.In.And Out.

It’s been a while. And it’s been a bit of a mess in here. One event was following another one and at some point it looked as it’s a bit too much to handle. But it’s ok. I’m still living in Bangkok and, well, when you think about it. Who could complain about this, right?

Although life in Bangkok reached `normality` level somehow. Not so much happening anymore. Just an ordinary life with some unordinary happenings. Mainly, you have to be here to understand it and to feel it. But let’s start from the very beginning.

Studies
I am doing two courses at the moment and it’s going pretty busy. The first one gave me a little shock on the very first lecture. I did not even notice when the lecture started. Teacher just went to the whiteboard and without even saying `hello` or saying any kind of the word started writing. So you had to follow and copy everything to your notebook. It’s been 57 minutes of complete silence, just copying. Fortunately, at least after this one hour she started speaking. So after a while it became clear – this is how it works: one hour of silent copying from the whiteboard, one hour of listening explanation of what was put on the whiteboard and then one hour in front of a computer, trying to put to practice what have been explained as a theory. Unfortunately some practice phase time is spent to explain some things in Thai and for people like me [I’m the only one like that in that class, by the way], who does not understand any Thai, it’s really interesting.

Another `fun` thing about this class – it lasts four weeks and during this period we have to hand in 4 term papers plus prepare ourselves for the exam. Isn’t that exciting? Papers are mostly econometric regressions and interpretation of the results, so you have to know the theory, apply it in practice and put it together with the previous literature review. So not copy/paste kind of thing, but actually work. Teacher has this idea that papers have to be written in the weekends, while I used to have this crazy idea, that weekends are supposed to be for time for you. I could not have been more wrong, now could I?

Another class can be very well explained by: first we have a summary of what is going to be talked during the lectures. Then we get a summary of what is happening and then the summary of what has just been said. So in short – it’s all about the summaries. It would not be too bad, but the teacher’s handwriting is impossible to understand even for herself, so basically, if you lost track of what is being said, you are lost in translation. Another big fun. The good part of the lecture – you get some free coffee. The bad side – teacher is always [but seriously, always, with no exceptions so far] late. If it’s 15 minutes, I can more or less handle that, but it’s usually 30 or 40 minutes, so you just sit there and waste your time waiting for her to show up.

And the very best part of the studies so far – this upcoming weekend. One more paper to write and two exams to take. Yes, I said weekend. Because there is one exam on Saturday and another one on Sunday. Reminder – if you decide to come to Thailand to study – just think if you really want to do this and have school 7 days in a week.

Could be of course, much worse. We’re still in the country that smiles.

Time around

During this last time I had several people coming in/back to Bangkok, meeting and having fun. There was two Americans, a German guy I met in Koh Tao and of course, all the Thai classmates and a few of exchanges that we are here and trying to enjoy every minute of staying in here.

So we did it all. We went to the night market, walked around, had some street kitchen food, which is still so unbelievably tasty that there is going to be a definitely one of the things to be missing when I have to head back from Bangkok. We accidentally get into the flower market, where like from that movie `flowers flowers everywhere!`. I am still wondering, how they are selling all them and what are they doing when flowers become too `tired` to be sold for costumers? Are they throwing those away? Cause that’s a big loss, since there are millions and billions of flowers there, with no exaggeration.

We managed to get to a German brewery with some very nice tasting beer and unbelievably nice Thai people around. There was a birthday party of 8 years old boy, who was giving us some of his birthday cake [which was mainly butter and sugar, but soooo good] and then finally his parents decided to pay for our beer. We also at some point started dancing around the tables, where we had some Thai girls joining us. It was fun night. On one night guys took me to some small place with some blues music played. Everyone who knows me knows that I am not big with blues or jazz, but somehow, in Thailand even blues sounds good.

My Thai classmates showed us, what they call `beer garden`, where you have a simple tables, a lot of beer, scene with some band playing covers under the sky in the middle of the city center. It’s really very much fun. We went there already couple of times and I am pretty sure, we will be back.

Oh by the way, did I already told you that it’s winter in Bangkok? Yes, they call it winter. The only difference from previous `hot like in the hell` is that it is slightly cooler at nights and blue sky appears more often, but that’s it. So yes, my dears, I am experiencing winter. Can I just say that this is definitely the hottest winter I have even been to?

One day I got angry on the world [well, me and world hardly come along, you see], so I went for a walk. I guess I just wanted to wash city of my face. It started innocently enough, I just wanted to go to see the China Town. Well, for starters some guy stopped me and nicely told me that China Town market is closed. He also wanted to offer me a tuk-tuk ride somewhere else [yeah, it’s a cheap trick those drivers are making in order to fool tourist and get costumers], but I just kept on going. And what a surprise – the market was working. I did some tours around, walked a bit, visited some temples and just kept on walking. So I ended up going through the same flower market, which in the daylight had even more flowers around. Finally I went into this temple with reclining Buddha in it [which is one of the `must see` points about Bangkok]. Well, the temple itself was big and impressive, while the statue I found a little boring. Although it is my first reclining Buddha I have see, so I have him a credit for that. I was already pretty tired from walking, but since I did not know which bus goes home from that part of the city and I was too tired and too angry to deal with tuk-tuk, I just walked home. So all in all, I made something like 15-20 kilometers walking around the Bangkok. Felt a bit as a tourist again. Which is fun sometimes.

Food

It’s already two months I am here in Bangkok [celebration starts tonight around 4 a.m. when I actually entered Bangkok from the airport for the first time two months ago] and I should probably say that I got used to the spiciness in the food. Now I am ordering spicy food which is manageable for me [to my surprise].

I still keep on trying new things around here. It’s very fun sometimes to order `something` and just waiting for what it is actually going to be and how it will taste. But so far – no disappointments. Thai food is really great. If you don’t like the country, you at least must love the food here. Still it’s surprising, because mostly it’s just vegetables, noodles, rice and chicken or shrimps and it still so nothing like we are used to back in Europe.

Koh Samed

Once again, when I had to work on a paper, I decided I cannot miss my chance and went to the Koh Samed island with my exchange classmates. It was a short weekend and still, very much worth it. Trip started easy and looked promising. I took a bus to Bon Phe, where I caught a ferry going to the island, where somehow I got a free pickup taxi which took me almost exactly to the beach I needed.

We stayed in Ao TubTim. I am telling that in case you would be going, because this one seems to be the right one to go. It’s not far away from the party beaches, so you can walk there, but the beach itself is not too big, not too crowded and not too loud. All in all, almost perfect beach.

I arrived in the evening, so that night we only had some dinner and went to one of the party beaches, had some beer, had some dancing [oh yes, dancing, I was missing it so much] and moved home.

Unfortunately my friends had the idea that `staying in the beach under the sun all day long is fun` and I had the completely opposite one. So we split the next day. I left the guys in the beach and went for a walk. In the beginning I thought I will just go to some of the next beaches and maybe find some shade for reading a book. But as always, I just kept on going and finally reached the very southern point of the island with some nice panoramic view.

I started my short trip through the beaches. And the more to the south I have been moving, the nice beaches I have experienced. At some point, when it was impossible to cross through the beach, I had to get back to the main road [well, main road looks just like a little country road, but still] and found some very nice spot for the sunset. But since sun was still high up in the sky, I went to the south. And at some point I almost made a mistake, considering maybe it’s not worth it. But I kept on going and it felt great. In the south I found a fisherman in a little boat and I just watched him for a while. It looked so peaceful and nice.

By the time I got back and saw almost a sunset in my spot, my guys already left the beach. So we met after a bit for dinner and some fun. Once again, we moved to another beach. We had some beers and then some fire shows started. In the beginning it was just some guys, showing some tricks with fire sticks but then it came time for `fire rope jumping`. I felt like I wanted to do it, but no one was willing to join me, so I decided, ok, another time. But then one of those guys came to our table and asked us to join. I figured that’s faith telling me – go on, do it. So I did. It felt extremely scary and I felt adrenalin rushing in my veins still for at least half an hour afterwards. Do one thing that scares you every day – was jumping in my mind. And I did. And it felt good. It felt like living. After my adrenalin experience, we went to the dance floor, did some dancing, met some people, had one last beer, talked to some bartenders and finally headed back. It was almost morning after all and I had to spend my next day working hard on my paper after all.

The last day in Koh Samed was easy. I just joined the guys at the beach, although I couldn’t stand just lying there, so went for at least a short walk to the North of the island. Unfortunately that was a time for us to leave the island, so we packed, took pickup taxi, went to the ferry and went home.

But all in all – Koh Samed is great. And it’s close to the Bangkok. So if you are wondering – it is worth going.

Dentist

Yes, that was unexpected for me. And as much as I hate going to the dentist, knowing that there is something wrong in my mouth – I hate even more.

It started innocently enough, I just felt something uncomfortable with my tongue. In the beginning I thought that it might be just a simple something, like filling moved a bit outside it’s place, but decided, since I am leaving Bangkok for a bit more than a month pretty soon, I don’t want to end up being in Cambodia and crying my eyes out because of a hurting tooth.

So I went and now my mouth feels like it was raped. It started innocently enough, just correcting one simple thing. But, as always with me and my teeth, it ended up with reparation of three of them. I spent there 2.5 hours and my jaw is still hurting. I know it will go away and I feel very much relieved that now I can go on a trip without worrying but at least for now I cannot properly open my mouth.

Although service here is high class and treatment is in high quality, so in case you are worried, you should not be – they will take care of you properly, in case you need that.

Off Topic

I have a stupid question – have you ever seen your death? I happen to have seen it twice already. And if the first time was long time ago and in the dream only, this time it was when I was awake, walking in the street. And it’s crazy, I admit, it wasn’t even facing the death, but that picture that flew in my eyes is still frightening me. It’s like a fragment from a movie, like some sort of open window for the future or anything. I am not sure if I want to experience that one more time.

You might wanna say that I was just simply throwing money away. I would say that I was just buying good-night sleep and peace. Peace with myself. And the world for that matter. It was not necessary, I agree. You were right and it feels good. But at least I can sleep at nights, not wondering `what if..`.
I am listening to the happy songs today. I guess that means that I am a happy person today. It took me a while, but I got there. On my own. And if feels good again. I have been finding those long time ago lost songs and it just brings old new memories back that makes me smile. I am smiling to the country that smiles.

Ordinary people don’t do things that scare them. Normal crazy people do one thing that scares them every day. Ona is doing crazy things every day so much that she does not even consider the consequences, naively hoping that `it will work out somehow`. It’s struck me today – what have I done? And now there are more and more questions every single day. What am I going to do now? I have to make this work, I want to make this work, but there are so many question marks floating around.

P.S. Can I get a tattoo on my heart please?