BOO

Happy Halloween. This is one of the best holidays ever invented and apparently I'm not the only one who feels this way. Last year American shelled out $3.3 Billion on the holiday. That's second only to Christmas!

I was inspired to be Raggety Ann by Brooke one day in Bangkok last July. She was sitting around in the front of Tae Wez guesthouse, our bangkok home away from home, and I walked in with Tara after a meeting at Peace Corps (shoulders were covered- fret not). I was wearing my new blue dress that we had just bought on Khao San Rd for 150 baht (about $4). She asked how many people told me the dress looked like Raggey Ann. And a halloween costume was born!!!

Saturday I went out to the bars in the East Village with 2 school girls, a pirate, Clark Kent (in transition to Superman), and some peeps in fun wigs. I was SO impressed with all the great costumes I saw. The best was a Gillian (of the Island) look-alike. At some point our crowd decided to go to a fancy club for dancing. When we got there the line was blocks long and would have taken forever to get to. So we went across the street to a lesser club. I guess we weren't even cool enough for the lesser club because they wouldn't let us past the velvet ropes.



No Andy for this Raggety Ann. The pirate threw him overboard. Hence the tatoo: RIP Andy.

US travel

As many of you know the most popular mode of transportation in Thailand is the bus. It's slow. It's stops often. It's often crowded. And there is no internet or number to call to find out when it leaves. You just have to show up and read the signs. But you will never get shut out. They will put little plastic chairs (the kind you see in 1st grade classrooms) down the aisle to get every last person in. Or you'll find Thais who are willing to stand up in the aisle for hours.

On Friday I was headed back to Boston and so excited to take my 1st bus ride since Thailand. I figured it would remind me of all my traveling adventures in Thailand. I had my ipod charged and my phone on vibrate in my pocket! [get your mind out of the gutter and read on]

I was sadly disapointed. Let's just say greyhound is a step above a baw 2. The engine and road was so quiet I could actually hear my phone ring, no need for vibrate [see, I told you]. There were little TVs spread throughout the bus, and the movie was in ENGLISH. While it would have been quite nostalgic to have stiff upright plastic seats, I was pleasantly surprised to have cushy cloth ones with elbow room.

I did get to listen to my Ipod and all my favorite Thailand music: Ben Folds, Black Eyed Peas, Cake, and even my Thai music.

I love when my Ipod is on shuffle and my Thai language learning tapes come on. Mostly it happens when I'm running. I can only imagine how I would look to the Thais passing on their motorbikes when I would speak along to the tape. "Pria-sa-nee you tee nai?" "Where is the post office?"

I've been doing Thai language tutorials here at school. About once a week I meet Priak, a Thai guy from Bangkok, at the Business school library. It's great to keep thai fresh in my mind. Unfortunately I find more and words are going to hide in the deep recesses of my brain and it takes more effort to pull them forward. "Bor-ree-sat you say? I know I know that. What does it mean??" "Why can't I think of the word for March. It used to roll of my tongue."

I also haven't had as mch practice with my Thai cooking. I am very limited in my cooking space in my studio so it was a TREAT to have access to my parents full kitchen when I went home. Saturday morning I was feeling creative so I did a recipe search and realized we had all the ingredients to make eggs benedicts. If I do say so myself, they were delicious.

I was home to pick up my kitty because my parents were off to Paris and Morocco for 2 weeks with my Brother and Jen. It was a short trip home, but long enough to go to the Atrium mall with mom for a mini shopping trip. And Friday night I met up with Janet for a butt kicking ashtanga yoga class.

Saturday I made the drive back to NY, this time behind the wheel of my mom's subaru. A couple times the rain was falling so hard I couldn't see anything out the window. But who could complain? I had my music playing, my seat heater on, and I was driving myself in a car. I guess you have to be out of the country for a couple years to be that excited to drive yourself. Either that or be 16 years old.

So now kitty is here for a couple weeks. I love her fuzzy company.

Oprah

Oprah is interviewing mothers from around the world. There was someone from Brazil, Norway, Kenya, Alaska, and THAILAND. A correspondent met a bangkok woman who lives in a small room with her husband and 18 year old daughter while her son lives in the "country" with her parents so she can work 6 days a week doing Thai massage. A story that is very representative.

It was very cool to be able to understand the thai being spoken under the English translation when the woman spoke.

a new season

The winds are whirling around and picking up the leaves that have fallen to the ground. The smell of fall is in the air. Gloves and scarves are now part of the recommended attire.

Today I went downtown to meet an alum who is working for a marketing company. I had applied to an internship opportunity in brand valuating. Basically they look at a brand, such as Sports Illustrated Magazine, on many different characters and rate them as a way to understand the marketing direction to take. For example: how feminine is it? How athletic is it? How techy is it? etc. FUN! But I didn't get the job. So I'm looking into other marketing possibilities. It seems like a job that has both analysis and strategy, and that it's something I'd love. But I'm not sure, so I want an internship in order to test out the waters. I'm looking both into firms like the one I applied to, and individual companies who would have an in-house marketing division, like Sesame Street or J. Crew.

I hope that soon I'll be able to work 10-15 hours a week at an internship, but it may not start till next semester.

run forrest run

It's official. Well it's been official for a few days. But now it's really official. At least I'm pretty sure it's official.

You'll have to count me out of that little jog through the boroughs of NYC. That little 26.2 jaunt with 37,000 other people on Nov 5th will just have to go on without me.

I'm not doing the NYC marathon.

It hurts to walk down the block so I figure I shouldn't pound the pavement for 4 and a half hours. I pulled a muscle on the bottom of my foot; ironically enough it happened when I was doing no impact water running. Oh, and that 18 mile run 3 days later didn't help the situation. Anyway every once in a while now I get a shooting pain in my foot; and my knee is having sympathy pains too.

It's hard to let go of the marathon. But on the other hand it would feel a lot worse to have to quit at mile 18. Or to not be able to run for another 8 week after.

The upside is that I get to tape my foot and knee every morning and I feel like a real athlete.

class schedule

Lots of people have been curious about what classes I'm taking and what I'm doing to fill my days. Here's my class schedule:

Monday 3-4:40: Group Dynamics
Tuesday 1-2:40: Understanding Behavioral Research
Tuesday 7:20-9: Organizational Psychology
Wednesday 5:10-6:50: Functions of Organizations
Thursday 3-5: Preparation for Coaching

I know that might not mean a whole lot. Except for the coaching class, they're all required classes and all about 40 people. The professors are all really impressive and laid back too.

I'm also busy with a Deep Water Running Class Monday evenings through the NY Road Runners Club, Yoga class on Tuesdays, and Thai tutoring on Thursdays. Oh yeah, and there is that job hunting thing.

What's in a name?

Some of you may have noticed my blog introduction still says I'm in Thailand. Yes, I'm having trouble letting go a little. I certainly still want to connect with being in Thailand. I can't believe it's already been 9 weeks since I left.

I know how lucky I am to be in America. And one of the reasons I'm acclimating so well is all the support I'm getting from people in Thailand. When I left at least half a dozen PC friends told me they were jealous I was leaving. In fairness, I think it was just a general low point in the 2 year cycle of PC Thailand. But friends in Thailand have been wonderful about asking how life is in America. They all want to know about what I'm eating and how classes are and where I'm out and about in NY. I think some people are having moments of vicarious american life through me. That's great because I'm vicariously living in Thailand through them.

I've been calling Peace Corps friends over there about once a week or so. Text messaging too. It has been nice to keep up on the gossip of Peace Corps life, but at the same time it's not like being there. I've been chatting with Thai friends too. And recently my thai friends have been emailing me!! I taught them email while I was there and we have been writing every couple days.

Mostly I write in what they call 'Thai Kareoke.' It's Thai writen in English letters at the bottom of Kareoke screens. It means phonetic Thai. So 'hello' in Thai is สวัสดี and in Thai Kareoke is Sawadee.

While I can get by reading Thai slowly, I can't write well at all. For example, the Thai alphabet has 4 or 5 letters that have the same sound as 's' depending on the tone. It's all beyond me.

For now enough of my life is lived mentally in Thailand that I'm not letting go of my blog title yet. Besides, I've been keeping these posts mostly Thailand related. It's one of my 3 PC missions- to share Thai culture with Americans. So in this way I'm still a PC Volunteer.

It's not from the salad onions

I'm crying. I'm watching a show about the NYC triathlon and I always get teary when I look at people working extremely hard to reach a dream. When I think about how much training and dedication they put in to get to this competetion I can't help but get overhwelmed. There's a woman in a wheelchair talking about how a triatholon is a symphony- no one goes to a symphony for the last note, it's about all the movements along the way!

My exhaustion is contributing to my sappy urges. Today I ran in the New York Road Runners 'Tune Up' Race- an 18 mile course that took us three times around central park.



Today marks the 4 week count down till the New York Marathon which goes through all 5 boroughs and ends in central park. Due to an injury I've taken the last 4 weeks off from training, but have been given the go-ahead to do the race. Today's run was really well organized with shoe chips, water stations, huge starting events, and even a t-shirt! Even so, I was dead at the end and don't know how I'll be able to add on another 8 miles come race day.


I'll get to that finish line somehow! Colleen is coming up from Philly to run. Last time I saw her was when we met up in Alaska to run the Mayors Midnight Marathon.

On the run I kept passing food carts that sell pretzels,nuts, hotdogs, and icecream!! The promise of this is what kept me going mile after mile, just like an energizer bunny....




After the run I chilled on the grass and called Rachel in Nashville and Matt in Palo Alto to catch up. After all that, I didn't really feel like ice cream. Instead I went to the store and got yummy lox and some bengay. Come to think of it, maybe that's where the tears are coming from. Here's my worldy experienced advice: No matter how bad you pulled your groin, keep the BenGay away!

Tara's muse

Just playing and wanted to put up some more pictures. This one is a drawing on the CD cover of my leaving PC present from Tara. This picture means the world to me. That's me, Lindsey, and Tara. And the outfits and bar stools are representative of a typical night out together in Bangkok. Cheap Charlies is an outside bar on a alley near one of our favorite guesthouses, Suk 11. We frequented this place a lot. Cocktails are 60 Baht, or about $1.25 all night!



Suk 11, the nearby guesthouse, is a cute place with simple rooms and a very backpacker friendly attitude. Peace Corps volunteers are there enough that they knew us and often made special accommodations for us. One could spend hours looking at all the graffiti on walls from all the worldly travelers. I never had anything inspirational to write or draw, so I never did, even though I wanted to. I know you're all sitting at your computer simply heart-broken over the fact that I've let Thailand without writing on the walls at Suk 11. Well fret not! Tara is going to immortalize us with the picture of Cheap Charlies Angles.

culture shock

"How's the culture shock since you've been back from Thailand." I don't know what it was about yesterday, but I think I was asked that question a dozen time. It must have been that I was meeting lots of new people.



I went to my first Columbia Football game yesterday. Yes, Columbia has a football team. I answered that question a couple times yesterday too. But they're not much to write home about. I went with a friend on my hall and a bunch of people in her program who I haven't met before. Really nice girls. We got there early enough to do a little tailgating. I even met the Columbia Mascot.



And last night I went out in the west village to a cute wine bar with Elizabeth, my friend since 1st grade, and a bunch of her friends.



So I figure I should come up with a sound bite for answering that question. It's hard to explain each time. The jist of what I tell people is, no, I haven't had culture shock. I mean I haven't been agonizing over and upset with american culture.

They say coming back to America after Peace Corps provides for more culture shock than initially integrating into Thai culture. But I think that since I was expecting such a rough time it hasn't been that bad. I was prepared.

And also I realized along the way that my experience returning to America doesn't reflect on my experience in Thailand. I mean to show myself and everyone home how much I loved Thailand and how integrated I was in the culture I don't have to hate American culture. I can love them both.

I always have a miserably hard time with transitions. Moving to San Francisco was really rough and starting my job at Mission Dolores was also extraordinarily difficult. I'm sick of having a hard time with transitions, so I simply made up my mind that this time it would be different. This time I wouldn't have a difficult transition.

The hardest thing is that I'm afraid I'm going to get run over. I did such a good job training myself at roads to look to the right (at traffic driving on the left side of the road) that I get all confused at streets here.

I've been loving the food options here in America, and honestly haven't been missing thai food much. That's what I figured would be the hardest. But I've been able to make what I want pretty easily. Once after about 2 weeks home I was feeling a little sick and had a craving for a dish, moo dang jaye, so I went to a thai restaurant, but they couldn't make it for me. But who can complain when diet coke is readily available everywhere.



I've also committed myself to appreciating a hot shower everytime I take one. And I still get a kick out of filling my waterbottle up right from the tap.

How to I turn this into a sound bit?