Easily Distracted...

Hi Everybody!

So, there's a lot of blog posts I need to make. I need to tell you about Nauryz at my college. (Did I ever post about Nauryz in Shymkent? I should look into that...) I need to tell you about state exams. I need to tell you about our kickass Women's Empowerment Workshop (I think that may be what I remember most fondly about my PC service.) There was a workshop at Megan's College.

I'll also have a post in 2 weeks about a teacher's workshop I've coordinated with the Karaganda Board of Education. The whole thing has been pretty SNAFU from the beginning, but I'm starting to see rays of hope in the distance. ::knock on wood::

I'm sure there's other miscellany to address. Maybe some words of wisdom to the incoming Kaz-21s, more retroactive stuff that I missed in the last nearly 2 years, my thoughts about the impending end of service.

In other news, I'm officially being released into the wild on November 6th. I'm headed to London for a couple days, and then I'm back in the US on November 10th. Anybody in MN want to hang out? More importantly, anybody in DC have leads on decent jobs?

Thailand Part 2: Koh Tao

Ok, so there was a delay in getting this one up. My bandwidth went down, I got busy, we had a workshop, I'm planning another workshop, school ended, lots of stuff happened. Hopefully I'll be able to blog about it soon!

So, part 2 of Thailand: Koh Tao!

My last night on Koh Samui I somehow managed to get food poisoning. I'm not sure what it was that caused it, but it was a long, bad night. In the morning I felt better, so I took the ferry to Koh Tao.

Here's the thing about ferries: they're on the water. And the water was unusually choppy that day. And the boat was going into the waves. 70% or so of the people on that boat were sick. So much for the crackers I had eaten for breakfast.

When I got there, a crazy Italian man (the owner of my hotel) picked me and a couple other people up in his truck, and took us to the resort on the other side of the island! There was basically a dirt track leading to this place.

Then I had to follow a bunch of winding paths down what was almost but not quite a cliff. At this point I didn't feel so great, but the scenery was gorgeous!

Once I got to my room and recovered/hydrated a bit, I went to the restaurant. And here's what I saw:




Nice, right? You could sit on the cushions and watch the waves crash against the rocks below. And by "below" I mean "approximately 10 feet under the deck." This place was amazing.

Now, I had planned Koh Tao to be the snorkeling part of my trip. Unfortunately, the waves that made me sick also meant that it was dangerous. As in, they won't even put boats out there dangerous. But here's a look at the Bay I was supposed to be snorkelling in:

Beautiful, no? Unfortunately, too choppy. The Bay: Mango Bay. The resort: ...Mango Bay Grand Resort. Apparently resort naming is not rocket science.

To paraphrase my conterpart here in Kazakhstan, there was beautiful nature:



Here's a view of my bungalow from below:

The approach to my door:

But it wasn't all restaurants and bungalows and nature. There were waves. Serious, choppy waves. Such that the deck was actually ripped up in some places...


Before a wave:

During a little wave:

I'd also like to share the climb up the cliffs to where the cars were parked. Because I had no idea I'd be getting such a workout...

On your mark, get set, go!

Ok, it wasn't THAT bad...

I have to go HOW much farther?!


Ok, now that's just not fair.

How many times do I have to do this?

So, that's Koh Tao, everyone. At some point I may post a video to show you just how ridiculous the waves were. Also, I may post a video documenting the hotel owner's hilarious Tom Jones obsession. I think I heard Sex Bomb 20 times in the space of 3 days.

Better late than never: Thailand!

That's right folks. After months of waiting, I'm finally going to tell you about my vacation in Thailand. Complete with tons of pictures. Because what's the fun of taking a vacation in paradise if you can't brag about it? I have but two regrets about this trip: 1. At 2 weeks long, it was too short, and 2. I didn't post about this during the winter, when all of you could have truly appreciated how nice my vacation was. ;)

So now, without further ado, I give you part 1 of my Thailand adventure: Koh Samui.

On the day I left Karaganda, it was cold. Granted, it was about 2am. But it was also cold. When I got to Almaty, it was foggy and somewhat less cold. But still cold. I would like to say this though: Air Astana is a really nice airline! They give you a little baggie with socks, an eye mask, a comb, and a toothbrush. Yay quality airlines!

When I got to Bangkok, I managed to change my ticket to Koh Samui so I could leave right away. I managed to make it through customs, claim my checked bag, change my reservation, check in and re-check my bag, get through security, and make it to my gate at the other side of the airport in 45 minutes. I'm just that good, ladies and gentlemen. ;)

It was after dark when I arrived, but when I awoke on day 1, this is what I saw:

This is what budget accommodations look like in Thailand.

This is what you could see standing directly in front of my bungalow. That's right, directly in front of my bungalow!!!!! It was gorgeous, I could hear the waves crashing. In fact, they lulled me to sleep at night...

Did I mention that I didn't spend much?

Speaking of sleep, these hammocks were super comfy. If you could get over the fact that there were coconuts directly above your head, in danger of dropping on it...

Ok, seriously guys, why didn't I join Peace Corps Thailand?

This is the beach. The gorgeous, gorgeous beach. Yes, the whole beach looked like this.

The mortar and pestle is the single greatest human invention for beating out frustration.

Ah, the Thai cooking class. The food was good. The cooking was fun. But, as it turns out, I hate cooking classes. Who knew? I don't mind being shown a new technique, but when I cook I like to have the ingredients, the facilities, the directions, and then to do my own thing. Hovering instructors don't do it for me. About every 30 seconds she was leaning over my shoulder telling me EXACTLY WHAT TO DO. Ok, I get that it's her job, but still...

Cooking with flame on vacation, wheeeeee!

Still though, it was fun, I got tons of food, and a bunch of spices and stuff from the cooking school that I later learned I could get at a 1/4 the price at a grocery store. Ah well, live and learn! At least I had fun and got to eat good food. I learned how to make my favorite curry of all time: Panang Gai. (Did you know there are about a billion variations on curry? You do now.)

So that was day 1 of Thailand. I got to lie on the beach and cook. It was really good. The next day, I took a tour...

It is never advisable to pet Michael Jackson, regardless of the species.

I started out at the Island tours headquarters, for a bunch of kitschy touristy stuff. See? I shook hands with Michael Jackson. The celebrity monkey! There was a whole show where he extracted coconuts by spinning them. Apparently the Thai people trained monkeys to harvest coconuts. Strikes me as a great idea! Before the tourists hit, coconuts were the main industry of Koh Samui. Now it's tourism. Go figure!

There was also an elephant show, with baby elephants. Apparently, all the elephants at this place are female, because they're more docile. (Side note: is it bad that my first thought at hearing this was: Didn't these people see Species? Second thought: That didn't turn out so well in Jurassic Park...) Anyways, the young elephant girls were in the show. Which culminated in...

Should I be depressed that this is the closest I got to a spa treatment?

Baby elephant massage! Yup, after she snuffled my knees with her trunk, (which TICKLES, you guys!), she gave me a "massage". They're surprisingly gentle...

OMG I'm gonnadiegonnadiegonnadiegonnadie...

Then there was an elephant ride! But without the hysterical screaming like that time at the zoo when I was five! It's not so horrifyingly scary after the first 10 minutes or so... Yeah, it was about a 15 minute ride. At least I had a seat and a seatbelt, even though it swayed like I was about to fall off...

How is this man not falling to his death?!

The dude driving the elephant basically just perched on its shoulders! I'm not that brave. He even had time to pluck a flower for me and weave a couple things out of palm leaves!


One of the huts we passed during the elephant ride.

Then there was a tour of the island. Turns out, Koh Samui has everything, from scenic vistas, to religious icons, to suggestive rock formations. You think I'm kidding? Just you wait.

It's not easy, being green...

This green guy here is one of the guards of the temple near the Big Buddha. You can see him in this picture: he's the little gold guy in the background.

And you thought the Catholic Church was blinged-out!

Me in front of the Big Buddha. He's called the Big Buddha 'cause he's big and he's Buddha. Makes sense, no?


Then we went to go see "Grandmother" and "Grandfather" Rocks. Now, why would the rocks be named after grandparents? Remember the part where I said there were suggestive rock formations...

Wait for it...

Grandmother Rock. It's not totally clear from this angle, but it basically looks like lady parts. I'll admit, it just looks like any other crevice. Here's the thing: most rock crevices on this Earth are not next to something called Grandfather Rock. Can anyone tell me why it's called Grandfather Rock?

Proof that God is real and laughing at us?

Congratulations, you guessed correctly! I'm not sure what the story about these formations is, but there has to be some kind of origin story linked to them. Unfortunately, my tour guide had no idea. :( Which is a shame, I bet it would be a great story!

After this we went to an over-priced gift store that I'm pretty sure was run by the tour company. But hey, free soda! After about 45 min of not buying things, (if there's one thing I do well, it's comparison shop), we moved on to the temple of The Mummified Monk. Informational poster, take it away!



Couldn't have said it better myself! Here he is, in all of his mummified glory:

Braaaaaaains....?

I'm not sure whether it's more cool than gross, but it's pretty cool. When I die, I'd love to decompose super slowly and become a tourist attraction! I have no idea why he's still like this, but it's pretty cool. I wonder what it's like in Nirvana?

During the trip, there was also some random stuff, like this, right next to the Big Buddha:

Guagh! The Machines have risen! Damn you, McG!

Coming next: Part 2 of Thailand, the island of Koh Tao. (Which means Turtle Island. So I actually just said the island of Turtle Island. But I digress.)

Tales of the weird...

So, I am the fifth PCV to live in my apartment. There's a lot of things that have been accumulated over time. Some things are incredible luxuries, like my coffee maker. Other things are kinda handy, like my inflatable combination globe/world map/beach ball. And sometimes I find things that defy explanation. Like bamboo.

I think it was all the way back in March when this happened. I went into the back room to look for something, and for some reason I looked up on the top shelf, where my landlady keeps a bunch of her stuff. At which point I saw a foot long piece of dry bamboo.

The hell?

So I texted my friend Megan, and the following conversation ensued:

Me: Why is there a piece of bamboo in my closet?
Megan: Panda snack.
Me: Why are Pandas leaving snacks in my closet?
Megan: It's a long walk from China.
Me: But it looks a little stale.
Megan: You're assuming the Panda was there recently.

So, if there are any RPCVs who lived in Karaganda reading the blog, can someone please tell me where the bamboo came from? Because I'm still confused and nobody's helping.

Bolashak and Gommorah?

Ok, I could have sworn I've updated my blog more recently than January. But, apparently not.

Anyways, Monday last week was really interesting for me. I teach the 4th course on Mondays, and they all seem to have gone insane. I recently taught them the word "Senioritis", which is the only explanation I have for MY students.

Well, during the first lesson (starting at 8am, dear god.), things were going relatively well. We were working with some Shakespeare, which was going surprisingly well, given that they're not native speakers. All of a sudden, there was a huge crash coming from somewhere inside the building!

We thought the building was collapsing. We really, truly thought that was a realistic explanation. (Which should give you some idea about the faith we have in the people who built the building last year.)

So, naturally, we went running toward the noise. Because when you think the building is collapsing, why wouldn't you run toward the structurally unsound part of the building?

Well, it turned out the building was still in tact. The horrific crashing noise we heard was a fight breaking out in another classroom, where two students threw large desks across the classroom. The noise we heard was the thrown desks taking the other desks with them. It took an entire class worth of 20 something year old boys and the entire teaching staff to break up the fight. (To be fair, the teaching staff was basically needed to herd the lookie-loos back to their lessons.)

Nobody was hurt, it was just a couple of students going insane on each other. It happens in high schools all the time, so why wouldn't it happen in Central Asian colleges?

During the second lesson, nothing so dramatic happened. My students were simply worshiping a false idol. What's that you say? You don't believe me? Well, I'm reasonably convinced they were leading me on, but they had a bunch of Golden Eagle stickers that they were putting on things to "bless" them, and they prayed to the Golden Eagle sticker they put on the door before performing the class assignments, such as reading Shakespeare's Sonnets.

That's a lot of strangeness to pack into one day, no?

Hello, Dear Readers...

I'm back! I've made posts! You'll find shiny new posts in both December and October. Coming on Monday (provided my internet connection decides to cooperate with uploads), Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years' celebrations, my trip to Thailand, and miscellania from my previous year that I never posted about, but should have at the time! So poke around in the older posts on Monday and see what nuggets you find!

Looking forward to sharing pictures and videos with everyone...

I love my job.

I would just like to say, even though there are days when I am completely frustrated and feel like banging my head against the wall, days when I despair of my students ever communicating effectively in ANY language, days when I feel I cannot go on, there are true gems. There are moments that make the PC experience all worthwhile.

The last week before New Year's break, I came to the college to discover we had no running water. Ergo, no bathrooms. Upon hearing this, my students became distraught.

"What shall we do, Miss Marianna? I just drank much tea!" (The heating in our building was pretty bad that day, I'm not sure why. So the girls had tea to warm up.)

"I don't know girls, we'll have to soldier through."

Aizhan: "To pee or not to pee, that is the question!"

Oh. My. God. Just for that, Aizhan should get a 5 (local equivalent of an 'A') for the rest of the year. Seriously. The girl can pun in a foreign language! The girl can pun Shakespeare in a foreign language.

And those moments, ladies and gentlemen, are why I love my job.