
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Park that baby in Neutral!
This entry is full of anecdotes and factoids that you will likely find amusing and informative!
1. As it turns out, every single person in Thailand parks in neutral. Parking lots are mobile. You see a lot of double parking and people blocking each other in down cul-de-sacs, but it doesn't matter because everyone parks in neutral so you can roll your neighbor's car out of the way and put it back once you've pulled out!
2. When it rains, it pours. No, it floods. Our neighborhood sometimes has a foot of water in the street if its been a horrible all day and night rainstorm. There are gutters but the water table is so high that they cannot sustain the floodwaters. It's monsoon season so it rains almost every night after 7pm until 4am or so, and because its so hot, evaporation takes care of most of the water before I'm out of bed.
3. Bed is a loose term. We all sleep on squishy mats on the floor. They were only like 12 dollars so they're pretty crappy, but its not bad because with our fans on the floor, we get the straight shot of air.
4. My advisor from UNC arrived last night and he will be intensely helping us with our research project. Professor McNelis is an authority on Nuclear power in the US and will be helping us with our Nuclear Feasibility report on Thailand that we will be working on until Christmas.
5. There are 5 Thai children in our house right now. They are all under the age of 8. The kids are always running around the neighborhood and now they've started to just walk right into our house. The Farang Fortress needs a moat. These kids are fun because their English is on par with our Thai. We covered our walls with paper and the children draw and paint on them when they come over. They like to listen to our music and dance around and giggle and learn words. Some of the parents want us to legitimately give them English lessons but its more fun to goof around. The ham of the group, Ken, is 8 years old and a total showboat. He puts on our high heels and dances around with hands over his head and moving his hips like an absolute stripper. He's hilarious and oblivious to the world. It's all fun and games until you try to convince them that they have to go home. Pai Baan dai mai ca? Can you please go home? Response: closing themselves into our bathroom. I wonder where they're parents are.
6. Korean influence is really popular right now in music and style. All of the Thai boys have these kind of metro mullets and spikey hair and very girly bangs. It's fun to see so many styles and whatnot especially because the undergrads where uniforms so their hair is a great way to stand out.
7. I will be going to Koh Tao in 2 weeks to go on my first legit scuba dive adventure in Thailand. I got certified right before I came on this program in May so I can't wait to check out the Gulf of Thailand's coral reef situation. YAY!
8. I am making my best friend Phillip register me for my classes in 2 weeks because I am so unfortunately going to be on a tropical island. My schedule will ideally involve:
-Political Economy of Southeast Asia
-Playwriting
-Electromagentics: Physics 117
-Statistics
-Groundwater Geology
9. Went to a really cool Iranian dinner last week and smoked Hookah for our Iranian friend Ali's birthday. He is studying with us at JGSEE and a really fun guy. He told us a lot about Iran and Persian culture. Turns out that you can still be arrested for dancing in public if you're a woman. They will take you to the police station and tell you parents are stuff but usually you won't go to jail... wild.
1. As it turns out, every single person in Thailand parks in neutral. Parking lots are mobile. You see a lot of double parking and people blocking each other in down cul-de-sacs, but it doesn't matter because everyone parks in neutral so you can roll your neighbor's car out of the way and put it back once you've pulled out!
2. When it rains, it pours. No, it floods. Our neighborhood sometimes has a foot of water in the street if its been a horrible all day and night rainstorm. There are gutters but the water table is so high that they cannot sustain the floodwaters. It's monsoon season so it rains almost every night after 7pm until 4am or so, and because its so hot, evaporation takes care of most of the water before I'm out of bed.
3. Bed is a loose term. We all sleep on squishy mats on the floor. They were only like 12 dollars so they're pretty crappy, but its not bad because with our fans on the floor, we get the straight shot of air.
4. My advisor from UNC arrived last night and he will be intensely helping us with our research project. Professor McNelis is an authority on Nuclear power in the US and will be helping us with our Nuclear Feasibility report on Thailand that we will be working on until Christmas.
5. There are 5 Thai children in our house right now. They are all under the age of 8. The kids are always running around the neighborhood and now they've started to just walk right into our house. The Farang Fortress needs a moat. These kids are fun because their English is on par with our Thai. We covered our walls with paper and the children draw and paint on them when they come over. They like to listen to our music and dance around and giggle and learn words. Some of the parents want us to legitimately give them English lessons but its more fun to goof around. The ham of the group, Ken, is 8 years old and a total showboat. He puts on our high heels and dances around with hands over his head and moving his hips like an absolute stripper. He's hilarious and oblivious to the world. It's all fun and games until you try to convince them that they have to go home. Pai Baan dai mai ca? Can you please go home? Response: closing themselves into our bathroom. I wonder where they're parents are.
6. Korean influence is really popular right now in music and style. All of the Thai boys have these kind of metro mullets and spikey hair and very girly bangs. It's fun to see so many styles and whatnot especially because the undergrads where uniforms so their hair is a great way to stand out.
7. I will be going to Koh Tao in 2 weeks to go on my first legit scuba dive adventure in Thailand. I got certified right before I came on this program in May so I can't wait to check out the Gulf of Thailand's coral reef situation. YAY!
8. I am making my best friend Phillip register me for my classes in 2 weeks because I am so unfortunately going to be on a tropical island. My schedule will ideally involve:
-Political Economy of Southeast Asia
-Playwriting
-Electromagentics: Physics 117
-Statistics
-Groundwater Geology
9. Went to a really cool Iranian dinner last week and smoked Hookah for our Iranian friend Ali's birthday. He is studying with us at JGSEE and a really fun guy. He told us a lot about Iran and Persian culture. Turns out that you can still be arrested for dancing in public if you're a woman. They will take you to the police station and tell you parents are stuff but usually you won't go to jail... wild.
Thursday, August 28, 2008
Bitch is the New Black
And Black is the New President! This title has been inspired by my discovery of the capability of downloading Saturday Night Live sketches online. Here's what I'm talking about: "Bitch is the New Black." The rebuttle to Tina Fey explaining that yes, Hillary Clinton is a bitch, but you have to deal with that because "bitch is the new black." Tracy Morgan responds in a later sketch that "bitch may be the new black, but black is the new president." Loves it.


This past week I had a very international dinner at a restauarant where you cook all of your own food at your table with a mini-charcoal hotpot. Aside from some UNC friends, we had Ali from Iran, Yurga from Ethiopia, and Rajesh from Bangladesh.
This picture is a painting that Ruby, Dan, and I created on this wall of our apartment. It is all of our friends in the house with cockroach bodies. I am the cockroach with the martinis and the computer mouse, duh!

Friday night proved quite the adventure as well. Democrats Abroad in Thailand as well as Americans Abroad for Obama aired Barack Obama's nomination speech over a great American dinner and cocktails at the Roadhouse BBQ Restaurant in Bangkok. Let's just say it had been awhile since my mouth had feasted upon a thick juicy BLT sandwich.
This picture is of a table I found in a garbage pile in our neighborhood. It was nasty rusted plastic, but I painted it neon pink and orange. Free hot bedside table!
It has also come to my attention that I never posted decent pictures of the Farang Fortress! The images are of my house! This one is of the wall above where I sleep. I have a map of Koh Phangan, a map of Thailand, and many pictures of people I like.

I also ended up letting my friend Angela put a mohawk on my head. We were both pleased with the results. 

Sunday, August 24, 2008
What the Karst! Wasn't Hitler a Naxi?
Ladies and germs, I am back after an 11 day travelling expedition in the People’s Republic of China. The best way to wrap my blog around the trip is to give you a day-by-day play-by-play!
It all started with my good friend Andrew Tate studying Chinese in Beijing this summer, and with his program ending, we decided to travel around Southern China together before he went back to UNC. Although I didn’t have a break from classes or anything, I packed a bookbag and hopped a flight from Bangkok to Guilin. **Note: every single shop/restaurant/bus station had a tv with the Olympics on every channel. Loves it!**
August 11: After going to the Chinese Embassy (sa-thaan toot jinn) three times in one week, I got my Chinese visa (wee-sa) so I could fly. I arrived late to Guilin, and Andrew, having arrived an hour before by train, picked me up at the airport. We checked in at the Guilin Flowers International Youth Hostel and went exploring around town. We found an underground dance club and waltzed right in. We were the only foreigners and we ordered Coronas off the menu, to which we received a strange barely-alcoholic beverage: the Purple Godsend. Great way to start my stay in the Guangxi Province.

August 12: Early in the morning, Casey Yancey, our other travelling companion arrived and we seized the day. We spent the day at the Seven Star Park (Qixing Gongyuan) where we explored a mineral museum of the region, marveled at exotic plants, and spelunked the Seven Star Cave (Qixing Yan) which would prove to be one of my favorite experiences. We were entirely alone in the deep dank cavern, and it was the first time I fell in love with limestone. We also visited the matching Sun and Moon Pagodas in a lake that could only be traversed via underwater tunnel.

August 14: Yangshou is the most beautiful place on Earth. Bold to say? Yes. The karsts in around Yangshou were impressive and we had to explore. We woke up early and went on an excursion with the bartender Sally that we met the night before. We rented bicycles and travelled through rice paddies and dirt roads between karsts to arrive at Yulong River where we rode bamboo rafts for a few hours south. The day was an idyllic sunny one, and after the raft ride, we climbed Moon Hill (Yueling Shan). This karst was a showcase to the work of water on limestone with a giant moon-shaped crescent carved out near the top. We climbed to the top and the view was killer. Hilarious little Chinese women followed us the entire way up trying to get us to buy their water and juice, but for some reason they won’t take no (boo yao) for an answer! We followed up our sweaty adventure upwards, with a tour downwards to the Moon Water Cave. Hardhats and flashlights to boot, we explored this saturated cave and ended up covered in mud from head to toe before coming back out on the other side to discover a gorgeous rice paddy valley.
August 15: After a night of beer pong on Monkey Jane’s Rooftop Bar whereupon we met Monkey Jane herself, we got a late start. **Note: Monkey Jane is about 24, owns the hostel and bar, is scantily clad, a bitch, and always sloshed and belligerent**. With Casey worn out, Andrew and I rented bicycles and ventured to the north to a nearby village Xing Ping. Firecrackers abounded due to a holiday involving spirits, and we tried to order the local specialty of Rat, but we saw a rat in a cage the size of a medium-sized dog with price tag to boot and changed our minds.
August 16: Bus back to Guilin. Let it be known that Guilin is the 11th most populated city in China at 46 million people. 46 million yelling, spitting, wild people. We stayed another night to Guilin.
August 17: Just your average 19 hour train ride to Kunming! Welp, there goes August 17!
August 18: A 9 hour sleeper bus to Lijiang was less than pleasant. The train had bunk beds and room to move around, bathroom included. The bus was a cramped situation where I couldn’t even lay my arms by my sides without overflowing onto my neighboring passengers who were inevitably very Chinese, very grumpy, and a little smelly. Everyone smokes, even on the bus.

August 19: A 5am arrival in Lijiang, we found a very quaint almost Staunton, Virginia-esque cobblestone village. Not yet bustling in the early mist, we finally found the Pan Ba Hostel. Sleep-deprived but running on adrenaline after escaping the bus, Casey slept while Andrew and I planned to conquer a mountain. The area of Lijiang, the next province over from Tibet, is considered the foothills of the Himalayas. We took a bus to the glacier-encrusted Jade Dragon Snow Mountain. We rented heavy jackets that came with baby-sized oxygen tanks and went exploring to the 4700 meter-high peak. The Spruce Meadow that we went to near the mountain was one of my favorite experiences. While we could not see the glacial peaks clearly through the thick, low clouds, the meadow itself had a mycological diversity that I have never seen. I’ve always loved mushrooms, but the fungus in the area made me scream! The oxygen tanks were an absolute joke so Andrew and I just sucked on them taking a cable car down the slope.
August 20: We experimented with the local indigenous foods of the Naxi culture (pronounced nahk-see, not like Nazi, which I had too much fun with at the time), and we were very pleased. **Note: Tibetan Dumplings are the best food ever, but avoid the Yak Butter Tea like the plague** We also visited the Black Dragon Pool which was an adorable park with a karst of its own, ripe for the climbing. Andrew and I scaled Elephant Hill and took in the circle of mountains around us. The foothills of the Himalayas I tell you! That night, I took a sleeper bus back to Kunming for my flight back to Thailand.
August 21: The day of my return to Bangkok. NOT!! I got to the airport bright and early and discovered that my flight did not exist. Andrew and Casey continued travelling to Dali in the Yunnan Province so I was alone with no Chinese speaking ability. Apparently Orbitz didn’t think a 24 hour change in my flight plans was worth notifying me about. Fuck you, Orbitz. I ended up getting a hotel, making friends with a cute Chinese girl in a coffee shop and buying a pretty dress, but I also was in the process of developing a pretty nasty allergic reaction to MSG.

August 22: Waiting the airport during what would have been my Climate Change Midterm Exam back in Bangkok, I ended up making it home. Met a really killer guy from Connecticut too on that flight who teaches English to Chinese kids. Either way, I made it home, found out I didn’t miss anything important in Thailand, and much fun was had by all.
It all started with my good friend Andrew Tate studying Chinese in Beijing this summer, and with his program ending, we decided to travel around Southern China together before he went back to UNC. Although I didn’t have a break from classes or anything, I packed a bookbag and hopped a flight from Bangkok to Guilin. **Note: every single shop/restaurant/bus station had a tv with the Olympics on every channel. Loves it!**
August 11: After going to the Chinese Embassy (sa-thaan toot jinn) three times in one week, I got my Chinese visa (wee-sa) so I could fly. I arrived late to Guilin, and Andrew, having arrived an hour before by train, picked me up at the airport. We checked in at the Guilin Flowers International Youth Hostel and went exploring around town. We found an underground dance club and waltzed right in. We were the only foreigners and we ordered Coronas off the menu, to which we received a strange barely-alcoholic beverage: the Purple Godsend. Great way to start my stay in the Guangxi Province.
August 12: Early in the morning, Casey Yancey, our other travelling companion arrived and we seized the day. We spent the day at the Seven Star Park (Qixing Gongyuan) where we explored a mineral museum of the region, marveled at exotic plants, and spelunked the Seven Star Cave (Qixing Yan) which would prove to be one of my favorite experiences. We were entirely alone in the deep dank cavern, and it was the first time I fell in love with limestone. We also visited the matching Sun and Moon Pagodas in a lake that could only be traversed via underwater tunnel.
August 13: This is the day we climbed a Karst, and I began to love Southern China. A Karst looks like a mountain in a landscape, but rather than being form by tectonic uplift, it the result of limestone dissolution. The land is worn down by waters, and with subterranean drainage leading to magnificent caves in association, the karst is the limestone bedrock that has persisted while all else has dissolved around it. They reminded me of more massive, tree-covered hoodoos like I saw at Bryce Canyon in Utah. We climbed the karst (Fubo Shan), took in the exquisite views, then went below it to the Returned Pearl Cave (Huanzhu Dong) and the Thousand Buddha Cave (Qianfo Yan). These caves were more touristy and tampered with. The karst landscape and defines southern China is right out of a fairy tale. That evening we travelled by bus to Yangshou where we booked a room at Monkey Jane’s Guest House.
August 14: Yangshou is the most beautiful place on Earth. Bold to say? Yes. The karsts in around Yangshou were impressive and we had to explore. We woke up early and went on an excursion with the bartender Sally that we met the night before. We rented bicycles and travelled through rice paddies and dirt roads between karsts to arrive at Yulong River where we rode bamboo rafts for a few hours south. The day was an idyllic sunny one, and after the raft ride, we climbed Moon Hill (Yueling Shan). This karst was a showcase to the work of water on limestone with a giant moon-shaped crescent carved out near the top. We climbed to the top and the view was killer. Hilarious little Chinese women followed us the entire way up trying to get us to buy their water and juice, but for some reason they won’t take no (boo yao) for an answer! We followed up our sweaty adventure upwards, with a tour downwards to the Moon Water Cave. Hardhats and flashlights to boot, we explored this saturated cave and ended up covered in mud from head to toe before coming back out on the other side to discover a gorgeous rice paddy valley.
August 15: After a night of beer pong on Monkey Jane’s Rooftop Bar whereupon we met Monkey Jane herself, we got a late start. **Note: Monkey Jane is about 24, owns the hostel and bar, is scantily clad, a bitch, and always sloshed and belligerent**. With Casey worn out, Andrew and I rented bicycles and ventured to the north to a nearby village Xing Ping. Firecrackers abounded due to a holiday involving spirits, and we tried to order the local specialty of Rat, but we saw a rat in a cage the size of a medium-sized dog with price tag to boot and changed our minds.
August 16: Bus back to Guilin. Let it be known that Guilin is the 11th most populated city in China at 46 million people. 46 million yelling, spitting, wild people. We stayed another night to Guilin.
August 17: Just your average 19 hour train ride to Kunming! Welp, there goes August 17!
August 18: A 9 hour sleeper bus to Lijiang was less than pleasant. The train had bunk beds and room to move around, bathroom included. The bus was a cramped situation where I couldn’t even lay my arms by my sides without overflowing onto my neighboring passengers who were inevitably very Chinese, very grumpy, and a little smelly. Everyone smokes, even on the bus.
August 19: A 5am arrival in Lijiang, we found a very quaint almost Staunton, Virginia-esque cobblestone village. Not yet bustling in the early mist, we finally found the Pan Ba Hostel. Sleep-deprived but running on adrenaline after escaping the bus, Casey slept while Andrew and I planned to conquer a mountain. The area of Lijiang, the next province over from Tibet, is considered the foothills of the Himalayas. We took a bus to the glacier-encrusted Jade Dragon Snow Mountain. We rented heavy jackets that came with baby-sized oxygen tanks and went exploring to the 4700 meter-high peak. The Spruce Meadow that we went to near the mountain was one of my favorite experiences. While we could not see the glacial peaks clearly through the thick, low clouds, the meadow itself had a mycological diversity that I have never seen. I’ve always loved mushrooms, but the fungus in the area made me scream! The oxygen tanks were an absolute joke so Andrew and I just sucked on them taking a cable car down the slope.
August 20: We experimented with the local indigenous foods of the Naxi culture (pronounced nahk-see, not like Nazi, which I had too much fun with at the time), and we were very pleased. **Note: Tibetan Dumplings are the best food ever, but avoid the Yak Butter Tea like the plague** We also visited the Black Dragon Pool which was an adorable park with a karst of its own, ripe for the climbing. Andrew and I scaled Elephant Hill and took in the circle of mountains around us. The foothills of the Himalayas I tell you! That night, I took a sleeper bus back to Kunming for my flight back to Thailand.
August 21: The day of my return to Bangkok. NOT!! I got to the airport bright and early and discovered that my flight did not exist. Andrew and Casey continued travelling to Dali in the Yunnan Province so I was alone with no Chinese speaking ability. Apparently Orbitz didn’t think a 24 hour change in my flight plans was worth notifying me about. Fuck you, Orbitz. I ended up getting a hotel, making friends with a cute Chinese girl in a coffee shop and buying a pretty dress, but I also was in the process of developing a pretty nasty allergic reaction to MSG.
August 22: Waiting the airport during what would have been my Climate Change Midterm Exam back in Bangkok, I ended up making it home. Met a really killer guy from Connecticut too on that flight who teaches English to Chinese kids. Either way, I made it home, found out I didn’t miss anything important in Thailand, and much fun was had by all.
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Stranded in China
The lack of posts for the past 2 weeks is due to a trip to China. I decided to fly to southern China to travel with one of my best friends Andrew Tate, who had been studying in Beijing. I will give a more adequate update in a few days, but currently, I am stranded in China.
Andrew was with me until yesterday when I took an overnight bus to Kunming and a taxi to the airport to go home to Bangkok whereupon Andrew went to Dali to continue travelling. This lead to that and I discovered that my flight did not exist. Apparently Thai Airways rescheduled for tomorrow so I am missing a midterm exam and staying an extra night in a place where suddenly without Andrew, I am absolutely alone and cannot speak Chinese. My kingdom for an English speaker! Even Thai would be nice. Either way, I get back to Thailand tomorrow and things will be back to normal.
Andrew was with me until yesterday when I took an overnight bus to Kunming and a taxi to the airport to go home to Bangkok whereupon Andrew went to Dali to continue travelling. This lead to that and I discovered that my flight did not exist. Apparently Thai Airways rescheduled for tomorrow so I am missing a midterm exam and staying an extra night in a place where suddenly without Andrew, I am absolutely alone and cannot speak Chinese. My kingdom for an English speaker! Even Thai would be nice. Either way, I get back to Thailand tomorrow and things will be back to normal.
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
Sri Lanka... meet Guacamole
Saturday night, we christened our house (The Farang Fortress) with a housewarming party. Our American friends came, as well as our Thai friends. Chang was drank, cards were played, even our screen doors were assembled! It was a fun mash-up of people, and now the house is modestly furnished and amazing. I wonder if our Thai neighbors see us walking through their street and go "uh oh, there goes the neighborhood".
Tuesday night, our Thai friend Jeum put together a big potluck feast in her office on campus near the soccer field. Several of her Thai colleages, 1 girl from Sri Lanka, 1 boy from Nepal, 1 boy from Vietnam, and several of us from America all cooked traditional dishes for this cultural event. From our group, Alana and Lauren made maccaroni and cheese, Sarah and I made pasta salad, Elizabeth Ruby and Angela made apple pies, and I also served up some of my (now world-famous) guacamole (copyright jenn richey). It was a big hit because Thai people love spicy foods. The night was filled with eating and silliness that was only topped off by several hours of kareoke. We taught the Thais the Electric Slide, the Macarena, the Soulja Boy and they taught us several fun dances and songs that I would be hard pressed to repeat the names of. Very fun though!
***Note to mom: huge wad of cilantro at the fresh market for 3 baht. that's less than 1 cent)***
Wednesday night, our Thai Language instructer "Pam" invited us over to her apartment and taught us how to cook traditional Thai dishes instead of giving us an exam (Thank you Pam!). Now I can say that I know how to properly cook: Kai Jeow (omelette), Laab Moo and Gai (an Issan dish of pork or chicken), Tom Ka (spicy soup with coconut milk). Apparently Thai cooking is absolutely reliant on THE FIVE:
This picture here is the Winnie the Pooh stickers above my mattress on the floor that were so thoughtfully left on the walls by the last people to live in our house.
Saturday, July 26, 2008
"Hello? หน้าของ ประเทศไทย... "
One of the funny things about Thailand: everyone answers their cellphone with "Hello?" then they proceed to carry on the conversation in Thai. It can be very misleading because I think everyone speaks English all of the sudden, but they certainly don't.


This weekend has been a huge celebration of the Tenth Anniversary for the Joint Graduate School of Energy and Environment at KMUTT. For the festivities on Thursday, ten monks came and sang while we sat on the floor and bowed to them. It was a beautiful but long ceremony, and afterwards I asked Pai what they were saying, but it turns out that Thai Buddhist Monks sing in Sanskrit, so he had no idea what they were saying. Just a blessing for more success for our graduate school.
Thursday evening we had a JGSEE dinner party at a restaurant near Central Plaza Rama II called "The Park". Our professors talked about the history of the grad school, there was a video, and to our surprise, Kareoke is a part of a semi-formal event in Thailand. Par for the course, we got up there too and sang "A Whole New World". The lyrics on the screen were in Thai, but luckily we've seen Aladdin enough to get through it. The highlight of the evening for us as well as the program, was a traditional Thai dance performance by myself and the six other girls from UNC. A team of Thai women and 1 fabulous Thai man took almost 2 hours to get all of us in the proper hair, makeup, outfits, and ready to go. We'd been practicing the dance for 3 weeks and it was a lot of fun! Our colleages were surprised how beautiful we looked in the traditional Thai garb (considering we're usually running around playing frisbee like good girls should not).
Saturday evening was another adventure with a four course dinner and speakers from around the world. One sip of your drink and they replace it! The menu of courses was as follows:
-Smoked salmon rose with green leaves, citrus vinaigrette peppered cold tuna carpaccio with balsamic syrup, tandoori chicken on salad raita dip
-Classic lobster bisque, crab ravioli and vegetable pearls
-Raspberry sherbet
-Baked snapper and salmon steak combination with a green asparagus salsa, served with a peppered sweet and sour sauce and glazed onions
-Chocolate iced souffle with apricot and spicy mango sauce
-Freshly brewed coffee or tea
Regrettibly, I have learned that another one of my relatives has passed away back in America. My Uncle Peter was an amazing doctor who ate organic food, loved cars and photography, ran in marathons across the world, and has 3 beautiful daughters that I love more than anything. My sympathy goes out to my family and I am absolutely heartbroken that I cannot be there with you all.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)