plans, and Tom told me how he was glad he came to Southeast Asia, but he was glad to go and he had had enough. That night I drank the most expensive Coca Cola of my life, as I wasn't up to putting any alcohol in my body. We finished our drinks, and Tom filmed a bit for his blog. Once we finished we headed back to the hostel, said our goodbyes, and went to sleep.

By the time I woke up the next morning Tom had already departed for Australia, and I realized I had some errands to run. I had to find the ATI headquarters so I could pick up my Berkeley Degree that my dad had sent me. I needed this in order to start working as an English teacher in Thailand. After about an hour of walking down Sukhumvit Road I had given up looking for the place. I can only imagine what I looked like at that point in time, I hadn't gotten a good night sleep in weeks, so I had dark bags under my eye, I would learn in time that I had lost a significant amount of weight, I was pale, grumpy looking, sweaty from walking, and even on a good day look like a hippie with my long hair. All of this together I'm sure made me look like a druggy, which is why what happened next didn't surprise me. While I was walking down Sukhumvit, these two cops riding on a motobike cut me off while pulling into a gas station, and both stared at me as they pulled in. Now I can't remember the exact face that I gave them, because I don't think the face I meant to give is what I gave. I certainly didn't look friendly, but I also didn't try to look pissed although I have a feeling with the mood I was in that day, that is the look I gave. I continued to walk and after a minute they pulled up in front of me and got off the bike. They stood in front of me and made me empty all of my pockets while they patted me down. The whole time all they would say is you like drugs?? No You have drugs??? No When was the last time you did drugs?? I don't. Those were the same three questions that made up our conversation over and over again for around fifteen minutes. They were very minute in their search of my belongings, flipped every credit card I had, opened every candy wrapper I had in my pocket, hey there were only two, and stuck there hands down my pockets while they were at it. Once they completed their search they said thank you and headed off, and I just kind of blankly looked at them and walked away.

That night I began my trip down to Phuket for my teaching course. The train was a sleeper train and a nice one at that. At this point in time my cough was getting better but my stomach cramps and overall itchiness were gradually getting worse. I was able to sleep most of the night without a problem, and I talked to this old Thai gentleman for most of the time before they made the beds. How the beds work are there is a top bunk and a bottom bumk, the bottom bunk is made out of the seats that you sit on in the day, and the top bunk is pulled down from the wall. The next morning I got off the train at a city called Surat Thani, which is a city that is used as an jump off place to most of the islands in Southern Thailand. After that I hoped on my four hour bus ride to Phuket City, and then an hour taxi ride to Nai Harn beach where the course was going to take place.

The hotel was a pretty legit place, as it was very bungalow like and I would say around a 4 star accommodation. The rooms were also really nice, and I remember at a later date telling someone you know somewhere is expensive in Southeast Asia, when the toilet and shower don't take up the same space. It was and still is definitely the nicest place I have stayed in Southeast Asia to this point in time. This was great because during the first week I wouldn't be leaving my room a lot. I arrived early on Saturday and to be honest I can't even remember the weekend at all, as all I wanted to do was sleep. Although my cough had gotten better, like I said earlier the cramping had gotten worse, the itching had gotten worse, and now I was having problems with my fecal matter. When I would go to the bathroom hardly anything would come out and what did come out was completely black in color. To make matters worse the first weekend I arrived, I decided to take a nice long hot shower. When I got out of the shower I noticed I had dead bugs on my shoulders and I wondered what they could be so I just brushed them off. When I was drying my hair I noticed I had some in my hair as well, and I began to think you have to be kidding me? In order to see if my hunch had been correct I looked up what lice looked like online and that is exactly what I had. At that point in time I literally broke down and was adamant I was ready to go home, my stomach was killing me, I wasn't able to defecate, my whole body itched, cops had just searched me the day before for drugs, and now I had lice. I told myself I was done and I was going home, it was the first time in my whole trip that I wanted to go home and I was homesick. It was honestly too much for me to handle and it was causing me to mentally break down. At that point in time I did what any young man in my situation would do, I called me mom and complained about my life to her. She helped to calm me down from the initial shock of it all and I decided for the time being I would stay.

The first week of class is a pretty big blur. It had a lot of me going back and forth if I would go home or not, a lot of sleeping, and a lot of learning about Thai culture. The first day of class we learned basic Thai expressions and words, which was a very handy thing to learn. We were also taught in complete Thai in order to show us how it feels to be taught by a teacher who speaks in a language you don't understand at all. We learned about Thai history, the kings, the empires, and so on. Outside of class I slept a lot and wasn't good company. My roommate had moved in and his name was Billy, who had just graduated university in Southern California. His girlfriend was here visiting him, and she was having a tough time affording to pay for a room in Phuket, where prices are really high in comparison to the rest of Thailand. I told her she should just stay with us as the room was plenty big enough and that I honestly didn't mind at all. A few days later she moved in, and I had two roommates both of which were great. During the week by looking up symptoms online I realized what I had that was making my stomach hurt so bad and all of these other symptoms, I had hookworms. These are worms that attach to your intestines and feed off of your nutrients. How do they get there you ask? Well while walking around barefoot they burrow through your feet, after that you see red like lines in your feet and legs, where they are burrowing through your skin. After that they enter into your bloodstream and flow up into your lungs. At that point in time you get a bad cough because you cough the worms up through airways and then they crawl down your throat, and finally settle in your intestines. All of which were symptoms that I had that started in Cambodia, went through Vietnam, continued through Lao, and were still present in Thailand. Once I figured this out it again through me into panic mode and put me back on the side of wanting to go homeroommates both of which were great. During the week by looking up symptoms online I realized what I had that was making my stomach hurt so bad and all of these other symptoms, I had hookworms. These are worms that attach to your intestines and feed off of your nutrients. How do they get there you ask? Well while walking around barefoot they burrow through your feet, after that you see red like lines in your feet and legs, where they are burrowing through your skin. After that they enter into your bloodstream and flow up into your lungs. At that point in time you get a bad cough because you cough the worms up through airways and then they crawl down your throat, and finally settle in your intestines. All of which were symptoms that I had that started in Cambodia, went through Vietnam, continued through Lao, and were still present in Thailand. Once I figured this out it again through me into panic mode and put me back on the side of wanting to go home again, as this was all too much to handle. I promised myself I would stick it out a few more days and see what would happen. I kept telling myself there was still too much of the world I had to see and I couldn't give up now.

During class in the second half of the week we were beginning to learn how to make lesson plans, and also learning about class discipline, how to manage a class, and began to make lesson plans that we would teach to the class in the second week. Outside of class, and outside of being sick most of the time in the hotel room I tried to make myself be more outgoing even though I was exhausted. I remember on the 21st of September it was the first time I actually got drunk in Southeast Asia. That night Billy, Stephanie, and I decided to go out and get some Indian food. We found this really good Indian stand that was right outside of a little beach bar and sat down to have our Indian food and a beer. Although it was a week night we decided we would go to Patong later that evening. We went to Family Mart and got a bottle of Sang Som "Thai Whiskey", Red Bull, and Lemon Juice and took it back to the hotel room. The three of us finished the bottle and I was feeling pretty good at that point. After that I believe it was around midnight so we decided to go to Patong. Patong for those of you who haven't been to Thailand, imagine a Las Vegas on an island in Thailand, and then add to that ladyboys, ping pong shows, and the Russian mafia. By the time we got there I was already feeling pretty good so I can't remember large chunks of the night. What I do remember is going to an outdoor bar where girls were dancing on polls. While we were having a beer the game they play at the bar is connect 4. So the bar girls will play connect four with you nonstop and they are quite impressive in their ability at winning that game. If you beat them though they give you a shot on the house, and I finally beat her so I got a free shot for Billy, Stephanie, and Myself. After that I played a few more games with her, but it was frustrating as I consider myself a pretty strategic person, as I love chess, but I couldn't beat her and on top of that I was inebriated which didn't help matters. So after playing one last game and losing we decided to leave and go to do what people do best when they have drank too much ... dance. We ended up going to a club where I swear the whole night they were playing the same song, The Time by the Black Eyed Peas, and now whenever I hear that song I think of that night--nostalgia. So we danced there for what seemed to be hours on end, I even remember trying to dance on one of the polls really quickly, but I was pulled down in a matter of moments by a security saying for ladies only, thanks Billy for that dare! I also believe there was another bottle of Sang Som that came into play sometime during the night, but I can't remember fully to be honest. After dancing I stopped for a while, and remember talking to some Thai girls over in the corner. For the countless time in a Southeast Asian club, all starting way back in Cambodia, my hair ended up braided by local girls. After talking to them for a while we decided it would be best to head back since it was already 5 in the morning and it takes about a good 30 minutes to get back to Nai Harn beach. By the time we got back it was around 6 AM and class started at 9 AM which means we were pretty tired by the time class came around.

We as an ATI group decided that for our first weekend we would go to Koh Phi Phi, which is very close to where they filmed the movie The Beach, with Mr. Leonardo and I don't mean Da Vinci. Before we went a few of us decided to go out to pizza at a near by pizza restaurant, can't really call it a pizza parlor. While there I was talking to this girl named Kate, who I became pretty good friends with. She is from Michigan, went to Michigan State, and comes from a family that works with their hands for their income like me-- construction for me, farming for her. Well anyways we were talking a lot about to be honest a lot of different topics, and we became close friends after that night.

The next day we left to Koh Phi Phi pretty early. Billy, Stephanie, and I decided to find our own way there instead of going with the main group. The ferry ride over was absolutely gorgeous as we passed by a few small islands on the way. Once we arrived on Koh Phi Phi we checked into our rooms and separated for a bit. While I was wondering around the island I ran into a girl who I had met early in my trip from Vietnam, and I ended up hanging out with her and her friends for the remainder of the day/night. The island is a really cool place because it reminds you of what an island should be in a way, well at least an island that has a lot of tourists. It was secluded, had a beautiful beach, small little narrow street surrounded by green, beach chairs, fire throwers at night-- it was great.

The next day my friend from Vietnam departed so I decided to hike up one of the tall hills that surrounded the beach area. The layout of the island was one small patch of beach surrounded by two really tall hills, one on each side. It was quite a tiring walk, but once I got up there the view was magnificent!! I ended up taking my book out and reading up there for a couple of hours. Once I walked back down I ran into Billy and Steph who were frantically looking for Billy's credit card as he couldn't find it. I told them where I was going to go eat so to come and find me once they finished searching the room. After about a half an hour they came and found me with a look of being relieved on their faces. We all sat down and had lunch. While we were eating I told them about the really cool lookout and they seemed like they wanted to go so I agreed to show them to the top. Once we got to the top there was a man up there who had been up there while I was there the first time. He recognized me, laughed, and said I was crazy to walk up it twice in one day. I completely agreed on the inside. After that we hoped back on the ferry and went to the hotel.

Although it was a great weekend, my stomach was hurting even worse. It felt like the feeling you have when you are really hungry and your stomach begins to cramp. Imagine that feeling, but about ten times worse, and then imagine having that feeling about half an hour after you had eaten. On top of that the worms still left on my leg were migrating now and moving around. To keep myself sane about the problem, I began jokingly naming the worms. The speedy twins were on my arm because they moved around so fast, and bob was on my leg because he was big, and bob reminds me of a big name. On top of that I was still having problems with my bowl movements, and now (for lack of a better word) my anus began unbearably itching. At this point in time I was fed up and decided I would go see a doctor.

The following morning I went and talked to the ATI instructor and she agreed to take me to go see the doctor later that day after class. Monday was a day where we performed one of our teaching assignments to the class, it went over really well and I actually had a lot of fun doing it. The only thing that sucked about the assignment was we had to make lessons for all of the students in our class, aka our fellow classmates, which means for all of the activities it became quite pricey-- relative to Thai levels. After the class was over for the day I went back to change and we headed off the the doctor. On the drive over I was talking to the ATI instructor Whitney, and she was telling me about all the break up stories, motobikes crashes, and other horror stories from previous ATI goups. Once we got there we had to wait in a huge waiting area, but the doctor finally saw me, after a few hours. I explained to him my symptoms and he confirmed I had what I thought I had. He wrote me a prescription and I went to the pharmacy to get my medicine. The whole doctors visit, plus medicine, cost 120 baht equal to about 4 dollars. Once I got back I went to hang out with Kate, Devon, and Becca who became known as the three amigas, at times they would throw me into the group and it would be the three amigas plus Teddy. I told them I finally went to see the doctor and they were proud and said finally.

I became really close friends with Devon and she was the one who showed me the basics steps of how to french braid hair and also fishtail it. A day or so later in the week it was Devon's birthday so everyone was going to go out to this local club to have some drinks. I decided to tag along and as I was hanging out with everyone I somehow began braiding this Thai girls hair-- I came to learn later she was actually a ladyboy. Which was pretty funny and I laughed about it. You would be surprised how model like some of the ladyboys look in Thailand, it is absolutely crazy. Anyways later that night we all stayed at the club at danced for a while. On the way home I was riding on Gabe's motobike with Devon, and I was hoping we would stop at 7-11 so I could get a toasty, but we never did.

The rest of that week went by pretty quickly. On a school level we had our last two group assignments which I was paired with Gabe, who is an extremely outgoing, extremely honest, extremely flamboyant guy, who either absolutely loves you or despises you. It was quite an experience working with him, and I have to say he is a people person and knows how to make people laugh. The other two lesson plans we had went by smoothly and before you knew it it was the weekend again. Before the weekend started I realized the medicine the doctor gave me wasn't medicine geared towards killing the worms, but instead was geared towards minimizing the symptoms, which kind of put me in an off mood, because they helped to explain why nothing was seeming to get better.

That weekend everyone decided to go back to Patong, and now this was the second time I had gotten drunk in Southeast Asia, although this time we were in a large group. I guess from what I remember this time I wasn't really in the mood to party, as everytime people would go into a club I would stand outside and talk to the strippers and/or prostitutes. I wouldn't be conversating sexually with them, instead I was asking them about their lives, why they chose this profession, if they had any kids, if they enjoyed doing this (a lot of the prostitutes and strippers in Thailand come from poor families in the north who come down to make money for their families). They were surprisingly open about their feelings and beliefs about what they did. A large majority of them actually didn't enjoy it and were only doing it until they could raise enough money to quit. After talking to a few different ones Devon came out of one of the clubs and sat down, and told me Oh Teddy. I will admit I did feel like quite the little reporter at that moment. For the rest of the night Devon and I sat outside and talked.

The last week of the course was also the week where we had the opportunity to teach in a class. This means that every night that week we all spent busy making lesson plans based off of the topics our instructors gave us. The first three days we all taught at a local government school. Since it was break time for them the classes weren't mandatory and since the three days we were there it was raining pretty hard, not many kids showed up. This means we always had small classes around 2-6 kids. My favorite day was day two, because everyday the instructors threw you some kind of curveball that you would have to adjust to on the spot. The curveball for the 5 of us that were in a group that day was the lesson plan was too advanced for the kids we were teaching. It was a lesson plan that was constructed for moderate level English speaking kids around the age of 12. These kids were even short of the beginner level, and couldn't have been older than 8. The reason why I enjoyed it was because I really connected with the kids, and we had a good time, while it seemed liked the rest of the group struggled with them. I didn't enjoy it because they struggled, but because I felt like I connected with the kids, and was able to adjust to that curveball on pretty good level.

Later that day after we finished, I had finally been talked into going and visiting the doctor again, this time though to an international clinic. This clinic would be far more expensive, but I would be able to connect with them better on a language level. Once we got back to the hotel, I hoped on the motobike and headed back up to Penang. The drive to Penang on a motobike is gorgeous. You drive over these steep cliffs, hanging over the water, through very jungle like areas, pass by elephants, ride along beaches--it was great. Once there the doctor saw me, asked for symptoms, and he once again confirmed I had what I thought I had. This time I was weighed and I weighed 140 pounds, when I normally weigh around 155-162 pounds. I had lost over ten percent of my body weight from these worms. He gave me some pills, said take them twice a day for five days, and the worms should be gone. I got lost riding the motobike back and ended up on this random beach that I could never get back to after that night. The next day about three hours after taking my first pill I felt worlds better.

After the third day the rain had been so bad on Phuket that some of the hotel flooded. A lot of the area that flooded was where most of the ATI students were living. Most of them only had wet clothing, but a few of them also had wet electronics including MacBooks. Since I am one to destroy a lot of electronics I gave them a few of my secrets to save wet electronics and fortunately their laptops turned back on a day later. Beyond that the hotel offered insurance for anyone's stuff that had been destroyed and also free laundry for anyone whose clothing was wet. Devon decided to make her clothing wet in the shower and give it to Kate, whose room flooded, so she could have free laundry-- not a bad idea if you ask me.

The fourth day we taught at a juvenile detention center, and that had to be one of the most rewarding things that I have done. The English spoken by the kids was horrible, and they were not at the level we made the lessons plan for. The reason why I use the word horrible is because I want to illustrate my admiration for the students. They wanted to learn English so badly, that although they could barely understand what you were saying they kept trying and trying to participate. I also felt like I had a special connection with these kids, because although I was never in juvee I did end up getting kicked out of high school. It made me thankful that where I come from second chances are so easy, and made me feel that much stronger about helping these kids get their second chances. That's why I decided I wanted to volunteer at a juvee over the weekends while I am in Thailand and working.

The last day was also amazing, as I had the opportunity to teach in an orphanage. This was a place where not everyone in the course was able to teach because of limited space. The orphanage is a football(soccer) orphanage, which was founded by a rich German billionaire. Its goal is to bring orphan boys from around Thailand to this orphanage, which is geared around football. They get to travel internationally to compete against other teams, and then they get to come back to a family at the orphanage that deeply cares about them. They stay there until they are 18 and then the orphanage helps them get on their way.

The boys at this orphanage where very polite, I was the first one to teach this day and when I went they all rose and said good morning teacher. It caught me off guard. I geared my lesson plan around football and they loved it. After I was done teaching they handed me a bouquet of flowers made out of palm leaves to say thank you. Teaching at that orphanage was absolutely amazing.

Since this was the last day we all decided as a group we would go to dinner together after we all got back and after the sun went down. When we returned we said our goodbyes to the instructors and most of us went to the beach. After a while Billy took me to this place where I could buy a really cool pair of pants that I had been asking him about, and then we went and had a bromance by watching the sunset on one of the cliffs overlooking the ocean. It was really amazing because behind us there was a guy playing on a cello. He was playing a Cello, while another man was flying a motorized airplane in the sky. There was no wind, and only a few clouds in the sky. It was quite beautiful. That night we all went out to a Korean BBQ, where you grill your own meat and food on a hotplate. I had already done this once, as had Billy, and a few of the others at our table. Unfortunately some of the other tables had no idea what they were doing and it was quite funny to watch them. After most of us went to the Reggae bar, which was as it sounds a bar based around reggae that had a cool place for live bands to play behind it. Most of the people were drinking quite a bit, but I decided I wasn't drinking that week due to the medicine I was taking and how it was already bad enough for my liver. To be honest it was a good excuse as well as I felt like I had already been drinking too much on this trip. I'm usually not a big drinker, besides some wine here and there, but when you are always meeting new people it always follows along the path of lets go introduce ourselves over a beer! After a while I decided to take off and go find Billy who was packing in our room as he was leaving first thing in the morning. We said our goodbyes and I went to sleep.

My last full day in Phuket I spent with Devon and the motobike. I had to take the motobike back, but I wanted to use up its full tank of gas first. We decided to ride around the island and take pictures. We first went to the giant White Buddha, on one of the tallest peaks in Phuket. From the top you could see most of the whole island. To get to it you had to drive through the city and then up this semi narrow jungle like road, that passed by a ton of elephants. Once we got up there we spent sometime looking around. They were rebuilding the White Buddha's pedestal at the time and if you wanted you could donate a piece of white marble, and if you donated it you could write your name on the back. So Devon and I donated a small piece, wrote Devon and Teddy on the back accompanied by the date. After that we rode back down the hill and took pictures with the elephants.

A little bit later we stopped and had some really good Middle Eastern food from this Lebanese family who had just moved to Phuket. The food was really good, but in a weird way it slightly reminded me of a Sloppy Joe. Once we finished there I showed Devon the place where I bought my pants and then said there was somewhere I wanted to explore and wondered if she minded if we went. She said of course not, so we parked the bike and walked over to the cliffs. While over there we saw one cliff that jetted way out forming a small little peninsula. We decided to walk out on it and while we were walking out we saw a little tiny path that you could take to get to this secret secluded beach. When we got to the little beach, we were amazed because even there, there were dogs. Once we sat down, we began talking and then all of a sudden the sand around us began to move. It wasn't the actual sand moving, but the beach was full of tiny hermit crabs migrating somewhere, but who knows where that somewhere was. We took photos of them, talked and laughed, and picked them up for a while, and then decided to leave. We left the little beach and decided to continue walking out to the end of the peninsula. Once out there we sat for a while and climbed the different rock structures. In general we were both amazed by the majesty of the surroundings. Once we revelled in the glory of that little peninsula for long enough we headed back to the motobike, only stopping quickly to walk up the old lighthouse. After that we rode around for a little longer, found a backstreet that had some cool shops, had banana and mango smoothies, and then headed back. We stopped one last time at the place where Billy and I had watched the sunset the night before and talked for a bit there. After that we headed back.

We went to the Phuket night market that Friday evening,everyone who was still left, and had absolutely amazing food for cheap. I had pineapple, spicy chicken, coconut milk, bananas, rice, dried fruit, pork with sticky rice, and many other fabulous foods. I had hung out with Devon for most of the night, and we ended up buying matching bracelets to remember Phuket. I also helped her barter for some perfume, and had her try some lychees, which she enjoyed. At the end of the night there was a beggar who had no arms, and I bought him so bananas. He was so hungry he had me peal the bananas there and feed him. It was a very humbling experience. After that we headed back to the hotel, and I said my goodbyes to Devon, Kate, and Becca. To this day that was one of the better days I have spent on this trip.

The next day I went to check out of the hotel, and the lady at the receptionist desk told me Billy and I had lost a cup so she would charge us for it. A cup that had never existed in our room. I argued with them about it refusing to pay on principal. After they tried to make me feel bad about it, guilt trip me into it, and then argue with me about it they finally gave up and said there was no need to pay for it. I apologized for the misunderstanding between us, thanked them for being hospitablel, and walked out not having to pay an unfair bill. After that I returned the motobike back to the French Bakery we had rented it from and grabbed a ride to the bus station. Once there I bought my bus ticket to Bangkok and waited for it to come. I have to admit that by this point in time I was feeling worlds better from where I had felt only a week prior before taking the worm medication. I felt infinitely better. The bus ride back to Bangkok was pretty uneventful as I slept most of the way.

By the time I got to Bangkok I was already certain that I was going to Myanmar/Burma the following week. This five days in Bangkok was only significant for three reasons. The first being the city had turned into a war zone. Everywhere you looked sandbags had taken over. The people who are usually so helpful and friendly had this nervous cautiousness about them that I had never sensed in them before. They were all preparing for the floods that at that point were unknown if they would hit Bangkok or not. The second reason why this trip was significant was getting my Burmese visa. It had to be the most difficult visa I have ever applied for, as I had to stretch the truth on a lot of the application. For example I told them I studied Business instead of Political Science, because I felt they wouldn't have wanted that side of my studies to be present in Burma. They also asked me for work history, my parents names, hair color, weight, and so on. A million questions that I never had to answer on any previous visa. It basically meant that if they could tie you to being a reporter or in any sense a radical they could and would deny you a visa. The visa took three days for me to get and while I was originally paying for the visa I came to the realization that I had been slightly robbed while in the hotel. I have two small secret compartments in my backpack, one is where I keep my cellphone, the other is where I keep an emergency 35 US dollars, both were gone. I realized this when I went looking for the 35 US dollars to pay for my Myanmar Visa. The last reason it was significant was because I ran back into Tom, the Tom who I had traveled all of Cambodia with, and also saw in Saigon. We decided to go out and have a beer and both told each other how weird it was to be seeing each other now, after we had been travelling for 3 months. When we first traveled together neither of us had been in Southeast Asia for more than a week, and now we were both 3 month experts who had both went through ordeals and amazing experiences. We both decided it was crazy to see how far we had come.

The course was a great experience. I met some great people notably Devon, Kate, Becca, Billy, Steph, and Gabe. I also learned a lot and enjoyed teaching at the orphanage and the juvenile detention center. It was also a great feeling to finally have left my travel buddy worms behind, and now are a great story to look back on and laugh about. I have already finished writing the next blog about Burma and I will post it a few days after this one in order to give people time to finish reading this. Until next time everyone!!!

Disclaimer: Shout out to Devon, some of these are her photos.