wintery junk but it’s post thanks to them

Hello! It’s already May... Life updates - a roller coaster of emotions

A tempestuous, tearful April... Aghh the struggle has not eased up a bit. Living is just too expensive to be shouldered by part-time wages, meager freelance, and fickle confidence. My parents are disappointed - I’ve always tried to dodge the questions about my uncertain future. After all, I don’t have any answers.

What nearly broke my spirit was the humiliating scolding I received on my birthday. “You’re almost 30. Stop playing around at the cafe, don’t you know your bank account is nearly empty? How will you pay for this? If you can’t afford car insurance then just bike to work!” I didn’t even have time to think about how inconsiderate that was. In a daze, I hung up and went to my second part-time job that day.

Well, Dad, those are the questions I asked myself every single day. All I can do is keep trying even if you don’t believe in me. Because, despite everything, I still believe in myself.

Nothing good will come out of asking these punishing questions. I don’t know if things will get better or worse. Just gotta do what I can to get by as a small creature existing in this universe.

I learned to stop blaming myself for not being successful. Given the circumstances, I think the odds are stacked pretty high against most of us right now.

“Banish the nonsense. Some questions will ruin you if you are denied the answer long enough.” - Annihilation

--

I’ve begun my investment journey! After studying how it all works I have come to understand the value of investing. It was one of my resolutions for this year and I’m glad I’ve achieved it.

My brother, a crypto enthusiast, knows my monetary plight and has been helping me out in the weirdest ways.

6 am text: “Hey Sis, you got $1000? Put it into Dogecoin... like NOW.”

I don’t like doing these kinds of high-risk-high-reward investments but what the heck, I was desperate. I applied for an account that can trade crypto.

In the end my account got rejected (there was no explanation) and I gave up. Because of course that would happen lol.

--

“Hey, do you have time to talk about the future?” “UM... are we breaking up???” “LOL don’t say it like that!”

My roommate / best friend decided she wanted to move to her own place and find her own way in life. Of course, my fragile heart, still tender from the previous month’s beating, took it very personally. I was reassured it wasn’t my fault - there are plenty of other valid reasons why.

We’ve been sharing an apartment for 6 years now, and although I knew it would happen someday, it was quite shocking to hear it being said to me in reality. At first, I laughed it off because I’ve been dreaming about moving out of the country anyway and it all works out. I’m an introverted, neat-freak, homebody! It’s perfect! But after a very pensive shower, I realized that I’m actually terrified to be without any companionship. Either way, I have to put my feelings aside because I don’t wanna hold her back from her dreams. I may have trouble accepting it now but hopefully I can genuinely be happy for her in time.

--

The Plant Life Please welcome Rokurou, the newest addition to my jungle.

It’s been a few weeks and he totally ate bugs already lol. Nice! I was thinking the smaller traps wouldn’t catch anything, but it turns out they’ve been doing the most work. The larger traps can’t catch ants or tiny gnats. They just crawl out after the trap snaps shut.

This venus fly trap is rather picky about what water he gets so I’ve been out there collecting rainwater in buckets JUST for him! Kind of a pain, but I will do whatever it takes to keep him alive.

It was a very tiny dream of mine to collect and care for carnivorous plants. If the shop had more varieties, I would probably buy them all.

--

I thought I was gonna die... Hostess for a day. One day while working at the cafe, this old Chinese man came in asking how much I made here. Then he told me if I work as a hostess/front desk person at his restaurant (which was next to the cafe, by the way), he will pay me more than the cafe. He slipped me $5 to go see him after my shift at 9pm. It was soooooo sketch. But I went anyway to at least hear him out after telling my roommate and my parents where I was going. You know... in case I die.

Luckily I didn’t die. It was a normal Chinese restaurant. I met the staff and they were all super cool and the mysterious old man goes by Mr. Lin.

Mr. Lin was very chill about it. He said I can have a trial run after my bakery shift on Saturday. If I don’t like it, I can just tell him no and he will pay me for my time.

I knew it was a bad idea to take another shift after a long shift at the cafe but I did it anyway. It was BUSY. Too busy for anyone to teach me how to be a hostess so I literally just had to guess what I’m supposed to be doing. It was kinda obvious though, showing people to their tables. I picked them at random bc I didn’t know if there was a method to seating people or not.

There are three different menus: Chinese, Korean and English and they’re ALL different. Depending on the nationality of who walks in, I have to decide for myself which menu to hand out. Uhhhhh despite being Asian myself, I cannot tell the difference between Korean and Chinese people lmao so I have to keep awkwardly asking people which menu they want. *screams*

The manager, Vincent, is so OP though. He knows exactly which menu to get every time. I was like HOW DO YOU KNOW?? He only responded with “working in the business for 24 years.”

Anyway, it was a long and confusing night of people thinking I am a waitress and me not knowing where the spoons are. But I don’t think this job is for me, even if it pays a lot.

There sure is plenty of demand for part-time food service workers and zero demand for full-time graphic designers... sigh. My journey doing random jobs in 2021 continues.

--

My brother graduated pharmacy school last week. In our culture, the older sibling’s shoulders is where all the expectations should rest. Maybe in another AU I would feel small and inferior to my younger and more successful sibling. But I don’t feel anything like that. In fact, if he can take care of my parents while I’m trying to figure out my own life, then I’m just more grateful to him. Maybe my parents don’t expect anything of me anymore, which is okay. Either way, my brother and I have each other’s backs.

--

Berseria I went into it with ZERO expectations because of its infamous predecessor, but I have come out pleasantly surprised. I liked it more than I thought. I’m at the end but I’m not done with the story yet.

I remember expressing my utter confusion about Zesty and everyone was like “play Berseria, it will answer a majority of your questions.” And boy, it did and I’m so glad. I loved all the throwbacks and references and lore that had to do with the previous game. Like, they really had something interesting going on here but it never quite came to fruition last time.

Is it just me, or did it take a very long time to understand all the battle mechanics? Like... I didn’t get the hang of the game until we got to Meirchio. Now I am quite good at playing Rokurou, my main. And it feels way more fun. I usually like mage characters in the old tales games but tbh I wasn’t really into it this time.

After we finish Bersy, we will be moving on to Xillia 2, our final Tales game! Gaius, I’m coming for you.

--

Xenoblade At the same time, I am also finishing up Xenoblade after spending nearly a year on it. I have weeks where I’m just grinding the side quests to unlock the skill trees. When I’m down, traveling and exploring in this game puts my worries to rest. Really though, the maps are so beautiful... And the music! T_T

This is one of the few games where I like every character pretty much equally, though Dundun and Riki win by just a little bit.

--

That’s it for now. Thanks for being here!

this doesn't go public for another few hours but the zero people who will see this before it does wont even know what camp so it doesn't matter

hi im a teenage girl who works at a nature lodge at a camp in the summer ive been working there for years and since staff lives together for like two months theyre like family when i go to camp, i get up at 6:30 in the morning after going to sleep around 12 or 1am and im busy from 7am to 9pm every day some days its after 9pm we get up and do the flag ceremony and eat breakfast and set up program which is 9am to around 3pm and sometimes its til 5pm if your area has open program that day and i teach kids about rocks and minerals and erosion and dinosaurs and fossils and animal sounds and tracks and the animals we have in the lodge (we catch and release our animals every year from whats on property) and we might do a turtle race and i do that again until lunch then i do it again after for each session and if they have a second day we teach the greenhouse and the bug house and when program is over we do work projects until flags and dinner and sometimes we do work projects after dinner and the last day of the kids stay is chose your own adventure where the areas have all sorts of things to do and leaders chose what the kids do and they build their own schedule and the nature lodge usually does cubs who care and the river tour with some a-quad staff and my personal favorite, tracking, and their last night we have closing campfire where the packs can sign up to do a song or skit and staff does songs and skits inbetween and when all the songs and skits are done staff lines up and sings vespers as the scouts walk away and the nature lodge does a night hike and nav does a storytelling session and the rest of staff do humpty dumpty where we circle up and clap a beat singing (closer to chanting ig) “hump ty dump hump hump ty dump hump ty dump hump hump ty dump say what” and in-between each of those someone goes in the middle and says smth like “mary had a little lamb the doctor was surprised” and other variants and some things ppl say every time and theres smth we have to do with it like singing “its a small world” as all the short people go in the middle and ending with “so get off my world” as we try to intimitate tall ppl and we respond the same but saying “its a tall world” and when people finish in the circle we say “huh aint that funky now” and go back to the chanting and clapping and eventually some admin steps in and says goodnight or its girls shower hour or some other news and from 9-11 its free time essentially and i can go on a walk with my best friend or talk with a group of friends or sit in the dining hall and play games or watch videos or whatever and we do that every day all summer except for the days we check people in and staff weeks where its all work projects and getting ready and shut down week/weekend where its all putting things away for next year and we get nights off where we go to Walmart and fuck around or to some food place like wawa or the energy station or taco bell and bring food back for staff who wanted stuff and we have a Christmas in july event where everyone has a secret santa and theres tons of snacks and we put up a chrismas tree with oradments from all the program areas and we decorate the dining hall and play chrismas music over the speakers with a fire on the projector bc we don't have an actual fireplace and some times admin just does nice things for us like open pool time or pizza and a bonfire or open boating or .22s and shotguns at the rifle range or open archery or chances to tie dye our shirts bc we have certain days were we wear tie dye shirts or hawaiian shirts or oa day with the oa sashes which is the day of the overnighter where scoutcraft takes a bunch of aol’s hiking somewhere (usually the garrison field but sometimes the archery field) to pitch tents and cook dinner and whatever else they do on the overnighter and we don't get paid much but ig that ensures that we aren't there for the money right and sometimes its hard and sometimes its stressful mostly for directors or admin and you might want to cry from smth mean that an angry dad said but theres always that kind mom and her kid to tell you they've been coming to camp for years and they love it and its not fair of that guy to expect us to stop the rain or smth so his campsite isn't muddy and theres always the staff kudos usually written by the kids with their wobbly letters and their kind words to the one with the glasses at or the girl at or the tall one at and the parents who tell admin about the lovely staff and the kids you see every year growing before your eyes and they packs that always come back and the leaders who are friends with the staff and invite us to their campfires and give us food bc we legally cant accept anything else and some staff love camp for the kids, some for it being a summer job, some for being with their friends, some for being away from home, some for being in the woods, and some, like me, who are there for all of it camp is my safe place my home the only place ive even been where just being in the vicinity makes me peaceful i drive the road through camp and im happy, i step foot on property and im gleeful, i stay the summer and im elated, theres nothing bad for me at camp, i mean sure theres always the annoying kid in a pack or the pack that doesn't stop talking long enough for you to teach or the parent whos mean or whatever else might not be the ray of your sun but im not asking it to be perfect, i don't expect it to be, i just want it to be there when i need it and it always has

until now

council cancelled all camps

so these people who work full time overseeing stuff for my camp and the other one in council and all the people who work at the camps and the shop and work with the districts and the packs and troops and crews that are within, these very important, very hardworking people whos priority is always safety, have determined that any in person camping experience is too much of a hazard to conduct and i understand and respect that

but it doesn't stop me from being devastated

it dosent stop me from being angry

two weeks ago we had a zoom call saying we still have jobs and its just going to be a little different this summer, today we have no jobs and im panicing

I am Goli the current champion of the Galar region and a bug type specialist and this is my story.

Day 1

My Rotom Phone begins to ring as loudly as possible, as I groggily wake up to reach for it, it announces “THE TRAIN ARRIVES IN 3 HOURS !”. I burst open my eyes at the announcement and quickly bolt out of my room straight into the kitchen yelling “MOM THE POKÉMON GYM LEAGUE STARTS TOMORROW ”. As I enter the kitchen I see my mom preparing breakfast, “I know dear” she calmly says “You’ve done nothing but tell me about it for the past few days. Also dear please be a little more quiet you’ll wake up the neighbors” she states as she rolls her eyes. “Sorry Mom” I say as I go to the table, before I start walking though I feel a small tug on the edge of my pajamas “Huh?” I look down to see my sizzlipede,Aka,tugging at my jogging pants half asleep with its eyes still half open. “Sorry Aka, did I wake you up”, Aka softly chirps in response, I place him around my neck and sit down at the table. “So are you two ready for the Galar League ?” mom says as she puts down my breakfast in front of me “You bet it, Aka and I are going to be the bug kings of Galar!” I proudly exclaim while Aka chirps excitedly. She lightly chuckles “Well then better get ready, I just got of the phone with Hop’s mom and Gloria’s mom and they said that they already got their starters and are waiting for you at the train station and that Leon is sponsoring you guys”, as I heard the news I stand up as fast as possible take a shower, get dressed in my bug type uniform and jeans and grab my stuff as fast as possible. I dash out of the door get on my bike and shout “BYE MOM!”, “GOOD LUCK!” she replies. “You ready Aka?” looking down at the sizzlipede around my neck, Aka cheerily chirps and I grin back. With that I quickly bike towards the station at the closest town.

As I enter the station, I look around to find my two friends. Then I here a young girl’s voice behind me saying “Hey bug boy”. I turn around to see my childhood friend Gloria wearing a dragon type uniform and jeans standing there smugly behind me, “Well if it ain’t the cold hearted and monstrous mistress herself”,I retort receiving a jab to the gut. “Ow....” I groan as I lay on the floor, “Learn some respect, you show up five minutes late and now your insulting the people who were waiting for you” she lectures me. “Gloria give Goli a break we only arrived here first because we had to choose our starters” I hear a voice shout. As I lay on the floor I turn my head to see my other childhood friend Hop walk towards us, “Sorry was in the bathroom” he says while scratching his head. “No problem” I say while standing up, then we all look at each other cheekily. I look at Hop and say “Shepherd”, “Bug Boy” he replies, Hop looks at Gloria and says “Ms.Scales”. Gloria looks at Hop saying “Shepherd” and the looks at me saying “Bug Boy” and I reply with “Ms.Scales”. We all chuckle a little as we call each other the nicknames we had since we were kids. “Well the train to Motorstoke will arrive in 30 minutes, want to get some tea or coffee?” Gloria asks Hop and I, we nod in agreement and head to a close by cafe and as we wait for the train both of them showed me their Pokémon. Gloria chose Sobble as her starter, which she named Rexy, and brought along her Dreepy,named Sor. On the other side of things Hop chose Grookey, which he named Turnip, and his trusty Wooloo, named Cabbage. I show them my team as well, Aka my trusty sizzlipede I have had since I was a kid and a Dottler named Tenten, and they laughed at how I don’t stray away from my buggy roots and I blush out of embarrassment. The train arrives and boarded it, the trip from the town to Motostoke is roughly 8 hours, we arrive around 9pm and we book three rooms at Budew Inn close to the stadium,where we had free rooming since we were challengers. We split ways to our rooms and as I lay down I can’t sleep with the anticipation and excitement for tomorrow’s ceremony.

Elephanting: My Training as a Mahout

Thailand is synonymous with elephants. Everyone wants to see elephants in Thailand and I was no different. I wanted to ride down beautiful rivers on the back of an enormous, majestic creature. I wanted to touch it and feel it’s thousands of years of evolution with my fingertips. But mostly, I wanted to know, “How does one show love to such an enormous creature?” That single question would lead me on a ride of a lifetime.

When I arrived in Thailand, some new Thai friends wanted to help me realize my dream, so they took me to an elephant village. These are tiny theme parks designated to the love of the gentle giants that helped win wars for Thailand, once upon a time. These villages have food carts, markets, knick-knack shops and of course, the stars of the show, elephants. Admission is free but for a tiny fee you can become buddies with an elephant through various interactions. You can ride them, feed them, take pictures with them, even get lifted up by a trunk for an incredible profile picture. I was so excited to touch one, make eye contact, feel its tough skin and interact with it by sharing a special, wild animal moment.  But that’s not what happened.

When I finally came face to face with the towering beast, for the first time in my life, it was horrible.  I looked into its eyes as it was tied to a tree and they were pin points, like it was on drugs or on high alert. It sat there rocking back and forth like a frightened child in a horror film. I bought some bananas to feed to one particular elephant as it’s “guardian” stood by ensuring it chewed. The melancholy elephant took my offerings like a robot, without any emotion at all, as a line of people fed it the same thing behind me. The animals carrying patrons around were moping. Walking slow like they had done it a million times before (and later I learned that they had) with gigantic chains hanging from their necks attached to their feet. It was like an elephant chain-gang. The men steering the elephants all held hooks. Hooks! Why on Earth would anyone need a hook? It felt wrong. It was not the spiritual experience I was hoping for, so I started researching if there were places that I could go to show an elephant love. And thus my search began.  

And here I am today, at an elephant rescue known as Elephant Temple, which sells elephant poop coffee to support the elephants. I came for a visit and asked the monk if he wanted any help, when he said yes, I asked the owner if I could live here and help for a while. Volunteerism doesn’t really exist in Thailand, so they met my meager generosity in typical Thai fashion. Since they didn’t have a place for me to stay, they built me a house. Yes, a beautiful loft style hut with my own toilet and bucket to shower.

We call it a temple because it’s an actual ordained Buddhist temple, which means no matter how hot, or how humid, I have to wear temple appropriate attire. That’s the hardest part. Otherwise my day is pretty easy met with spurts of giant activity (excuse the pun).

Always kissing

My day goes as follows:

MORNING: I wake up at 6:30am and put on deodorant, brush my teeth, lather my face with sunscreen and head out to stock the stalls full of fresh food. I have to wear long sleeves as the leaves are full of bugs and the thin leaves grace me with hundreds of tiny, paper-cut like scratches. I greet Prat San when he returns from blessing the village and gathering food. I then wait on my porch while he marches the elephants in from their dirt pasture to the covered day-stalls. By 8am I unload the new shipment of fresh cut stalks of leaves and grass. Then I eat breakfast and I have some free time.

During my free-time I planned on reading, writing and sending letters to friends. But I never do that. Instead I sit and watch. I dangle my feet over the sides of my patio, and I watch the elephants for hours. I watch them fight and flip their trunks to shew each other away.  I watch them steel the other’s food. I watch them, kiss, feed each other and inspect one another with their trunks. I watch them act like brothers and comrades as they soothe each other from the PTSD with which they all struggle.

“Excuse me one minute, but if you don’t like those, well I happen to love them.”  

LUNCH:  We feed and water the elephants again and then I organize the new shipment of corn, stalks and other tree branches that the elephants love. Usually I have a terribly ugly dog by my side that is so old and blind it hides from the other dogs by staying close to people. Not stepping on him is my biggest accomplishment, his name is Sinto, it means troublesome.

We repeat this all day long and in between I sit and watch the elephants more, as they do the same to me. One of the problems with feeding these big brutes is that they blame me if the shipment of food has not arrived yet. Consequently, they throw old stalks of food at me. All the workers laugh as it’s a compliment that no one wants.

All day long, I am eaten alive by bugs, fighting chickens and dogs for elephant leaves, outrunning dangerous hornets and dragon flies, all in the name of pursuing this fascination I have with finding out, “How can I show an elephant love?”

Literal water baby

DINNER: The owners and I have become great friends. We eat under the stars at the outdoor dining table, which is a large square piece of plywood on the ground. We laugh and discuss animal politics and ways to improve the lives of the elephants. We drink elephant poop lattes and then clean up dinner in a trash bin full of water used as a kitchen sink. It’s one of the most comfortable living environments in which I’ve lived. Then I’m off to clean the day stalls as Prat San has taken the elephants out to pasture. It’s the hardest work at the Temple. About 2-3 hours of drenched sweat while I single-handedly sweep, shovel and dump poop out of the stalls. It’s quiet, dark and a tad lonely.

BED TIME: At 9pm, I am beat. I am dirty and tired and still sweating from emptying the stalls of old food and dung the size of melons.  I can’t wait to hold my little pot and poor the pipe-temperature water over my head, three times. I love the feeling of lathering with soap and watching the yellow stains on my feet disappear. I pour the water over my head several more times until the dirt is gone and I feel cool, for the first and last time of the day. Then while doing all of this in the dark (because light attracts HUGE beetles that fly into the walls of my room until they are all dead on the floor), I turn on the fan, get into my mosquito net and crawl into my mat on the tile.  I look at the 2-inch gap under my door and pray the cats, dogs and people eat the snakes before they make their way into my room. I put my ear plugs in and I tell my body that I need to rest, no matter how many of my bones are sticking into the hard surface, I have a big day tomorrow, more “same same.”

I still know very little about elephants, and I can do even less for them. But every day I wake up in service of the actual mahout. If I make his job easier (which I do) then he has time to love them, and help their mental status while I meet their basic needs.

I respect elephants; I enjoy them, I fear them and I should. They were born to squash me effortlessly, the way I can accidentally break a kitten’s back by stepping on it. The way a kitten can kill a frog just by playing with it (That’s a nightly show, I don’t even interfere anymore).  

How do I show an elephant love? I clean up its poop, throw it some branches, and hope that these elephants will be the last ones in captivity.

Using the leaves to scratch those hard to reach places. 

Saturday, December 15, 2018

post #341

main points:

- rough OOP refactoring on views

- meet up with calvin and brian for lunch

- asia trip plane flights with dimitri

- some more OOP refactoring work, figuring out amazon package/labels

- late dinner at 9:30pm with brian

- aeronaut with calvin, hannah, bella, and brian!

- more OOP refactoring work and bug fix

today i:

- woke up at 10:30am, but snoozed until like 11:30am. i started some very rough refactoring on the views module of our OOP project

- around 12:30pm brian and i went to the GSU to meet up with calvin and to get food. i ran out of bananas and i didn’t really feel like just eating a cookie

- we both got charles river bread and co and i now have just $5 left in convenience points. we went downstairs to the GSU alley and met up with calvin!! it was so nice to see him again. tbh it felt like he never left cause he was walking around with his backpack and stuff. we caught up on how his work is going, calvin’s brother. talking about brian’s plans for next semester, everyone moving out to california. we hung out until like 2:15pm. then calvin and i played a game of pool. i was getting rekt but then calvin was missing the last ball a lot so i miraculously caught up and won :o then i had to peace out to go to dimitri’s at 3pm so i took an uber. brian also needed to go back to work on OOP and calvin was gonna head out to something else. we planned to meet up later tonight though at aeronaut brewery

- i ubered over to dimitri’s place. i hadn’t been to his new place yet, it’s pretty dope. he’s living with alex and jake. he showed me what he learned on the ukelele so far (somewhere over the rainbow) and a few other things. then we got down to business booking flight tickets. so much money gone from my bank account... :’( i booked my flight to tokyo and taiwan. then meeting up with dimitri in thailand. also our flights afterwards from thailand to hk and shanghai. then we decided to do a bullet train from shanghai to beijing but couldn’t figure out how to book it so i texted my parents and figured we could book it some other time. but yay we’re all set now!! at least on the leg of the trip where we’re both together. i gotta figure out what i’m doing the first half of the trip

i watched dimitri play some hearthstone while my uber was on its way, and i got picked up around 6:30pm. the next time i’ll see dimitri is in asia :OOO

- took a long shower 

- opened up the amazon packages from yesterday for christmas gifts. one of them is actually ripped on the packaging... so i wanted to get it returned. i tried to contact amazon to get the return label printed out since i accidentally clicked the option to go to a UPS store to print it, then realized brian had a printer so i could just print a return label from here. got that all sorted out and a return label printed. i’ll drop it off at an amazon locker sometime later

spent some time working on refactoring the views module. there was a lot of code to reorganize/add comments to but i got a good amount of it done. chatted with brian for a bit about how his project was going - his teammates still aren’t really helpful :/

- then we ubered over to cambridge to RF o sullivan, getting there at like 9pm. we were gonna meet with calvin, hannah and bella at aeronaut at 9:30 LOL. we were running pretty late. but bella was also gonna be late around 9:50 so that was fine. we ate some burgers and they were pretty good. talked about where we’d hypothetically have a wedding. i wasn’t sure probably something small cause i was like “it’s a lot of money” but brian was like “what if you had all the money in the world” then i was like “hmmm okay maybe cancun or somewhere on the beach. or in italy or something”

- we walked over to aeronaut and met up with calvin bella and hannah!! i got some IPA thing that was the closest semblance to cider. they were finishing up a game of jenga when brian and i got there. then we switched over to cards against humanity and calvin used my phone to order uber eats from anna’s tacqueria. we had a good time messing around and playing cards against humanity. very wholesome (as wholesome as cards against humanity can get) 

then we played uno. poor calvin got a bunch of +4 cards :( none of us were really close to winning but then.... bella won at the end, around 12:15am. which was perfect cause aeronaut closes at 12:30am. we took a group picture and then headed out :( it was so sad. idk when i’m gonna see calvin again or bella. calvin and hannah took an uber out and we said good bye to them. then brian bella and i took an uber back to campus/added an extra stop for bella to med campus. we said good bye to bella and got off/walked back to our apt. at aeronaut when we group huddled before leaving, calvin said “it’s the end of an era”. it’s true and it’s really sad :( i’m gonna miss everyone. i think it’s just settling in that college is really ending even though we graduated and did the whole ceremony and whatever

- we got back at 1am and i worked on refactoring the rest of the views module until like 2:30am and pushed it up for a PR review. also discovered a bug fix for the add category button (many objects were referencing the same thing so it was updating the wrong thing)

- took a shower and went to sleep

the end

Pretty eventful the time in Thailand so far. Looking forward to spending another month here and improve fitness and my Muay Thai skills. 

NYE in Bangkok: Given the late arrival from Bahrain (9pm) things had to work out should I want to make it to my NYE party. They did, with immigration and luggage picked up swiftly as well as a speedy new SIM card (still can’t believe that BT mobile is allowed to charge clients GBP5/MB roaming … thieves!). My hotel was in the area Sukhumvit, as recommended by friend & DJ of the night Tim. By 11pm and freshly showered (what a pleasure after this long journey) I made it to ‘Mango Tree on the river’ restaurant on which rooftop we would meet the new year.

It didn’t take long for me meet up with Jan & his friends. I met Jan briefly in London some years back, but we had our last night out many years ago in HK. Facebook helped to discover that we are both in BKK for NYE. Much to talk about! The party was good and the location offered some great views over Bangkok and its rivers though I understand last year there was more fireworks visible. Once we had all greeted 2018, Jan’s girlfriend left … giving us the time to go out for a walk and talk on the way. It didn’t take long until we stumbled into a Buddhist celebration, enjoyed a ride on the Tuk-Tuk and a last beer before Jan called it quits. I continued to explore the city for a while after though was surprised that just few bars (other than the infamous go-go bars) were open late on NYE. 

Not having slept in a proper bed since my last night in London meant that I didn’t see much of the daylight on new years day, but finally made it into the buzzing streets of Bangkok in the afternoon. I stayed mainly in the Sukhumvit area (expat dominated & expensive) and enjoyed some good banter with a few lads outside an Irish pub (the toilet of which boast with really funny scriptures, see below). There was Al (a 51y resident of Bangkok, originally from the US, brought mass mailings to Thailand) and there was John (working in BKK for 6mth, also US) and a bit later was a Scottish guy (professional caddy as it was). Al was the funniest of them all. He could not only do the Michael Jackson dance, but also perform the Superman (happy to show to anyone as & when we meet ;o). Over a few beers we discussed quite a range of things from running styles to (very strange) sexual preferences of Japanese girls as reported by our Scottish caddy. Proper boys round I guess. Later at night we hit the Nana area with plenty of bars and life music. Needless to say … it got pretty late again. On the way home I even managed to enjoy some Thai strreetfood with one of the many ladyboys … 

Getting to Koh Phangan: Initially I wanted to go to the island by night train to Surat Thani and then a ferry. However, tickets were sold out and hence I got myself a late flight into Surat Thani. The night in the airport hostel was lets say practicable be it not overly nice and very disorganised. Thai people can take a lot of time to do their things. Early morning back to the airport and onto a bus for 90mins after which a speed ferry takes you to Koh Samui (2h) and then Koh Phangan (30min). All in for 500THB, not bad. 

May Thai Training begins: At the pier it was pretty busy, as many partygoers returned from the monthly full moon party (for which the island is known). The Diamond Muay Thai gym and camp is only a 10-15min walk away from the pier. I skipped the taxi option and carried my stuff the short way … which under the blazing sun turned into my first training session I guess. At the camp some private training was in progress and the check in to my bungalow very straightforward. My new home for four weeks. Basic as can be without toilet, shower or A/C (and with a funky, pink moquito net ;o). Next to the camp is the kitchen with its fruit bar and laundry service.

Bamboo hut

Bamboo resting place

My hut inside

Dining area

Fruit bar

Saturday BBQ

Muay Thai sessions are held twice a day (except Sundays) at 8-10am & 4-6pm and you can opt for additional yoga and fitness classes each day (if you can manage). I joined the afternoon session and despite my preparation in Colombia it was a tough one, but so rewarding once you are done. Fitness will come through step by step over the coming weeks. Altogether I managed to squeeze in 5 sessions this week (and one yoga) before taking Saturday and Sunday off nursing some smaller injuries on both feet and my knee.

New friends & training partners: There loads of people coming and going here all the time. Many stay for a month and so time will overlap for a bit longer. So far I had some deeper conversations with Stefan (Germany) & Jason (AUS) – both conspiracy guys as well as with Frits from Holland who joined me on my Sunday temple tour. In general you find many German, Dutch, Russian, Swedish, Australian and British folks in our camp. I really enjoy the positive atmosphere – be it during training or over post training meals. 

Exploring the island: Last week I managed to see a few places. Having a scooter really helps and is good fun to take a ride around. First up Mae Haad beach with its land bridge to Ko Ma island, then a temple tour with Frits on Sunday (Chinese temple, Wat Phu Khao Noi, Wat Pho) and the Phaeng waterfall. Many places offer great views over the island. I also visited the food market several times (there are actually a few, but one is more permanent in the centre and offers great food at low prices). On Saturday Stefan had a go at the insects offered at the food market near the pier. I tried some sort of bug – not that bad, but nothing to get too excited about either. We rounded up the week with a visit to one of the sunset bars – Stone Rock bar – on Sunday. Great vibes, great views, great time.

Hello Thailand & Koh Phangan: Muay Thai training begins Pretty eventful the time in Thailand so far. Looking forward to spending another month here and improve fitness and my Muay Thai skills.