February 26th, 2006

Elephants and jobs. Ok, here we go.

Elephants (this will include all Thai language stuff too) -
1. I went to the Thai Language Meet Up Group on the 18th. Out of the online group of 122 people, 8 showed up. I was hoping that it would be Thai speakers and I would be able to listen, but only 1 person could speak Thai, so we just ate and talked. The conversation wasn't anything too interesting for me through. It was boring topics like how they can't get food spicy enough here, how crazy the traffic is in Bangkok and how it's really hard to get their Thai girlfriends into the States which included my favorite comment of the afternoon, "except for the fiancee visa, but then you've got marry 'em." To be honest, we did have a helpful discussion of how one would go about learning how to speak Thai.
2. I was told a website where I could order the CDs to go with the Thai for Beginners book I bought while in Thailand. I didn't buy the book with the CDs at the time because I didn't have a CD player with me. But I've ordered them now and they should be here in a week or two.
3. I also started a Thai reading and writing course. It's 6 people (I think in early, mid and late 20s). The other 5 are Thai kids who grew up in America, know how to speak some, but don't know how to read or write. They seemed nice and confused why I would want to learn how to read and write Thai.
4. I found a website called Conversation Exchange where you just say what you can speak and what you want to learn to speak and then you can search for other people who you can meet up with. I found a woman who actually teaches ESL to Thai students at a language school in Manhattan who said she wants her students to talk with native English speakers more. She said they're in their early 20s and a lot of them work at restaurants.
5. Kopi (18 yr old Burmese mahout) called me from the little village closest to the Elephant Park. That was unexpected.
6. I met up with Josh, who I went to high school with, who is now studying elephant behavior and got to talk about elephants.
7. The Hawthorn Elephants made it from Illinois to The Elephant Sanctuary Tennessee.
8. The Thai elephants are still being exported to the Australian Zoos but they're being made to do huge revisions to the zoos to make them better for the elephants.
9. Erica told me about an article she read saying that gorillas seemed to be committing infanticide (very common with elephants in captivity) because they didn't know how to nurse their babies. And once the gorilla was in an environment where she learned to nurse, she would nurse her baby and then not kill it. So maybe that's what's going on with all these elephants living like crap in the zoos and tourist camps, they just don't know what they're supposed to be doing! Help them!!!!
10. Yo (friend of Lek/ head of the Karen villages I went to) brought a Karen bag for me to the office in Chiang Mai and Jeff sent it to me a couple days ago. So that should be coming in the mail soon.


Jobs
In New York
1. I worked on resumes, but was still too nervous (and sick) to send anything out.
2. I've been finding a ton of interesting jobs on craigslist.com.
3. I'll start calling/faxing places tomorrow
4. I have to decide if I rather look for a cool job in the city or a not-as-cool job in Westchester. Westchester doesn't seem to have an abundance of cool jobs. But maybe that's ok and saving the time and the money of commuting to the city is worth it. Staying in Westchester would mean either working as a receptionist or tutoring I think. There's also a job teaching an afterschool science club that seems neat. We'll see how it goes.
5. The deli near me just re-opened under new management and they're looking for a part time delivery driver.
6. I need to get a job really soon, because unemployment has left me bored and fat.
In Thailand
1. I'm not concerned about finding a job teaching English. This site has a ton of postings listed everyday.
2. In addition to that there are a lot of opportunities to volunteer. The elephant park is looking for two English teachers for the Karen village that I was in. That would be really really cool. But I'm not sure if they'll still need people by the time I get there.
3. Another option is the Burma Volunteer Program which is actually in Thailand. It's teaching English to students in pro-democracy Burmese organizations. They have offices in Chiang Mai.
4. I decided to scratch the TEFL program in NY and just wait until I get there. Most of the ones here only give you 20, 30 or 60 hours and the ones in Thailand are 120 hours, which seems to be what places in Thailand are looking for. One TEFL certification comes with 9 graduate credits from SUNY-Buffalo. How crazy is that? And if I wanted to, I could get an entire Masters of Education, from SUNY-Buffalo, in Bangkok. I doubt I'll do that, but it's cool to think about.


Other
1. MY SISTER HAD A BABY!!!!!!!!!!! Words can't even begin to describe how incredible the whole experience of going from non-aunt to aunt has been. Maisie Emilia was born on February 14th, 2006. She's happy, healthy and so are Erica and Mike. Everyone's doing really well.
2. Around the same time, I gave my bedroom an overhaul, which was very necessary.
3. I read this and it hits some of the highlights of any Cambdodian experience. I was in Siem Reap, not Phonm Penh, but I can't imagine there aren't too many differences.
4. I have a new favorite sport, competitive eating. I have no interest in competing, I just want to be a casual fan. I can admit, the facination started from watching an MTV show, but I've learned a lot since then. It's really interesting.
5. I saw Cool Hand Luke today, which, surprisingly enough, has a competitive eating style scene, which I thought was pretty cool.

February 8th, 2006

Ok. So, no job yet, but an awesome week with my boyfriend! And chiling with super-pregnant Erica and the rest of my friends and family.

In regards to jobs, Thailand and elephants it was kind of up and down....

Good things!!!
1. The Bronx Zoo is phasing out their elephant exhibit!
2. The Hawthorn Elephants are slowly getting moved from Illinois to the Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee.
3. Correne, The Cat Empire's manager sent me an email asking if I wanted to work on the next two tours.
4. I saw there were two job openings at the Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee.
5. I visited Jordan (old boss/works at a fancy booking agency in NYC now) and he said he would introduce me to his boss as soon as I wanted.
6. I got info on "The New York City Thai Language February Meetup." It's next Saturday. I'll see how it goes.
7. I found a Thai Students Association at Columbia and emailed someone who said they'd keep me updated with events.
8. There's a TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) certification program in the city that I think I'll do in a couple weeks. Maybe.

Less good things
1. I found this. It's a family circus that has elephants and says they keep them because it's "best for the elephants" and "from it business standpoint it would be better to not have the elephants, but we keep them because we love them" or something like that.
2. I looked up www.asianelephants.com and found out that Ringling Brother's has got it, they have the "Center for Elephant Conservation" where they "are committed" to doing a lot of important things. Blah, blah, blah...
3 & 4. I got a really upsetting email from Em...
Hi guys,
I'm not sure if you have heard but Jobaan and Kanoon's owner has sold them and they are going to work in a camp. Pom sent me an email today, she is really upset. I don't know what to do and I asked her to let me know if there is anything I can do. Maybe raise funds to buy them back or something?
Crap huh? Yes. Crap. They were on lease, not purchased. Jobaan and Kanoon's story in 30 seconds (click on their names for more info) - "Jobaan suffered 2 miscarriages (due to her work in a trekking camp), then saw her 2-day old baby washed away by torrential rains down the river. She fell into depression and refused to mate, but was arranged by her owner to be "raped". Lek heard about her 4th pregnancy and Jobaan was rescued and brought to the park so she could deliver her baby in safety. Kanoon was born 15 August, 2005." As I left the park he was a very very happy 5 month old baby elephant.
5. The jobs at The Sanctuary in Tennessee are for an experienced elephant handler and a $7.00/hr receptionist who won't have any contact with the elephants at all. Ehhh... not exactly what I would plan on moving to Tennessee for.
6. When I visited Jordan's office I decided I don't want to be an agent and felt really skeptical about the music business in general.
7. When I asked Correne for more specifics on the "job" she wrote back a long, vague email which didn't really help me at all.
8. I'm pretty sure I've lost the ability to digest dairy. I'm going to need to work on that. Apparently, nightly ice cream parties are not the way to slowly introduce dairy back into your system. I was surprised too.

So I guess I'm about even. Eight and eight.

Wait, I bought a karaoke machine today from Target (I needed a CD player, it was only a little bit more and now I can do karaoke!), so I guess it's nine and eight.

Tomorrow - Cleaning my room more!

January 31, 2006

GGGGGRRRRRRRRR

I just wrote up this whole thing and then deleted it somehow. And this time the whole page is in English so I don't even have an excuse.

Well, I'm back home (glap bahn) and I decided I feel like I've been in a coma for the past three months. I remember/recognize most things but there are subtle differences people need to clue me in about. For example - Angelina Jolie is pregnant with Brad Pitt's baby, Rory is back at Yale, both Erica and Alex's rooms are now offices for my mom and dad, and there's a motion sensored, singing and dancing, five foot Santa Claus in the living room. The last one I kind of figured out by myself.

So far since I've been home I've...
1) slept a lot
2) put on all the accessories I've accumulated in Thailand (2 bracelets I bought from Hill Tribe women, an elephant bracelet from the park, the necklace from the boy in the Karen village, the elephant bell necklace from Kopi, my two hat purchases from the Sunday Market, simultaneously, and a scarf or two) and walked around the house pointing to things and saying them in Thai
3) reazlied what it's like to Mom, in that I was cold, like uncomfortably cold when no one else was
4) possibly gotten sick (I think my stomach is jet-lagged and upset)
5) spent a lot of time on the internet.

Most of the time on the internet has been on Asian elephant conservation websites. Mostly because I just miss them a lot and can't stop thinking about them (the ones at the park, but the species as a whole too), but I also have this idea that I can figure out how to make a real job out my obsession with them and I feel like sitting on the internet for hours may help spark my genius solution.

www.elephantnaturepark.org(the park!! It's an old, ugly ugly site, with a lot of dead links and some weird English, but a lot of information on the elephants, and Lek)

www.helpthaielephants.com(the site with the stolen footage from Lek that caused the elephant camps to get together to put a contract out for her head! Ahh! She had to hide in Burma. But it gives a simple explanation of "phaajahn" process.)

www.digital-rampage.com/serengeti (the Park's USA non-profit, outdated, and mostly the same info as ENP, but a nicer website and you can donate online to Elephant Nature Park. And don't worry, the Park gets 100%.)
www.serengetiusa.com (same group, similar website, better website name)

www.allforelephants.org (another non-profit in California for the Park, also outdated, but there's sound and a cool intro.)

www.elephant.org.th (an ex-friend of Lek's who joined in to accuse Lek of staging the footage. She's generally not good. Ask me for more details if you're interested.)

www.elephants.com (an elephant sanctuary in Tennessee.)

And then I've had some suggestions for the zoo option. But it seems like elephants aren't really made for zoos.

There's currently a huge debate about 8 Thai elephants being sold to 2 Australian zoos for their "conservation programs" and Lek, along with a bunch of other animal rights groups are trying to stop the trade. A lot of zoos say they have elephants in "conservation programs" but the fact seems to be elephants aren't into breeding at zoos. I read somewhere that since January 2000, US zoos, with more than 120 female elephants, have produced just eight babies, and only three survived. Still births and infanticide are much more common in zoos. Uh oh.

Here's an article from the International Fund for Animal Welfare about why elephants shouldn't be in zoos. There are a bunch more articles available through the link below if you're interested.

Elephants are Born to be Wild
Australian zoos are planning to import eight Asian elephants from Thailand to start a zoo captive breeding program.

We are fighting this import because elephants suffer in zoos and this program will do nothing to save the endangered species.

Will captive breeding save the Asian elephant?
No. The zoos plan to captive breed Asian elephants is only to create a "self-sustaining" Australasian zoo population. The zoos themselves have stated there are no plans to return calves to the wild.

Research indicates that zoo captive breeding programs for elephants are not viable.

Birth rates for Asian elephants in zoos are ten times slower than those occurring in the wild. Wild Asian elephants give birth to an average of six calves during their lifetime. This is usually reduced to only a single calf for zoo elephants.

An elephant has never been born in an Australasian zoo.

Is it really about conservation?
The facts speak for themselves.

Elephants feature prominently in marketing campaigns and are seen as a drawcard for zoos.

Taronga Zoo's long-term resident elephants Â? Â?He-ManÂ? and Â?BurmaÂ? Â? were recently sent to Western Plains Zoo in Dubbo while finishing touches were put on the new $40 million Asian Elephant Precinct (complete with 600 seat restaurant overlooking the elephant enclosure). The new elephant exhibit has been built for the four juvenile elephants the zoo wants to import from Thailand.

There can be little doubt that the primary motivation behind the elephant import is increased visitation to the zoo resulting in increased revenue.

Asian elephants cannot be imported for exhibition or for primarily commercial reasons. This is why the zoos are arguing that it is for conservation reasons.

There is no guarantee that thecaptivecaptve breeding program will be successful and none of the calves bred will ever be returned to the wild.

How do you save the Asian elephant?
Efforts to save the Asian elephant can and must be focused in their home range states.

IFAW works throughout Africa and Asia to protect elephant habitats and works with local communities to find lasting solutions to human-elephant conflict, funds anti-poaching measures and works globally to end the trade in elephants and ivory.

Captive breeding in Australasian zoos will do nothing to save the species.

Aren't elephants better off in a zoo than a Thai camp?
The ideal situation for elephants in camps is to be rehabilitated in a Thai sanctuary rather than transported thousands of kilometres for a life in a zoo.

Evidence indicates that elephants suffer severe anxiety when transported. In February this year, two of eight Asian elephants sent from Thailand to China died just weeks after arrival.

Transportation is only one problem. No matter how good the new facilities are at Australian zoos are they can never replicate an elephant's home and family.

IFAW has revealed that one of the nine elephants destined for an Australasian zoo was returned to the elephant camp it came from. It was rejected for displaying aggressive behaviour, developed since it had been in quarantine.

This is the second of the nine elephants, which have been in quarantine in Thailand since October 2004, to develop aggressive tendencies. As a result of this latest incident Auckland Zoo has temporarily dropped out of the import proposal.

Approximately one in 600 elephant handlers in the United States is killed each year and elephants kill more zoo personnel than all other species of animal kept in zoos and circuses combined. In Thailand it is estimated that about 200 mahouts (elephant trainers) are killed each year.

Is IFAW Opposed to Zoos?
No. We recognise that zoos around the world do some good conservation and education work, and IFAW works closely with many zoo experts on wildlife rescue, rehabilitation and sanctuary projects.

However, there are animals, such as elephants, that science and expert opinion have found to suffer tremendously in zoos. This is because, despite their best efforts, zoos cannot meet the physical, behavioural, psychological and social needs of elephants.

Interesting, huh? The zoos don't seem to have too much of a response either. They say stuff like, "we're doing exactly what's required by law," which doesn't really make you feel warm and fuzzy inside.

Oooh, there's a position open at IFAW in Sydney for an Executive Assistant. Could I do that??

Right. This whole getting a job thing. Stressful! Not because I don't have enough options, but because I feel like I have too many and I can think of like a billion ways that I would probably be happy. Last night, after looking at elephant places, I started looking at TOEFL certification programs so I could go teach English in Thailand. Before this crazy Asia idea the plan was to live abroad in New Zealand for a year and if I stayed here, working at a school and getting certified, then I could go back to Thailand where I could live abroad for a year (one of my goals from Walkabout), teach kids in an unconventional setting (another goal from Walkabout), and be closer to the park and get back to learning Thai (more recent goals). Then tonight Laura said there might be an opening in the children's department at Simon and Schuster and I thought that sounded cool too. And then there's Jordan who has been trying to get me to work at The Agency Group since I went to college.

I realize this is actually an awesome position to be in, but it's still kind of stressful. Oh the burden of being a 22 year old college graduate in the suburbs of New York City, returning from a 3 month vacation in Asia.

I have to shut up.

Tomorrow I'm going to clean my room.