Thailand, ผมรักคุณ

Let me preface. It was really thanks to Anthony Bourdain that my interest in visiting Thailand emerged. Reading his books, watching his Travel Channel show, and meeting him at GW all culminated in this desire to eat real Thai food. Certainly, my ritualistic Thai Place "lemongrass chicken" wouldn't satisfy my curious appetite. And after watching my friend's Thai-trip slideshow, I had all the more desire to visit the country. Thankfully, Thailand from Tokyo vacations are pretty cheap, and so it was very accessible/affordable.

Like my trips to Sapporo and the Yaeyama Islands, I organized the trip through Waseda's co-op. I selected a four day plan, but made the mistake of leaving early and arriving late, so really I only had two days in Bangkok (which were enough, but I'd have liked to visit other places in Thailand). My friend Dave from my Japanese class accompanied me on the trip.

Day 1
I am hesitant to even refer to "Day 1," because we basically spent it on the airplane. We left Tokyo in absolutely beautiful, sunny weather. The flight was a bit bumpy, but I just listened to music (new Joanna Newsom album) and watched "Where the Wild Things Are" as an in-flight movie. The airplane food was not so bad, and the flight attendants were very nice, and were impressed by Dave's and my Japanese skills.

We arrived in Bangkok around ten or eleven at night. We didn't realize JTB (the travelling service who organzied our trip) arranged an airport pick-up service for us, so we took a bus to the city's center and then cabbed to the hotel. When we were checking in, the lady from JTB who was supposed to pick us up called the hotel and complained to me in this hard to understand Thai-Japanese. She then came to the hotel and told us things like "Don't drink the water" and that the fruit (in the room) is not free. She was funny though. You wouldn't meet someone like her in Tokyo.

Day 2
Our big tourist day! Thanks to the "Travel Wiki" website, we found a good one-day plan to cover all of Bangkok's big attractions. We first took a cab to "The Golden Mount," which was a really lovely temple. We got there very early so hardly anyone was there, so we were surrounded by the chirping sounds of birds and in the "distance" the sounds of the city waking up. We then traveled to Mahakan Fort on foot and crossed the streets to Wat Rajanadda, another wonderful, but slightly unappreciated temple. Taking a cab (they were so cheap, and almost always less than two dollars per ride) to Wat Pho, to see the world's largest reclining Buddha. We then walked to the nearby palace (don't remember its name), which was opened to the public after the royal family relocated. The ornamentation and decoration of Thai architecture was magnificent.

When we were done, we walked towards the pier of Tha Tien, which was half-hidden past a market alley full of stalls selling dried squid. We then hopped aboard the angular little ferry and payed 3 baht for the trip to Wat Arun (Temple of Dawn) across the Chao Phraya River. This kind of concluded our list of major tourist attractions, so we then headed back to the hotel for lunch and to take a nap by the pool. In the early evening, Dave and I went separate ways, he to get a traditional Thai massage and I to Lumpini Park (the largest park in central Bangkok). We reconvened at night and had a late dinner (it was included in the trip) at the hotel. It was a kind of Thai-take on Dim Sum. The restaurant staff thought Dave and I were Japanese, which caught me by surprise.

Day 3
meh...will update later today.

A lady.

all alone am I ever since your goodbye. all alone with just the beat of my heart.

Hiltons.

I had another odd dream last night, and have no idea what inspired it. I dreamed that I was clubbing with Paris Hilton and her sister in Miami at a club that was a muffin factory.

Doppelganger.

In order to celebrate Doppelganger week, since I missed out on Pokemon month, I thought, well, "Who is my Doppelganger?" Fortunately, the answer was easy, sort of. Thanks to friends and random people, I have a growing list of people who resemble me. That's right, THEY resemble ME. Anyway, here is a truncated, alphabetized list.

Edward Norton (in Fight Club)

 La Roux

Naruto Character/Anime Character

Patrick Wolf (circa: Magic Position)

Prada Model

Robert Pattinson (according to my sister's friends)

Ronald Weasley

This Kid (my mother was convinced he was me)

Young David Bowie (according to Vidal Sasoon)

Others:

- Brother of a Japanese celebrity.

- Some Hong Kong celebrity.

- Harry Potter (from the book, not the movie)

- Every Weasley

- Luna Lovegood's personality

- etc.

Oh, and of course:

Lady Elaine Fairchild 

Because I am writing a paper.

"I think that the most obvious 'elephant in the room' is that most people (one would hope) now marry simply for love, with wage earning and economic potential remaining a completely unrelated issue. Women marry because they want to or because of religious beliefs, not only because their husband may increase their income. Its completely by the way to suggest that a well-educated woman need not marry - the most intelligent women of all time have nonetheless been known to have their hearts stolen."

A comment made by a reader of this Guardian article.

Comparison.

My friends say that my drawings look like me. Maybe.

haha omg

Say Hi to Positivity.

"I believe that everything happens for a reason.
People change so that you can learn to let go,
things go wrong so that you appreciate them when
they’re right, you believe less so you eventually
learn to trust no one but yourself, and sometimes
good things fall apart so better things can fall together."

Marilyn Monroe.

Talk about irony...

Stéphanie: Why me?
Stephane: Because everyone else is boring. And because you're different. You don't like me, Stéphanie.

La Science des rêves.

Castle in the Sky

I want to visit 天空の城 (竹田城)/ Takeda Castle

OH!

MY PLANE IS BOARDING! I'M HEADING TO JAPAN!

These posts should now become slightly more relevant and scintillating.

SO HOPE I MEET SCARLETT JOHANSSON (Lost in Translation style)!

PS: Why don't airports have plugs? Honestly.

What the Heck?

ARGH. So I would lose my wallet within days of leaving. Thankfully the only thing I really lost was the wallet itself (a nice silver Marc Jacobs one, supposedly no longer being sold). My GWID, Debit Cards, and Metro Card can all be replaced at least. I also took some cash out of the wallet, so I don't think I lost a ton of money (something less than $40 I think).

Still...very....very...frustrating...

Actually, these past few days have not been the greatest. Aside from a continuation in a string of stupid, vapid friendship issues, it's now raining, so I can't retake my driver's test. I now have to wait a year to retake it. CURSES.

There is somewhat of a silver lining though. Literally, silver, as in the color of the wallet. In trying to determine whether or not I could rebuy the wallet in Tokyo, I discovered that there are like 17 Marc Jacobs stores spread throughout the city. Why there are so many, God only knows. I also happened to find out who I should e-mail if I were interested in working in one of those stores. I can legally work part-time, 28 hours per week or 8 hours per day (during vacations), according to my handy-dandy International Student's Handbook. Hmm.

On a completely unrelated note, I just exchanged $243 dollars for ¥20000 yen, which is kind of lame because I basically paid $20 more than I should have. I didn't even get small bills, I got two ¥10000 yen bills. Also, it's scary that a few months ago it was roughly ¥100 yen to $1 dollar, and now (as of today) it's ¥90.475 yen to $1 dollar.

FOUR DAYS

   

Wow! In just FOUR DAYS I will be travelling across the world to Japan! I've been preparing for this since the end of Freshman year, and now I cannot believe it's so close. I still have so much to do too! Haven't even started packing, and actually I still need to find a second suitcase.

While I am glad to finally be going, I do think I will miss some aspects of New Orleans. Especially since I reconnected with so many people over the summer. The image in this post is of my street and house, I'm assuming from the 1920s. It's funny how not much as changed aside from landscaping.

GWU

I never would have thought I'd be having second thoughts about studying abroad, but I am really going to miss e'r'one at GW. Spending these past few days in DC has really been a breath of fresh air, and I kind of wish now that I was spending Junior year here.

I am looking forward to Tokyo, though with a kind of nervous excitement. I can't wait to meet new people in Japan, but it scares me that when I return I'll only be going to school for one more year with my friends.

I'll just have to work hard keeping in touch with everyone this year! And make sure not to repeat any of the mistakes from last semester!