Hey,
I'm 24.
So there was a birthday miracle on June 4th! YouTube was back! But see that "was"? Yeah, it's gone again. I had looked for an article about why it was back, like who caved with their demands, but nothing! And now I know why. Well, not really, but I know that's there was nothing because nothing really changed!
Ok, so in the past month...
I saw Buddha Bless! I think I've posted two of their videos in the past. I saw them once with Caroline at the Bemore Hitz concert, but we were really far away. This time we were super close! I don't know how it happened. It was a small club and we were definitely put at a table that had been reserved for someone else. It had a typed name on a piece of paper right on the table, but once we were placed there Dipper crossed it off and wrote "D I P P E R" in a purple gel pen he had in his pocket for some reason. We kind of looked at it and said, "Well, they gave us the table, so it's not really our problem, right? Yeah, yeah, I'm sure they know what they're doing." Nope. Eventually, the people showed up and pointed and said, "But that's our name. It's on the sheet. Right there. Typed. It was just crossed out with a purple gel pen. Who's Dipper?" We all just kind of looked at each other. I'm not sure how, cause it was pretty packed, but they got moved somewhere else and somehow we got to stay.
The show was great! So in Buddha Bless there's Red Guy, Yellow Guy and Green Guy, and they were all there in their respective colors. They did dances like in the video and it was just perfect. It was Joe (AUA), Stephanie (AUA), Jeff (ENP) and me on team Farang and Dipper and a couple of other Rambo stuntdudes on team Thai. After the show Dipper went to the bathroom and when he came back he said we should go meet the dude. I said no way, it would be way too embarrassing. He was sitting with this table of way too cool for school people. Dipper said that they're both Thai and he just talked to him in the bathroom, so really it was okay. It was weird, because I was so nervous. I can't remember when I've been that nervous about meeting a musician. I tried to do something with my disgustingly sweaty hair, but it ended up going over too far so I look stupid. The picture is on flickr.
NEXT...
I went to a breakdancing demo competition at my mall! There's a breakdancing crew that Miriam, Caroline and I used to watch/admire/slightly stalk. They're called Junk Footz I think. They are cool! They listen to cool music, they wear cool clothes and they can hold themselves up on their forearms and spin on their heads and stuff! They practiced right outside my gym, so we could watch them while on the elliptical machines. It was great. But those times are over. Miriam and Caroline are gone, and California WOW finally "opened" so they moved all the ellipticals, and now they only have treadmills in the front window. And I'm way too gross to be in the front window when I'm on a treadmill. And for a good couple of weeks/months I think I stopped going to California WOW altogether.
Besides the point. I saw them and the super nice, perfect English speaking girl who taught Miriam some moves, talked to me and told me there was going to be a demo thing. Two day event.
Saturday - demo day. I saw Thailand's best DJ, MC, B-girl team and B-boy team all in action. I think they're all from Bangkok. They're sponsored by a soda water company. They did their thing, and it was okay, but after, the Chiang Mai boys did their thing! I didn't even know they had a thing! For weeks or months or something, Miriam, Caroline and I watched these guys do some stuff, but for the most part, stretch. It would be 2 minutes of some ridiculous move and then 10 minutes of stretching.
So to see them with a full choreographed routine last week really just came out of nowhere. I was never expecting it! Leader dude, headspinner guy, yellow shoes guy, cocky/red shirt guy, young guy and other guy were all in the dance thing. The rest of the crew is the girl, skinny/khakis guy and a bunch of other people that don't have names from me.
I was so proud of them. I'm not sure if I'm allowed to be proud of them, because I've only ever talked to the girl and she wasn't actually in the dance group, but I was.
Sunday - competition. So, a 1-on-1 breakdaning battle for all the breakdancers of Chiang Mai. I think it started with around 70 B-Boys(and one B-Girl, the girl!). The first round was kind of boring because it was really obvious who the winners would be. But the second, third and however many there were after that got really interesting! The skills are always amazing to watch, but I was much more exciting about watching the attitudes! Thais are so often so careful to not come off as selfish or too proud, that it was really cool to see them just going at it and being really funny without any words, just moves!
After 7 rounds the final winner was a Junk Footz dude - red shirt/cocky guy! Well, I guess he deserves to be cocky.
So after the competition I talked to the girl again and she I told her I wanted to take her up on her offer to teach me. She gave me hers, and then I called it right away so she would have mine too. We had finally exchanged phone numbers! Kinda...
When I was leaving work this past Saturday, I text messaged her to see if they were at the mall. No answer. And then when I got to the mall, I saw their spot had been taken over by a suitcase sale and a fruit shake stand. No problem, I had her number. But when I called, some girl named Oi picked up and said she didn't know who Thon was. And then I remembered that the first day I thought I had given her my number, we never confirmed it because she didn't have her phone with her. I just figured she got my call. And then I got a call back from that number which I missed cause I was in the bathroom, but I had thought it was weird cause we had just spoken 2 minutes ago and Jeff was still outside right near her. Damn. So now I realize that I never had her number, just this girl Oi's who now thinks I'm some strange farang obsessed with breakdancing. And what if that was just her polite way of telling me not stalk them anymore? Eek, I don't know...
Ok, so that was a big breakdancing competition in anticipation for the real team battle July 8th. That's the day I meet Alki in the Bangkok Airport. Ahh!
LAST...
My birthday (weekend)!
Saturday...
8:00 - work 9am - 4pm, 2 awesome classes. Level 1 and Level 14. The Level 14s are so cool, they blow my mind every week. They just talk in English. We do some activity that sets up the topic, and then I ask them what they think about it and they're just off! Honestly, there are more interesting than most of the students in my UW classes. And then I give them a project to elaborate on whatever the discussion we just had was and they go at it! It's amazing. I only have them one more time before I go home... I'll miss them... The Levels 1s on the other hand are just that. Level 1s. Everything is slow and since they only meet once a week it takes them half of the three hour class to remember "What is your name?" Not too many disucssions about the evironmental impacts of globalization in Chiang Mai with the Level 1s. Last week I got the question, "Are you like ice cream?" Think about that! Ok! So what is the answer to your question? "I like ice cream" Ok! Great! And which word is the verb in that sentence? "Like?" Very good! So if there's no verb to be, we don't use "Are you..." So,
DO...YOU... remember the question word we use with verbs that aren't verb to be? "Do... you...?" Yes! Fantastic! So... what is your question again? "Do... you... like... ice... cream...?" Ahh there we go! Great job!
Yeah, it's slow. I teach two Level 1 classes during the week right now, but seeing them 4 days a week makes it a lot less painful. There are actually two levels below Level 1, (called A and B) and I can't imagine doing one of those. Especially for a Saturday class.
4:00pm - airport to buy tickets to get back to Chiang Mai in time for the breakdancing competition (and the Elephant Nature Park pick up). The airline I wanted has amazing internet deals, and then doesn't accept credit cards... Interesting, huh? Oh Thailand.
5:00pm - mall, no breakdancers (see story above), worked out anyway.
8:00pm - mugata! It's a bbq on your table. You pay 100 baht ($3.00 maybe?) for a buffet of all the uncooked organs and fat you could want and then bring it back to your table to cook. You put a piece of fat on the top, and water and vegetables around the bottom so it all drips down and becomes a really delicious soup! It was extrememly hard to find the chicken. Pork, no problem, liver, blood, no problem. Anything that looked remotely similar to anything I had seen before - problem! It's ok. At one point I scooped myself a dish of some nice, clean looking white chunks, thinking it might be fish or something but when I got back I was told we already had some. It was straight up pig fat in little white squares. Wow! It (the experience, not the food) was great. They also had unlimited fruit, ice cream, desserts and two bands. It's on a corner right near me and I used to pass it everyday just wondering what exactly happened in there, and I'm happy that I finally know. And I don't think I ever need to go back! The bbq part is fun, but there are chains in the mall that have chicken and are worlds more sanitary. I think the way they get you stop yourself is by never clearing dishes. Eventually your table becomes too hard to deal with, you give up and call it a night.
Next, karaoke! After months of trying my hardest to get people to go to karoke, it finally happened. We got the jazz room and sang all the greatest hits. Very loudly and very out of tune.
Unfortunately, karoke closes at 1am, so after that we did normal Saturday night things which weren't as fun.
Sunday...
Met Renata for brunch, did my first crossword puzzle since I was maybe 10 or something. We had to make some things up, but I think we did pretty well.
Then more sleeping, then being lazy in Starbucks with Jeff. Dinner was low key.
Monday...
Morning birthday call from Erica!
Then - day of being productive! Saturday night my camera started acting weirder and weirder. I deleted most of the bad pictures (keeping some for proof), but only 1 out of every 10 pictures came out. The other 9 would be completely black or completely white. Then on Sunday it just stopped taking pictures all together. This camera's been through a lot and most stores I asked about fixing it just laughed and the only guy that gave me a straight answer said it would take at least 2 weeks and be about $100, which seemed like a ridiculous amount to spend on a camera being held together with sparkly green and purple tape. So, new camera...
And my phone has started hanging up on people... so, new phone!
And I haven't had an mp3 player for... a really long time... so, new mp3 player!
And I heard that I can get internet through my phone line with my cell phone number or something, so I wanted to ask my cell phone people how that works... internet??
First stop - Tesco - didn't buy any electronics, but bought the DVD of "I'm a Cyborg, but That's OK!" (the really strange Korean movie I watched dubbed in Thai).
Next - the mall - no working out! Only shopping! I tried to find out more about the internet stuff, but I was just told to call customer service becuse they can speak English. I looked at phones but none really did it for me. But after my effort, I had one of my favorite meals in the world. Kow Man Gai from the Airport Plaza food court. It's boiled chicken on oily rice with some orange sauce and a couple of cucumbers to make the plate pretty. Sounds pretty simple, but oh, so good! I ran into a tuk tuk driver that works by AUA. He's the guy who always tells me if I look fat or skinny. It was weird to see him in mall and not on the corner in front of his tuk tuk badgering tourist, but then he told me I was looking fat, so it felt completely normal again. No electronics, no internet, just Kow Man Gai.
Next - met my private student, Ink! First I had canceled with him, then he told me he was going to Bangkok to apply for his visa to England for the rest of the week and I realized I didn't really have plans, so I said we could meet, but then when I was at the mall, I changed my mind again. But when I called him, he said he wanted to meet because he had something for me. So we met, and he brought his sister and presents for my birthday! How cool! A really nice green Thai bag with a whole bunch of goodies inside! A notebook, a really nice bracelet, some very good chocolate ball things and a bunch of hair pins. I asked his sister if she could teach me how to use them but she said she had no clue either. We had some coffee and talked for a bit and then I took off.
Next - met up with old friend Max. Max has been one of my longest friends in Chiang Mai. And he's good at helping me with big purchases. (He helped me with the whole motorbike thing.) So we meet up and we take off to look at more cameras! I am one fun girl on my birthday, huh? I decide I like the Canon, but it's pricier than the other ones, so I'm still a little hesitant. Then we go to a place out of town and they have the same camera but with 6.0 megapixels and not 7.2 so it was 2,000 baht cheaper! Woo hoo! I bought a new camera. It's beautiful.
Next - the park to take full advantage of my new camera. I'll post those pictures next. They are beautiful. The park is just nice. All these Thai families and teenagers sitting, eating and playing badminton. This is when Max told me he was disappointed that Miss America had black hair and darker skin because Miss America should have blond hair and white skin because blond hair is softer, more beautiful and "gives good feeling" more than black hair. I can talk to Max and try explain how silly he sounds, and he'll listen, but I don't think he ever really gets it.
Next - birthday dinner. Noodle soup from my favorite street stall with Max and Jeff.
Next - birthday ice cream with Max, Nong and Jeff at the original Bud's on the other side of the river, not the new fancy one on my street. I was trying to keep it real, you know?
Next - birthday rain! It's the rainy season now so when it starts to rain it rains really really really really hard for about an hour and then stops. So we sat. It's really nice to sit somewhere watching really heavy rain and not have to be doing anything or getting anywhere.
Next - home! Watched the first half of "I'm a Cyborg, But That's OK". It's really violent. And not in a people shooting each other and dying kind of way. I can handle that. But in a in-the-first-scene-she-slits-open-her-wrist-inserts-electrical-wires-and-then-plugs-them-into-a-socket kind of way. So I watched half. It's like a whole new movie with the English subtitles.
SO THAT WAS MY BIRTHDAY!
And because June 4th in America rolls into June 5th here I got to enjoy the birthday emails/facebook wall writings and myspace comments for a half a day afterwards too!
This birthday was really great and I think it may have been the first time I honestly wasn't sad or disappointed by anything. And probably the first time I didn't walk around making people acknowledge my birthday. Saturday night I probably did that, but by Monday I didn't feel the need to like I usually do. It was nice to be so happy after Saturday night that the rest of it was just felt like extra awesomeness.
SO THANKS TO ALL MY FRIENDS AND FAMILY WHO MADE THIS THE COOLEST BIRTHDAY EVER!
Pictures from MayPictures from my birthday
