Ffffffreeeeeedom.

This past weekend I left Pattaya and headed for Bangkok. I needed to get out of town and surround myself with people my age...in some sort of adventurous environment. Becca had been in Bangkok all week, as she was staying there before heading onto Chang Mai in northern Thailand, so I booked a bed in a hostel for two nights and took a bus up after work on Friday evening. The hostel was so awesome. It had the best decor and was located just outside of the busy center of town so it was nice and quiet. My first time in Bangkok was right after having traveled for 17 hours from California, so I was jet lagged, overwhelmed, and didn't get to enjoy it much. I was glad to be back to give it another try. My hostel room consisted of me, two boys from England, and very attractive boy from France. He had a nice french accent...and was nice to look at as well but unfortunately he only stayed for one night so I didn't get to know him. Anyway, over the course of the weekend, I met a ton of people from all over the world. It was so much fun to be around other people my age, on their own adventures, and eager to meet people. I absolutely loved it. Becca told me that I looked like I was on cloud 9 the entire time, and I was. It really doesn't take much to make me happy. We rode the subway from the hostel into town both mornings for breakfast which was fun and exciting. Then we walked all over, visiting temples, markets, and did some shopping. We also took a river tour on a long-tail boat and got to see a different side of Bangkok. At night, we ventured on the crazy khaosan road to enjoy the nightlife. It was the best weekend and needless to say, Monday and Tuesday have been very hard.

 train station.

A monk, a monkey, and a kitten.

Yesterday after what I believe was a typhoon (or at least that's what I heard someone at school say), I was riding my bicycle home when I came across the tiniest kitten I've ever seen. It was drenched from the storm and crying. My heart immediately sunk. Not sure what to do, I ran into 711 to get some milk. I tried feeding it to the kitten, but it didn't drink much before rolling over and appearing to be dead. Heartbroken, I continued on home. I thought about that kitten all night and at one point burst into tears. I hate seeing stray animals, absolutely hate it. I decided that if it was still there today, I would take it in my bicycle basket and find a vet. On my ride home, I cut through the grounds of a school run by monks. My attention was caught by a monkey drinking a juice box, and then further directed to a tiny kitten huddled beside him. Much to my surprise, it was THE kitten I found yesterday. I couldn't even believe it and I was so excited to see it was still alive. I got off my bike and approached the animals, but was soon stopped by the monkey freaking out. He scooped up the kitten and held it close to his body. Obviously he had taken the kitten under his "wing" and it was now his property. It was too adorable for words. A monk saw me watching the animals and came over to where I was and began talking to me in Thai. I have no idea what he was saying but we attempted to chat for awhile. It was mostly pointing and laughing....and he had no front teeth so that was entertaining. He explained that the monkey was very protective of the kitten and would bite me if I tried to take the kitten from him. Looking around the grounds, there appeared to be many more kittens and full grown cats. After spending an hour hanging out with the monk, the monkey, and the kitten, I decided they would do a much better job taking care of the kitty than I would and I left. I think I'll probably go back there again this week and hang out with them again.

A Rude Encounter.

I was minding my own business after school, sitting on a bench and reading US Weekly via my iphone, when one of the other teachers decided to join me. I hadn't spoken much to this teacher in particular because I never see him during breaks or after school. I had also heard that he made some comment about not liking Americans and their accents because he is British and they are so much better...so that is a reason in and of itself to not get to know him! Anyway, interrupting my peaceful indulgence into celebrity trash, he gets to talking about some fight he got into with one of the Thai teachers this past week. He also talked about the puss-filled warts on his fingers which really drew me in....and mind you, I didn't get a word in this whole time and I think he did that on purpose. Finally he must have gotten sick of hearing his own voice and wanted some American accent goodness so he said to me, in a snide tone, "Umm Pattaya is a place for men....so why the heck are you here?" Thank you sir, you're making being here so much easier on me.

Best kind of party? Pizza party. Duh.

To make light of a difficult week coming to a close, I decided to have a pizza party. The idea came to me at about 6pm and by 7...it was goin down! I invited my 3 friends: Becca, Lokki, and Chen. We sat around the table outside my apartment building and had a great time just drinking some Singha (beer) and eating pizza. I love pizza. I also learned how to count to 10 in chinese using hand symbols. Wyld night :)

 Chen and Lokki.

 Get in my bellayyyyy.

 Chen says the finger means "I'm cute"...hahah

The Day of Doom.

I regret having to post another negative entry....but I created this blog to share my adventures and experiences, so I guess I will make note of my most recent misfortune. This past week I had a terrible cold. Achey, congested, exhausted, all the usual cold symptoms. I am going to blame it on my class and the school for the fact that they do not provide soap for the kids to wash their hands with. My kids sneeze and cough all the time, never cover their mouths of course, although I am trying to teach them manners, and no soap to wash their hands with after using the bathroom or before eating lunch. Therefore, a multitude of germs live within my classroom...and thus I got sick. I didn't go to school on Monday or Tuesday. On Wednesday I woke up and was still not feeling better. I needed some food in my stomach, something other than rice or fried chicken, so Becca and I decided to venture into town to Subway, about 20 minutes away. Needless to say it was the most delicious sandwich ever, and I felt much better after eating it.

Just as we were back on the motorbike and heading back to our part of town, we ate it. Oh we ate it BIG. It was one of those moments that will continue to play in my head for a long time. It happened so fast and I was face planted on the ground before I could realize what had happened. I flew off first, landing on my left knee, and Becca fell on top of me. Our motorbike had hit some loose gravel in the road (we think) and the bike flew out from under us. LUCKILY I was wearing jeans and slip on vans that day so I didn't suffer any big cuts...but my jeans were ripped, knee bleeding, and somehow the back of my right shoulder was scraped up and bleeding. Becca on the other hand, was a huge mess. She was wearing short shorts and flip flops...and had blood dripping everywhere...from both her elbows, her knees, and her toes. I scrambled up and helped Becca to the sidewalk, looking around for someone to help us. All of the other motorists and people walking by just stared. Nobody offered to help us get out of the street, or move our bike for us. So that was just great. I managed to pull our bike onto the sidewalk and ran into the 7-11 for something to clean our cuts with and bandaids. I didn't realize the severity of our wounds, though, and bandaids were just not enough. A motor taxi drove by and asked if we needed a ride, and I told him we needed to get to a hospital. You are probably wondering why on earth we'd take a motor taxi after just having wrecked on one...but it's the quickest way to get anywhere. There is so much traffic in Pattaya that it would've taken double the time to get to a hospital in a car.

Finally at the hospital, Becca gets checked in and a nurse cleaned out all her cuts and bandaged her up. While in the x-ray room, a nurse was snapping photos of Becca on her personal camera. This is what makes the people here so weird. Not wanting to pay to have my two cuts cleaned, I went to the bathroom and cleaned them myself with some alcohol wipes. I would later learn that this was stupid. Anyway, we finally leave the hospital and took a taxi back to our apartments (our motorbike still parked on the side of the road). Luckily our landlord and his girlfriend were kind enough to pick the bike up for us. As the night went on, the pain in my left knee progressed to a point where I couldn't walk on it. Me oh my it was so painful! I realized that I probably should've had someone check it out, and my cuts were still very dirty and starting to look infected. Because Becca's cuts were so big and full of gravel/dirt/etc...she was instructed to return to the hospital for the next 7 days to have them cleaned and redressed. I decided I would go to the hospital with her the next day, just to have my knee checked out to make sure something more serious wasn't going on. The nurse cleaned my cuts for me and then a doctor took an x-ray of my knee and did a physical exam. He said that nothing was broken, but I damaged the soft tissue and would need to take some medicine to get rid of the swelling and blood inside my knee. He also proceeded to give me another tetanus shot (even though I just got one before I came here) and I hate shots. I left the hospital with a knee brace, crutches, and a bunch of medicine.

I am grateful that is all that came of the accident. It could have been much, much worse. We were both wearing helmets, and I was actually wearing one that fully fit my head, so that is a relief. Now I just have to hobble around for the next bit and figure out how to get myself better! My knee is in a lot of pain, but I just keep telling myself it is only temporary, and I am grateful to be alive. I don't think I will be riding another motorbike for awhile though....kinda freaked out by it, especially because the entire emergency room at the hospital was filled with people suffering from motorbike accidents and from the looks of it, we got off pretty lucky.

I promise my next post will be more enjoyable to read...and hopefully include some pictures :)