Thesis

Whohoo!!! I got three signatures and turned in my masters thesis today. What a relief. Thanks to everyone who listened to me moan and groan about it over the years.

Thats a wrap: I'm coming home

     The writers' guild of America is on strike so scripts that are not complete cannot continue to be worked on. Oliver Stone, the director of Pinkville, likes to re-work his scripts as he goes along but hes not allowed to work on his script while the strike goes on because he is also a member of the writers' guild. So, with Stone already in Thailand and the rest of the crew and cast about to join him, they have called off production of the movie. If filming weren't supposed to start so soon they might have waited a bit - but I was supposed to report for boot camp on Nov 26 and filming was supposed to start soon after that. There goes my plan for world domination (actor>governor of California (native born)>president).

      I'm making fun but I'm really bummed. You all know how much I love movies. Tp be on the set of an Oliver Stone movie would have been awesome. And three weeks of boot camp sounded like a weird pain in the ass and amazing experience at the same time. Then there was the chance I'd have wound up with a number of lines greater than say, 10, and I was counting the dollars and dreaming of a new Civic...you see I wasn't that wide eyed.

     So....I'm homeward bound and I will be spending thanksgiving in the comfortable realm of my Cathay Pacific economy class seat (I had a window seat reserved for my original flight. I can't believe I was able to get an aisle seat only one day before my new flight). It wasn't that bad on the way here. It's just so damn long.

Next time from LA...where I will be turning in my thesis

Thailand pictures 2

Thailand

How I participated in a Thai wedding procession and got cast in an Oliver Stone film

     It all started with the fan in our room in Sangkhlaburi. It wouldn't turn off. I turned the knob to every position and the fan kept blowing. It was 4.30 in the morning and I was awake because this oscillating fan kept blowing at me. I went outside to walk to the bathroom and decided to stay up and watch the sunrise. It was beautiful and I fiddled with the aperture settings of my camera for a bit. When the sun had fully risen I walked off of the grounds of the guesthouse, turning right onto the road at the end of the guesthouse driveway, toward some obnoxiously loud music given the time of day. Along the way I passed passed the occasional large solid house amongst mostly small, bamboo homes. These were one or two rooms large, with laundry hanging everywhere. The music was coming from what I presumed was a restaurant. It had a fair bit of outside seating and some blaringly loud six-foot tall speaker stacks. Past this restaurant - no one was eating - there were several boys aged about 10-12 playing with spinning tops. When one of their tops spun towards and then past me, I went and picked it and gave it to its owner. A minute later one of the boys offered his top to me so that I could try it. He showed me how to position the bottle cap tied to the end of the string between my fingers so that when I threw the top it would unwind along the string rather than be thrown through the air. I wasn't a very good top spinner. The two times I tried the top landed on its side and went spinning away. Some of the boys could pick their tops up, still spinning, with the unwound string and get them to land on their palms. I took a lot of pictures and the boys rejoiced when I showed them the pictures on the screen of my camera. After I was there for about 10 minutes a woman came over and led the boys away, presumably to school.

      I continued down the street, passing bamboo homes in which there was the occasional television, outside of which there was always laundry. Women and some men appeared to be working around the house. One man was tending to a rooster, blowing at the side of its head, presumably try to remove something. I took a photo of a woman who had been teasing her son happily. Her mother, also in the picture, was particularly pleased when I showed her the photo.

      As I walked back up the road toward where the boys had been playing with their tops, I saw them again, across the street, with 2-3 foot tall hand drums. A man who saw me take a picture of two boys with their drums encouraged me to go with them, so I followed, thinking I was going to see band practice. The woman teacher noticed me and also encouraged me along. She explained that the boys would play band until 8.30 and then go into town proper for school. There was the usual broken-English-exchange of "where are you from" "I'm from california" etc. She said her brother had married and moved to Australia...somewhere in there I learned there was going to be a wedding in town later that day. After calling the boys together they each picked up a drum and played along with her as she beat on her pie-tin-sized gong. A man joined in with his voice and his small cymbals and another man watching it all was carrying fire crackers, which I thought was odd. I was handed a drum and encouraged to get in formation. As I walked into place I looked down the hill and realized that just 20 m away were about 40 people, paired up in line, carrying food. I didn't know how they got there but I knew the wedding was going on so I thought they were rehearsing the processional. Then the teacher, the man, and the boys, with me along with them, began to walk up the hill - the boys beating their drums.

      When we reached the restaurant that had been playing the incredibly loud music we stood back and let the rest of the procession pass us. By this time, encouraged by others, I was beating along with the simple beat and skipping the more complicated part. When the fire crackers began to go off my growing suspicion that this was not a rehearsal but was the real wedding was confirmed. Soon I saw the groom with his mother. He was dressed in a while admiral looking suit. The procession filed in, taking their shoes off first, and left the food that they had been carrying in two neat rows. The medium sized room that seemed to be the center of things was not large enough for everyone but this did not appear to be a problem. Many went in and came right out. Many sat on the porch or at the tables set up for the reception. I was encouraged to enter, and after declining/resisting for a bit, I did. The bride and groom were kneeling together with a small bunch of offerings before them. Along a back wall all the food brought by the guests was laid neatly on the ground. (Outside in a corner, the reception food was being prepared.) After a minute I stepped out and sat down, failing to be inconspicuous.

       The tables had simple place settings along with Coke and Sprite or Coke and Fanta. Eventually two cases of Thai whiskey showed up and a few were placed at some of the tables - the affair wouldn't be as minimal as I had been imagining. I was brought a sprite and began to think about leaving as I did not want to intrude any more than I already had.

     I did not know what was happening inside but it was not as demanding of attention as an American wedding. Many outside seemed uninterested in the proceedings, including a group of older men who I suspected had been drinking their whisky since before the bride and groom knelt down. After a brief, light round of applause a girl stood at the window to watch what was going on inside. Along with a few others I stood and looked over her as someone elderly, perhaps a parent, tied some string around the wrist of the bride and then the groom. This act was performed by at least three others. The string was usually dipped in a little water and then, seemingly used to bless the offerings before either the bride or groom held out his or her wrist on a pillow for the string to be tied. After watching this for another minute I left...amazed to have participated in as much as I had.

 

     As for the movie...I mentioned a while back that I had gone to an audition for an American movie and that I didn't expect anything to come of it but the free bottle of water. About a week after I first went in I got an email asking me to come back a few days later (this is why Bet and Lauren went on from Chiang Mai to Phuket before me - I was staying for this second audition). So, I went back. There were about 15 of us, all ages, only one woman, waiting in a room for two hours before the director showed up. We were paired off and one thing led to another and they've asked me to come back to Chiang Mai to participate in a few weeks of boot camp. The movie is about the Vietnam War and the My Lai massacre. I think they want us to look appropriately militaristic in those "sir, yes sir" moments. They haven't told me that I have a role but the boot camp will be paid. My guess is that I might wind up as sort of a foreground extra - the guy next to the guy with a speaking part. I'm not sure what will happen other than Bet leaves tomorrow and I don't. Take care.

Lili - our savior

     I woke up yesterday in Sangkhlaburi with food poisoning and a planned 7-hour bus trip to Bangkok. I pictured having to stop the bus every hour to let my diarrhea run its course. Soon enough I felt so bad that I asked Bet if we could delay our departure and take the 2 pm rather than the 10 am bus. I also started to think about just letting Bet go on her own - but I didn't feel like staying any longer in Sangkhlaburi. And I slept. The immodium kicked in so I wasn't on the pot every hour and with some sleep I felt well enough to go. On the bus I avoided getting car sick (I don't usually get motion sickness, but my stomach was jumbled up and I kept a plastic bag handy) and thankfully, never had to ask for a special stop. (The buses here stop once in a while at a bunch of food carts to let you eat. It's great.)

      So we made our way to Bangkok and met Mike's mom Lili. She is fantastic. She has taken us in to her beautiful home and made us feel very comfortable. After having eaten nothing but one piece of toast all day, the dinner she served was wonderful. And not-Thai. You all know I love Thai food, but after 6 weeks of nothing else, and a bout of food poisoning a western meal was a great relief. We slept on comfortable beds, we had hot showers. Traveling has been amazing but it's very nice to have some of the comforts of home again. Thank you Lili.

I'm not 100% but, as Bet pointed out around 6.30 pm yesterday, I have some color in my skin again.

Bet leaves tomorrow for San Francisco. I'm supposed to head to LA, but I have other plans....

From Lauren in Malaysia

[

Helo from Malaysia!
I haven't forgotten how to spell, the Malays are just kind enough to have a
very similar greeting to our own...making my life a little easier.  I've
traveled from Thailand to Malaysia, traded tuk tuks for trishaws and panang
curry for Pulau Penang, the city where I'm currently staying.  It's a very
modern city, the second largest in Malaysia, yet still very quaint and
colonial.  I had no expectations for this country since it wasn't on my
itinerary until about a week ago and have been very impressed so far with
it's charm.  The people are quite different than Thai's, in appearance as
well as characteristics.  There is much more Chinese influence here and
there is a very large Indian population as well, both of which have added
variety to my diet...much appreciated.
I'm making the plans up as I go, but think that from here I'll travel to
Indonesia for a bit and then around and back up to Malaysian Borneo and
Brunei.  From there I'll catch up with my original plan to see Laos, Vietnam
and Cambodia before spending a few more weeks in Thailand at the end of the
year.  If anyone has any places to recommend as I head south, I would love
to hear.  Diving is supposed to be amazing, so I've got some recommendations
for that, but as far as the rest, I'm kind of in the dark...Lonely Planet
will be guiding the way.
Think about you all a lot and love all the updates on life at home. I've
posted a few more pics from Southern Thailand if you'd like to see:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=19331&l=cf87b&id=592800063
Loves,
 

~Lauren ;-)

]
 

Kanchanaburi (Erawan waterfall) to Sangkhlaburi

Today Bet and I went to the Erawan National Park outside of Kanchanaburi. The park was established to preserve the Erawan waterfall - a spectacular waterfall of many tiers (small falls) over the course of about half a mile. I kept taking pictures because around each bend the sight was even more beautiful than before. The water was very clean which surprised me because many of the falls Lauren and I saw while trekking were composed of brown (dirt, not pollution) water. The bedrock under the falls is limestone and the erosion/dissolution of the limestone gives everything a very light greenish hue. It was incredible. The hike itself was beautiful and following the falls was unbelievable. I liked the park well enough that I'm pretty confident I'm coming back after Bet and I part ways in a few days. I've been strongly thinking of staying in SE Asia for longer - I'd like to see Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam - and I'm already here so the time is right. Tomorrow Bet and I leave Kanchanburi for Sangkhlaburi (north west toward the Burmese border) where we will stay for 3 nights. After that we're supposed to head back to Bangkok for two nights before getting on the plane. I think I'll stay just for one night (this will be with Mike's (Julianna's Mike) mom) before coming back to the Erawan National Park. Then...who knows.

Take care.

Konchanburi

Bet and I took the overnight train from the south toward Bangkok last night. Today we're in Konchanaburi and in a few days we'll head further west to Sanklaburi before heading back to Bangkok at the end of our trip. I"m considering extending my time in SE Asia but haven't made a firm decision  - though it is looking more likely every day. Today we saw the bridge over the river Kwae and tomorrow we'll see some of the museums about it.

Take care.

Don't count your chickens before they hatch

A note about paradise. Apparently I need to do a broader survey of things before I start declaring a winner for that title. A few days ago we arrived at Hat Nopparat Thara. I told Bet that I had claimed the previous two beaches "were paradise, but..." and she interupted with "here we are." The previous beach was a better beach for body surfing, but this beach is even more scenic with limestone cliffs off to the sides and many little limestone islands off the coast. We've done some kayaking and some lazing around. Lauren left us this morning for Malaysia and Bet and I will take the overnight train back to Bangkok tomorrow. From Bangkok we're planning using our last week to head west to Kanchanaburi and Songklaburi near the Burmese border. We can't really believe that our trip is almost over. We've seen so much and had a wonderful time, but it only feels as though we've been here for two weeks, not five. There is a chance I'll stay a bit longer to see Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam. If I do there is also a chance that I'll run into Lauren again in Thailand as we both fly out of Bangkok and could imagine a few more days on the beach in our future.

From Lauren [Diving Thailand]

[Hello one and all,

     Hope this finds you well and safe...enjoying the cooler weather and ash free
air.  Mom and I are back from our four day dive trip, which was amazing!  I am
still swaying, but enjoyed every minute of it from the 5 meals a day to the 11
dives where we saw hundreds of kinds of fish, squid, octopus, anemones,
seahorses, crabs, and lobsters (I even had a CLOSE encounter with a leopard
shark...didn't see him until he brushed my shoulder).  We didn't see any of
the famed whale sharks or manta rays, though:-(  Before the dive trip, we
spent three days in Khao Lak, which was one of the places most affected by the
tsunami.  It has bounced back incredibly well and some think it's doing even
better now.  I spent Halloween at a local bar where the "lady boys" had far
better costumes than any of the locals could muster up.  It was a great show.

      We will continue south tomorrow to Krabi area and Ko Phi Phi.  After that my
plans are open.  My friend Tonia (who many of you have met or heard of) has
landed the job of a lifetime at ABC in New York City, so she will not be
joining me for the second half of my trip as planned.  SE Asia anyone?  If you
have any time over the holidays, I would love to have a travel partner!  Really.

      We continue to love things that remind us of home...Jack Johnson plays all
over the place here, Oreos are always at the top of the shopping list, and
we've even found western toilets at many of the places we stay.

      Keep me posted on you!  I love hearing about all your vacations and plans for
the upcoming holidays!

Love,
~Lauren ;-)]

Paradise

     Lauren and Bet left me in Khao Lak while they went SCUBA diving in the Similan Islands. The diving there is world famous, so they're probably having a blast. Khao Lak was a sleepy town with a kick-ass beach. I hadn't been body surfing, or even swimming in the ocean, in over two years so I loved that beach. My bed however was hard as a rock and after three nights I was ready to move on. So, I walked along the beach this morning until I came to the next little town, Bang Niang. I walked up off the beach through a medium sized resort and found an Irish guy who owns a mini mart and rents the rooms above the mini mart for 500 baht (about $15). It's the most I've paid for a room, but it's also the nicest room I've had. I have a king size bed (not hard as a rock), a nice bathroom, a big balcony with a view of the ocean (looking between two resorts that are on the ocean), a mini fridge, and a great location. The resort is large enough that they don't notice me using their beach side showers when I want to get all the sand off my feet or their towel service when I want to get their shower water off my body or their lounge chairs when I want to get my body off my feet. So today I went for a jog and a swim, had dinner for 25 baht - yellow noodle and pork soup - my local favorite, and then went back to that resort's lounge chairs to listen to the waves and watch the lightening in the distance over the ocean.

   A random note on the food. Yes, it's very good, though the Pad Thai sauce isn't as thick as ours. The dishes that we order in American Thai restaurants do exist in very close (much spicier) parallel, but these do not appear to be the dishes the average Thai eats on the average night. Our Thai dishes are the ...haute couture... of thai food. For local Thais it's often a basic noodle soup with a little meat or tofu, maybe some rice with the soup, usually ordered from a stand/cart with some plastic chairs and tables. At these establishments there is a very basic broth to the soup, not the coconut sauce we think of, and the spice - the red pepper - is added by the customer at his or her table.

Take care everyone.

This is not Thailand at its greatest

Thai mariachi: Abba's Dancing Queen

flying south for winter

I'm flying south today to catch up with Bet and Lauren on the coast. Perfect timing too, as it rained in Chiang Mai last night and there is the first feeling of Thai winter. Its still not even cold, just no longer hot. They're going scuba diving for a few days in the Similan Islands. I don't scuba but I may accompany them and snorkel. I may not, however, cause I feel a little under the weather. Nothing severe, just the sniffles and general fatigue. The beach is waiting...and this coastal transplant to Wyoming can't wait.

Southward

Bet and I will go from Mae Me Lai (a nice little non-touristy town) to meet Lauren in Chiang Mai today. Tomorrow the three of us will fly to Phuket for a while on the beaches and in the water. After that It looks like Bet and I will slowly make our way north to Bangkok while Lauren will head south to Malaysia. We'll see.

Thailand photos

Thailand 1

[From Lauren] Once upon a time in Pai...

Hi all,
Here we are in Pai, the most picturesque, calm but lively place we've
encountered.  We are lucky enough to be here right before the busy season when
the locals throw themselves a huge festival with lanterns in the sky, fair
games, and live music...not to mention all the food you can imagine and enough
shopping to wear out even the most experienced shopper.  We rented motorbikes
to tour around outside the city (if you can even call it that), driving
through the countryside to waterfall after waterfall. Mom and Peter are
heading up to Mai Sai, in northern Thailand tomorrow to renew their visas.
I'll stay here in this heaven for a few more days...we head out to Southern
Thailand on Monday...can't wait for the beaches!

Before this we spent nearly a week in Chiang Mai where I found the bugs
unbearable.  The humidity was amazing and showers were necessary several times
a day, although I many times skipped them since doing so meant I'd have to
once again thoroughly cover my body in bug repellent.  We did find lots of
great food and spent three days trekking through the hilltribe villages,
sleeping under mosquito nets (although the bugs weren't nearly as bad as in
the city), eating homecooked meals, riding elephants, and whitewater rafting.
It was an amazing experience, save the five minutes I thought I was going to
fall off the neck of the elephant I was riding and be trampled beneath his foot.

I've finally uploaded some pics...you can take a look at them if you'd like (I
tried to limit the number and give some descriptions beneath them):

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=17903&l=46dd9&id=592800063

Love hearing from y'all, hope you're safe...we're getting all the details
about the fires...it's worldwide news.

Love to you all,
~Lauren ;-)

Pai

Pai is an amazing little town north of Chiang Mai. Today we rented motor bikes to get out of town and see the sights. We went swimming at a local waterfall and saw sunset at the Pai Canyon. I never knew how easy motorcycles made it to see local sights...and what a blast to ride. Tonight Pai is throwing itself a party. The main stretches of town are closed with different acts at all ends and vendors selling food all over - the best are the pork skewers, the coconut and rice little fried things, and the egg and banana roti/pancake. We're walking around eating and drinking to our hearts delight. Beer is cheap and the food is even cheaper. Everywhere we go there forms a little community of other travelers so we're able to mix it up well. Tomorrow we'll continue seeing the sights around Pai on the bikes. I think we'll head to Chiang Rai the following day so that we can make a border crossing to renew our Visa.

Life is good. I hope all is well.

Heaven

Heaven is the town of Pai, the quaint little villlage north of Chiang Mai where we have found ourselves after a failed attempt to get to Mae Hong Sun. The town festival is tomorrow and after that we'll head into Laos to extend our Thai visa.

Hell

For Lauren hell is the million bites she has on her shoulders. We suspect they're from bed bugs at the hostel in Chiang Mai. I was vaguely worried the place might have given me body lice. I don't think it did but everytime I have an indiscreet itch I get concerned again.

For me hell was the bus ride from Chiang Mai to Pai. The bus was designed for people smaller than me, it's that simple. My upper leg was just longer than the space between two seats. With someone on the seat next to me and someone in the AISLE next to me, I didn't have much wiggle room. At some points I couldn't even rest against the seatback because the person standing behind me was holding the seat back for balance. The bus was full, then they started piling bags of rice in the aisle, then, after driving a bit, they started letting more people on bus, and THEN we go to the curvy part of the drive. I couldn't fall asleep becasue I would have fallen off my seat if I had (it was a winding road and I was only half on on the seat in the first place). The people standing up were holding a handrail for balance. While sitting - albeit with only one cheak on the seat - I was holding on to the SAME handrail for balance. It would have been comedic if it wasn't hellish.

Thailand: around the north

     This next week should take us to Doi Inthanon (the highest peak in Thailand) and to Mai Hong Sun and Pai, two small towns in the north of Thailand. We're taking the overnight (9 hour) bus and will spend the extra $1.50 to be on the VIP bus. Hopefully that means we can sleep a bit. Also this week, I should hear back about the movie I auditioned for. Yes, that's correct. Some American film about the Vietnam war is being filmed here in Thailand soon and they've got fliers around town trying to get American to audition. It was funny - I read some lines from one scene over and over again while they filmed me trying out their direction: give it a bit more body language, try it more confident, try it more nervous, etc. All part of the experience I guess. I'm sure nothing will come of it but the free bottle of water and a few laughs.

     Our conversations have taken a decidedly scatological turn as we assess the effects the Thai food is having on our systems. We've each swallowed our pride to use a toilet from which we initially walked away. They're not exactly toilets either. More often its a porcelain hole in the ground, which doesn't make sense. If you're going to line your hole in the ground with porcelain, and you're going to plumb the room so that a bucket of water can be used to wash things down, why not install a western style toilet? And toilet paper is a valuable commodity here.

      Anyways, the Sunday Night Market in Chiang Mai was a complete zoo. We could barely walk through the crowds that covered many blocks of town. Now I'm tired and I better get back. Till next time.

Chiang Mai - Trekking

    Lauren and I just returned from our three day trek through an area north of Chiang Mai in northern Thailand. We were accompanied by a British guy named Matt we met a few days ago as well as 10 other tourists from Germany, France, Isreal, Canada, and the US. We're not sure how much ground we covered over three days. The hiking was not too strenuous but the scenery was fantastic. We swam in the pools of 3 waterfalls, rode atop an elephant for an hour (Lauren's life flashed before her eyes), did some bamboo rafting and some (pretty mild) white water rafting. Meals were provided and we camped in two villages of the hill tribes of Thailand, though we did not interact much with the local village people.

       I'm not sure if I should use the word 'forest' or 'jungle,' but that doesn't really matter. It was lushly green and amazingly loud at night from all the insects (that makes it a jungle in my book). Fortunately we were not rained as the trail would have been very slippery had it been wet. The first two days were mostly walking, interrupted by swimming at waterfalls (an activity I quickly got used to), while all the other activities were, unfortunately, left until the last day. Despite a few places where the trek could have been improved, we had a fantastic time overall, not including one sleepless night due to another guy's snoring (so loud Lauren took video/audio of it with her camera).

    Bet spent one day trying to get to a local national park and found out it's pretty much impossible to see outside of a larger tour organization. After that she took her Thai cooking course, the fruits of which were delicious as we ate them tonight.

     Tomorrow I think we're in for a relaxing day in Chiang Mai. After that we may try to see the National Park that Bet tried to see. Soon we'll head north to Pai and Mae Hong Son. Later for now.

Lauren's view of Thailand

Sawasdee from Thailand!
It feels like a year since I last wrote which is proof of the culture shock.
I never liked the study of western civ in school, but am coming to appreciate
it much more after many bug bites, trips to "the hole" without toilet paper,
and bus rides that take twice as long as they should.
We spent 3 days in bangkok with lots of rain and wats. The locals played the
red box game with us (warner-ites, you know what I mean) by sending us on one
goose chase after another in search of the standing buddha.  I enjoyed
the "frenetic" city much more than I expected, and look forward to a few more
stops there later in my trip.
On our way up to Chiang Mai, we stopped in a town called Sukothai which had
great old ruins and a large city wall surrounding them.  We rented bikes for
20 Baht (less than a dollar) for the whole day and toured around.  Releif
from the heat comes as we move farther north.  We are now in Chaing Mai,
which is a great city.  I had my first Thai massage yesterday for just about
5 dollars an hour.  I can definitely get used to that.  Tomorrow we head out
for a three day trek through the hill tribes.  We've heard it's just amazing
and can't wait to see the elephants, the people, the waterfalls, and the
greenery.
I wanted to send pictures, but have heard from several that they got viruses
from the public computers, so I think I'll wait until I can find a computer
that is less suspect.  We've met tons of great people and the locals are
extremely friendly.
Please update me on the happenings of your lives...even the little things
will remind me of home...toilet paper, anyone?
Love to you all,
~Lauren ;-)

Thailand: Bangkok, Sukothai, and now we're in Chiang Mai

As of today I've been in Thailand for a week and already I can see myself trying to come back someday. It is not particularly romantic, nor un-romantic, but the sights, the prices, and the uniqueness of it will keep Thailand in my mind as a potential destination into the future.

    Bangkok is big and loud and incredibly polluted. Nevertheless, it was fun and I imagine that returning to it and its amenities/abundance after a few weeks in the country side will be welcome. Upon arrival I caught a cab, following the guidebooks advice I made sure he had the meter on. (You are accosted by offers for a cab when you walk out of the airport, a process that continues at bus stations and street corners throughout the country. "Tuk Tuk, 40 baht," they implore, trying to get your business.) Sukumvit Soi 1 (soi is pronouced like soy sauce, not like the french moi) I told him. Once we turned onto Soi 1 I showed him the address of the place and he was utterly uninterested. The guidebook explains that addresses are not always in order, so I guess they're less useful even to Thais.

    After arriving at 11.30 am I knew I needed to stay awake, so I spent the afternoon wandering the streets of Bangkok. There are vendors everywhere selling all varieties of Thai food, clothes, and other merchandise. Sometimes they serve you on a piece of styrofoam, sometimes on a plate that you must return to them, often they give you a bag with a toothpick, sometimes even your soda is poured into a small plastic bag with a straw (so the vendor can keep the glass bottle). Rather than three meals a day, you wind up grazing all day. Fruit is plentiful and we've enjoyed it as a breakfast or snack many a time. I'm always on the hunt for pastries and Bet has been enjoying meat on a skewer. We enjoy the Thai food but find ourselves looking for something more familiar (and more solid) every once in a while.

   After Bangkok we went to Sukothai (small village with great ruins) and now we're in Chiang Mai for a few days. Chiang Mai is the perfect intersection of cultural capitol and tourist hotspot so authentic food, clothes, shopping, etc, can be easily found and often being sold by a Thai person who speaks English much better than they do in Bangkok. We'll be here for a few days before making a loop around the northwest.

Chiang Mai

We had a bumpy six hour ride north from Sukhothai to Chiang Mai today, where we just ate at an italian restaurant because our bodies were craving something more familiar. Chiang Mai is a charming city - large without the chaos and pollution of Bangkok. Another post soon.

Hopefully my next message will make some sense

Doing well

Lauren and I have been enjoying Bangkok for a day and a half now (Bet will arrive tonight). We had corn cut off the cob with coconut for breakfast yesterday and today. Somewhere we found some delicious pasteries. Fortunately there are fresh fruit carts everywhere. There are carts and vendors lining the streets in most places. You have to walk around them everywhere you go. Hopefully as you do, you don't step on a loose brick, as they squirt dirty water onto your feet when you do. Yesterday was our first full day here and we just wandered around enjoying the process of eating most of the day. Last night went went out to the bars with some other folks from the hostel. The waitresses are forward and often looking for sex or looking to refer you to a sex show. Many people are trying to swindle you here. A common tactic is for a local to tell a tourist that X temple is closed for the day but he will show you to another...or you can buy his precious gems...the propositioning is by no means limited to sex.

We've some good people are going to have a blast.

Bangkok

I tried to buy a slice of pineapple and kiwi today and wound up with a pineapple and kiwi smoothie. It tasted wonderful but I didn't finish it because I'm afraid of drinking the water. This city is sort of nuts - it rained like crazy for an hour today - nothing changed - girls still riding by on the back of the motor scooters that take people around town at insane speeds. Lauren is here and all is well. We're both pretty je-lagged and ready to crash.

Hong Kong

I made it to Hong Kong without any hangups. When I checked in at SFO I watched the ticket agent look for a visa in the back of my passport but he never said anything about it. From the airport Hong Kong looks like a great city, surrounded by hills and the port. I had noodles with pork sausage balls for breakfast here and thought to myself, if this is breakfast, imagine how strange crunchy cereal in milk must seem. There happened to be a place to use a computer for free here at the airport. My flight to Bangkok leave in half an hour. Fortunately it's only 1.5 hours long. The 13 hour flight here went well, but 13 hours is pretty rough. Take care.

Laramie and Berkeley 2007 - and off to Thailand

Laramie and Berkeley 2007

Obama for vice president?

I've been thinking about Clinton and Obama and I've decided I want Obama for vice president. I see Obama this way: I gravitate toward him out of the feeling he could be truly revolutionary. In particular, I wonder about him using the bully pulpit to talk about race, to engage this country in a conversation about race in a way no resident has tried before. The closest parallel would be the conversations/propaganda used during WWII to discuss the war effort. I should also say that I feel like Obama could lead these conversations not so much because he is black, but more because of his ability to communicate, to engage and connect. The subject, race in the US, is chosen partly because he is black but mostly because it is an issue about which action must be taken and legislation can't do it. I worry about Obama because of his lack of experience.

In my view his strengths are his magnetism and potential to use the White House in a way never done before. His weaknesses are his naivete and the chance that Washington is a place where personality isn't enough to change the tone of things in the country. In other words, his strengths are his soft power, the power to set the agenda in Washington through conversation. With the right president, a vice president could lead these conversations almost as effectively as if the VP were him/herself president. And the president, Hillary Clinton, could wield her preparedness and experience in a way Obama could not.

[This leaves out Edwards who scores major points on health care, poverty issues, and for his wife's support of gay marriage. However Edwards was only Senator for one term and in places where he and Clinton are more different, I find Edwards too liberal (e.g. Edwards is more protectionist than Clinton). I should note that my view of Obama being the perfect vice president means that he is not in second place to Hillary's first. Should Hillary falter I think I would be more likely to support Edwards for president and leave Obama for VP. (Total side note: if the VP is perfect for using soft power doesn't that mean that they must have a positive message, for no one wants the bully pulpit to be used to spread a negative message....Dick Cheney?]

Random thoughts

I leave for Thailand on Monday. I can't wait.

I'm stupidly proud of how little I have packed - my hiking backpack isn't full even with my carry-on day bag inside of it.

I wish we had universal health care. I can't get the antibiotics my travel book recommends for traveler's diarrhea because I have to see a doctor to get a prescription. Without health insurance that doesn't really work (I did invest in traveler's insurance but it doesn't cover anything before the trip).

I'm looking forward to seeing a bunch of family members this weekend: it's my grandmother's 97th birthday.

Read about the Amazon MP3 store here. I used it today and it worked well.

Two down, one to go: another of my committee members approved my masters thesis.

I hope that flip flops and my keens (hiking sandals) will be enough in Thailand. I think I'm not going to bring a real pair of shoes. I think they'd be wet after two days and never dry off in all the rain.

I'm using some neighbor's wireless in my grandmother's backyard. The golden gate is straight in front of me, though I can't really see it through the trees. Berkeley has been beautiful while I've been here.

My dad's bone scan and MRI showed that his prostate cancer (recurrence) has not spread.

My grandmother and my aunt are doing very well. 

I need to go fix dinner.

Take care.

Thai visa policies (...and airport security ... and does it work this way to enter the US too?)

Once I called my airline (Cathay Pacific, which I'm excited about) and asked about visa requirements for visiting Thailand. After looking at his computer the agent responded that US passport holders do not need a visa. Plain and simple, I thanked him and hung up.

In Berkeley, I'm reading my cousin's Lonely Planet and it says that you must have a tourist Visa to stay longer than 30 days. Holy shit, I think to myself, we're planning on being there for 6 weeks. I called the Thai consulate in Chicago (there isn't one in SF). They can process Visas very quickly, in person. He recommended that I fly to Chicago for it to be processed (it's wednesday and I leave next monday night). I can't do that. What if I went to Laos for a week in the middle of my trip? That would work, he thought, as long as I had something to show the airline representative. The airline representative? Wait, where is this policy enforced? By Customs? By the Airline? Here or in Thailand? The answer: my eligibility to board the flight will be determined by the airline agent when I check-in my luggage. I find this answer shocking and I wonder if airline representatives verify visa status for entry to the US. ... So back to the question about a reservation in Laos...it sounds like a good idea. I called Cathay Pacific again to ask about Visa stuff and to ask about plans to Laos in the middle of my trip. As long as I have something to show the agent I'll probably be allowed to get on the plane, they said. Basically, with enforcement responsibility left in the hands of the airline (i.e. the profit making entity) it appears that the airline does not want to upset their passengers. I figure that most agents don't ask at all about visa status and those that do will let you on the plane as long as you have some document that they could use as an excuse...."but he had a reservation in Laos..." Now, we are genuinely considering going to Laos but how stupid to have to make a reservation just to get on the plane.

(And, how infuriating that my airline did not properly inform me of this requirement. When I complained to the agent today, she said that it is the passenger's responsibility to know the rules. I would agree IF the airline were not the enforcing body. As long as the airline is the enforcing body they should highlight this requirement. It's also just sad that their agent told me, point blank, you don't need a visa to visit Thailand. If I had explained the details of the situation, he probably would have gotten it right, but he should have asked for those details before answering the question.)

Life in Berkeley #2

My grandmother eats an amazing amount of M&Ms ... my aunt is doing very well after her surgery (the staples in her head are totally gnarly) ... I can't believe I leave for Thailand in just over a week ... and I hope to get away one more time before I go. All in all, things are going well.

Whooo hooo!!!

My masters thesis (remember that?) has finally gone to the rest of my committee.

Life in Berkeley #1

I'm happy to report that my grandmother is doing better than expected in Berkeley. Most importantly she is no longer in the extreme pain that she was in a month or two ago. I'm amazed at how little she eats but she seems alright. Her short term memory isn't as good as it used to be but otherwise she is doing well.
My aunt will have brain surgery to have her tumor removed on Monday. She seems remarkably composed and should be home later in the week.
Internet access is still an issue though I just met the owner of the house I've been sitting next to to get wireless. She didn't seem to mind.

California legislature passes bill legalizing gay marriage, AGAIN.

For the second time in three years a bill legalizing gay marriage in California will go to the Governor's desk. It will probably be vetoed again. Although this is infuriating it is also progress. This makes California's the only legislature in the country to approve gay marriage. Massachusetts is the only state where gay marriage is legal, but that was by decree of the courts. Although I agree with the courts and the point that the majority do not get to remove the rights of the minority, having the courts force the issue plays into the Republican Party's fear-mongering about "activist judges." I'll mourn his veto later: it is a good day when gay marriage goes to the Governor's desk.

Thai breakfast

I looked at one Thai hotel that said they have Thai and European style cuisine. This caught my attention: "breakfast is also served with a good selection from, Kellogg’s corn flakes to eggs cooked your way, bacon, sausage, toast etc, tea and fresh coffee."

It doesn't sound that bad, but I thought it was funny.

More traffic in Laramie today than I have ever seen

I have not done a good job of using this space to write about life in Wyoming. As I contemplate my future and consider moving out of Laramie, a distinct possibility next summer, I regret that. One of the things I love about this town is that I can get anywhere on my bike in about 5 minutes. Usually I barely even have to slow down for intersections because there aren't that many people moving around. Multiple times I have walked down the center of my street on my way home from campus or the movie theater (4 blocks away). (The center of the street usually doesn't have the broken sidewalks, the hanging-over plants, or the sprinkler spray.) So today was a little unusual. There was tons of traffic coming down 3rd street today. It is the busiest street in town but often you can cross without waiting for the light to turn. Part of the increased traffic is simply that students are back in town and I had gotten used to walking around town all summer for jubilee days, etc. While it is nice to have the buzz of town and fall and football season again, I guess I miss strolling around without a care.

[I don't mean to undercut my point, that Laramie was far busier today than usual, but I do want to point out, as part of life in wyoming, that this means there were about 6 blocks of traffic. It is still far preferable to the miles of traffic jams I'm used to in southern California.]

Colorado, including Mesa Verde National Park

I visited my sister's family in southern Colorado last week. We played in the creek, hunted for buried treasure at the empty site of a former whore house, saw some old mining towns, visited Mesa Verde National Park, and attended the Dance Party thrown by my sister and her husband's kids and the kids of their friends.

Here are the pictures (taken with my new (and first) digital camera, a Sony DSC W55 with a Carl Zeiss lens):

Colorado August 2007 - including Mesa Verde National Park

It's official: I bought my ticket to Thailand

My love of thunder bites me in the ass

Picture this:
The rain is coming down hard. I realize that one of my roofline gutters is plugged up. Instead of the water coming out the proper drain spout and being led away from the house, it is overflowing the roofline gutter, falling down right next to the house, and puddling up against the cement foundation. When the house is almost 90 years old, thats a problem. First, I pulled my trashcan under the waterfall coming off the roof and then I saw my neighbor pull in. She had a step ladder. Thank god, I thought, I could pull the plug out from the gutter. But it was too short. I stood on the "this is not a step" part of the ladder and it was still too short. So I pulled a bunch of flagstones from my backyard around to the side. Stacked them, first three and then five stones tall, climbed back onto the ladder (now balanced on the paving stones) and again onto the "this is not a step" top most rung and ever so slowly - cause I could barely reach - started pulling branches and pinecones out of the gutter. (Pride salvaging attempt - I did this properly earlier this summer - borrowed a real ladder - got on top of the roof on a sunny day and cleaned both my gutters.) After a few minutes of pulling small handfulls of branches, twigs, and dirt out of the gutter it started to flow properly.

While grabbing the flagstones I had one of those non-flashback moments, when you imagine a hypothetical scene. I could just see my cousin Lauren and me sitting around and hearing a news story about some kid who fell and died when the ladder that was balanced on stones tilted over or the "this is not a step" part broke. What an idiot he must have been, we thought. Maybe not, maybe he was saving his house.

I've unplugged my computer so it doesn't get shorted out by the lightening

(There the power just blinked off and on.) We've had two strikes in the last few minutes that have made me jump. When was the last time you jumped, sitting in your chair, from lightening? There is only about one second of time passing between the lightening and the thunder. It is brilliant.

I love Patty Griffin and this song's title is Rain, so it seemed appropriate.

This just in...

I am procrastinating....again....and.....I can't wait to go to Thailand.

Gays in the military

From the Onion.

'Gays Too Precious To Risk In Combat,' Says General

From the Human Rights Campaign and Reichen Lehmkuhl. He gets off to a slow start but give him time.

Thunder

Southern California doesn't get that many thunderstorms. I've always loved them and they're one of the things I like about living in Laramie. A storm surrounds town now. I can't believe how long some of the individual lightening flashes last...... and then the thunder that builds over time, growing in volume and sometimes shaking the house. 

I keep saying how much I miss the ocean. Its power and size, the feeling of scope you get standing on the shore - I feel at once tiny in comparison to the ocean and also large -  standing on the edge looking out over something vast. It just occurred to me that an electrical storm is the closest I get to that feeling - the feeling of the immense power of nature and of my small size - other than the ocean.

Thailand

I still haven't worked out the dates but I'm planning on going to Thailand with my cousin Lauren this fall. This morning I went to public health here in town for my immunizations. I got four shots, two in each arm, and my arms still don't feel normal again. I also slept most of the day. Oh well, I can't wait...the travel bug is definitely biting.

What to choose

     I'm not completing my PhD now, I know that. Maybe later, maybe not, but not now. I will be applying to Teach for America. A few days ago I thought I would apply as soon as possible, so that I would know what I will be doing next year and could stop worrying about it. However, I recently decided that I want to keep my options open for longer. I will apply to the spring deadline of Teach for America (either way I start working for them in the summer/fall of 2008) so that I can take a longer look into community college teaching. I've long thought that I'd prefer community college teaching over high school and have only been planning the high school route because I don't really know how to enter into community college teaching.

     If I wind up teaching high school biology I'm sure I will be happy. To engage my kids more fully than I could in a community college setting, to be a part of a high school community, to help them at a time when more than academic help may be be necessary...I would find all of those things rewarding. But I'd rather not deal with the disciplinary issues, with parents and their excuses, with detention, with a place that doesn't want me to use the word 'evolution.' I'd rather teach in an environment where I can more fully challenge my students, where the entire proceedings are more adult, where I might get a chance to teach a course in ecophysiology.

     While I continue to work toward Teach for America I will also seek out and apply for teaching internships that exist at a few community colleges (Portland, San Diego, Tempe at least). In these programs interns are paired with a more experienced community college teacher. At first the intern observes and assists, but in the later terms the intern takes most of the responsibility for teaching a full course. It sounds like a perfect introduction to community college teaching.

Fortunately, I know that either way, high school or community college, it will work out.

Part of the reason this is no fun is that I'm choosing NOT to do something

"I'm not going to finish my PhD" doesn't have the same exciting quotient as "I'm going to graduate school in Wyoming." Choosing a negative, thats definitely part of the problem here. I've been lucky enough in life to spend most of my time agonizing over positive choices : who what where when why : to study, to live, to read, to be with.

In all of these choices there has been the implied negative choice: by coming to Wyoming I did not go to Arizona. The negative was in the background. Here: I'm not going to finish my PhD, the negative is in the foreground and the positive has yet to be determined. Some small part of me finds that exciting: maybe something truly unexpected will happen (a movie script, a career switch, the unknown unknowns). But most of me is consumed by looking for the positive. Because when I find it, I won't feel so uncertain.

Distractions and then hope

I haven't been ignoring the idea that I might not complete my PhD. I've been consumed by it and scared of it, so much so that I haven't bean ready to share it yet. Some unconscious damage control? Well, now it's out there. My head has been spinning with thoughts about my future : Teaching, first and foremost. Community college or high school? Trip to Thailand with my cousin? Should I move out of Laramie? I love living in Laramie, but it was never meant to be a long term prospect. Where should I get my teaching credential, if thats what I do? Could I still get in-state tuition at Cal State Long Beach? Teach for America? Do I need to wait tables in order to make ends meet this fall? Maybe swallowing my pride is the cost of going to Thailand for 6 weeks. I do want my PhD. I want to teach biology/ecology at the college or university level, but I just can't right now. I can't focus, the work doesn't self-motivate. I may regret this decision 10 years from now. But when that day comes I will try to remind myself that right now, this just isn't right. If the regret is deep enough, maybe I'll get my PhD then. But not now.

Hence the need for a little perspective. On to the next post and to reminding myself that 1) ending my graduate studies now does not mean I can't return to them later, 2) I've often thought about teaching high school, and 3) even with my PhD I've anticipated working at a community college. Maybe I'll start sooner than I expected.

Some perspective on my crisis of confidence

Erica Murray, a woman with whom I went to college but have not kept in touch, writes:

Miracles

I was in a cab this morning to Logan Airport and my loquacious driver queried my plans to the point where I found myself explaining to this perfect stranger that I was going to France to get my cancer cured.

And, to my shock, it appears that is indeed what I am doing.

Life’s pace, daily priorities, distractions distractions—and I just haven’t given this journey its due psychological, spiritual, or emotional prep. Funny how in speaking plainly to a taxi driver I finally heard where I was going.

Erica is writing about her life and leukemia at http://ericamurray.blogspot.com/





Erica's friend Erik is blogging at http://myyearofnewthings.blogspot.com/. Erik looks vaguely familiar to me but I don't think we knew each other at Oxy. Erik has been digging through his garage and found a newspaper review of a play at SCR in which the reviewer mistook him for Will Farrell. "THEN, on the next page of my scrapbook, there's a retraction that basically says "in last week's review of SCR's Pinocchio, we mis-identified the actor who played the stagehand as Eric Patterson.... I realize I'm about sixteen years too late, but I kind of want to send them a letter asking for an apology for misspelling my name. ("In the 1991 review of SCR's Pinocchio, we misspelled...")"

Reflecting on the high school diary he found:
I don’t know what this string of words says about sixteen-year-old Erik, but it makes me feel incredibly boring, and I wish that sixteen-year-old Erik would just come out of the closet and get laid already.

Much of Erik's blog is devoted to the recovery of his and Erica's friend Uma, who suffered a severe brain aneurysm in January of 2007.
…yell a message to Uma out your window, as loud as you can. Make it as un-PC as possible, because Uma likes it that way.

…even if you read this blog and don’t know Uma…even if you’re just coming across this blog post, randomly—a blog reader passing in the night—please take a second to tell a dirty joke, think a hopeful thought, and send out some love into the ether…

Back to the Winds

[update: I showed up 40 minutes after Enterprise rent a car opened and they had given my reserved car away. They didn't have any others. If they don't have one for me tomorrow I'll be driving my own car - which I don't want to do because of its axel issues and the 15-20 miles of dirt roads I face accessing the site.]
Pics from last time:

First trip to the Wind River Range

Poudre River here we come

We're going rafting tomorrow and I can't wait.

[update: I've never experienced such a time warp. I would have guessed we were on the river for 45 minutes when we were actually rafting for an hour and 45 minutes. What an awesome trip - most of the time we were on level three rapids but we also hit three or four level four rapids. Thanks to Tom and his wife.]

Permission granted

Today I got permission from the Tribal Water Engineer to put my automated stream sampler on the reservation. Agenda for next week: two days at the Cheyenne FACE site and a few days in the Wind Rivers - installing the sampler, looking around, and talking with some of the local Forest Service offices. Finally, research begins....

Hot

It snowed all last weekend in Laramie. Today its 101 in Tucson.

The loudest natural sound I have heard.

I walked out of my building today, heading across campus, and thought, it smells like rain. I don't know if it had been raining off and on, but a minute or two later it started to rain and hail. As I was walking under the eaves of another building, admiring the mix of rain and hail, its different patter, the way hail bounces in a way that rain does not, the way the hail continues to flow after hitting the ground, and then the way it melts onto the cement - well - ultimately I stopped walking and just used the eaves for protection. I was standing there admiring it all when the thunder began. It was close, with only a second or two between the lightening flash and the rolling thunder. I stood there for a few minutes in awe of it all, thinking about the sounds of the thunder and how it managed to be big and beautiful without being particularly loud, in the way a deep voice can fill a room but without being too strong. This was a sound heard for miles, but it was a pleasant grumbling, a reminder of the beauty of nature. After another few minutes there was a flash, and even before I counted to one, the thunder struck without preamble, earsplitting except that it was fast and low. I jumped and began to laugh. I wondered if the building to my left had been hit (it does not appear to have been). It was spectacular.

Arches and Canyonlands National Parks - Spring Break 2007

Here are some pictures from the great trip my friends Mark, Melissa, and I took to Arches and Canyonlands National Parks over Spring Break.

Arches and Canyonlands, Spring Break 2007

Josh Ritter

I am so excited about having found the music of Josh Ritter that it gets a posting front and center. I heard him first on NPR (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=7064853 - click on the "Related NPR links" for even more streaming music from Ritter on NPR) and I knew immediately that I was interested in his music. Here is his webpage (http://www.joshritter.com/news.php) and at the bottom left of that page you can download two of his songs for free. They're amazing.

Here, I'm going to link directly to them:
Girl in the War
Thin Blue Flame

another test post - and my yellowstone album

Click on the Yellowstone picture below to be taken to Picasa web albums (no account necessary to view my pictures. Dave (my advisor), Shikha (who runs the isotope lab for Dave), Jessie (a post-doc), and myself went to Yellowstone to sample CO2 coming out of the hydrothermal vents. Click here (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16392871/) to read what MSNBC had to say about it.

Yellowstone 2006

My first blogger post (well, no longer)

This used to be my first blogger post, but I have co-opted this once rambly entry to add pictures from Tahoe, Mojave, Baja California, and Hawaii.

Tahoe, Mojave, Baja, the big island