Broom Solo

This picture was taken in the kitchen of my H.S. while I was baking pumpkin pies with Claire in preparation for the massive Thanksgiving last month. The reason for serenading with a mop? There was a power ballad being played on Claire's mp3 player stand and I couldn't resist the urge to belt out along with it.

New Year's Resolution

One of my New Year's Resolutions (I have a list, although this is one which I have thus far adhered to quite successfully, although successfully since it's a twice a week resolution only) is to wear a tie for class at Tamano Commercial H.S. Yes, I know what you're thinking: I've never worn a tie before here at school consistently, ever. Well, hopefully that will change.

I wore the suit which I miraculously recovered from the marine liner (more on that story when I begin my Thailand-saga posts, which will hopefully happen soon seeing as tonight I will get all of the pictures and videos onto my external hard drive) last Wednesday, sparking a lot of "kakoi's" and surprised teachers and students. Today I am wearing sweater, shirt, and tie, although can't really see the tie with the sweater on. Just knowing it's there though is really what counts for now.

I will be hopefully wearing bowties in the spring, although need to buy some. Bowties are expensive. I should've asked my secret santa for a bowtie. Darn.

Keep your eyes peeled and toes curled for the huge never-ending slew of posts that will probably be a poor attempt at describing just how awesome my trip to Thailand was.

Thailand - The simple reflection

Unfortunately, I do not have the time and moreso the energy right now to go through a piece by piece dissection of my time in Thailand. I am still absorbing some of the realities of life there, and some of the experiences and scenes I witnessed.

I do have to say though, that between all the harrassment and events I was a part of due to mainly being a foreigner, both positive, negative, and sexually-charged, really made me shocked and unable to comprehend the full extent of how much a country like Thailand relies on tourists such as myself to fuel their economy, even if only for a short period of time, and for only once sometimes.

In only my first day in Bangkok, I was already annoyed with the amount of times I was being bothered by people on the street when just trying to walk somewhere. It was impossible to get from point A to point B without being confronted or poked for money somehow. I also was surprised at just how cautious, nervous, and untrusting I immediately became of native Thai, especially after having been around Japanese people for over a year and assuming a high level of trust, pride, and honesty. It is a shame to have to constantly walk around suspicious of everyone and everything.

The unyielding danger of a third world country such as Thailand was never more apparent than actually reading the newspapers the next day after New Year's Eve. There were 2 people abducted from the same beach where I was for New Year's, with another 1 abducted, raped, then drowned the 1st night of 2006. On New Year's Eve on the island where I stayed, there were 34 deaths. For a population of 10,000 natives and approximately 6,000 foreigners, 34 deaths is pretty high I think. I was also amazed at the lack of common sense displayed by many foreigners on the beach who overdrank and proceeded to pass out in various areas of the beach. It was a scene straight from a National Lampoon movie.

All in all, I am very happy to have walked away from 20 days with a full appreciation of a struggling country such as Thailand. I am also very happy to have done the entire trip with 6 other JETs of various backgrounds and nationalities and points of view, allowing for some interesting conversation and reality-checks. Hopefully over the course of the next couple of weeks I will be able to break it down day by day, or at least place by place, but for now, this brief synopsis will have to do.