Thailand Day 7: La Korn

So, the Thailand trip has ended. Yes, folks, that's right. I'm heading home. I'll add some more on here when I officially get back into the States, but I figured now is as good a time as any to update on my last full day here. I sure do hope I can make it through the plane rides and that they're magically shorter going home. That happens sometimes right?

So I met Christin at Healthland today for an oil massage. I was hoping to get Jed? as my motorbike driver for the last time and tip him well and say thank you for driving me all week, but I got some other guy instead. He was nice, but smaller than me and much older. He seemed to have a hard time balancing me on the bike haha. Anyway, we got to Healthland in one piece considering he went a new way than I was accustomed to and I'd only been there once before. But Christin and I got 90 minute oil massages. I had no idea what to expect. All I knew is that I didn't wanna be naked in front of anyone, regardless of if it was a woman. Well I went and had to shower first for some reason and then laid down on my stomach on the table. And I guess I also didn't realize for a while that it was a total body massage, not just a back massage. That's what I'm used to seeing everywhere.

Anyway, all was well until she started digging into my back! What is with these people and trying to dig your bones out of your body? I mean honestly! The rubbing and partial kneading was great, but not in certain areas. I would cringe and almost yelp when she dug into my lower back. Apparently it's MUCH more sensitive than I realized. So are other parts of my body. I know this now after having them rubbed and kneaded to death twice. I had to tell her to be soft on my back. She wasn't as soft as I would have liked. So then, I kept my underwear on, like I thought I was suppose to. Well apparently not. She pulled them half way down my butt. That wasn't embarrassing at all. I didn't necessarily mind her massaging my butt over the sheet, but not sans-sheet. Then I had to flip over and I covered myself fine and all. Well, then she lifted up the towel covering my boobs to massage my waist. I wasn't okay with that. At all. I haven't ever felt that violated actually. It's not like the gynocologist. I prepare myself for that and know what's gonna happen. I didn't here. Ugh. Anyway, it was pretty good overall I guess. Not sure how it'll compare to a massage at home. I don't know if I'll ever dish out the money at home though compared to buying one here for so cheap haha.

Christin and I decided to go hang out afterward and pack up. We ate dinner at a little street cart thing next to her apartment. The guy who owned it spoke great english. I had spaghetti haha. It was okay. Pretty good for Thai standards. Christin hated her food. It wasn't that great. So we went to the 7/11 and got sandwiches haha. Off to the airport to sit and wait soon. Not looking forward to that. I sure do hope I sleep most, if not all of the flight to Japan. Say a prayer. Update more later on the 2nd half of the trip.

Thailand Day 6: Yin Dee Tee Dai Ruu Jak

So today was much more eventful than the past couple have been. I got to hang out with Christin at school for the majority of the day. I got over there to eat pizza with them at their party, but it was all gone by the time I got there :( Anyway, Christin and Andy told me to eat the pizza sitting at Chris' desk. Haha. I thought he wasn't there at all for the day, but apparently not. I found out later from Camille and Stacie that he was asking around who ate it! He was asking when Christin and I went on a lunch break to get a foot massage. So funny. Christin just died laughing. That made the day great.

So the foot massage was much better than the thai massage. Much less painful. We're gonna go get an actual oil massage tomorrow I think. The masseuse better close her eyes is all I have to say. Anyway, I went with the student teachers to their apartment after school while Christin tutored. They all live in tiny rooms with a bathroom. Kinda sucks. But it was cute.



So we went to MBK and met Christin at McDonalds for dinner. They had a tuna pie on the menu. Yummy. Anyway, we went and shopped for a while. I'm so excited! I got one of those awesome Thai dresses that are beautiful and it fits great! I also got a mint green silk robe, a thai shirt, and 2 vases with those pretty flower arrangements for my new room. I hope it all fits in my luggage! Ah! Gotta pack tomorrow and get ready to say adios to Thailand. Back to the States and to the real world. Ugh. I'm not looking forward to work. Blahhhhh.

Thailand Day 5: Sa Yan Sa Was

Today was good. Christin originally had to be school until 5:15pm! Ugh. But, as it turns out, she didn't have after school duty or something like that. So I got to roll in to BCC at 3pm. Earliest yet! Jed (#7 haha) flagged me down and took me to school again and he didn't even ask this time where to go, he just took me haha. So I sat and waited for Christin to come get me and I loved marveling at all of the boys in their uniforms and their socks pulled up so high on their legs. Good times. I guess it doesn't matter there since everyone looks the exact same. That's a good thing right?

So Christin got me some mango and sticky rice! Yummmmm! It came with coconut milk to pour over the top and it was awesome. I see why she ate her weight in it last time she was here. She took me to her office area which was quite fun to see. I wasn't expecting the layout at all. Long rows of desks all together with individual areas for each teacher. Quite cute I must say. I got to meet Christin's Hawaiian friend, whose name I can't pronounce. But she gave me a hug and was the nicest person ever! I wasn't expecting all of the affection but it sure was nice even if she was a stranger. Camille and Stacie had desks over there too so I sat and talked with them for a while. Then they invited me to go to the salon to get hair and nails done. Teacher Knock sp? was taking them over by her house so I went with them and let Christin go tutor. Well, it took forever to get there because of traffic and then the salon was tiny with 4 girls working, 1 of which only did nails. Thank goodness I wasn't getting a pedicure. I just got mine painted. They look awesome too! My hair was another story. It looked really pretty but I feel like I lost half of my hair from the process. She washed it and scrubbed my head so hard it was horribly tangled when I sat down to get it worked on. Well she started combing through it and then quit. She instead started brushing it with a round brush and drying it that way since I was getting it curled. It took a while but it looked beautiful when it was done. I felt like a million bucks. I've never gotten my hair done before just because. I didn't have any special occasion obviously. It sure was nice though :)

Afterward, Teacher Knock took us to her house and we had dinner with her and her husband. They are the sweetest people ever. I absolutely love that her husband doesn't speak a word of english but he will sit and have a full conversation with you and you'll understand what he's saying. So fun. We found out he LOVES cowboy stuff too. How ironic is that? Belt buckles, cowboy hats, country music. You name it. So Teacher Knock called us a taxi and we all left. She explained to the driver to take the student teachers to BTS and then take me to TIT Tower. So all was well and then the taxi driver got lost. Ha. He pulled over and asked someone where to go. We were on the right road, we just hadn't gone far enough yet. It was kinda funny and nerve wracking all at the same time. But I got back okay. That's all that matters.

Ohhh and FYI randomness. I was talking to Camille about Matt, just in passing and her and Stacie both tried to convince me to not pursue that. I was kinda shocked honestly. They proceeded to tell me how nice and great of a guy he is, but that he's lazy and I could do WAY better. Well I wasn't really gonna take their word for it but all 3 of the girls were kinda adamant about it, so I guess I will. Plus, Camille said she has a friend from Cleveland she wants to set me up with who she thinks would be perfect for me. He's cute and a big guy, kinda like Adam. She said he dates a lot of girls like me. So she's gonna set something up and we'll see how it goes :)

Thailand Day 4: Yin Dee Ton Rab

Today was good. I always get excited to sit and relive all that's happened while on this trip but then I realize most of the excitement has already happened since we did all of the major things this past weekend. I'm fine with that, I kind of knew that coming in to all of this. I'm glad I got to do it period, regardless of when.

So, today I went and met Christin at school around 4pm. I had to go get a motor bike alone again but today was good because Jed and the Thai Mama were there waving me over haha. They were funny and super nice. We didn't die and I got there in one piece, dry. That was a major thing. Jed slowed down at each puddle which was nice of him. So I sat and waited for Christin on a little bench and got to stare at all of the Thai kids running wild. Woah. That place is crazy with 6,000 kids. That's still unbelievable to me. I saw all sizes and ages. The uniforms of all Thai students everywhere makes me laugh. I guess they don't ever get to wear what they want like some schools do back home? I see that in a lot of foreign countries actually. Maybe that's why they're grades are better, they take it more seriously than we do. Oh well. Not worrying about it.

Anyway, Christin showed up and Tiffany, Stefanie and Camille were there too. I found out they were coming with us! Yay! They're super fun. Then they called Matt and he joined us as well :) We went to a mall of some sort that I can't remember the name of to eat. I had noodles and pork dumplings. Quite good, minus the noodles, which made me sad. They were kind of fishy tasting. Matt suggested I get them, but forgot to mention that they're cold. Ah. But oh well. I'm glad I tried it. We ended up going to get Christin's iphone fixed again and went to see waiing Ronald McDonald! Ah! Success! I was quite thrilled with it. Something so American that has been made Asian. I love it. So we had a photo op there and went to a nice coffee shop to grade papers.


It ended up being more of a heart to heart about boys than grading actually. Love those. It was good. Afterwards, Christin took me to the Red Light District. That's quite the place let me tell you. She informed me about the ping pong shows. I don't want to ever see that. All of those poor girls though just waiting for some guy or girl for that matter, to come along. A lot of it I just can't imagine. That's how people live. They do they for their families or are forced to work that way. It definitely makes me thank God for not having to do that. Praise Jesus again.


We headed back after that and I was quite proud. I stayed up til 10:45. That's the latest I've been up all week. Yay! By the time I get accustomed to it I'll be heading back home. Bleh.

Thailand Day 3: Yai Puan

So today was much less exciting than the past two have been. Christin had to go back to the real world and go to work. Work sucks. It's ruins my fun. Boo. Oh well. So basically I sat in her apartment most of the day. It actually went by pretty quickly though. I was pleasantly surprised.

I walked over to the 7/11 and got some coffee. Came back and called mom and dad. They were thrilled. Did some homework and went to the gym. Even though it's nice to have a gym here, it was comical I must say. I tried to use the treadmill and it didn't work. I found out later from Christin that it required 10 baht to work. Shut up. So I used the bike for about 30 minutes. The weight machines were all inclusive and were somewhat difficult to use. So my workout consisted of cardio and a few bicep curls. Oh well. Better than nothing right? Anyway, it's set up real pretty with glass windows and doors all around so it makes you feel like you're outside. Well, the doors were open too, so that made it 80000 degrees inside. Not that I don't in general, but I sweated like a pig. I was literally drenched. I'm sure people walking by were laughing. But afterwards, I walked outside to look and there was the glorious pool! So nice! I'm gonna have to try that out when Aunt Flo takes a hike soon. It sucks to be a girl.

Well when I came back to her apartment, I decided I'd be a great friend and clean her bathroom for her. Well I cleaned most of it but then started feeling horribly sick. So I almost finished it. I think bending over the tub is what finished me off. I drank some water and tried to eat some pizza. Bad choice. I spit it out. So instead I ate some cheez-its and took a shower and took a nap. I felt much better after that. I think not eating consistent meals is making me dizzy. I don't know how Christin eats a cookie a day. Oh well. I felt much better once I ate some more.

So I got ready and had to meet Christin at school. Ah! On my own in Thailand! I had to find a motorbike person, tell them where I wanted to go and not get screwed out of my money in the meantime. I'm not gonna lie, that's the most nerve wracking thing I've done thus far here. Well I walk out and see a bunch of guys sitting there. No one even approached me for some reason. So I approached them. I had a piece of paper of where to go and how much money. He kinda looked at me. He obviously didn't speak english. He handed it to another guy and he knew where to go and said 40 baht? And I said a definite yes. So I hiked my dress up and we went. No side saddle for me. He didn't bother giving me his extra helmet though which I found quite odd. But I made it there in one piece, paid 40 baht and found Christin. SUCCESS! So I have to do it again tomorrow. Hope it goes as well. I hope I can find Christin's Thai mama or Jed. Haha. That name cracks me up. They're super nice.

Oh, so I met Christin and David. It's nice to finally meet all of these people she talks about. He's from England. We went to Paragon! Crazy place I must say. It was full of lots of tourists too like Christin said. We ate the infamous cowmanguy for dinner. It was quite good, especially the soup. Yum. Then, we met Joey and went to the phone place. Then on to MBK, an indoor mall market thing. It was great! It was huge too. I got a beautiful scarf (that I didn't need at all considering I have like 4 blue scarves) for $2! I'd pay like 15 or 20$ at home for that. I also got a really pretty silk/satin Thai maxi dress. It will barely cover my boobs, but it was cute and it fits. It was cheap, like everything else is here. The baht is my friend. Oh, funny story I have to laugh about or i'll cry instead. We saw those pretty dresses that Christin bought me before but didn't fit. Well the one I picked up the woman motioned it would be too small because my boobs are too big. Yay. She pointed over to the dresses that were bigger, and more expensive for me. Yay. It's nice to be called fat twice here. I need to start keeping a tally. It looks like it's gonna be an ongoing thing.

Thailand Day 2: Kop Koon Kah

I am quite proud. I must say. I'm forcing to update this blog about every single day of this trip so I don't forget a thing and I'm actually doing it! Success!


So today we went to a floating market with the student teachers and Christin's boss and husband. Teacher Knock and her husband are the sweetest people. SO kind and her english is great. So Christin and I had to be at BCC to meet them and we ended up having to take the motor bikes there. Well I got to meet her Thai mama and the guy that takes her to school almost every day. They were super nice, but we had to go separately and they each went a separate way. Well, it was fine but then I started to get worried because I realized Christin may not be there when I got there and I could get lost, plus the driver kept trying to ask me something and I thought he was asking me where to go! AH! I was kinda crapping my pants at that point. So he stops on the side of the road and I was like, are we here? There was a set of stairs and he told me I had to walk up the stairs and across the road and there the school was. I was okay with that because I could see the school. So I get over there and see no Christin. I ended up waiting about 10 minutes and I was drenched after walking that short distance. So the hair immediately went up. *Note to self: Don't wear hair down in Thailand. Ever. So she shows up and she said she was freaking out not knowing where I was. Ha. I had no phone either if I did try to call her somehow. Oh well. We were good.

So we drive a while to floating market. There were little vendors/shops around there with people selling EVERYTHING. I can definitely see why Christin doesn't buy food and keep it in her apartment. There is food everywhere, always, on every corner. And it's cheap. It's good too! The coconut pancake I had was awesome! I could get into that. So, we go and get on the little boat and buy a watermelon smoothie. By far my favorite food so far here. It was incredible. Who knew straight watermelon could be so awesome? This little boat was so neat and so very Thai! I definitely feel like I'm getting the most amazing Thai experience. Very Asian, which is what I wanted. Let me tell you about this boat though. It's not made for tall people, nor is anything else in Thailand. I feel like the jolly green giant everywhere. I had to sit sideways because my legs were too long to sit straight forward. Crammage. Minus that, the boat ride was perfection. Little Thai homes all along the water, people going by that were actual floating markets with all of their goods/food to sell. It was amazing. The Thai people sure are nice too like Christin said. I feel like I'm in the south :) People wave constantly and smile. Part of me thinks its because they are that nice, but another part of me thinks it's because we're tourists. Either way, it's great that everyone is so friendly. So this boat ride took us on a number of stops to see awesome stuff. We went to a temple first that was amazing. Exactly the kind of stuff I wanted to see. We went to a flower garden that was cool and a few other temples. Oh, something funny. At the flower garden, all of the Lee girls, Christin and I took a picture together and there was a little Thai girl on the tour with us who was probably 9 or 10. She was watching us and asked to take a picture with everyone. She was so excited and said, "Thank you" in english to us afterward. She was all smiles. It still amazes me how people are so interested in us. I don't know if it's an American thing or a foreigner thing in general. Like at the Crocodile show the other day, there was another little girl who looked to be 4 or 5 sitting a row down from Christin and I. Every time I looked that way she was staring at me. It sounds conceded but all I could think was, "Do I look like Barbie to her?" I assume she's never seen or seen very few blonde people in her life. I'd probably stare too if I hadn't. I kind of like this attention considering I don't get it at home. If you wanna feel good about yourself, go to a country where your looks are minority. Watch people stare then.

I know we, or just I, sweated like a pig the entire day. I had quite a few people comment on my sweating, which means it was REALLY bad and worse than I thought. I should have just foregone makeup and worn a bandana on my head to absorb it all. Ah. Oh, I bought some stuff today too. Got a green bracelet for Ashley, a pair of owl earrings that are UBER cute for myself and an Asian fan. Super excited. My first souvenirs. Can't wait to find a cute Asian top/dress like Christin has. I love finally coming to a country where the dollar is king and I can get a lot of stuff for cheap. Yay! After the boat ride, we came back to the floating dock area and had lunch. We got noodles! YAY for noodles finally! They follow me wherever I go around the world and it's amazing. So good. Oh, and back to being tall in Thailand, it blows. We sat at these cute little Thai tables with little stools and all. Sounds fun right? Wrong. I had to contort my legs in order to fit and eat my food haha. It's all good though. I had a good time.


Christin and I were deciding what to do after we left the market and Christin had the bright idea of getting a massage. Yay for massages! Camille and Tiffany came with us too. We went to Health Land right near the BCC. Let me tell you, when you walk into that parking lot, all you see is nice cars. NICE cars. You see where the people with money go for sure. They were valeting them left and right. The place was super nice but packed. We had to wait a little bit in order to get a private room for the 4 of us. I got to wear those crazy huge scrubs too. Very comfy, even though they weren't super huge on me considering I'm huge to begin with. But anyway they were good. So, I had no idea what to expect. A 2 hour Thai massage. Well, it was painful let me tell you. Kinda scary considering it was my first massage ever. My little lady was fierce too. I wish I had known the word for, not so hard, but all I could remember was "lang, lang" which means harder. I definitely didn't want that. I just kept thinking about as she worked on each limb or area of the body, about how sensitive certain areas where in general even when I wasn't being massaged. Gah, I had to cringe and hold on to the bed sometimes. The real sensitive part of my calf where I have a hematoma, she kept kneading. Ugh. I wanted to cry. My inner thighs are more sensitive than anywhere else and she kept kneading those too. Meanwhile, I kept thinking, I can't wait for her to get to my back because that's where I really need the massage. I wish I could turn over when she did finally get to it. It was the most painful thing. To make it worse, she kept using her elbows in my lower back and at one point it hurt so bad I moaned and to make it worse, she laughed! I should have farted on her like the girls told me to. Lunch must have given me gas because I really did have to fart the entire time. I had to concentrate on holding it in. Well to make it even better, at the end she patted the area near my boobs and my waist and said, "Big big". Gee. It's nice to be called fat here. I didn't want to tip her. Maybe I should pat her head as I look down on her and say, "Short, short". Is that as insulting? Or I could be real mean and point my foot at her as Christin says is like giving the finger. I'm not that mean. Only sometimes. *Be like Jesus Cortney. Be like Jesus* I keep telling myself that.

We headed home after that on a red bus thingy. That was interesting. Out of all of the transportation so far, I think I like the tuk tuk best. The motor bike is cool too, but I'm more comfortable on the tuk tuk. My butt and feet don't hurt at the end. It's odd not being in a car all of the time. It sure does make me appreciate my car at home though. It's real easy to hop in and go wherever I want, whenever I want. That's not an option here. It costs money to go places. People here don't have a lot of money. I get that. Praise Jesus for my car. I got a ham and cheese sandwich for dinner that Christin likes to eat all of the time. It was good with ketchup on it. Yum. Oh and I love Thailand more now. We ordered pizza the other night and it came with ketchup packets taped on top. I freaked out! I didn't bring any because I ran out of time to get some at home. I'm glad I didn't know obviously. Christin said they put ketchup on a lot of stuff. Yay for my condiment of choice. I think that's about all we did for the day. Came back here and attacked the internet like I've been doing lately. Forced myself to stay awake later so I wouldn't wake up at 3:30 again. Boo to jet lag.

On to tomorrow!

Thailand Day 1: Sawadee Kah

So the Thailand trip has officially begun! Finally, after months of waiting and thinking September was never gonna come, it did. So we'll just begin with the fabulous 28 hour flight schedule I had.

I slept about 5 hours on Wednesday night (8th) to get up at 3:00am. Woah. It came quick. So I finish packing, and head over to the airport and get there around 4:10ish? Sounds good considering I have a 5:40am flight, right? Wrong. No one even showed up there to take my luggage til 4:45am. I about crapped my pants. I was so irritated, but then again it is Chattanooga, so people aren't bustin down the doors because the airport is so crowded. So I go to check in and I'm holding my breath because I'm worried about my luggage being over weight. Well, Christin's bag was 37 lbs or so, no big deal. Well, my suitcase was 55. AH. I about crapped my pants. The guy put a heavy tag on it and said, "We don't care here, but Japan might." But then he says, wait, why don't you put some stuff from that suitcase into this one?" What a novel idea! And it worked, so no baggage fee for me. Yay! Ohh and he also informed me that since i wouldn't be getting to Tokyo until the next day technically, I couldn't get my boarding pass until I got there. WTF is that? I tried not to worry about that just yet.

Anyway, as I'm sitting there waiting, Emily and Carter walk up! How funny. I had no clue they were gonna be there and they were going to Atlanta too, but on a different flight. They were going to a wedding in Seattle and were shocked when I told them I was going to Thailand of all places. Let me just make a little side note about that, I absolutely LOVE to see people's faces when I tell them I'm going to Thailand. It ranges from shock, confusion, and envy. It's great. No one understands why I'm going haha. Anyway, I fly to Atlanta, no big deal right? Wrong. I've never been in Atlanta airport alone before and I got lost at a time when I didn't have the luxury to get lost. I had about 20 mins to find my gate before boarding began. So I got off the plane and booked it. Well, I had to take that stupid subway, concourse changer thing. So I think I get to my concourse and walk all this way and I end up right back where I had started. How does that happen? I went back again and saw where I had missed the escalator to go upstairs, dumb people put it where you can't see if you're walking from the opposite direction. Anyway, I made it in time and all was well. Well, then I started to worry that my luggage wasn't gonna make it with me since I didn't have alot of time between planes. Ugh.

So I get on the plane and have an exit row seat on this flight. Success! I forgot I had picked one out. It was so nice and roomy. Well, I had this semi-cute guy, who got less cute as the plane ride went on, sit next to me. He didn't say a word to me for about 10 minutes and I was like, okay, this is gonna be an ipod flight. Well, I was wrong. He started talking and did not stop for like an hour. I heard his entire life story, more so than I wanted to know and all kinds of other stuff. Ah. But he was nice none the less. So, that flight to Minneapolis went by quick, it was only 2 hours. Well then I get to Minneapolis airport and have 6 hours to kill. Bah. So as soon as I walk off the plane I turn right and see, A. A gate screen B. A bathroom C. Starbucks. Life is good right? Everything I need right there together. And to top it off, the Starbucks had a sitting area with it that had outlets to charge your stuff! So I basically parked myself there and ate breakfast at 10am, when I had been up 7 hours already. I was hungry. I called the folks and reassured them I was okay. 2 flights down and not even 3/4 of the trip was over. Boo. So I sat around and then wandered around for a while. Marveled at all of the Brett Favre/purple Viking stuff that was everywhere. Those people are just as bad as TN with orange. Haha. So I find my gate that's suppose to be my gate in a few hours, I was a wee bit early, and took a seat. I had the chance to sit and listen to all of the Minnesotan people talk while I tried/pretended to read my book. I actually listened and tried to keep a straight face since I wasn't suppose to be listening obviously. It was great. Sounded like something straight out of Fargo. Oh, so while no one was around, I walked over to the stewardess and told her about the boarding pass drama for Tokyo and she printed one right out for me. Apparently I had waited enough time to be able to get it. She sure did save me some worry. Thank you lady!

I went and had some Subway later on even though I wasn't hungry. I didn't know how long it would be or when I would eat again on the plane. After a while, I noticed people trickling in for the flight to Japan. I guess I never thought about it, but most people were Asian. Duh Cortney. I think I assumed that would just be on my flight to Bangkok. Wrong. So I board the plane, which let me tell you, is usually 30 mins before on domestic flights. Well, for international, boarding time is an hour before. Well holy crap, if you think you have a lot of time in between flights, you don't, unless you've got like 5 hours to kill. So I didn't have to wait as long at the airport. Yay. I was worried the entire time about this flight, not because it was 12 hours, but because I picked a window seat that had 3 people to a row aka I have to crawl over 2 people to pee instead of just one. Boo. I hate doing that. But luckily, the 2 ladies next to me were UBER nice. One was a Christian too! Praise Jesus! Well then she ended up moving seats so me and the other lady had an empty middle seat which was the best possible option really. We weren't crammed in together. It was great. This flight did suck, but not nearly as much as I thought it would. I didn't watch any of the movies though and they played effin 4. I didn't wanna see any of them, not even a little. Boo. Ohhh and I was planning to have my own personal tv on my seat. Didn't happen.

12 hours later I arrived in Tokyo. Yay right? Yay wrong. If I thought I had little time in Atlanta, I had even less time in Tokyo. I was kinda sad about that too. I wanted to people watch a little and look for a Harajuku girl haha, plus I wanted to stand and not sit for a while. Well neither one worked out for me. It took so long to actually get off the plane that when I got into the airport, my next flight was already loading. BOO. Oh and to make it even better, the Japs think it's best for some reason, to make everyone who has a connecting flight, go through security AGAIN. WTF is that? I'd already been through, why do I need to do it again? Ugh. That took more time and they took my water which pissed me off since I had bought it in an airport. Whatever. So I'm practically running to find where to go, which is not easy to find btw. I had someone white and American help me. Ha. So I make a quick pee stop and then as I get to my gate, I'm one of the last people to board! Ah! So all is well, minus me worrying about luggage transferal again. Oh, and each seat this time had a personal tv. That was a welcome sight considering it was a 7 hour flight. Well I sat next to Kim Jong il's brother, also known as little Elvis on this flight. He had these gold glasses with this detail on the side that looked remarkable Elvis like. I don't know, but it was funny. He didn't say a word to me. Ha.

So this was by far the WORST flight out of the four. No joke. I kept thinking it was a different time then it was and I was wrong. I thought I had 2 hours left and I had 4. Oh the distress I felt at that was awful. After an eternity, I made it, only to see the pouring rain and no thing to connect our plane to the airport. Great. We had to get on a trolley that took us to the airport, then go through Customs, then go get baggage, then exit. This airport is insane and I don't like it. Christin kept saying how it wasn't very big. Negative my friend. I disagree. It's got the oddest layout ever. So as I finally find my baggage claim area and find my luggage! YAY! That was the first task, now the second was to find Miss Christin. So as I walk out, she just happens to be walking by. Lucky me, she said she had been pacing because there were several exit areas. So I stopped and dropped my luggage and we had our airport moment like she likes to talk about so much. It was so great to 1. See her since it's been a while and 2. To FIND her so easily. I was truly worried about getting lost there. It all went so well I couldn't have asked for anything better. PRAISE JESUS. So we make our way out and get a taxi. Yes, they have those pink taxis everywhere that I saw while she was student reaching. Unreal. And let me tell you, she said she can't speak Thai. She lied. She was awesome at it. We had this funny cab driver too. So we head to her apartment and I had someone carry my luggage for me to the elevator. How nice! Kop Koon Kah!

It's about 1:30/1:45am by this time. So I call my mom on Skype and she screams with joy when she finds out it's me Hahaha. It was great. She goes, "Are you in Japan?" Japan mom? Really? I was like no, I'm with Christin. I'd shoot myself in the face if I was just now to Japan. So I talked to her for a few minutes and then played on the computer. Well then it was 2:00 or 2:30 and I was informed we were getting up at 5:30 to go to the Tiger Zoo with the other student teachers! Success! So I worried about only sleeping 3 hours, well I slept 2, maybe. Jet lag is fun my friends. I was up at 4:15am, staring at the ceiling. I just knew I was gonna keel over by 11 or 12 that day, but amazingly enough I didn't! So Christin and I get a tuk tuk to take us to her school. Now, that was fun. That's a good way to travel. So we meet Prateep at school, our tour guide for the day and the other student teachers. There are 5 of them, 4 girls and 1 boy, but someone was sick, so there were 6 of us for the day and they were all SUPER nice and the boy was cute too. I'm still trying to see if he's single, I'll keep you updated :) I'm really glad we got to go with them. So, in a nutshell, I got to experience all of Thailand in one day. It was amazing. If I had to go home the next day, I'd be satisfied. I got to see that much. So we sat on the bus for a while and drove out of Bangkok to Pattaya for the beach. Well we stopped to pee along the way and my first experience with Thai bathrooms had squatty potties. Yes, squat over the pot. No comodes. I about crapped my pants, I forgot Christin mentioning this a while back. Well, I sure am glad I had been practicing squat peeing at home anyway just for hygenic purposes because it wasn't nearly as difficult as I thought it would be. Then we headed to the beach, which wasn't much of a beach really because it was road, sand, water. Not much to see, but it was nice. Christin and I went picture crazy. Prateep got us cute little chairs and a table to eat at and he ordered all kinds of Thai food. Woah. We basically had 'lunch' at 9:00am. It was all great though. I was surprised I liked so much of it. We cleaned up and headed to the Tiger Zoo!


So the Tiger Zoo was amazing. There aren't other words to describe it. It was just amazing. Oh and btw, I've noticed, most Thai zoos will cater to one animal type, but have 50 million more. Like there were elephants, crocodiles, pigs, bunnies, etc. here, even if tigers are there main animal. So we first went to the elephant show. That was funny and kinda sad. I don't think they have animal cruelty laws here like they do at home. A lot of the elephants had been branded with a number or symbol. So sad. But it was like watching Dumbo haha. The show was good and then we headed over to see some tigers! They were all in pens obviously but I was kinda bummed because I thought they would be more out in then open I guess, or more accessible like when Christin went before. But we found baby tigers in a separate area. They were in pens too and they had bottles to feed them through the cage and I was like, ohhh no no no. I want to hold them. But they had one over in another area where you could pay to hold it and feed it so that's what we did. Christin and I did it and split the cost, then they took it away and we paid again so I could hold it and we got a little baby one! SO PRECIOUS! AH! It was adorable! By far the best thing ever. It gave Christin a sloppy kiss haha.


After that we went to the Crocodile show. How boring. Those people are dumb. Those crocs wanted to do nothing but eat their faces off. We looked at our tiger pictures instead. Then we went to the tiger show. Now that was good. Very entertaining. After the show we went to see the monkeys! SO funny! Naturally, we had to get a picture made. Then we left to go back the city. Christin and I made a pit stop outside Paragon to check on her iphone. Holy crap it was typical Asia! I've never seen so many people! We took a motor bike back to the apartment. I was VERY apprehensive about it at first but it was actually quite fun. We came back to her apartment and crashed afterward. So, funny story, kinda. I was on the computer and saw the time was 9:00pm. All of a sudden the jet lag and only 2 hours of sleep hit me like a ton of bricks and I was about to pass out. So I told Christin I was gonna go to bed and she said, "Cortney, it's only 8." I said, "Is that a cruel joke?" I realized the time on my computer was from home, not here. I wanted to die. So I forced myself to stay up later so I wouldn't wake up at 3am. I finally went and to bed and Christin said I was out cold. I didn't move. I don't remember moving either until about 6am this morning. It was the best sleep I've had in a while. Yay. On to day two!