Muay Thai

     Today Tierra, Sean, and I decided to go find a Muay Thai club after classes were finished. For those of you who are unfamiliar with Muay Thai it is pretty much like boxing except more brutal, it is also Thailand's national sport. So we thought that it would be a cool thing to check out. Two hours of walking later we found a world renowned Muay Thai club! Apparently people come from all over the world to train there! Unfortunately they were all napping between training sessions by the time that we got there and they asked us to come back in an hour and a half. On the way there we ran into this really nice young italian couple! They used their house as an art exhibit/italian eatery. It is always a great feeling to run into another foreigner, especially when they speak English! They said that we should come back next week when they are having a party complete with a bunch of performances, food, and live music. Maybe if we can figure out how we got there the first time we will give it a shot!
     I have also recently received my official Thai nickname. This is a big deal in Thailand because once you are considered more than acquaintances with somebody it is improper to use their full name. Thai people are given their nickname by their parents at birth so it kind of makes sense that I got mine at the hospital. After all this build up I feel kind of bad telling you guys that my nickname isn't anything foreign or exciting, it's Rose, but hey it is what they picked. There is a physical therapist who's name is Jack and everybody got a good laugh out of posing us in scenes from the Titanic and attempting to sing the words to my heart will go on.
    While at the hospital a woman stopped me to inform me that I looked like Taylor Swift. I'm not sure how much I agree with that. Between Taylor Swift and the Kristen Stewart reference earlier I am starting to think that maybe they really do think all white people look alike. I have also discovered their Michael Buble, his name is Yannick Bovy and this is a clip of one of his music videos. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9wfymwYFHuE

Yannick Bovy

As long as we are on the subject of pop culture I also took it upon myself to introduce my developmental psychology professor to Modern Family. He is now quite a fan and said that he was going to use a clip of it to start our next lesson. I haven't been able to watch it since I got here so hopefully this will be enough to act as a fix. This weekend I am going to be in Chiang Mai (a province of northern Thailand) for four days! I am super excited and can't wait to tell you guys all about!

I hope everybody is having a bananatastic day!

Ko Si Chang

We started off the day by meeting up with our Thai advisor View who took us to the zoo. It was fun to walk around and see all the animals, but the enclosures were much smaller and less authentic/natural than the ones in America and I felt really bad for them. We visited the giraffes and learned that one of their names was Bin Laden, which I thought was pretty funny.




After that we went over the the lions and tigers. I was astonished at how low the walls were that separated the animals from the visitors. This little fence thing definitely would not fly in America. This piece of wood was all there was, no wire, no plexi glass, nothing. If you look closely you can see the tiger in the cave thing.




At the reptile exhibit we were able to handle some snakes and birds.




After eating lunch at the zoo we took the bus to the sky train which we then took to the Ekami bus station. Once in this super cool Japanese district of Bangkok we took a two hour bus ride to Si Racha (a small Thai fishing town). Once there we took a tuktuk to the main pier where we caught a ferry to this perfect little island that greeted us with this beautiful lighthouse.




As you can tell it was quite the trip, but well worth it! While on the island our group of six students stayed in a gorgeous bungalow. Aside from the scorpion in the shower it was a fairly uneventful night of hanging out and exploring the island. In the morning we rented motor bikes and went to the beach! It was beautiful and the weather was gorgeous! When eating lunch our waitress asked where we were from. Upon saying America she shouted "WOOOO OBAMMMAAA!!" and gave us a discount on our meal. I thought it was pretty funny.
















After swimming and eating a few of us decided to get sea kyaks and explore the ocean, island and surrounding caverns. It was stunning, but unfortunately I did not bring my camera with me on that trip. With the rest of our afternoon we explored the island and found ourselves at some very cool sites including wild monkeys and this giant Buddha!








The monkey above found some leftover takeout by a temple and was not willing to share it with his hungry friend.




The whole trip cost around $35 and was an absolutely amazing first impression of rural Thailand!

Arts of the Kingdom

Here is a picture of a smaller monitor lizard that Sean and I found walking back from the hospital. I realize that they might seem boring to you guys but I thought that this was a nice shot of the path as well. I think it is really fascinating the way they move just like snakes that are assisted by legs, curving their body from side to side to move forward. Just like miniature dinosaurs. A Thai student told me that sometimes when the construction workers on campus find them they catch the lizards and eat them. This made me sad because they seem like such peaceful creatures, although I suppose that there are enough of them to go around.


On Friday I went to the arts of the kingdom exhibit with my Thai language and culture class. Here is a picture of the outside of the palace that the exhibit was inside.



It was filled with golden thrones, amazing carvings, and beautiful silk embroidery. Unfortunately we were not allowed to take any pictures inside (I wasn't even supposed to take this one). Usually I would have snuck a few more for you guys but we had to check our bags and were searched before we were able to enter. The silk embroidery was my favorite, a lot of the scenes depicted focused on nature. There were many Lillys, chickens, and mythical underwater displays. This trip definitely gave me a new appreciation for the intricate skill that embroidery requires!

     While at the hospital today I found myself in a somewhat awkward situation. These are pretty frequent occurrences in my life, so many times I don't even notice that it is an awkward moment until somebody else says something. This however was obviously awkward. I had just come back from the bathroom and a bunch of the therapists were sitting around talking. I approached them and one of the guys made a comment about me in Thai to the others. That same comment went around the whole circle until most of them were giggling at me. I asked them what it was, scared I had my skirt tucked into my underwear or toilet paper was on my shoe. Finally one of the therapists told me to come with her. I followed her tugging nervously on my clothes to make sure all the important parts were covered. Once far enough from the group she told me that the male therapist had said that when he saw me he felt no longer tired because I was just so refreshing to look at. I just kind of nodded awkwardly and looked down at my hands. She followed my gaze and noticed a ring on my left ring finger. Married? She asked gesturing to the offending ring. In a moment of slight panic combined with deep desire to leave the conversation about my refreshments I nodded. We then returned to the group where they immediately asked what she had told me. In another moment of panic I responded with that her hair is pretty. Later on they invited Sean and I to a new years party. They took us to this amazing Thai restaurant where we got to try the best food we had ate thus far in Thailand. The staff were so incredibly friendly! There was lots of karaoke (mostly in Thai) and dancing!  So yea that was my evening, I hope that yours is going well!

Location:บรมราชชนนี,Phutthamonthon,Thailand

Baby Elephant Alert

Sometimes when walking back through campus from the hospital I get caught up in the beauty of the wetland jungle atmosphere. Occasionally I will walk the long way and see how many monitor lizards I can find. It is actually a lot harder than it sounds because they are very scared of humans. What can I say it makes me feel kinda like the crocodile hunter, well before the unfortunate sting ray incident. Here is a picture of the one that I found yesterday!



Yesterday while walking home from dinner we stumbled upon a baby elephant! We even got to feed him pineapple! I was really excited to find him but now I feel really bad that he is separated from his family. I wish I could free all the elephants even if they are cute, and kick out all the poachers while I am at it.



Isn't he a cutie though! Also today I got an awesome care package from my parents for my birthday! It included Friends and Up, I am one happy girl! I hope that everybody's day is going well

Lunch Hobbit Style

Today I arrived at the rehab center to receive a disapproving look from one of the therapists. "Ohhhh Amanda...you taaan," she said in a tone that is similar to the one I would use when reacting to somebody's appearance who had the stomach flu for 3 days. I tried to explain to her that I just get red when I am in the heat for awhile and that it would go away in 15 mins. I don't think she believed me though. I should work harder to preserve my porcelain visage while in Thailand. I think it might be the only thing getting stuff done around here.
 I came to the hospital today right after eating lunch to find that my lunch had only just begun. A therapist from Chiang Mai made a bunch of food from scratch for everybody and they were quite insistent that I try every single thing. It was delicious so I didn't mind, but I do think there might be a plot to fatten me up floating around here somewhere.

Yesterday we went to the mall and found the Thai version of Abercrombie/Hollister. It was called CC Double O. Here are a few pictures to prove it.





While at the mall I also found a McDonalds that sold gourmet strawberry cheesecake. They had all sorts of fancy croissants and desserts there. Now I know that you probably don't believe me, but luckily for you I got a picture of that too!



That reminds me they also served real fried chicken and some rice dish. When I come back to America I think I am going to show them these pictures and demand some McBubble drink and strawberry cheesecake! It is time to raise our standards people!



On a more positive note my friend Quinn just got a package with all the seasons of Sex and the City. I haven't really seen it much before but it's in English so I'm down. I hope that everybody's day is going swimmingly!

Location:บรมราชชนนี,Phutthamonthon,Thailand

The Grand Palace

The view from outside the palace

     On Saturday the KEI group went to go visit the grand palace and some of the surrounding temples. We got up early and took a van into Bangkok. As you can see from the picture above it was quite a crowded scene. In order to enter the grounds of the palace one had to be dressed very conservatively. If you broke their dress code then they would allow for you to borrow some cloth to wrap around yourself until you left. We weren't able to go inside many of the buildings. Those that we could enter did not allow pictures to be taken. I think it is pretty clear from the outside though that the site was rather magnificent.

Outside the temple with Rebecca

The outside of The Emerald Buddha Temple

One of the more modern palaces

         Once we were finished at the palace we went to a beautiful riverside restaurant for lunch. When I sat down I almost went overboard because the leg of my chair slid between the planks and into the dock. Luckily Tierra saved me with her lightening fast reflexes. The food was amazing!

Table topper at the riverside restaurant.
You know just in case you get cold during this 95 degree winter.

      Once we finished lunch the group headed off to visit a few more temples. While there we learned that the monks were some of the first to open a medical school in Thailand. There are many monks seen throughout Thailand. They are only allowed to eat breakfast and lunch. There are also seats of the buses and the sky train that are permanently reserved for them.

The head of the reclining Buddha

The feet of the same statue

outside of the the temples

      The climb to the top of the pagodas below was a thrilling yet scary experience. The steps were so steep that you had to use the rope on the handrails to literally pull yourself up the side. After climbing the last temple we headed back to the van and went home. I was rather tired after the eventful day/week and cuddled up with "The Vow" while looking through pictures and working on the blog.

The view from one of the pagodas that we climbed

The very steep climb up the pagoda

China Town

     I know that you guys love to see the differences between fast food chains here, so I decided to start this post with a picture of the specialty ham and egg pie at McDonalds.

Ham and egg pie from McDondalds

      Friday morning I went to the hospital to work with the neurologic rehabilitation patients. I was working with a little three year old girl who was being rather squirmy and uncooperative. The physical therapist told her something in Thai that I didn't understand and soon she was following my every move giggling and doing her exercises exactly as I showed. It turns out that the physical therapist had told her  I was a real life Barbie doll that she could play with. I was a little confused but at least it worked. On the way back to the apartment from the hospital I saw this guy cruising around.

This man was riding his bike through the university with one hand
 so that he could hold his sun umbrella with the other.

        On the way back to the apartment I ran into my friends Quin, Keshauna, and Sean. After a quick conversation we decided to go check out Chinatown. It was pretty chaotic, but an overall cool scene. There were motorcycles and cars zipping through every side street and sidewalk.

Sunset over the river in Bangkok

     

Welcome to Chinatown

A flying squirrel that we found while visiting Chinatown 

     After awhile we decided to take the river taxi to Khao san road and check it out. Some of our other friends wanted us to meet them at a robot restaurant (where robots serve you). While we didn't end up making it to the robot restaurant we had a lot of fun looking around.

Khao san road

Scorpions to eat on Khao san road

The name of a bar on Khao san road, it reads "cocktails very strong we don't check ID cards restaurant"

   














    After meeting up with the others we decided to go to this sky bar. However, our taxi driver thought we should go somewhere else and took us to this random club really far away from the place we had in mind. A lot of taxi drivers get commissions from certain clubs if they take you there, sooo they take you to those clubs instead of where you want to go. A series of events made it very clear that this is what happened in our situation. A fierce group such as ourselves was not to be deterred from our sky bar that easily though. So we decided to try to walk there (or anywhere besides the sketchville we had arrived at really) and about 45 mins later we luckily stumbled upon it. Here are a few pictures from it!

The beautiful city of Bangkok

The view from the top of the sky bar.

       Beautiful huh? Alright well that was my adventure for the day. Thanks everybody for checking out my blog. I have noticed that there are a lot of viewers from different nations (especially Thailand). If you guys have any advice on places to go or things to do while I'm here please shoot it my way! I hope everybody is having a splendid day!

It makes me sad when this happens :(

Club Expo

      Today in my Tropical Medicine class we were talking about Japanese Encephalitis. We learned that it has a 30% fatality rate, 30% paralysis rate, and that it was fairly common in Thailand. After about five minutes of these facts myself and the 2 other Americans in the room began to question the doctors in America who told us that we didn't need the vaccine. Our professor (who is also a pediatric toxicologist) kindly suggested that we go to the hospital and get vaccinated. Which is what I plan to do tomorrow. 

    Ahh I just found P.S I Love You on youtube! The internet is actually working at a reasonable speed so it is loading! I love this movie. Plus by passing up Dear John (which I found first) I am still following John's no Nicholas Sparks while abroad rule. He is somehow under the impression that it makes me emotional I'm not really sure why.

    Speaking of John, I would like to take a moment for all of you croc wearing/supporting kids. You have a following here in Thailand. It is truly the land of your people. Seriously though my professor was wearing metallic crocs with those little widget things in it today, and it was totally normal. 

  While taking classes here I have noticed that everything is very American centered. All the statistics, studies, and historical references have to do with America. It's like this back home too, but I thought America was just self-centered. However our teachers said that this is how most classes are around the world. Yesterday we had the Club Expo at MUIC. It was complete with free homemade coconut Thai ice-cream, sandwiches, and a boy band playing rolling in the deep. It was really cool to see all the different student groups and I think that I might join the  volunteer club. I know it sounds kinda lame but they actually do a lot of cool stuff. I hope that everybody is having a sensational day!

The poster for the club expo showing all the clubs.

The cute Muay Thai mascot

Temple Time

     The other day after work two of the physical therapists took me to their temple to make offerings. Before heading down to the Buddhist temple we stopped to eat some rice and shrimp soup (this is important because during this story I consider it dinner number 1). At the temple we made a donation and recieved flowers, incense, and some gold in return. After lighting the incense we were praying and I almost lit the flower on fire...opps. after lighting a candle, some inecnse, and praying we pressed the gold flakes onto different statues that were around the temple. If you had somethinhg that was troubling you or that you needed advice about then you went into this seperate room in the middle of the temple. The whole building was very ornate but this center room was especially so. Upon entering the "advice room" you kneeled and bowed three times. There were red tubes filled with sticks around the room. While praying you would shake up the sticks. After two fell out you added up the numbers on them and went to the wall. There you selected the fortune that your sticks corresponded with. The whole process was a bit to complicated for me to understand enough to participate in at the time. So I can not say whether or not the fortune held true for me, but maybe I will try it next time.

     After this we went to another restaurant for dinner. I wasn't very hungry but I thought I ate a good amount of food. I had been out to eat with these ladies a few times in the past. On this occasion they inquired as to why I never eat very much. They heard Americans eat a lot so they were surprised by my eating habits. Now anybody who knows me knows that I do more than my fair share of eating, so this comment surprised me quite a bit. Truth be told, I think Thai people eat just as much if not more than Americans. Sure their portions are little smaller, but they eat all the time! I didn't know how to break the news to them so I just told them that I snacked a lot. Sorry if I am making a bad impression but at this point I am pretty sure that they think most Americans don't eat eat, are often red faced, sniffle frequently, and drink tons of water.

    Everybody here is really nice though. The hardest part about meeting people is definitely remmebering their names and the correct pronunciation. Nobody has middle names here and on my ID it has my full name, Amanda Rose Lazaro, so now a lot of Thai people call me Amanda Rose because they think that is just my first name. I guess it could be worse. All Thai people have nicknames that they predominantly go by. These are given at birth by the parents and are usually random English words like Candy, View, Placebo, Pig, or Fat.

   As a side note there are a lot of very talented female motorcyle passengers. I saw one earlier today sitting side saddle, holding a baby, talking on the phone, and drinking a tea! 

One of the physical therapists stopped on the way to the temple to get this fruit for me to try. I think that it is called Tembruat. It tasted like a combination between a mango and a raisin.

Siam

    Last weekend Shannon, Rebecca and I went to Bangkok to take pictures  for Rebecca's ecology class. After a little bit we wandered into Siam and found a giant aquarium (which of course we went to). It was called Siam Ocean World, and is apparently the largest aquarium in Southeast Asia. While in Siam we also found a McDonalds that served bubble tea!

waing with Ronald McDonald :)

bubble tea at McDonalds aka McBubble Drink :)

Here are some of my favorite pictures from the aquarium. I realize that all the cuteness that I experienced could not be captured in these photos, but you will just have to use your imagination.

Octopus :)

Otters chilling at the aquarium.

This little guy was trying VERY hard to get the water from the tank next to his into his own tank.
See you can see his flipper on the other side of the glass.




Creepy giant spider crab

stare down

      After the aquarium we explored some of Siam's shops before finding a movie theater that showed English movies. Shannon and Rebecca had seen The Hobbit yet so we decided to see it in IMAX 3D. Now I realize that this all sounds like a very American day, but you have to understand how happy it was to see something as familiar as a modern mall (within which all of these activities took place). The part of Bangkok we had been in before finding Siam was hectic, smelly, and a little scary. While Thailand is amazing we were all starting to feel a little isolated from the things we were accustomed to enjoying in America. This day was the perfect fix for our western cravings while still throwing in some Thai flare to enhance the experience. For example The Hobbit had Thai subtitles, and before it started the King's anthem played and everybody had to stand up as a way of showing respect.

The lobby of the movie theater where we saw The Hobbit.

All of the ticket girls were wearing these little fancy yellow dresses and heels.

While at the movie theater a lady approached me and very excitedly told me that I "looked like the star from Twilight." I wasn't exactly sure how to take that so I just smiled and said thank you. I guess now I know how asian women feel who are constantly being compared to Lucy Lui! I hope that all of you are having a nice day and eat lots of yummy food (especially dark chocolate and peanut butter) for me!

Location:บรมราชชนนี,Phutthamonthon,Thailand