3:04 PM Edit This 0 Comments »
The past few weeks have been spent with books clenched between my hands, reading. They leave only so I can switch to writing...
I want to ride my bicycle!
6:25 PM Edit This 1 Comment »
I had a good day today despite the fact that I hardly got any sleep. It started because I had a friend over and then I had a brilliant idea for my novel and had to write it down immediately. It finished with flashing lights and three arrests as some drunk homeless people were starting to fight and threaten one another down on my street.
I called the cops which had the immediate effect of more lights, more drama, more action and the long-term effect of adrenaline-rushing my system so that I couldn't sleep.
But come morning some four hours later, I dutifully got up and went to the Health Center for a check up. Then I biked to my friend Kevin's house in Alliston, MA and made the most fantastic banana bread ever and ate rice pudding. We also played a strategy game called abalone (good fun). After, we went on a bike ride around the city.
We rode along the esplinade which was nice as the boats were out and there was a full fall breeze flowing through the air so you never got too hot, but you never got too cold either. We stopped at the foot bridge going over storrow drive for awhile and waved to the motorists below. Some waved back. Some made goofy faces. Everyone who saw us smiled and I was amazed at how something so simple could be so satisfying to do.
After, we rode downtown and then to Copley where we got peaches from the farmer's market as we waited for critical mass. Critical Mass is a bike movement that happens in cities across the globe. On the last Friday of every month, bikers gather together and "take the streets" going on an hour long bike ride in which we proclaim that we, the bikers, have the right of way and too bad for you cars!
It's a lot of fun being able to ride in such a large group as it always draws a crowd. It's especially nice not having to worry about cars (though you do sometimes have to worry about other bikers!). We road throughout the city and made our way to Cambridge and Harvard square. I turned off then because I had to go to a pasta party for soccer.
basically, I road my bike for nearly 3 hours straight. It was pretty intense.
Right now, I'm waiting for my laundry to be done so I can go to bed. I have to be up at 5:15 because I have two soccer games tomorrow @ 9:30 and 11:30.
I called the cops which had the immediate effect of more lights, more drama, more action and the long-term effect of adrenaline-rushing my system so that I couldn't sleep.
But come morning some four hours later, I dutifully got up and went to the Health Center for a check up. Then I biked to my friend Kevin's house in Alliston, MA and made the most fantastic banana bread ever and ate rice pudding. We also played a strategy game called abalone (good fun). After, we went on a bike ride around the city.
We rode along the esplinade which was nice as the boats were out and there was a full fall breeze flowing through the air so you never got too hot, but you never got too cold either. We stopped at the foot bridge going over storrow drive for awhile and waved to the motorists below. Some waved back. Some made goofy faces. Everyone who saw us smiled and I was amazed at how something so simple could be so satisfying to do.
After, we rode downtown and then to Copley where we got peaches from the farmer's market as we waited for critical mass. Critical Mass is a bike movement that happens in cities across the globe. On the last Friday of every month, bikers gather together and "take the streets" going on an hour long bike ride in which we proclaim that we, the bikers, have the right of way and too bad for you cars!
It's a lot of fun being able to ride in such a large group as it always draws a crowd. It's especially nice not having to worry about cars (though you do sometimes have to worry about other bikers!). We road throughout the city and made our way to Cambridge and Harvard square. I turned off then because I had to go to a pasta party for soccer.
basically, I road my bike for nearly 3 hours straight. It was pretty intense.
Right now, I'm waiting for my laundry to be done so I can go to bed. I have to be up at 5:15 because I have two soccer games tomorrow @ 9:30 and 11:30.
Soccer 2-0
8:32 AM Edit This 0 Comments »
I haphazardly tried out for the club soccer team and made it. This past weekend was spent playing. Being back out on the field felt terrific. It's strange thinking I quit now. Looking back, I feel like I abandoned an entire part of my life. I suppose, in someways, I did.
But I think it was the right decision.
I have done so many amazing things because I have had the team to pursue other interests. Anyways, our team played Fairfield (3-0) and BC (1-) so we have two wins on the season. I didn't play too much (I'm in the field these days) but it felt good to run around.
I look forward to playing more.
But I think it was the right decision.
I have done so many amazing things because I have had the team to pursue other interests. Anyways, our team played Fairfield (3-0) and BC (1-) so we have two wins on the season. I didn't play too much (I'm in the field these days) but it felt good to run around.
I look forward to playing more.
1:09 PM Edit This 1 Comment »
The problem with pop culture is it makes real life look so drab. I keep thinking about movies where the protagonist always gets to travel back in time and fix things. Is it weird that I secretly hope that I can do that, one far-off day when I die?
I think it would be really cool to live your life all over again but each time making different choices. Sort of ground hog day esque, I suppose, and seeing how each variation differs.
That would be a good plot for a novel, I suppose.
Anyways, school is interesting. Sort-of.
I think it would be really cool to live your life all over again but each time making different choices. Sort of ground hog day esque, I suppose, and seeing how each variation differs.
That would be a good plot for a novel, I suppose.
Anyways, school is interesting. Sort-of.
Back in the Fray
8:25 PM Edit This 0 Comments »
They say the best way to live life is to throw yourself out there and constantly do things your afraid. Well, that's certainly true. This past week I've tried out for a play (didn't get in) but I had so much fun in the process. Not only did I realize that I actually have acting talent, I realized I possess something much more important: guts.
Sure, you may think, really? You had to ask yourself that? You traveled all the way around the world for goodness sakes! But the truth is, it's easy for me to be adventurous like that. When you arrive at a new destination, you don't know anyone and really, you have no way of embarrassing yourself and it's sort of expected that you'll break local customs once or twice. Locals tend to understand (within reason) and tend to want to engage with you despite your...well...mistakes.
Theatre people are different. This was one of the weirder experiences I have had too. I waited over two hours for my audition and was only able to successfully engage a few people in conversation. What's worse was when people learned I had "never really acted before" many (mainly those whose life revolves around it) sort of rebuffed me. Of course, the one or two other people who'd never tried out for a school play were quiet relieved at my admission.
But, long story short, I had a good time trying out for a play. Sure, I didn't really remember my lines right and yes, I was nervous as hell, but I still did it. I may not have walked away with a part but I walked away with something much more valuable: pride.
Sure, you may think, really? You had to ask yourself that? You traveled all the way around the world for goodness sakes! But the truth is, it's easy for me to be adventurous like that. When you arrive at a new destination, you don't know anyone and really, you have no way of embarrassing yourself and it's sort of expected that you'll break local customs once or twice. Locals tend to understand (within reason) and tend to want to engage with you despite your...well...mistakes.
Theatre people are different. This was one of the weirder experiences I have had too. I waited over two hours for my audition and was only able to successfully engage a few people in conversation. What's worse was when people learned I had "never really acted before" many (mainly those whose life revolves around it) sort of rebuffed me. Of course, the one or two other people who'd never tried out for a school play were quiet relieved at my admission.
But, long story short, I had a good time trying out for a play. Sure, I didn't really remember my lines right and yes, I was nervous as hell, but I still did it. I may not have walked away with a part but I walked away with something much more valuable: pride.
August / First Last Day of College
3:53 AM Edit This 0 Comments »
It seemed as though August simply flew by. Perhaps, that was because I didn't come back and log each of my many activities or simply because when you're at home time has a way of creeping up on you.
I spent most of my time working which although not as exciting as scuba diving or running around Thailand, does get the bills paid. Well, at least some of them at any rate.
August was filled with many adventures around Falmouth, Woods Hole, and Scraggy Neck as I never had time to go anywhere else. I think some of the highlights of my summer were a family trip to The Chart Room, the week I got back where we sat out on the wonderful sprawling lawn and watched the boats sail in as the sun set. Pigstock, my family (or rather my Dad's) annual barbeque where he smokes all things meat, was another great time. Especially because a lot of my friend's ended up coming.
Boating and Fishing were also fun though I hardly caught anything at all. On my last foray I caught one 6 inch sea bass. Talk about getting jipped. I guess they call it "fishing" and not "catching" for a reason. But every time I went out, whether with my friend John, my cousin Fred, or my cousin Vikki, I had an amazing time. The weather always cooperated and I got to enjoy a couple of fabulous sunsets, if nothing else.
Now, I'm all moved back to Boston and I've already gone swimming up here (Was the water clean, probably not) and ran into loads of friends. I'm excited about my course schedule this year:
Advanced Writing In The Social Sciences
Japanese 102
Anthropology 305: Global Capital Local Markets
Sociology 517: Globalization
Sociology 710: Political Ecology of Global Capitalism (Graduate level course!)
If you haven't figured it out by my schedule, I'm really interested in the topic of globalization! Tonight, unfortunately, I am not going to the NUHOC (the outing club at school) meeting because I have decided to try out for a play! I am preparing two monologues from the play "Our Town" by Thornton Wilder. I read the entire play yesterday in the library. It's very interesting (but not the play I am trying out for).
Anyways, I doubt much will come of it but I am going to give it my best shot! Wish me luck.
Well I am off to cook breakfast and get ready for school!
yay!
Exciting!
- Sarah
I spent most of my time working which although not as exciting as scuba diving or running around Thailand, does get the bills paid. Well, at least some of them at any rate.
August was filled with many adventures around Falmouth, Woods Hole, and Scraggy Neck as I never had time to go anywhere else. I think some of the highlights of my summer were a family trip to The Chart Room, the week I got back where we sat out on the wonderful sprawling lawn and watched the boats sail in as the sun set. Pigstock, my family (or rather my Dad's) annual barbeque where he smokes all things meat, was another great time. Especially because a lot of my friend's ended up coming.
Boating and Fishing were also fun though I hardly caught anything at all. On my last foray I caught one 6 inch sea bass. Talk about getting jipped. I guess they call it "fishing" and not "catching" for a reason. But every time I went out, whether with my friend John, my cousin Fred, or my cousin Vikki, I had an amazing time. The weather always cooperated and I got to enjoy a couple of fabulous sunsets, if nothing else.
Now, I'm all moved back to Boston and I've already gone swimming up here (Was the water clean, probably not) and ran into loads of friends. I'm excited about my course schedule this year:
Advanced Writing In The Social Sciences
Japanese 102
Anthropology 305: Global Capital Local Markets
Sociology 517: Globalization
Sociology 710: Political Ecology of Global Capitalism (Graduate level course!)
If you haven't figured it out by my schedule, I'm really interested in the topic of globalization! Tonight, unfortunately, I am not going to the NUHOC (the outing club at school) meeting because I have decided to try out for a play! I am preparing two monologues from the play "Our Town" by Thornton Wilder. I read the entire play yesterday in the library. It's very interesting (but not the play I am trying out for).
Anyways, I doubt much will come of it but I am going to give it my best shot! Wish me luck.
Well I am off to cook breakfast and get ready for school!
yay!
Exciting!
- Sarah
Last week / Rescue Diver / Weekend / Qatar / Flying the Heck Home.
10:43 AM Edit This 2 Comments »
The Last Week
It's strange how quickly things come and go. In the beginning, it seemed like the end was so far off that it was never really something I had to even consider. As the days began winding down however it started looming more and more in the back of everything we did. Curieuse was a definite highlight and a great way to go into the last part of our trip. On Monday evening we said our first goodbyes to Jo and Doug who had to leave early for a family wedding. It was weird waking up on Tuesday without Jo's ever-present smile and Doug's griping about the porridge we have every day. I can't blame him though, I got sick of it too by the end. When you eat something that tastes like nothing for five weeks, your taste buds grow more than a little restless...
We continued with our survey dives and went to some new locations. It was exciting exploring new places and I got to dive with Duncan again who I have done about half of my dives with. On one of our dives we were given a parameter we had no way of achieving which was frustrating. We swam around trying to get the right depth but couldn't because it was too deep no matter where we went. But we got to see a horned ray and a parrot fish. We did four dives together over Monday and Tuesday.
I also did two dives with Lindsey, the head scientist, and we had an incredible time. On our first dive a school of 15 bumphead parrotfish (which are about 1 - 1.5 meters in length) swan by us. On the second dive, we ran into another 8 of the bumpheads this time one coming within arms reach of me. This was slightly terrifying as they have "beaks" designed to crush coral. I could only imagine what it would do to bone...
On Wednesday night we had a big farewell shindig. Pretty much we drank a lot of Takamaka (the local rum and vodka), watched a pretty nifty slideshow of all our pictures, and talked to the wee hours of the morning. All-in-all it was a pretty stellar time except that we all knew we were saying goodbye to one another -- so that sort of sucked.
Thursday morning we awoke to wonderful hangovers and having to clean the entire camp as some people were staying, some (like myself) were leaving, and others were arriving. After that was all done we went to the Waterfall Emma and I had gone to on our first week there and jumped off rocks, went swimming, and tried to catch crayfish. Naturally, it started to rain a little bit on the walk home.
Rescue Diver
After packing up all my belongings to go and saying goodbye to everyone at way-to-early in the morning, Duncan and I headed to the local dive shop to begin our Rescue Diver course. Think of it as a Wilderness First Aid course, except for Diving. Or maybe under-water life guarding. The course was F A N T A S T I C although incredibly tiring. Our instructor was a very flamboyant Seychellois guy named Tony who really knew his stuff. Basically, the first day we spent learning how to deal with someone freaking out in or under the water and having tow them to shore and removing all their equipment. Sounds fun. Was fun. Tons of work though.
The best way to help someone bigger than you who is freaking out on the surface is to, surprisingly, go underwater and grab their legs then shimmy up onto their tank and do what's called a knee-cradle to their tank. Then you inflate their BCD. I liked this method the best simply because you feel the most in control. In a different scenario, I totally got attacked by Tony and ended up swallowing a lot of water... In real life that would have been game over, so it's good to learn which technique suits you the best and to realize that if someone is really panicking and they cannot think, its best not to approach them and let them simply wear themselves out.
I spent day towing and hauling Duncan out of the water. Despite the fact that he is about 8 inches taller than me and heavier than me, I only dropped him once and part of it had to do with the fact I hurt my elbow. We learned about five or six different methods for hauling someone out of the water. If they are unconscious and you are giving rescue breaths you only have 30 seconds to get them out of the water. (I guess I should preface that by saying if you are towing an unconscious person who you cannot tell if they are breathing or not *hard to do in the water* you give 1 rescue breath every 5 seconds). This means you really have to haul ass. And then you have to do compressions... And doing this for, you know, two hours takes a bit out of you.
We also did search and rescue scenarios. The vis was crap so it was actually really good to do it in. I had fun doing that, for the most part. Except one of the methods we learned involved keeping one person in place with a reel and having the other person swim off. It's called the expanding circle method. It works well, but I really don't like being separated from my dive buddy (especially in bad vis...)
All in all the rescue course was super super fun. If you dive and have a chance to take it, I would. I mean, I would like to go on and work as a dive instructor for a short period of time, so doing it is required..but even if you are just diving with friends its good to know!
Weekend
The rest of the weekend was spent saying goodbye and having fun. After the rescue diver course, I met up with Emma and Allie. We then met up with all the ten-week GVI people at the Pirates Arm (restaurant) and Level 3 (night club). I had an amazing night but it was hard having to say goodbye...
After that, I packed up and got ready to go.
Anyways, maybe I will post the first page or two of what I write when I write it.
It's strange how quickly things come and go. In the beginning, it seemed like the end was so far off that it was never really something I had to even consider. As the days began winding down however it started looming more and more in the back of everything we did. Curieuse was a definite highlight and a great way to go into the last part of our trip. On Monday evening we said our first goodbyes to Jo and Doug who had to leave early for a family wedding. It was weird waking up on Tuesday without Jo's ever-present smile and Doug's griping about the porridge we have every day. I can't blame him though, I got sick of it too by the end. When you eat something that tastes like nothing for five weeks, your taste buds grow more than a little restless...
We continued with our survey dives and went to some new locations. It was exciting exploring new places and I got to dive with Duncan again who I have done about half of my dives with. On one of our dives we were given a parameter we had no way of achieving which was frustrating. We swam around trying to get the right depth but couldn't because it was too deep no matter where we went. But we got to see a horned ray and a parrot fish. We did four dives together over Monday and Tuesday.
I also did two dives with Lindsey, the head scientist, and we had an incredible time. On our first dive a school of 15 bumphead parrotfish (which are about 1 - 1.5 meters in length) swan by us. On the second dive, we ran into another 8 of the bumpheads this time one coming within arms reach of me. This was slightly terrifying as they have "beaks" designed to crush coral. I could only imagine what it would do to bone...
On Wednesday night we had a big farewell shindig. Pretty much we drank a lot of Takamaka (the local rum and vodka), watched a pretty nifty slideshow of all our pictures, and talked to the wee hours of the morning. All-in-all it was a pretty stellar time except that we all knew we were saying goodbye to one another -- so that sort of sucked.
Thursday morning we awoke to wonderful hangovers and having to clean the entire camp as some people were staying, some (like myself) were leaving, and others were arriving. After that was all done we went to the Waterfall Emma and I had gone to on our first week there and jumped off rocks, went swimming, and tried to catch crayfish. Naturally, it started to rain a little bit on the walk home.
Rescue Diver
After packing up all my belongings to go and saying goodbye to everyone at way-to-early in the morning, Duncan and I headed to the local dive shop to begin our Rescue Diver course. Think of it as a Wilderness First Aid course, except for Diving. Or maybe under-water life guarding. The course was F A N T A S T I C although incredibly tiring. Our instructor was a very flamboyant Seychellois guy named Tony who really knew his stuff. Basically, the first day we spent learning how to deal with someone freaking out in or under the water and having tow them to shore and removing all their equipment. Sounds fun. Was fun. Tons of work though.
The best way to help someone bigger than you who is freaking out on the surface is to, surprisingly, go underwater and grab their legs then shimmy up onto their tank and do what's called a knee-cradle to their tank. Then you inflate their BCD. I liked this method the best simply because you feel the most in control. In a different scenario, I totally got attacked by Tony and ended up swallowing a lot of water... In real life that would have been game over, so it's good to learn which technique suits you the best and to realize that if someone is really panicking and they cannot think, its best not to approach them and let them simply wear themselves out.
I spent day towing and hauling Duncan out of the water. Despite the fact that he is about 8 inches taller than me and heavier than me, I only dropped him once and part of it had to do with the fact I hurt my elbow. We learned about five or six different methods for hauling someone out of the water. If they are unconscious and you are giving rescue breaths you only have 30 seconds to get them out of the water. (I guess I should preface that by saying if you are towing an unconscious person who you cannot tell if they are breathing or not *hard to do in the water* you give 1 rescue breath every 5 seconds). This means you really have to haul ass. And then you have to do compressions... And doing this for, you know, two hours takes a bit out of you.
We also did search and rescue scenarios. The vis was crap so it was actually really good to do it in. I had fun doing that, for the most part. Except one of the methods we learned involved keeping one person in place with a reel and having the other person swim off. It's called the expanding circle method. It works well, but I really don't like being separated from my dive buddy (especially in bad vis...)
All in all the rescue course was super super fun. If you dive and have a chance to take it, I would. I mean, I would like to go on and work as a dive instructor for a short period of time, so doing it is required..but even if you are just diving with friends its good to know!
Weekend
The rest of the weekend was spent saying goodbye and having fun. After the rescue diver course, I met up with Emma and Allie. We then met up with all the ten-week GVI people at the Pirates Arm (restaurant) and Level 3 (night club). I had an amazing night but it was hard having to say goodbye...
After that, I packed up and got ready to go.
Qatar
After waking up at 5:30 am and flying for a ways I arrived in Qatar. I checked around and learned getting into the country cost $40. I figured what the hell, I have 8 hours, why not. Wow. Talk about an amazing place. First of all, everyone there was super friendly. Second of all, talk about a drop dead gorgeous city. For a long time I didn't understand what it was that made it so intriguing, and then it hit me: all there were were skyscrapers. There were no other buildings. Just skyscrapers shooting up out of the earth like giant blades of grass. On top of that, each building was incredibly unique. Nothing was "just a building" but everything had a visual aspect, an artistic aspect if you will, to it. These buildings were more than just about homing people or homing jobs, it was about creating an atmosphere that was enjoyable to be in.
Then, on top of that, there was a ton of construction no matter which way you looked. It was sort of terrifying how much could be being built all at once and more than a little intimidating. I visited the Islamic Art Museum (just built) and looked at some cool calligraphy done of pages in the Kor'an and your usual vases, bowls, and paintings.... I also was taken by this cab driver to the sites he thought I should see which included the "pearl of Doha" which are these group of skyscrapers (hotels? apartments?) that are being built out in the water around in a circle shape. I'm not sure how to describe it. Google Image it. I also went to see some other neat buildings being built as well as two popular malls -- one which had a river going through it which you could take a paddle boat down if you so choose, and the other which had an ice rink on the bottom floor.
These people knew how to live it up, that much was clear...
Flying Home
While flying home was relatively easy (albeit long) it was more than a little nerve wracking. We had pretty bad turbulence on 3 of my 7 flights. One of my flights was severally delayed because bird guts were found near the engine. Another flight had problems with the landing gear so we had to circle around again.
Very inspiring stuff.
But I made it. Not only that I got to chill in some cool places Doha being one, Bangkok the other... (actually I just went to a hotel, worked-out, slept, showered, and got a massage...tough life, right?)
I left on Monday for the airport at 5:30 Seychellois time and arrived back in Falmouth at about 1:00 on Wednesday afternoon. Between those times I was on 3 continents, 6 countries, and had a grand total of seven flights. When I say all this out loud it sounds terrifying, but truthfully flying the much wasn't so bad. True, I didn't sleep a lot... I have a hard time sleeping on planes for one thing and the other is I set my watch to Hometown time and would only sleep at the appropriate times. (which always happened to be when I wasn't in the air...)
I watched a couple movies (all girly ones) and read a couple books. (Carl Hiaassen, John Steinback, and some Brazillian guy... Paulo something or other...)
Debriefing
I feel like it's important to say that I really got a lot out of both of these experiences. They were completely opposite from one another but proved very complimentary. I feel like I was able to sort out part of my life (aka the immediate future) which has never been a particular speciality of mine as well as come to some pretty solid realizations about who I am and how I want to live my life. While I don't feel particularly inclined to share that with you ( a girl has to keep some secrets ) I just thought it was important to say that I came away with something that I didn't have before. But even that is wrong -- because I think, whatever it is, has always been there waiting to surface. Like dinosaur bones slowly being excavatued by careful, calculating archeologists.
In the end, I feel like I learned (somehow) that it's okay to go off and pursue my own personnal ambitions even if they aren't noble, or world-changing. What matters is they are world-changing to me; that they inspire me. And I think that if I don't follow my own heart and my own desires, I won't be of any use to anyone because I will always be thinking "what if."
The Future
So while my trip is over I think I am still going to post on this blog because its nice being able to write down (however horribly, and unimaginatively I do it) my adventures and let people know what it is I do with my time. I can't be certain how often I will write. Once a week? Twice a month? Who knows. I guess time will tell... It will also have to take a back-seat to my attempts at novel-writing which have, so far, proved unsuccessful. But I'm going back at it with a vengeance!After waking up at 5:30 am and flying for a ways I arrived in Qatar. I checked around and learned getting into the country cost $40. I figured what the hell, I have 8 hours, why not. Wow. Talk about an amazing place. First of all, everyone there was super friendly. Second of all, talk about a drop dead gorgeous city. For a long time I didn't understand what it was that made it so intriguing, and then it hit me: all there were were skyscrapers. There were no other buildings. Just skyscrapers shooting up out of the earth like giant blades of grass. On top of that, each building was incredibly unique. Nothing was "just a building" but everything had a visual aspect, an artistic aspect if you will, to it. These buildings were more than just about homing people or homing jobs, it was about creating an atmosphere that was enjoyable to be in.
Then, on top of that, there was a ton of construction no matter which way you looked. It was sort of terrifying how much could be being built all at once and more than a little intimidating. I visited the Islamic Art Museum (just built) and looked at some cool calligraphy done of pages in the Kor'an and your usual vases, bowls, and paintings.... I also was taken by this cab driver to the sites he thought I should see which included the "pearl of Doha" which are these group of skyscrapers (hotels? apartments?) that are being built out in the water around in a circle shape. I'm not sure how to describe it. Google Image it. I also went to see some other neat buildings being built as well as two popular malls -- one which had a river going through it which you could take a paddle boat down if you so choose, and the other which had an ice rink on the bottom floor.
These people knew how to live it up, that much was clear...
Flying Home
While flying home was relatively easy (albeit long) it was more than a little nerve wracking. We had pretty bad turbulence on 3 of my 7 flights. One of my flights was severally delayed because bird guts were found near the engine. Another flight had problems with the landing gear so we had to circle around again.
Very inspiring stuff.
But I made it. Not only that I got to chill in some cool places Doha being one, Bangkok the other... (actually I just went to a hotel, worked-out, slept, showered, and got a massage...tough life, right?)
I left on Monday for the airport at 5:30 Seychellois time and arrived back in Falmouth at about 1:00 on Wednesday afternoon. Between those times I was on 3 continents, 6 countries, and had a grand total of seven flights. When I say all this out loud it sounds terrifying, but truthfully flying the much wasn't so bad. True, I didn't sleep a lot... I have a hard time sleeping on planes for one thing and the other is I set my watch to Hometown time and would only sleep at the appropriate times. (which always happened to be when I wasn't in the air...)
I watched a couple movies (all girly ones) and read a couple books. (Carl Hiaassen, John Steinback, and some Brazillian guy... Paulo something or other...)
Debriefing
I feel like it's important to say that I really got a lot out of both of these experiences. They were completely opposite from one another but proved very complimentary. I feel like I was able to sort out part of my life (aka the immediate future) which has never been a particular speciality of mine as well as come to some pretty solid realizations about who I am and how I want to live my life. While I don't feel particularly inclined to share that with you ( a girl has to keep some secrets ) I just thought it was important to say that I came away with something that I didn't have before. But even that is wrong -- because I think, whatever it is, has always been there waiting to surface. Like dinosaur bones slowly being excavatued by careful, calculating archeologists.
In the end, I feel like I learned (somehow) that it's okay to go off and pursue my own personnal ambitions even if they aren't noble, or world-changing. What matters is they are world-changing to me; that they inspire me. And I think that if I don't follow my own heart and my own desires, I won't be of any use to anyone because I will always be thinking "what if."
The Future
Anyways, maybe I will post the first page or two of what I write when I write it.
Check it out...
6:52 AM Edit This 0 Comments »
http://gviseychelles.blogspot.com/
hey just a quickie, thought you should check this out.
- sazz
hey just a quickie, thought you should check this out.
- sazz
Curieuse / Week / Crazy
2:44 AM Edit This 1 Comment »
I am currently on Praslin (once again) after a few short but wonderful days on Curieuse Island and National Park where I spent my time helping out trying to build up the other GVI base. Mostly this involved schlepping things to and from the ranger station to "Our House" -- pretty much heaven.
Our house (on Cureiuse) is on a long sandy beach called Anse Jose and faces Praslin. The water is clear blue and the bottom sandy with an occasional rock which is a beacon for any sort of marine life.
How do you describe three wonderfully perfect days? I don't even know where to begin... First of all, Curieuse is both a terrestrial and a marine national park. Second of all, very few people get to stay there. Pretty much just the rangers, us, and the Giant Tortoises (who, by the way, love being scratched under the neck)...
We spent the days working, pulling apart a-frames, moving wood, and trying to escape the endless summer sun that was beating down upon us. Our nights were spent (mind you there were only six of us) playing Oh Hell and drinking beers and wine..l
The atmosphere was really peacefully and I have to say that it was by far my favorite part of the trip so far. I also did this pretty neat rock scramble / climb / boulder near the ranger station and got to the top of this really cool rock formation.
We snorkeled one day in supposedly shark infested water, despite the visibility being crap, the waves being huge, and well my enormous fear of sharks... Before we set off the rangers said "watch out, the monsoon weather has brought up the big ones..." but we weren't really sure if they were joking or not. At one point I got really far away from the group... In the past I would have bee-lined it for the nearest shore but now I was able to remain relatively calm. (Despite knowing there were, perhaps, 4 meter lemon sharks -- 4th most dangerous in the world -- swimming with or around or perhaps nowhere near me.
Curieuse is a pretty neat island. Besides the giant tortoises it used to be a Leper colony so there are a ton of abandoned buildings from the turn of the century. While it should feel creepy, I think its impossible for it to: especially when compared to the torn apart school ground that we're used to...
The most frustrating aspects have been the water shortages, the lack of anything decent to eat, and, well, the inescapable heat. It gets so muggy at night you feel like you are suffocating. I sleep next to the window and waited patiently for three hours before even a breath of wind came to cool me down.
On our way back today, the skies opened up and we got absolutely drenched. But so it goes... Now, I am in an internet cafe trying to get warm but failing at it. Curieuse was great and I think I have finally cured my fear of sharks...maybe...possibly...
Currently reading: Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
Just Read: Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad....
Well its raining once again, my thoughts are scattered with all the mad dashing to-and-fro and trying to stay dry syndrome...
***
Note: I lost my cellphone over here. Whoops. My bad. (about time, isn't that what you are thinking?) So, sorry to my family but I don't know when I'll get to ringing you again...
And a late shout-out to Julie Blue for being awesome and watching my canary yellow upside down backpack.
Leigh Leigh, I can't believe you bought your wedding dress without me! Gah! Scary! Crazy! I want to see it!
Hearts, hugs, and all other things good.
- Sazz
P.s. for those of you interested, I will be getting into Boston at 11 am on August 5. Yeehaw.
Our house (on Cureiuse) is on a long sandy beach called Anse Jose and faces Praslin. The water is clear blue and the bottom sandy with an occasional rock which is a beacon for any sort of marine life.
How do you describe three wonderfully perfect days? I don't even know where to begin... First of all, Curieuse is both a terrestrial and a marine national park. Second of all, very few people get to stay there. Pretty much just the rangers, us, and the Giant Tortoises (who, by the way, love being scratched under the neck)...
We spent the days working, pulling apart a-frames, moving wood, and trying to escape the endless summer sun that was beating down upon us. Our nights were spent (mind you there were only six of us) playing Oh Hell and drinking beers and wine..l
The atmosphere was really peacefully and I have to say that it was by far my favorite part of the trip so far. I also did this pretty neat rock scramble / climb / boulder near the ranger station and got to the top of this really cool rock formation.
We snorkeled one day in supposedly shark infested water, despite the visibility being crap, the waves being huge, and well my enormous fear of sharks... Before we set off the rangers said "watch out, the monsoon weather has brought up the big ones..." but we weren't really sure if they were joking or not. At one point I got really far away from the group... In the past I would have bee-lined it for the nearest shore but now I was able to remain relatively calm. (Despite knowing there were, perhaps, 4 meter lemon sharks -- 4th most dangerous in the world -- swimming with or around or perhaps nowhere near me.
Curieuse is a pretty neat island. Besides the giant tortoises it used to be a Leper colony so there are a ton of abandoned buildings from the turn of the century. While it should feel creepy, I think its impossible for it to: especially when compared to the torn apart school ground that we're used to...
The most frustrating aspects have been the water shortages, the lack of anything decent to eat, and, well, the inescapable heat. It gets so muggy at night you feel like you are suffocating. I sleep next to the window and waited patiently for three hours before even a breath of wind came to cool me down.
On our way back today, the skies opened up and we got absolutely drenched. But so it goes... Now, I am in an internet cafe trying to get warm but failing at it. Curieuse was great and I think I have finally cured my fear of sharks...maybe...possibly...
Currently reading: Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
Just Read: Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad....
Well its raining once again, my thoughts are scattered with all the mad dashing to-and-fro and trying to stay dry syndrome...
***
Note: I lost my cellphone over here. Whoops. My bad. (about time, isn't that what you are thinking?) So, sorry to my family but I don't know when I'll get to ringing you again...
And a late shout-out to Julie Blue for being awesome and watching my canary yellow upside down backpack.
Leigh Leigh, I can't believe you bought your wedding dress without me! Gah! Scary! Crazy! I want to see it!
Hearts, hugs, and all other things good.
- Sazz
P.s. for those of you interested, I will be getting into Boston at 11 am on August 5. Yeehaw.
La Digue & Praslin (Le Weekend)
7:23 AM Edit This 2 Comments »
Wow! What a weekend full of adventure! La Digue and Praslin were absolutely incredible.
La Digue
It felt as though I stepped back in time... Ox cart taxis and only a few scattered trucks running about streets that were simply overtaken with bicycles (amazing). Everyone road bikes.
After settling into our guest house, we took out bicycles and literally road down every road possible. It was fantastic riding up and down hills and visiting beach after beach. We saw all the "post card" beaches that are famously displayed whenever you google image the Seychelles. We also had a simply marvelous time going around by bike. I missed having pedals beneath my feet! La Digue is a very small island and we covered it in an entire day. For lunch we had hamburgers on the beach followed by a snorkel and a book reading session. I saw a moray eel and a couple of surgeon fish...nothing too exciting though I did manage to snap a nice shot of the eel!
After, we continued our trip down the edge of the coast stopping here and there for pictures and to wipe away the heaps of sweat that layered on. (Disgusting). For the most part it was a very relaxed day...
The night we went to a restaurant overlooking Praslin and Curie use island and watched the sunset (beautiful) while drinking cocktails. The night sky unfolded as if an artist were painstakingly choosing just the right golden hues. Our night continued by watching the constellations unveil themselves...really just the southern cross and the big dipper (which I didn't know you could see in the southern hemisphere!).
All and all it was a lovely day!
Praslin
Before we left for Praslin we were treated to a very elegant breakfast of egg, toast, and fresh fruit juice. We walked back to the ferry terminal and on the way stopped to admire a farmers "new-age scare crows" which were these super creepy manikins looking at computers and playing with telephones. For some reason, it reminded me of Fahrenheit 451, though I am not quite sure why...
We then stopped and chatted with a local man who was selling souvenirs and I ended up walking away with necklace. The ferry ride back to Praslin was short but beautiful. The wind let-up so there were no waves and it was a smooth, peaceful ride.
We got to Praslin and randomly decided to rent a car because it was CHEAPER than taking a taxi to our first destination and gave us greater flexibility as well. Emma drove (props to her for handling left-lane) and I navigated. Raph and Sam provided their UK and Australlian wisdom throughout our journey...
Our first stop was Vallee de Mai, which had been my one goal on this trip as it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. I cannot explain the happiness I felt at having done what I set out to do. We paid an outrageous park entrance fee and then hiked around for an hour and a half covering all of the parks trails. It was really exciting to be there and to see the Coco de Mer trees. While there was nothing truly "spectacular" about the site (I knew I would see the Coco De Mers on Curieuse when I go there on Wednesday for four days), there was something tremendously wonderful about having done what I set out to do -- and to simply see that the Seychellois recognize the importance of having something "unique" to their country and that it is worth protecting. This was, without a doubt, one of my favorite stops for the day.
We then drove up the coast and stopped at Le Monde Cafe and had wonderful sandwiches. I had the Praslin Club which was bacon, chicken, and fried egg -- basically amazing before continuing on our journey. We did as much "circumnavigation" as possible and drove as far as the roads would take us.
Our end destination was Anse Lazoir (sp?) the beach rated the number 1 beach in the world... It was amazing: Sand, waves, a few large granitic boulders, sailboats, and deep water.
I got in the water and didn't get out till it was time to go. The first part I spent snorkeling (though there wasn't really anything to see, except look for shells). The rest of it I spent body-surfing. I must have body-surfed for about 1.5 hours with Raph. It was incredible though you had to be careful not to lose your top and after every wave you had sand pretty much every-where.
On my second wave my feet literally went over my head and I washed all the way up the beach -- in short, it was amazing. We stayed at this marvelous place for the remainder of the afternoon until we had to catch our ferry home, back to Mahe. Our ride back was quite enjoyable as we got to have a sunset cruise...
Anyways that takes me to this very moment and I have to jet!
Have a good week everyone.
<3 class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_34">Sazz
La Digue
It felt as though I stepped back in time... Ox cart taxis and only a few scattered trucks running about streets that were simply overtaken with bicycles (amazing). Everyone road bikes.
After settling into our guest house, we took out bicycles and literally road down every road possible. It was fantastic riding up and down hills and visiting beach after beach. We saw all the "post card" beaches that are famously displayed whenever you google image the Seychelles. We also had a simply marvelous time going around by bike. I missed having pedals beneath my feet! La Digue is a very small island and we covered it in an entire day. For lunch we had hamburgers on the beach followed by a snorkel and a book reading session. I saw a moray eel and a couple of surgeon fish...nothing too exciting though I did manage to snap a nice shot of the eel!
After, we continued our trip down the edge of the coast stopping here and there for pictures and to wipe away the heaps of sweat that layered on. (Disgusting). For the most part it was a very relaxed day...
The night we went to a restaurant overlooking Praslin and Curie use island and watched the sunset (beautiful) while drinking cocktails. The night sky unfolded as if an artist were painstakingly choosing just the right golden hues. Our night continued by watching the constellations unveil themselves...really just the southern cross and the big dipper (which I didn't know you could see in the southern hemisphere!).
All and all it was a lovely day!
Praslin
Before we left for Praslin we were treated to a very elegant breakfast of egg, toast, and fresh fruit juice. We walked back to the ferry terminal and on the way stopped to admire a farmers "new-age scare crows" which were these super creepy manikins looking at computers and playing with telephones. For some reason, it reminded me of Fahrenheit 451, though I am not quite sure why...
We then stopped and chatted with a local man who was selling souvenirs and I ended up walking away with necklace. The ferry ride back to Praslin was short but beautiful. The wind let-up so there were no waves and it was a smooth, peaceful ride.
We got to Praslin and randomly decided to rent a car because it was CHEAPER than taking a taxi to our first destination and gave us greater flexibility as well. Emma drove (props to her for handling left-lane) and I navigated. Raph and Sam provided their UK and Australlian wisdom throughout our journey...
Our first stop was Vallee de Mai, which had been my one goal on this trip as it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. I cannot explain the happiness I felt at having done what I set out to do. We paid an outrageous park entrance fee and then hiked around for an hour and a half covering all of the parks trails. It was really exciting to be there and to see the Coco de Mer trees. While there was nothing truly "spectacular" about the site (I knew I would see the Coco De Mers on Curieuse when I go there on Wednesday for four days), there was something tremendously wonderful about having done what I set out to do -- and to simply see that the Seychellois recognize the importance of having something "unique" to their country and that it is worth protecting. This was, without a doubt, one of my favorite stops for the day.
We then drove up the coast and stopped at Le Monde Cafe and had wonderful sandwiches. I had the Praslin Club which was bacon, chicken, and fried egg -- basically amazing before continuing on our journey. We did as much "circumnavigation" as possible and drove as far as the roads would take us.
Our end destination was Anse Lazoir (sp?) the beach rated the number 1 beach in the world... It was amazing: Sand, waves, a few large granitic boulders, sailboats, and deep water.
I got in the water and didn't get out till it was time to go. The first part I spent snorkeling (though there wasn't really anything to see, except look for shells). The rest of it I spent body-surfing. I must have body-surfed for about 1.5 hours with Raph. It was incredible though you had to be careful not to lose your top and after every wave you had sand pretty much every-where.
On my second wave my feet literally went over my head and I washed all the way up the beach -- in short, it was amazing. We stayed at this marvelous place for the remainder of the afternoon until we had to catch our ferry home, back to Mahe. Our ride back was quite enjoyable as we got to have a sunset cruise...
Anyways that takes me to this very moment and I have to jet!
Have a good week everyone.
<3 class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_34">Sazz
Week 3
9:41 PM Edit This 1 Comment »
Just a quick little update, nothing to long.
Current Location: La Digue
This week has flown by, partyly because we moved our weekend to be Friday-Saturday rather than Saturday-Sunday due to the tides here. Plus it has actually been SUNNY. What a relief! Last night we threw a halloween party (random, but awesome) and everyone dressed up in their best effort...it was amazing seeing what people could do with a little bit of creativity and the surrounding resources (including but certainly not limited to palm trees and coconut husks...)
I spent a lot of time this week making a garden for base because I need to stay active and can't stand sitting still for too long. Emma and I did our second solo dive together (The first was last week and was....interesting). This time it went amazingly well (I navigated) and we found a turtle (our goal) and followed it for seven minutes while recording its behavior: what it was doing, eating, and why...we are involved in helping try to figure out what happens to turtles during t heir "lost years" (the years between when they are boirn and become adults). Pretty Cool Stuff.
I also went and scoped out this huge granatic spire behind our kitchen one afternoon and decided that I would like to try and climb part of it. Two of the guys here are climbers so I think we are going to have a go at it next week...who knows! But it looks pretty sick (minus the fact that it's surround in coconut spiders which are big, scary, and creepy).
The diving has been pretty fantastic this last week as visibility is finally getting better. 25 meters vs. 2-5 meters makes a huge different. We also went to a better divesite (LIght house vs. Bay Ternae Central) and there were a lot of huge fish (snappers, emporers, bat fish, sharks ect.)
I helped in a Plankton tow this week to detemine how much plankton is in the water and to determine what types (I feel ignorant not knowing that different types existed) and trying to determine correlations between that and whale shark activity... so far no one has seen any. But we did have the "world expert" (no joke) on whale sharks come in and give us a presentation on whale sharks and on the grou p that lives here. There are about 355-480 resident whale sharks (juveniles) that come into the Seychelles from about June-October. They haven't gotten here yet and I am beginning to doubt I will see them -- but that's ok because I've seen a ton of other cool stuff.
On the Plankton tow, we did not see any sharks but I did specifically jump in the water to go looking for them. What on earth is WRONG with me! ( Don't worry, I was as weirded out and scared as ever! especially bewcause the vis was so poor!)
This weekend I am spending on La Digue and Praslin, two other islands that are apart of the Seychelles. On Wednesday, I am going to Curieuse Island for four nights...I am really excited about that because I get to see the Giant Tortoises and there are a lot of sharks and turtles in the water when you go snorkeling. (Yes, I am excited about seing sharks!)
The ferry over to Praslin and then to La Digue was AWESOME. Man I love the ocean. Huge roller coaster waves...I guess the fetch for the waves was the entire Indian Ocean so...makes sense!
Anyways, I got to jet... I am sure the internet here is costing me an arm and a leg.
XOXO.
- Sazzle << my UK nickname.
Current Location: La Digue
This week has flown by, partyly because we moved our weekend to be Friday-Saturday rather than Saturday-Sunday due to the tides here. Plus it has actually been SUNNY. What a relief! Last night we threw a halloween party (random, but awesome) and everyone dressed up in their best effort...it was amazing seeing what people could do with a little bit of creativity and the surrounding resources (including but certainly not limited to palm trees and coconut husks...)
I spent a lot of time this week making a garden for base because I need to stay active and can't stand sitting still for too long. Emma and I did our second solo dive together (The first was last week and was....interesting). This time it went amazingly well (I navigated) and we found a turtle (our goal) and followed it for seven minutes while recording its behavior: what it was doing, eating, and why...we are involved in helping try to figure out what happens to turtles during t heir "lost years" (the years between when they are boirn and become adults). Pretty Cool Stuff.
I also went and scoped out this huge granatic spire behind our kitchen one afternoon and decided that I would like to try and climb part of it. Two of the guys here are climbers so I think we are going to have a go at it next week...who knows! But it looks pretty sick (minus the fact that it's surround in coconut spiders which are big, scary, and creepy).
The diving has been pretty fantastic this last week as visibility is finally getting better. 25 meters vs. 2-5 meters makes a huge different. We also went to a better divesite (LIght house vs. Bay Ternae Central) and there were a lot of huge fish (snappers, emporers, bat fish, sharks ect.)
I helped in a Plankton tow this week to detemine how much plankton is in the water and to determine what types (I feel ignorant not knowing that different types existed) and trying to determine correlations between that and whale shark activity... so far no one has seen any. But we did have the "world expert" (no joke) on whale sharks come in and give us a presentation on whale sharks and on the grou p that lives here. There are about 355-480 resident whale sharks (juveniles) that come into the Seychelles from about June-October. They haven't gotten here yet and I am beginning to doubt I will see them -- but that's ok because I've seen a ton of other cool stuff.
On the Plankton tow, we did not see any sharks but I did specifically jump in the water to go looking for them. What on earth is WRONG with me! ( Don't worry, I was as weirded out and scared as ever! especially bewcause the vis was so poor!)
This weekend I am spending on La Digue and Praslin, two other islands that are apart of the Seychelles. On Wednesday, I am going to Curieuse Island for four nights...I am really excited about that because I get to see the Giant Tortoises and there are a lot of sharks and turtles in the water when you go snorkeling. (Yes, I am excited about seing sharks!)
The ferry over to Praslin and then to La Digue was AWESOME. Man I love the ocean. Huge roller coaster waves...I guess the fetch for the waves was the entire Indian Ocean so...makes sense!
Anyways, I got to jet... I am sure the internet here is costing me an arm and a leg.
XOXO.
- Sazzle << my UK nickname.
Pictures
5:42 AM Edit This 1 Comment »
http://picasaweb.google.com/stokey.s/TheSeychelles#
These are pictures from my first few days here... Hope you like them. I couldn't figure out how to make a slideshow on here... I will keep trying though. Enjoy!
These are pictures from my first few days here... Hope you like them. I couldn't figure out how to make a slideshow on here... I will keep trying though. Enjoy!
Week 2
4:52 AM Edit This 3 Comments »
So I just finished a circumnavigation of Mahe island. It's taken about 3 hours and has been quite unexpected but very awesome indeed. My favorite part (hands down) was watching this big family of Rottweilers running along the beach and playing in the water. Man, do I love dogs!
The weather here has simply been rain! rain! rain! and although I seem to be impervious to getting too down about it, it does get quite annoying. It hasn't effected diving and I do find it rather cool looking up underwater, watching the rain pellets beat against the surface of the water.
There isn't too much reporting to do. This week we continued diving and learning our fish which culminated with a fish exam on Friday. We needed a 95 to pass and to begin doing our research. I passed. Yeehaw! I am now an Indian Ocean fish expert...or at least I can pretend I'm one.
Our fish couts are really important in helping determine how healthy the reef is as many of the fish we count feed directly on the corals. Other fish we monitor are for fishing and tourism purposes. It's important to monitor the species that are fished because mmany of tyhem are predators and if they are over-fished it can cause huge imbalances on the reef. Bay Ternae, where we are diving, is incredible. In 1998 it suffered a severe coral bleaching due to high water temperatures and 95% of the reef died. The reef has bounced back however and coral cover is back to about 40% -- good progress for 11 years.
This week we started doing turtle dives where we specifically go look for turtles, but unfortunately, no one found any. The day after, on a none-turtle dive, we found six of them. A little ironic. We also saw two squid.
Last weekend I ate octopus for the first time and it was delicious. This past friday night we threw a big creole barbeque and I must say, it was fantastic. The food was incredible. For desert we literally had sweet potatoes. They were potatoes in this sugary cream sauce. I like potatoes, so I was a fan.
Other than that life has been pretty low-key. I started another book. Atlas Shrugged. I've been wanting to read it for awhile and they had it on the communal book shelf here. Considering it was 1000 pages, I figured it would be good to pick up a book that might take awhile....
Yeseterday I found some ferral kittens starving in the woods and so unbelievable wet that it pretty much broke my heart. I couldn't just leave them outside so I ended up making them some porridge and milk and leaving it out for them. We aren't supposed to feed the cats but the poor things were nothing but skin and bones and i really just couldn't leave them there to die...
In response to some comments:
Leigh, I miss you being my arms.
The bull did have horns, though they were tiny. And yes, it has tried doing it again...
I also got hit by an eaten mango falling out of a tree yesterday after a fruit bat ate it. These things are massive and pretty cool but it scared the bajeeebers out of me. I was really confused as to why there was eaten fruit falling out of the sky. I've been cooking a fair amount and the other day found my own coconut, then husked it, drank the milk, and ate it. It was pretty delicious but the order of operations to get to the actual eating takes awhile, unless, you know, you are Seychellois and then it takes you about 10 seconds. (Took me about 45 minutes).
I wish I had some cooler stories to tell but between the weather and having to learn 100+ fish there hasn't been a whole lot of time to adventure. Plus, when we are on the base, we really can't leave. We do get to walk to the shop which is about (according to another trip member) "a 45 minute arduous treck through the hills" ... it really isn't that bad, but it is a bit of a journey doing it there and back. If I go, I usually only get an icecream but today they had chocolate! So exciting. Rollos are amazing especially after not having any chocolate for WEEKS.
Things I've liked a lot so far: Homemade bread, making bread, time to read, brainstorming for writing, coconuts, Seybrew (the local beer), diving, small sharks, bumphead parrotfish, humphead wrasse, Morray eels, sea turtles,
British drinking games, British expressions, British phrases... ok side note potato chips are "crisps." weird... Also they don't know the difference between jam and jelly... They also don't believe in creamy peanut butter, fluff, or peanut butter and jelly.
Things I miss: My family, Eel pond, the sail boat, friends, faltown, hiking, rock climbing, The loj, nuhoc, clam chowder, lobster bisque, swordfish at scraggy, Scraggy in general, Basset's Island, The Phusion, Water-skiing, QBA, Old Silver, Alaska (ok so that's not at home, but whatever), Bookstores that sell books in English,
Cool things I've learned: how to use a compressor, how to open and eat a coconut, fish and then of course more fish, what I want to do in the fall, what I want to do when I graduate,
Things I want to do before I leave: Go to th UNESCO world heritage site in Praslin, Go to Praslin, Go to La Digue, See a Whale Shark (fingers crossed),
What I hope to accomplish this week: read more of Atlas Shrugged, learn how to survey under water, Figure out a way to go to the Unesco World heritage site next weekend, Boulder, Help GVI start a vegetable patch on base, go fruit picking in the middle of the woods.
cool beans.
Miss you all. Keep the comments coming and put your name! not anonymous!
<3
The weather here has simply been rain! rain! rain! and although I seem to be impervious to getting too down about it, it does get quite annoying. It hasn't effected diving and I do find it rather cool looking up underwater, watching the rain pellets beat against the surface of the water.
There isn't too much reporting to do. This week we continued diving and learning our fish which culminated with a fish exam on Friday. We needed a 95 to pass and to begin doing our research. I passed. Yeehaw! I am now an Indian Ocean fish expert...or at least I can pretend I'm one.
Our fish couts are really important in helping determine how healthy the reef is as many of the fish we count feed directly on the corals. Other fish we monitor are for fishing and tourism purposes. It's important to monitor the species that are fished because mmany of tyhem are predators and if they are over-fished it can cause huge imbalances on the reef. Bay Ternae, where we are diving, is incredible. In 1998 it suffered a severe coral bleaching due to high water temperatures and 95% of the reef died. The reef has bounced back however and coral cover is back to about 40% -- good progress for 11 years.
This week we started doing turtle dives where we specifically go look for turtles, but unfortunately, no one found any. The day after, on a none-turtle dive, we found six of them. A little ironic. We also saw two squid.
Last weekend I ate octopus for the first time and it was delicious. This past friday night we threw a big creole barbeque and I must say, it was fantastic. The food was incredible. For desert we literally had sweet potatoes. They were potatoes in this sugary cream sauce. I like potatoes, so I was a fan.
Other than that life has been pretty low-key. I started another book. Atlas Shrugged. I've been wanting to read it for awhile and they had it on the communal book shelf here. Considering it was 1000 pages, I figured it would be good to pick up a book that might take awhile....
Yeseterday I found some ferral kittens starving in the woods and so unbelievable wet that it pretty much broke my heart. I couldn't just leave them outside so I ended up making them some porridge and milk and leaving it out for them. We aren't supposed to feed the cats but the poor things were nothing but skin and bones and i really just couldn't leave them there to die...
In response to some comments:
Leigh, I miss you being my arms.
The bull did have horns, though they were tiny. And yes, it has tried doing it again...
I also got hit by an eaten mango falling out of a tree yesterday after a fruit bat ate it. These things are massive and pretty cool but it scared the bajeeebers out of me. I was really confused as to why there was eaten fruit falling out of the sky. I've been cooking a fair amount and the other day found my own coconut, then husked it, drank the milk, and ate it. It was pretty delicious but the order of operations to get to the actual eating takes awhile, unless, you know, you are Seychellois and then it takes you about 10 seconds. (Took me about 45 minutes).
I wish I had some cooler stories to tell but between the weather and having to learn 100+ fish there hasn't been a whole lot of time to adventure. Plus, when we are on the base, we really can't leave. We do get to walk to the shop which is about (according to another trip member) "a 45 minute arduous treck through the hills" ... it really isn't that bad, but it is a bit of a journey doing it there and back. If I go, I usually only get an icecream but today they had chocolate! So exciting. Rollos are amazing especially after not having any chocolate for WEEKS.
Things I've liked a lot so far: Homemade bread, making bread, time to read, brainstorming for writing, coconuts, Seybrew (the local beer), diving, small sharks, bumphead parrotfish, humphead wrasse, Morray eels, sea turtles,
British drinking games, British expressions, British phrases... ok side note potato chips are "crisps." weird... Also they don't know the difference between jam and jelly... They also don't believe in creamy peanut butter, fluff, or peanut butter and jelly.
Things I miss: My family, Eel pond, the sail boat, friends, faltown, hiking, rock climbing, The loj, nuhoc, clam chowder, lobster bisque, swordfish at scraggy, Scraggy in general, Basset's Island, The Phusion, Water-skiing, QBA, Old Silver, Alaska (ok so that's not at home, but whatever), Bookstores that sell books in English,
Cool things I've learned: how to use a compressor, how to open and eat a coconut, fish and then of course more fish, what I want to do in the fall, what I want to do when I graduate,
Things I want to do before I leave: Go to th UNESCO world heritage site in Praslin, Go to Praslin, Go to La Digue, See a Whale Shark (fingers crossed),
What I hope to accomplish this week: read more of Atlas Shrugged, learn how to survey under water, Figure out a way to go to the Unesco World heritage site next weekend, Boulder, Help GVI start a vegetable patch on base, go fruit picking in the middle of the woods.
cool beans.
Miss you all. Keep the comments coming and put your name! not anonymous!
<3
GVI Week 1
3:36 AM Edit This 7 Comments »
Wow! It has been so long since my last update. (my apollogies) I am going to try and give a little summary of what I've been up to this last week...
On Friday a whole group of us who had been staying at the same hotel had to wake up extremely early to get picked up by the GVI Staff. It seemed like it took ages for them to arrive even though they got there pretty much right on time. After they picked us and some other people up we drove across Mahe (the main island) to get to base camp. The ride was fairly long and we had to go up some very windy, mountainous roads but the views were always amazing.
Our driver, Mario, along with his wife (Valerie) run base camp. On our drive, Mario filled us in on some local laws ect. ect. The most bizarre was that the legal drinking limit is 8 beers so they advised us to be very careful about walking at night or if we rented a car, driving. Fortunately, there are no roads where anyone can go particularly fast on because they are all so curvy and that death by auto accident is a very rare occurence. (Still doesn't make you feel safe though...)
Base camp is an old government bordering school. I wish I could describe how forsaken the place looks. Old derilict buildings dot the area as if that sort of thing were normal. None of them have roofs because the wood and beams were all stolen/taken for other building projects. The place would be perfect for a game of man-hunt or capture the flag if we ever had enough energy to put something together...
The building we live in is functional, albeit old, and it does have a roof. (Yeehaw!) The building across from us, doesn't so late at night when the moon is out and its eerily still and the fruit bats are making a racket, it's more than a little creepy...
The rest of the afternoon we spent unpacking, going through rules, health and safety stuff, blah blah blah... And then EMMA FINALLY ARRIVED. Half-way through the day, after her plane got delayed (again). She had spent the last several days in Dubai just hanging out by herself which she said was more than a little odd, especially because she's a woman.
The big group of us went out for a snorkel and when we came back we had a nice lunch... I'm not going to bore you with the details...
On Saturday, those of us who were not adveanced open water divers started working on that course which meant we got to go diving! We do all our diving in Bay Ternay and it is absolutely incredible. I love seeing all the fish swim by.
For our advanced open water certification we had to do five dives: underwater navigation, peak performance bouyancy, deep diver, naturalist, and boat dive (which is every dive we do) I did these five dives over the course of the last week and it was amazing how doing each really improved my ability to dive, plus we got to see some really cool stuff.
The procedure for diving off the boat is very regimented and very well organized, which is nice and over the course of the last week we've all adjusted to it and learned the rules and regulations.
I think so far my favorite part has been all the cooking we have to do. I've enjoyed making bread and cookies, calzones, and cakes as well as lending a hand to whoever is making whatever. Hopefully, I'll be able to cook when I get home.
Cool things seen this week: Coconut crabs, 2 meter guitar shark (google it), moorish idol,
Cool things done: Went into the woods and found bananas, used a machete, made calzone from scratch, did an emergency responder course, walked to a waterfall, ate shark (just a bite), almost finished House of Leaves (amazing but very intracate book), went bouldering (awesome), drew a sweet painting for a staff member for her birthday, got head-butted by a bull,
sorry this is so short and lame. I'm giong to have to think of a better way to post what I'm doing because an hour in the internet cafe + skyping makes it really hard to write good posts.
Ciao Bella
- Sass
On Friday a whole group of us who had been staying at the same hotel had to wake up extremely early to get picked up by the GVI Staff. It seemed like it took ages for them to arrive even though they got there pretty much right on time. After they picked us and some other people up we drove across Mahe (the main island) to get to base camp. The ride was fairly long and we had to go up some very windy, mountainous roads but the views were always amazing.
Our driver, Mario, along with his wife (Valerie) run base camp. On our drive, Mario filled us in on some local laws ect. ect. The most bizarre was that the legal drinking limit is 8 beers so they advised us to be very careful about walking at night or if we rented a car, driving. Fortunately, there are no roads where anyone can go particularly fast on because they are all so curvy and that death by auto accident is a very rare occurence. (Still doesn't make you feel safe though...)
Base camp is an old government bordering school. I wish I could describe how forsaken the place looks. Old derilict buildings dot the area as if that sort of thing were normal. None of them have roofs because the wood and beams were all stolen/taken for other building projects. The place would be perfect for a game of man-hunt or capture the flag if we ever had enough energy to put something together...
The building we live in is functional, albeit old, and it does have a roof. (Yeehaw!) The building across from us, doesn't so late at night when the moon is out and its eerily still and the fruit bats are making a racket, it's more than a little creepy...
The rest of the afternoon we spent unpacking, going through rules, health and safety stuff, blah blah blah... And then EMMA FINALLY ARRIVED. Half-way through the day, after her plane got delayed (again). She had spent the last several days in Dubai just hanging out by herself which she said was more than a little odd, especially because she's a woman.
The big group of us went out for a snorkel and when we came back we had a nice lunch... I'm not going to bore you with the details...
On Saturday, those of us who were not adveanced open water divers started working on that course which meant we got to go diving! We do all our diving in Bay Ternay and it is absolutely incredible. I love seeing all the fish swim by.
For our advanced open water certification we had to do five dives: underwater navigation, peak performance bouyancy, deep diver, naturalist, and boat dive (which is every dive we do) I did these five dives over the course of the last week and it was amazing how doing each really improved my ability to dive, plus we got to see some really cool stuff.
The procedure for diving off the boat is very regimented and very well organized, which is nice and over the course of the last week we've all adjusted to it and learned the rules and regulations.
I think so far my favorite part has been all the cooking we have to do. I've enjoyed making bread and cookies, calzones, and cakes as well as lending a hand to whoever is making whatever. Hopefully, I'll be able to cook when I get home.
Cool things seen this week: Coconut crabs, 2 meter guitar shark (google it), moorish idol,
Cool things done: Went into the woods and found bananas, used a machete, made calzone from scratch, did an emergency responder course, walked to a waterfall, ate shark (just a bite), almost finished House of Leaves (amazing but very intracate book), went bouldering (awesome), drew a sweet painting for a staff member for her birthday, got head-butted by a bull,
sorry this is so short and lame. I'm giong to have to think of a better way to post what I'm doing because an hour in the internet cafe + skyping makes it really hard to write good posts.
Ciao Bella
- Sass
Day 4 / Day 5
3:54 AM Edit This 4 Comments »
You get into a routine and it becomes very difficult to break. Every morning is a slice of papaya, two fried eggs, toast, and two cups of coffee. Yesterday we went out in the morning to a dive site called "Shark Bank" aka the home of jaws. Haha. It was a 30m dive and it was absolutely INCREDIBLE. Getting down was hard, mostly because of the swift currents, and we had to do hand -over-hand down the anchor line then it was absolutely breathtakingly beautiful. Within our first few minutes we saw a big shark and it was so graceful. For someone who has been terrified of sharks to the point where even lakes are a danger, I was unbelievably calm -- I literally wasn't scared at all and instead, was completely absorbed in watching it.
After, we saw a school of Eagle rays swimming above us. There was something very mythical about the whole experience, as if they were some sort of strange prehistoric creature, rather than something just from the sea. Then there was a huge school of baracuda.... All-in-all I was simply in awe of how beautiful the dive site was. We then saw a second shark (again I was simply in awe).
got to run... be back later to finish (?)
After, we saw a school of Eagle rays swimming above us. There was something very mythical about the whole experience, as if they were some sort of strange prehistoric creature, rather than something just from the sea. Then there was a huge school of baracuda.... All-in-all I was simply in awe of how beautiful the dive site was. We then saw a second shark (again I was simply in awe).
got to run... be back later to finish (?)
The rest of Day 2 / Crazy German's house / Day 3/ Bay Ternay & Awesome Dives / Chillin out
6:17 AM Edit This 2 Comments »
I'm not exactly sure where to begin this next tale so I guess I have to start from the most logical point: leaving the internet cafe yesterday. On my way back to where I am currently staying, a lovely place called Georgina's cottage, I walked with a toothless man for about half a mile talking a mixture of French and English. Between the two of us, we had a rather interesting conversation going.
By the time I got back to the dive shop where I was meeting Allie, it was 5 pm and the beers were already out. We sat outside the shop and drank for a little while with some local Seychellois and some other rift-raft (used lovingly, not seriously). We just generally had a good time and enjoyed talking about Cape Cod and Martha's Vineyard (which Allie and Ronnie had both lived in for a bit of time). Ronnie even knew what Remus (the AUV my dad works on) was, which was nice and made me feel at home.
After a little while Vanessa, one of the local Seychellois girls had to go so Reggae drove her and everyone else who had been drinking on a field trip. After we dropped her off we stopped at Reggae's friend Hikol's house. Hikol, is a German architecture who has the most amazing house pretty much ever. He has started a Giant Tortoise sanctuary and has 4 juveniles and one baby. He gets them from people who think it would be fun to have them, but can't actually pay to properly take care of them. He also had a rescued dog named Floyd and two cats, one named Maw and the other (a very young kitten) named Meow. Needless to say, I was in love with all the animals.
I was then introduced to a "coconut chair" which is a stole that has a weird sort of blade on it. While you sit you rub the coconut round and round and it gets shredded. We did this because we were making coconut chicken curry.
Hikol's house was on the water and was absolutely stunning. He'd designed it all himself and had a lot of tiled mosaics for flooring. He also had raised sinks. (awesome). He was also only maybe 30. I guess he is one of the few people on Seychelles who actively keeps a garden... it was pretty impressive too. All in all, Allie and I were super impressed with the house and the meal; outstanding!
Today, I woke up and went on two dives again -- both in Bay Ternay. My dive buddy, Ronny, is a super friendly down-to-earth Seychellois guy who knows whats what except he was really adamant about having me touch fish and sea life. It sounds cool but I'm really not into disturbing animals and its hard to communicate not wanting to do something underwater. In the end I held some shrimp, touched a giant marbleheaded ray and a sea turtle.
I'm up to 5 dives on the trip so far, 9 in total.
Tonight, I am laying low and doing some creative writing. (gasp!) Actually, I've been doing a lot of brainstorming in my down time so that the next time I get Good Old Red I can write write write write!
Sweet deal
The Seychelles (Day 1 and 2)
2:42 AM Edit This 2 Comments »
It only seems natural that you would have to go through hell to get to heaven. Leaving Thailand was a miserable experience. I kept being told that I needed to have $4400 dollars if I wanted to stay in the Seychelles for 44 days to which I politely (if it is even possible to be polite when people are being that outrageous) exclaimed NO! Eventually I was told I'd only need $500 and then I had to scramble around trying to get that and nearly failed... needless to say, I am glad to be out of Thailand. Then I almost missed my connection to Mahe...
But the important thing is I made it and my god is it beautiful. If ever there were a place to call paradise, I'm sure this is it. I arrived at the frightening hour of 6 am when the sun had just started to peak up over the ocean and color the island a deep shade of burgundy. I took a taxi to my hotel in Beau Vallon in absolute Awe. As the car marched upwards through windy roads passed Victoria (the capital) I could see for miles and miles and miles. The skyline was dotted with those small puffy clouds that you have a good time lying on your back watching drift on by. By the time I got to my hotel it was 7:00.
I dropped my bag and went to walk the beach. Absolutely gorgeous. The sand simply melts between your toes and as you watch mountain and ocean collide your breath gets swept away. Not only that but there are huge rock cliffs and boulders which beg to be climbed. From the beach you can see what would be some glorious crack climbing, but I'll have to settle for bouldering on the beach. Now, I'm glad I hauled my rock shoes halfway round the world -- I was a little disappointed to learn I couldn't climb in Chiang Mai but this seems better than anything I could ask for.
As I walked down the beach and weaved my way in and out of the huge granitic boulders I was caught off guard by a coconut crab. Apparently they are large land dwelling crabs who despite their size are very skiddish. I think it scared me more than I scared it.. (talk about being a wuss)
I love the ocean and forgot how much of a pull it has on me. I think the simple sound of hearing waves breaking lifted some sort of immeasurable weight off of me. To be that far from the ocean for so long and locked up within a concrete prison no less was a bit hard. Despite the fact that Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai were beautiful, cities, no matter where they are located, really aren't for me.
After being blown away by the incredible sights I returned to my hotel room and took a quick nap. I woke up and then had the best breakfast in the world: fried eggs and toast with butter. I had forgotten how marvelous something like bread and butter is. The foods (let alone the combination) does not exist in Thailand. Any bread there is some variation of sweet bread and has way too much sugar to ever be truly delicious.
I then walked down to a local dive shop where I made friends with a girl named Allie. We talked for awhile and then agreed that I'd come back around noon so I headed back to my hotel to grab my snorkel and mask and headed out into the water: incredible. I don't know else how to describe it.
The fish are simply everywhere. The ocean is exploding with them. The colors that catch your eye are simply stunning. Bright blues, reds, and yellows. I wandered into some deeper water and found huge angel fish and butterfly fish...it made me remember the time I had a salt water aquarium... This was infinitely cooler.
That afternoon I saw two dolphins as we got ready to dive the twin barges wreck. It was spectacular even though visibility was "poor" (AKA great by New England standards...) I had fun with my camera and took some great pictures, but mostly I got used to using my camera underwater... it's just a little different then on land :)
When we were done with our dive and everyone was back and settled on the boat we watched this small yellow boat careen out of control and do a couple of rolls across the water. It was like something out of one of those "world's wildest boat crashes" video. The boat, which was about 8 feet long and bright yellow had a 115 engine on it and 3 people aboard. Everyone was absolutely fine which actually makes the memory sort of cool. In fact the Seychellois (a person or multiple people who is/are from the Seychelles) weren't concerned with being ok, they were concerned with how cool they looked...
This girl Jessica then went on to tell a story to me about how one time the "city" bank had a bomb threat and rather than clear the area, everyone came down to the bank to see if it would blow up or not. Of course, this was just a hoax...
That night, after the dive, I went back down to the beach and watched a crazy game of soccer on the best field I have ever been to. Sure the goals were made of sticks, but the view was great and the company was mighty fine. The sun was setting throughout the game and the boys playing were barefoot and had the most incredible first touches on the ball... I was really impressed actually.
I had dinner at a local pizza place by myself which was nice and then literally went to my room and passed out.
Today, I woke up early and did two dives. I went back to the twin barges on the first dive. It was cool seeing how different a place can be when (1) time passes (2) visibility is excellent. I had continued studying the fish I needed to learn the previous night so it was nice seeing some of the species I could correctly identify.
Our second dive was at a place called "Aquarium" which has about 3 different reefs. So far this was my favorite -- despite the fact that I nearly shot up out of the water because I lost a weight belt (a little scary!) but I was able to stay down... The best part of the dive was the sea turtle we saw. It was a female hawksbill turtle and was absolutely gorgeous. It was so neat watching it munch on coral.
After my dives, I pretty much came here to the internet cafe because I wanted to check in with my family / post on my blog. Tonight I am going out to dinner with the friends I made from the dive shop. All-in-all, I would say that the Seychelles is the most amazing place ever and if you can rock climb, you should totally meet me out here...It would be incredible.
TTFN
- Sarah
But the important thing is I made it and my god is it beautiful. If ever there were a place to call paradise, I'm sure this is it. I arrived at the frightening hour of 6 am when the sun had just started to peak up over the ocean and color the island a deep shade of burgundy. I took a taxi to my hotel in Beau Vallon in absolute Awe. As the car marched upwards through windy roads passed Victoria (the capital) I could see for miles and miles and miles. The skyline was dotted with those small puffy clouds that you have a good time lying on your back watching drift on by. By the time I got to my hotel it was 7:00.
I dropped my bag and went to walk the beach. Absolutely gorgeous. The sand simply melts between your toes and as you watch mountain and ocean collide your breath gets swept away. Not only that but there are huge rock cliffs and boulders which beg to be climbed. From the beach you can see what would be some glorious crack climbing, but I'll have to settle for bouldering on the beach. Now, I'm glad I hauled my rock shoes halfway round the world -- I was a little disappointed to learn I couldn't climb in Chiang Mai but this seems better than anything I could ask for.
As I walked down the beach and weaved my way in and out of the huge granitic boulders I was caught off guard by a coconut crab. Apparently they are large land dwelling crabs who despite their size are very skiddish. I think it scared me more than I scared it.. (talk about being a wuss)
I love the ocean and forgot how much of a pull it has on me. I think the simple sound of hearing waves breaking lifted some sort of immeasurable weight off of me. To be that far from the ocean for so long and locked up within a concrete prison no less was a bit hard. Despite the fact that Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai were beautiful, cities, no matter where they are located, really aren't for me.
After being blown away by the incredible sights I returned to my hotel room and took a quick nap. I woke up and then had the best breakfast in the world: fried eggs and toast with butter. I had forgotten how marvelous something like bread and butter is. The foods (let alone the combination) does not exist in Thailand. Any bread there is some variation of sweet bread and has way too much sugar to ever be truly delicious.
I then walked down to a local dive shop where I made friends with a girl named Allie. We talked for awhile and then agreed that I'd come back around noon so I headed back to my hotel to grab my snorkel and mask and headed out into the water: incredible. I don't know else how to describe it.
The fish are simply everywhere. The ocean is exploding with them. The colors that catch your eye are simply stunning. Bright blues, reds, and yellows. I wandered into some deeper water and found huge angel fish and butterfly fish...it made me remember the time I had a salt water aquarium... This was infinitely cooler.
That afternoon I saw two dolphins as we got ready to dive the twin barges wreck. It was spectacular even though visibility was "poor" (AKA great by New England standards...) I had fun with my camera and took some great pictures, but mostly I got used to using my camera underwater... it's just a little different then on land :)
When we were done with our dive and everyone was back and settled on the boat we watched this small yellow boat careen out of control and do a couple of rolls across the water. It was like something out of one of those "world's wildest boat crashes" video. The boat, which was about 8 feet long and bright yellow had a 115 engine on it and 3 people aboard. Everyone was absolutely fine which actually makes the memory sort of cool. In fact the Seychellois (a person or multiple people who is/are from the Seychelles) weren't concerned with being ok, they were concerned with how cool they looked...
This girl Jessica then went on to tell a story to me about how one time the "city" bank had a bomb threat and rather than clear the area, everyone came down to the bank to see if it would blow up or not. Of course, this was just a hoax...
That night, after the dive, I went back down to the beach and watched a crazy game of soccer on the best field I have ever been to. Sure the goals were made of sticks, but the view was great and the company was mighty fine. The sun was setting throughout the game and the boys playing were barefoot and had the most incredible first touches on the ball... I was really impressed actually.
I had dinner at a local pizza place by myself which was nice and then literally went to my room and passed out.
Today, I woke up early and did two dives. I went back to the twin barges on the first dive. It was cool seeing how different a place can be when (1) time passes (2) visibility is excellent. I had continued studying the fish I needed to learn the previous night so it was nice seeing some of the species I could correctly identify.
Our second dive was at a place called "Aquarium" which has about 3 different reefs. So far this was my favorite -- despite the fact that I nearly shot up out of the water because I lost a weight belt (a little scary!) but I was able to stay down... The best part of the dive was the sea turtle we saw. It was a female hawksbill turtle and was absolutely gorgeous. It was so neat watching it munch on coral.
After my dives, I pretty much came here to the internet cafe because I wanted to check in with my family / post on my blog. Tonight I am going out to dinner with the friends I made from the dive shop. All-in-all, I would say that the Seychelles is the most amazing place ever and if you can rock climb, you should totally meet me out here...It would be incredible.
TTFN
- Sarah
Chiang Rai
4:30 AM Edit This 2 Comments »
I am filled with a strange sort of sadness over leaving Thailand. Although I lived here for a month, I often felt confined and restricted by my academic life. I want to come back again for sure, but the next time I want to do it just with a backpack, a tent, and a plane ticket. You can survive very comfortably here with just a little bit of money...
Since I last checked in things have definitely been interesting. Two days ago we boarded a bus to Chiang Rai. The trek upwards over the mountains on our little 70-styles bus was beautiful to say the least. The hills got so steep at parts that the bus had to chug slow a long for five or ten minutes stretches. All the while I was busily thinking of the little engine that could and how fitting that story was for the exact moment.
What is so amazing about the Thai country-side is how well its used. Hills? No problem! you can still farm a hill! The result is the hills look like awkward pimples or moles bubbling up out of the earth. I love the rice fields and never tire of passing them by, but my heart aches for the poor souls who have to work there. From the looks of it, it is anything but easy.
On the bus I met two girls from Montreal. We chatted briefly, but mostly I stared out the window or read my book. Everyone is amazed at how regardless of how twisty or bumpy the road is, my ability to read and not get car-sick. I say its from all the time spent having to do homework in the car going to and from soccer practice.
That evening the group of us who headed to Chiang Rai (Paul, Haley, Anne, Tara, and myself) met up with a friend of Paul and Haley's who randomly happened to be in the city. We went out for dinner at a restaurant called "Cabbages and Condoms" which is run by a local NGO. The profits from the restaurant help the NGO survive. The NGO is tackling HIV/AIDS in the area...
After dinner we went to yet another night bizarre, though it was much smaller than anything we went to in Chiang Mai. There was a big open area and a stage so we bought a pitcher of beer and waited for the show. The show had many different acts but the most common seemed to be the "Lady Boys" men who dressed up as women and sung and danced. I guess they have this in the US too from what my fellow travelers say but I'm not so sure...
Things like being trans-gender or gay/lesbian are really well accepted here, which is weird given their "sex" phobia. The lady at our hotel where we are currently staying is actually a man....
Anyways, moving on.
In the morning the six of us went out for breakfast then Paul and Haley headed to Burma because they needed to renew their visas because they are staying in Thailand before they move to China. Anne, Tara, Fletcher and I went first to the white temple and then to a river.
The white temple looks as if it could have been carved out of ice. It is completely white and covered in tiny mirrors making it hard to behold in the sunlight. Honestly, I felt like I had stepped into a setting from a fantasy novel... While the temple was gorgeous the inside walls of it were very bizarre. The back panelling had pictures of the twin towers, jets, aliens, cellphones, people making out, Neo (from the matrix), and a bunch of other random stuff you wouldn't expect on a temple wall...
After that we wandered around aimlessly and ended up finding a cock-fighting ring. Obviously, we didn't stay. We then got a taxi home and went out to this river.
The side of the river we were on had a bunch of shops and was kind of boring. The other side, however, looked really interesting so Fletcher and I forded the river. The current was fairly swift and we had to walk about 50 meters in the water at waist to chest depth but it was so worth it. (Anne and Tara stayed behind)
In our exploring we found a remarkable cave temple that was overrun with feral cats. Everything smelled like cat pee. Despite that, however, it was pretty cool. We also found this strange "ball-flower" It was literally a flower that was a sphere. It's hard to explain but it felt and sort of looked like a koosh ball... All around us were huge hills, fields, and cool villages. Unfortunately it was getting late so we turned back.
We met up with Haley and Paul and spent the night wandering the streets of Chiang Rai. We got lost for about two hours but eventually made it home...
Today we went to a waterfall and did some remarkable hiking and waterfall visiting. The hike wasn't particularly long (sad) but the waterfall was about 70m high. It was incredibly gorgeous.
It seems strange to me that I am leaving Thailand tomorrow. Again, I felt like I saw so little of it and came away with only a greater curiosity to come back and really poke around. While I learned a lot in my dialogue, I felt like I didn't really learn as much as I was expecting about Thailand.
Perhaps the real problem is that I am simply not a city girl and have had to spend most of my time within the confines of concrete walls rather than in the chaos of the jungle. Who knows!
Tomorrow, I leave for the Seychelles where I have no idea what to expect. I am not nervous about going, rather I am simply in this weird state of awe that the stars aligned in such a way where it was actually possible for me to go.
It seems only appropriate that I have finished the book series I started upon leaving the trip but am left with that empty void that fills you up whenever a good book ends. I now start (once again) on a book that has plagued me for the last several months by its slow narration but that I enjoy tremendously. Check it out "House of Leaves."
Anyways, I have to go get a few things in order. Hopefully I will be able to write another post soon giving details about the frequency of updates for Part 2 of my journey.
Love and Miss you all,
Sarah
Since I last checked in things have definitely been interesting. Two days ago we boarded a bus to Chiang Rai. The trek upwards over the mountains on our little 70-styles bus was beautiful to say the least. The hills got so steep at parts that the bus had to chug slow a long for five or ten minutes stretches. All the while I was busily thinking of the little engine that could and how fitting that story was for the exact moment.
What is so amazing about the Thai country-side is how well its used. Hills? No problem! you can still farm a hill! The result is the hills look like awkward pimples or moles bubbling up out of the earth. I love the rice fields and never tire of passing them by, but my heart aches for the poor souls who have to work there. From the looks of it, it is anything but easy.
On the bus I met two girls from Montreal. We chatted briefly, but mostly I stared out the window or read my book. Everyone is amazed at how regardless of how twisty or bumpy the road is, my ability to read and not get car-sick. I say its from all the time spent having to do homework in the car going to and from soccer practice.
That evening the group of us who headed to Chiang Rai (Paul, Haley, Anne, Tara, and myself) met up with a friend of Paul and Haley's who randomly happened to be in the city. We went out for dinner at a restaurant called "Cabbages and Condoms" which is run by a local NGO. The profits from the restaurant help the NGO survive. The NGO is tackling HIV/AIDS in the area...
After dinner we went to yet another night bizarre, though it was much smaller than anything we went to in Chiang Mai. There was a big open area and a stage so we bought a pitcher of beer and waited for the show. The show had many different acts but the most common seemed to be the "Lady Boys" men who dressed up as women and sung and danced. I guess they have this in the US too from what my fellow travelers say but I'm not so sure...
Things like being trans-gender or gay/lesbian are really well accepted here, which is weird given their "sex" phobia. The lady at our hotel where we are currently staying is actually a man....
Anyways, moving on.
In the morning the six of us went out for breakfast then Paul and Haley headed to Burma because they needed to renew their visas because they are staying in Thailand before they move to China. Anne, Tara, Fletcher and I went first to the white temple and then to a river.
The white temple looks as if it could have been carved out of ice. It is completely white and covered in tiny mirrors making it hard to behold in the sunlight. Honestly, I felt like I had stepped into a setting from a fantasy novel... While the temple was gorgeous the inside walls of it were very bizarre. The back panelling had pictures of the twin towers, jets, aliens, cellphones, people making out, Neo (from the matrix), and a bunch of other random stuff you wouldn't expect on a temple wall...
After that we wandered around aimlessly and ended up finding a cock-fighting ring. Obviously, we didn't stay. We then got a taxi home and went out to this river.
The side of the river we were on had a bunch of shops and was kind of boring. The other side, however, looked really interesting so Fletcher and I forded the river. The current was fairly swift and we had to walk about 50 meters in the water at waist to chest depth but it was so worth it. (Anne and Tara stayed behind)
In our exploring we found a remarkable cave temple that was overrun with feral cats. Everything smelled like cat pee. Despite that, however, it was pretty cool. We also found this strange "ball-flower" It was literally a flower that was a sphere. It's hard to explain but it felt and sort of looked like a koosh ball... All around us were huge hills, fields, and cool villages. Unfortunately it was getting late so we turned back.
We met up with Haley and Paul and spent the night wandering the streets of Chiang Rai. We got lost for about two hours but eventually made it home...
Today we went to a waterfall and did some remarkable hiking and waterfall visiting. The hike wasn't particularly long (sad) but the waterfall was about 70m high. It was incredibly gorgeous.
It seems strange to me that I am leaving Thailand tomorrow. Again, I felt like I saw so little of it and came away with only a greater curiosity to come back and really poke around. While I learned a lot in my dialogue, I felt like I didn't really learn as much as I was expecting about Thailand.
Perhaps the real problem is that I am simply not a city girl and have had to spend most of my time within the confines of concrete walls rather than in the chaos of the jungle. Who knows!
Tomorrow, I leave for the Seychelles where I have no idea what to expect. I am not nervous about going, rather I am simply in this weird state of awe that the stars aligned in such a way where it was actually possible for me to go.
It seems only appropriate that I have finished the book series I started upon leaving the trip but am left with that empty void that fills you up whenever a good book ends. I now start (once again) on a book that has plagued me for the last several months by its slow narration but that I enjoy tremendously. Check it out "House of Leaves."
Anyways, I have to go get a few things in order. Hopefully I will be able to write another post soon giving details about the frequency of updates for Part 2 of my journey.
Love and Miss you all,
Sarah
So long Chiang Mai!
8:25 PM Edit This 0 Comments »
It was with a heavy heart we had to say goodbye to our Thai friends yesterday. After spending so much time together and working so hard on a project, it seems strange that we have to simply part ways -- but despite all the farewells, I am not sad. I am sure I will see most of their smiling faces again at some point in my life whether here or there or in between.
Yesterday morning we did our interview projects in which we talked about one of our Thai students lives and they talked about ours. My partner's name was Puy and she was very shy so I couldn't say a lot...everyone else had these long interesting tales but I simply states some facts.
She was born in Chiang Mai on December 22, 1988. She loves Thai music and Linkin Park (strangely, they are probably the most popular American band...). Her favorite dish is Tom-Fu-Yung Soup. She is terrified of snakes. Her mother works for wages. (I am not sure what that means in the slightest) She has four dogs (so lucky!) named Soda, Milo, Nine and Gee. She is a geo-informatics major and doesn't know what she wants to do with it. Someday she wants to travel to Japan and Korea. ect.ect. just that sort of thing...
Then she talked about my family history (which the interview was supposed to be about.) I could tell you my family history but I don't really feel like it. :P
After that, many of the Thai students had to go to class. Julie and I had a quick lunch at the Canteena for the last time with Nok and Game. I had chicken with rice. I used to be a very adventurous eater but over the last week I have noticed I am sticking to fried rice, pad-thai, and tom-yam. These meals also usually have entirely cooked vegetables none of which have to be "peeled." Apparently you can get very sick from fruit and vegetables that aren't peeled properly... At least that's what my doctor said at the hospital.
After, I went to buy some more Thai clothes. They have the coolest capris EVER. I wish I could get them in the States. They are this really loose fitting fabric that is billowy. It's like wearing a cloud.
Then I started packnig which was an absolute nightmare. I bought too much and am definitely giong to have to check an extra bag. Bummer. Whatever!
The Thai students came around 5 o'clock and we got ready for our farewell dinner. We went to the Imperial hotel and were given our own dining hall. The buffet was delicious and the atmosphere was excellent. Everyone enjoyed themselves.
We had a talent show at the end and because everyone was being lame and no one wanted to do it, I (of course) stepped up. I counted to 10 in Thai, though I can actually count to 999. Then I was quized on the numbers.
People were still shy after my lame talent. (I actually thought it was awesome!) Eventually some people went up. All the Thai students went up at one point and sang us this song that's meaning roughly translates to
"Though you will be gone, in our hearts we will always be together. Someday we will see each other again and everything will be the same. Know no matter how far apart the miles spread, we will always be together."
In response we sung (rather terribly I might add!) "Lean on Me." The biggest problem was that no one knew all the words so every know and then there would be this paniced look on everyone's faces as they tried to muffle through the song. When in doubt we just broke in to chorus.
Finally, after all was said and done a number of Thais and Americans went to the Monkey Club. Dance clubs in Thailand are a really good time. The DJ was pretty stellar, then a band came on, then the DJ went back to doing his thing. There was a mix of Thai and American music.
I still cannot get over how obsessed Thais are with Jason Mraz. Every time we have gone out and there has been a band, they have always covered his latest release. (I can't remember the title)
Then a bunch of Americans got ready to head South to Bangkok. I don't really have any interest in wandering around a big city (I supposed this is why I have never been to NYC) and am instead going to Chiang Rai with Haley, Paul, Tara, and Anne. Who knows what the heck we'll do. Though I am fairly certain part of it involves going to this famous White temple and another part involves going to the Golden Triangle.
I imagine I will be able to update my blog within the next three days or so though I really can't be sure. I am also unsure of how updates will work once I hit the Seychelles. Maybe once a week? At any rate, I will try to give you a "schedule" when I know more of what to expect.
All-in-all I would say if possible, you should all try and visit Chiang Mai someday. You can definietly tell it's on the opposite side of the world, but it still feels like home.
Miss You!
Yesterday morning we did our interview projects in which we talked about one of our Thai students lives and they talked about ours. My partner's name was Puy and she was very shy so I couldn't say a lot...everyone else had these long interesting tales but I simply states some facts.
She was born in Chiang Mai on December 22, 1988. She loves Thai music and Linkin Park (strangely, they are probably the most popular American band...). Her favorite dish is Tom-Fu-Yung Soup. She is terrified of snakes. Her mother works for wages. (I am not sure what that means in the slightest) She has four dogs (so lucky!) named Soda, Milo, Nine and Gee. She is a geo-informatics major and doesn't know what she wants to do with it. Someday she wants to travel to Japan and Korea. ect.ect. just that sort of thing...
Then she talked about my family history (which the interview was supposed to be about.) I could tell you my family history but I don't really feel like it. :P
After that, many of the Thai students had to go to class. Julie and I had a quick lunch at the Canteena for the last time with Nok and Game. I had chicken with rice. I used to be a very adventurous eater but over the last week I have noticed I am sticking to fried rice, pad-thai, and tom-yam. These meals also usually have entirely cooked vegetables none of which have to be "peeled." Apparently you can get very sick from fruit and vegetables that aren't peeled properly... At least that's what my doctor said at the hospital.
After, I went to buy some more Thai clothes. They have the coolest capris EVER. I wish I could get them in the States. They are this really loose fitting fabric that is billowy. It's like wearing a cloud.
Then I started packnig which was an absolute nightmare. I bought too much and am definitely giong to have to check an extra bag. Bummer. Whatever!
The Thai students came around 5 o'clock and we got ready for our farewell dinner. We went to the Imperial hotel and were given our own dining hall. The buffet was delicious and the atmosphere was excellent. Everyone enjoyed themselves.
We had a talent show at the end and because everyone was being lame and no one wanted to do it, I (of course) stepped up. I counted to 10 in Thai, though I can actually count to 999. Then I was quized on the numbers.
People were still shy after my lame talent. (I actually thought it was awesome!) Eventually some people went up. All the Thai students went up at one point and sang us this song that's meaning roughly translates to
"Though you will be gone, in our hearts we will always be together. Someday we will see each other again and everything will be the same. Know no matter how far apart the miles spread, we will always be together."
In response we sung (rather terribly I might add!) "Lean on Me." The biggest problem was that no one knew all the words so every know and then there would be this paniced look on everyone's faces as they tried to muffle through the song. When in doubt we just broke in to chorus.
Finally, after all was said and done a number of Thais and Americans went to the Monkey Club. Dance clubs in Thailand are a really good time. The DJ was pretty stellar, then a band came on, then the DJ went back to doing his thing. There was a mix of Thai and American music.
I still cannot get over how obsessed Thais are with Jason Mraz. Every time we have gone out and there has been a band, they have always covered his latest release. (I can't remember the title)
Then a bunch of Americans got ready to head South to Bangkok. I don't really have any interest in wandering around a big city (I supposed this is why I have never been to NYC) and am instead going to Chiang Rai with Haley, Paul, Tara, and Anne. Who knows what the heck we'll do. Though I am fairly certain part of it involves going to this famous White temple and another part involves going to the Golden Triangle.
I imagine I will be able to update my blog within the next three days or so though I really can't be sure. I am also unsure of how updates will work once I hit the Seychelles. Maybe once a week? At any rate, I will try to give you a "schedule" when I know more of what to expect.
All-in-all I would say if possible, you should all try and visit Chiang Mai someday. You can definietly tell it's on the opposite side of the world, but it still feels like home.
Miss You!
Day 21 / Press Conference / Bike Riding / Karaoke / Noho
7:25 AM Edit This 3 Comments »
I woke up after not sleeping to the bleary beating of the telephone in my room. After working from 10am til 2am I wasn't exactly thrilled that my group member didn't receive the files I sent. Myneu email sucks. Everyone needs to adopt gmail ... After figuring out the issue, our group hurried off to print press packets for the mornings event.
While the Americans really only had to "sit tall and pretty" it was still a hey-day of a morning up until the press conference actually started. Then it was a let down. The press (3 television crews and 4 newspapers) stayed for about 15 mintues. I'm sure it was more out of charity than anything else that they even showed up at all, but after all the hard work we put in it was a little frustrating.
Our group was the second to present. Our three Thais marched to the front of the room and asked that I join them for moral support. I held our sex-ed poster that we paraded around the streets on Saturday.
After the whole conference ended (I spent much of it figuring out the plot for a story I am trying to write) everyone was relieved. I went to the post office which took forever and tried sending a package home and eventually succeeded (yes there is a box in the mail going home!) but it won't arrive for another two months. One if by land, two if by sea...
After, Julie and I took a tuk-tuk (think glorified motorbike cab or motorized rik-shaw) to the Horizon Hotel about a half hour outside of Chiang Mai. We went to the hotel because it was this huge compound. Think of it like a Thai version of the Arboretum with all sorts of palm-trees from different parts of the world. It also hand these huge ponds scattered throughout, a zoo, a cacti garden (aka heaven), an herb garden, an orchid garden... Basically the place was just gorgeous. We rode our bikes around for about two hours.
I got to feed some deer after having been stared down by an ostrich...Let me tell you, they are one nasty looking bird -- especially because they have those big dinosaur legs... We also got to chill with a couple camels. What odd looking creatures.
After, we got back from our wild tuk-tuk ride and met up with a bunch of our Thai friends: Nat, Nok, Game, Mu, Min, Jim, and Pou-Pei and went to the local mall "ga-son-gao" which is 7 stories tall and did karaoke.
The second time around was better because now, after having been here for a while, I actually knew some of the words to Thai songs. This is a really popular song in Thailand. Check out the music video for it on youtube. It's kind of long and takes awhile to get to the actual song (about two minutes in) but whatever!
Nobody But You - Wondergirls
Sorry Sorry - Super Junior
These two songs are really popular and there are a couple different covers but I think these are the versions I've heard the most...
Other than that not too much is new. I'm leaving Chiang Mai on Wednesday and am really sad about it. I've made such good Thai friends here that the idea of having to say goodbye is really hard... Tomorrow is our farewell dinner...
Anyways I'm tired and running on six hours of sleep. Gonna go to bed now!
OH!
I almost forgot! My Thai friends gave me a Thai nickname "P-noho" (literally pronouced Pea - no -who " which means Owl in Thai because I have an Owl Purse and an Owl wallet. Noho means owl while P means "older sister." It's a sign of respect...
(Strange that I am calling an early night 11pm when I am named owl!)
While the Americans really only had to "sit tall and pretty" it was still a hey-day of a morning up until the press conference actually started. Then it was a let down. The press (3 television crews and 4 newspapers) stayed for about 15 mintues. I'm sure it was more out of charity than anything else that they even showed up at all, but after all the hard work we put in it was a little frustrating.
Our group was the second to present. Our three Thais marched to the front of the room and asked that I join them for moral support. I held our sex-ed poster that we paraded around the streets on Saturday.
After the whole conference ended (I spent much of it figuring out the plot for a story I am trying to write) everyone was relieved. I went to the post office which took forever and tried sending a package home and eventually succeeded (yes there is a box in the mail going home!) but it won't arrive for another two months. One if by land, two if by sea...
After, Julie and I took a tuk-tuk (think glorified motorbike cab or motorized rik-shaw) to the Horizon Hotel about a half hour outside of Chiang Mai. We went to the hotel because it was this huge compound. Think of it like a Thai version of the Arboretum with all sorts of palm-trees from different parts of the world. It also hand these huge ponds scattered throughout, a zoo, a cacti garden (aka heaven), an herb garden, an orchid garden... Basically the place was just gorgeous. We rode our bikes around for about two hours.
I got to feed some deer after having been stared down by an ostrich...Let me tell you, they are one nasty looking bird -- especially because they have those big dinosaur legs... We also got to chill with a couple camels. What odd looking creatures.
After, we got back from our wild tuk-tuk ride and met up with a bunch of our Thai friends: Nat, Nok, Game, Mu, Min, Jim, and Pou-Pei and went to the local mall "ga-son-gao" which is 7 stories tall and did karaoke.
The second time around was better because now, after having been here for a while, I actually knew some of the words to Thai songs. This is a really popular song in Thailand. Check out the music video for it on youtube. It's kind of long and takes awhile to get to the actual song (about two minutes in) but whatever!
Nobody But You - Wondergirls
Sorry Sorry - Super Junior
These two songs are really popular and there are a couple different covers but I think these are the versions I've heard the most...
Other than that not too much is new. I'm leaving Chiang Mai on Wednesday and am really sad about it. I've made such good Thai friends here that the idea of having to say goodbye is really hard... Tomorrow is our farewell dinner...
Anyways I'm tired and running on six hours of sleep. Gonna go to bed now!
OH!
I almost forgot! My Thai friends gave me a Thai nickname "P-noho" (literally pronouced Pea - no -who " which means Owl in Thai because I have an Owl Purse and an Owl wallet. Noho means owl while P means "older sister." It's a sign of respect...
(Strange that I am calling an early night 11pm when I am named owl!)
Sex Education Presentation
5:01 AM Edit This 1 Comment »
first draft of a paper my group is turning in. FIRST not FINAL
We originally wanted to do a project that tackled poverty. When we broke poverty down into several of its root causes, we thought that unplanned or unwanted pregnancies due to ignorance of contraception could have been a potential cause. When we went out into communities to research this, however, we learned that there was a far bigger issue facing the Thai people: Thailand’s overwhelming lack of sex education.
Because of the taboo nature of sex in Thai culture, both teachers and parents try to avoid teaching sex education. Important information regarding safe sex is not taught to these healthy and sexually active young-adults. Without proper safe sex education, students remain susceptible to catching sexually transmitted diseases because they do not know how to prevent spreading or catching them.
This ignorance has led to an HIV/AIDS pandemic for young-adults: within the 15-24 year old age group it is the second leading cause of death. Despite this, safe sex still remains an uncomfortable issue to talk about. 88% of students want to learn more about sexually transmitted diseases and prevention, but there is currently no structure in place to provide this education.
Initially, we hoped to provide sex education by creating a student group on the Rajabhat campus that would go into classrooms and villages to teach the subject. We though that a peer-led approach would make talking about sex easier to do. We quickly learned, however, that our grandiose idea would not work with the time restraints we had for our project.
After much deliberation, we came up with the idea of teaching students about safe-sex and then having them participate in some sort of event where they could share what they knew. Over the course of several days, it became clear that this event would be handing out brochures at both Nantaram village and a local market.
We received help from both Family Planning Northern Thailand who had their speaker, Benjawan Surichiwa, come in to give the sex education presentation. The presentation ran from approximately 8:30 to 11:00 A.M. Thirty six Rajabhat freshman attended the presentation: very few had ever had a sex education course before. We really didn’t know what to expect from Surichiwa because our communication with her had been limited: we only confirmed she was speaking the day before. Needless to say, she was excellent. Her presentation was lively and used a combination of group activities and lectures. The most interesting to watch (for the Americans at least) was how shy the Thai students were about drawing genitalia.
After the presentation we asked the freshman if any of them were interested in volunteering to hand out brochures about what they had learned that day. Sixteen students said that, yes, they would like to come help us out. In the end, we decided that asking them to help all day would be too much and settled for them helping us at an afternoon street market.
Before we could meet with our volunteers on Saturday, we spread our awareness campaign to Nantaram village, the former home of Nat, one of our Thai group members. At Nantaram village we split up into three groups: one Thai and one American then headed off to see who we would bump into. We brought 180 brochures to Nantaram and gave them all away either to people we met on the street or to leave in restaurants that were frequented by our target population. The brochures, which gave a brief introduction to sex education, provided information on how to prevent sexually transmitted diseases and also included a diagram on how to properly use a condom.
Later, when we met up with our freshman volunteers we were excited to see how actively they would participate and were stunned by their lack of shyness. We paraded down the market with a big sign that said “Let’s talk about sex” in Thai and handed out brochures to young-adults who were at the market.
People seemed genuinely interested in the brochures we were handing out – though we were met with some odd stares. Looking back, our biggest issue was how quickly our fliers went. We brought 320 brochures and 220 condoms to the even and within a half hour had handed them all out save the ones our volunteers were keeping “to show to their friends and family.”
Our project came off tremendously well and everyone in our group truly believed in what we were doing. Despite the face that we had to scale-down our initial vision, we accomplished what we set out to do in a methodical manner. More importantly, however, we accomplished our goal in a way that involved both the Thai and the American students equally, without any real group conflict.
The biggest problems our group faced were trying to find a speaker who was interested in helping us with our project. We went to several organizations before finally securing Benjawan. Another difficulty was getting condoms. Due to Thai culture, we needed special letters specifying how many we wanted and for what purpose.
Finally, we learned a lot about cross-cultural relationships. While the Northeastern Students stressed punctuality and turning in assignments on time, the Thai students continually made us wait either to depart for a meeting with a local non-governmental organization, or for their work to be completed in Thai. But perhaps it was a blessing in disguise as now we walk away with better patience. Another issue or group faced was that our Thai group members had an identical course schedule: if one Thai student was missing, they were all missing. But we were distinctly blessed in the fact that we never really had to employ a translator in group discussions because Nat’s English was excellent.
All in all we accomplished what we set out to do and had some fun along the way. We gave 36 college freshman an important introduction to sex education and spread more knowledge to another five hundred. Ideally, we would hope that a student group on campus would be interested in continuing the work we have done thus far as we believe that is important for communities, families, and individuals to know.
We originally wanted to do a project that tackled poverty. When we broke poverty down into several of its root causes, we thought that unplanned or unwanted pregnancies due to ignorance of contraception could have been a potential cause. When we went out into communities to research this, however, we learned that there was a far bigger issue facing the Thai people: Thailand’s overwhelming lack of sex education.
Because of the taboo nature of sex in Thai culture, both teachers and parents try to avoid teaching sex education. Important information regarding safe sex is not taught to these healthy and sexually active young-adults. Without proper safe sex education, students remain susceptible to catching sexually transmitted diseases because they do not know how to prevent spreading or catching them.
This ignorance has led to an HIV/AIDS pandemic for young-adults: within the 15-24 year old age group it is the second leading cause of death. Despite this, safe sex still remains an uncomfortable issue to talk about. 88% of students want to learn more about sexually transmitted diseases and prevention, but there is currently no structure in place to provide this education.
Initially, we hoped to provide sex education by creating a student group on the Rajabhat campus that would go into classrooms and villages to teach the subject. We though that a peer-led approach would make talking about sex easier to do. We quickly learned, however, that our grandiose idea would not work with the time restraints we had for our project.
After much deliberation, we came up with the idea of teaching students about safe-sex and then having them participate in some sort of event where they could share what they knew. Over the course of several days, it became clear that this event would be handing out brochures at both Nantaram village and a local market.
We received help from both Family Planning Northern Thailand who had their speaker, Benjawan Surichiwa, come in to give the sex education presentation. The presentation ran from approximately 8:30 to 11:00 A.M. Thirty six Rajabhat freshman attended the presentation: very few had ever had a sex education course before. We really didn’t know what to expect from Surichiwa because our communication with her had been limited: we only confirmed she was speaking the day before. Needless to say, she was excellent. Her presentation was lively and used a combination of group activities and lectures. The most interesting to watch (for the Americans at least) was how shy the Thai students were about drawing genitalia.
After the presentation we asked the freshman if any of them were interested in volunteering to hand out brochures about what they had learned that day. Sixteen students said that, yes, they would like to come help us out. In the end, we decided that asking them to help all day would be too much and settled for them helping us at an afternoon street market.
Before we could meet with our volunteers on Saturday, we spread our awareness campaign to Nantaram village, the former home of Nat, one of our Thai group members. At Nantaram village we split up into three groups: one Thai and one American then headed off to see who we would bump into. We brought 180 brochures to Nantaram and gave them all away either to people we met on the street or to leave in restaurants that were frequented by our target population. The brochures, which gave a brief introduction to sex education, provided information on how to prevent sexually transmitted diseases and also included a diagram on how to properly use a condom.
Later, when we met up with our freshman volunteers we were excited to see how actively they would participate and were stunned by their lack of shyness. We paraded down the market with a big sign that said “Let’s talk about sex” in Thai and handed out brochures to young-adults who were at the market.
People seemed genuinely interested in the brochures we were handing out – though we were met with some odd stares. Looking back, our biggest issue was how quickly our fliers went. We brought 320 brochures and 220 condoms to the even and within a half hour had handed them all out save the ones our volunteers were keeping “to show to their friends and family.”
Our project came off tremendously well and everyone in our group truly believed in what we were doing. Despite the face that we had to scale-down our initial vision, we accomplished what we set out to do in a methodical manner. More importantly, however, we accomplished our goal in a way that involved both the Thai and the American students equally, without any real group conflict.
The biggest problems our group faced were trying to find a speaker who was interested in helping us with our project. We went to several organizations before finally securing Benjawan. Another difficulty was getting condoms. Due to Thai culture, we needed special letters specifying how many we wanted and for what purpose.
Finally, we learned a lot about cross-cultural relationships. While the Northeastern Students stressed punctuality and turning in assignments on time, the Thai students continually made us wait either to depart for a meeting with a local non-governmental organization, or for their work to be completed in Thai. But perhaps it was a blessing in disguise as now we walk away with better patience. Another issue or group faced was that our Thai group members had an identical course schedule: if one Thai student was missing, they were all missing. But we were distinctly blessed in the fact that we never really had to employ a translator in group discussions because Nat’s English was excellent.
All in all we accomplished what we set out to do and had some fun along the way. We gave 36 college freshman an important introduction to sex education and spread more knowledge to another five hundred. Ideally, we would hope that a student group on campus would be interested in continuing the work we have done thus far as we believe that is important for communities, families, and individuals to know.
Day 19 / Nantaram Village / Walking Street / Going out / Day 20
3:28 AM Edit This 1 Comment »
Yesterday we spent the morning at Nantaram village where we handed out brochures we made. The brochures were "sex ed on a page." We focused primarily on sexually transmitted diseases and condom use. It was a little bizarre handing them out especially because the Thai students would tell us "you can hand it to that person but not to that one" when to me, there was no perceviable difference. Everyone who got the brochure looked at it. I hope it was useful.
After that we had sixteen freshman from the day before volunteer their time to help hand out brochures and condoms. I don't know what I had been expecting from them but I think they passed any expectations I ever could have set. They were not shy at all! They paraded around handing out fliers and condoms to anyone who looked their age with passion. Over all it was a huge success.
I'm not really sure what else to write about the event itself -- not because there isn't a lot to say, but because I've spent the past twenty-four hours writing about it. Maybe I will post some of that here when I get a chance.
After, we all went out to the bar to celebrate. They don't do pitchers of beer here. Instead they do pitchers of these weird mixed drinks that come in blue, red, or brown. They are really sugary and sweet and you drink it out of a glorified shot glass. The bar scene in Thailand is very interesting simply because its so different and so similar to the US. The biggest difference is hardly anyone was drinking beer (they all had these pitchers) and people were hanging out more than anything. I wouldn't call what they did going out drinking.
Today I have spent the day trying to get work for our press conference done. It's been really stressful. I've been working with the Thai students a lot trying to help them translate. I feel like you have to hold their hands through a lot of things. They will say "yes we will do this" but unless you sit down and do it with them, it doesnt get done. For fun, I went out with Nat on her motor bike. We went to the bookstore (comic books) where her mom works so I got to meet her. Then there was a Thai monsoon so we stopped and got some icecream with fruit.
When the rain had lightened up a bit, we got back on her bike and went to visit her grandmother. Her grandmother lives with her aunt on a hospital compound. Because of her job at the hospital, her aunt gets free housing there. From what I have understood, this is relatively common.
Now its work! work! work!
Tonight, maybe I will go to the walking street, but who knows.
After that we had sixteen freshman from the day before volunteer their time to help hand out brochures and condoms. I don't know what I had been expecting from them but I think they passed any expectations I ever could have set. They were not shy at all! They paraded around handing out fliers and condoms to anyone who looked their age with passion. Over all it was a huge success.
I'm not really sure what else to write about the event itself -- not because there isn't a lot to say, but because I've spent the past twenty-four hours writing about it. Maybe I will post some of that here when I get a chance.
After, we all went out to the bar to celebrate. They don't do pitchers of beer here. Instead they do pitchers of these weird mixed drinks that come in blue, red, or brown. They are really sugary and sweet and you drink it out of a glorified shot glass. The bar scene in Thailand is very interesting simply because its so different and so similar to the US. The biggest difference is hardly anyone was drinking beer (they all had these pitchers) and people were hanging out more than anything. I wouldn't call what they did going out drinking.
Today I have spent the day trying to get work for our press conference done. It's been really stressful. I've been working with the Thai students a lot trying to help them translate. I feel like you have to hold their hands through a lot of things. They will say "yes we will do this" but unless you sit down and do it with them, it doesnt get done. For fun, I went out with Nat on her motor bike. We went to the bookstore (comic books) where her mom works so I got to meet her. Then there was a Thai monsoon so we stopped and got some icecream with fruit.
When the rain had lightened up a bit, we got back on her bike and went to visit her grandmother. Her grandmother lives with her aunt on a hospital compound. Because of her job at the hospital, her aunt gets free housing there. From what I have understood, this is relatively common.
Now its work! work! work!
Tonight, maybe I will go to the walking street, but who knows.
More Photos! / Blog News / Picasa Album
12:44 AM Edit This 0 Comments »Hello everyone!
A few quick words. I have added a hit counter and some more photos.
There is also a little slide show on the right.
I have finally been able to get to a computer with picasa so I have more photos on that account
Please feel free to post a comment!
( I hope this works )
Pictures (Finally!)
9:14 PM Edit This 1 Comment »
Some weird flower thing...
The drawings that were done on day 1 of our sex ed awareness campaign by our 36 attendees
One of many temples
Thai writing
My good friend and group member Nat
me and a silk worm
Ronald McDonald wai-ing. The traditional way to great hello, say thank you and show respect.
Phrao
Flowers after the rain storm!
Starting off on our trek to the waterfall (I am a mess!)
Anne and I after going out to dinner with Game, Jim, and Nok
Thai Cows.
Chilling out near the waterfall...
Elephant Riding
Me feeding an elephant. (Trunks are an amazing appandage!)
I will try to upload some more pictures to picasa... but it keeps crashing...
