Vacation within a Vacation

SO! we went to kachanaburi for the night, we left on weds night and got back just now.  it was fantastic the hostel we stayed at was above this pond so it was sort of like a huge tree house.  needless to say once we arrived we took pics and then we got ready to go out! so this was a touristy town so i found someone from la and we met a lot of people from holland! we got drinks at this bar and the people there were insane.  i had the worst pina collada in life and then the friend of the owner day said we would take us around the next day so we said yes.  we ended up seeing him 8 other times that night.  ok so after we continued to walk to another bar and ended up in the red light district.  the girls were in no clothes and were screaming at us to go on, we decided we needed to get our lives together and walk back the other way.  we ended up at this tattoo parlor/ club where you could make requests! i watched a girl get tatted, and we danced the night away to the macarena, spice girls, motivation, and other oldies.

we woke up this morning at what seemed like the crack of dawn (7:45) and met day at 8:45. i was in dire need of an american breakfast and when i found it of course she was closed so i settled on orange juice and apples.  we were off! we did a hike up to these waterfalls. now if you know me you know i hate dirt so this was a special occasion.  i felt like tarzan/wonderwoman climbing up these rocks.  this was the first time i had ever been in a waterfall in person and it was simply amazing.  the water was so blue, i went down this waterslide (ill post pics of me int he waterfall when i get them from other people) i of course when head first down teh water slide when everyone else was sitting up...it was fantastic.  there were also huge fish in the water that bit...i wasn't having it.  i let the small ones nibble on my feet tho it felt kind of weird.  on a sidenote those few laps i swam made me really miss swimming so i think i might take it up again...it gives me structure in life.

after we hiked for ages (there were 7 waterfalls we made it to 6) we hiked bak down got lunch and took an open baked truck to get to the tiger temple.  its literally an open back truck...so unsafe but so fun. we had to wear long pants because it was a temple and it was about 100 degrees...in my black spandex leggings i felt like fainting.  anyways we get there and there is 20 minutes left so we sprint and make it to see the GLORIOUS tigeers.  they were sooo magestic, cute, and probably drugged. :/ no one got bit i got to pet one and walk one.  the 7 month old was as big as me and the two year old was actually so large i could not believe.  tomorrow we go to the resort at koh samed, im excited for the beach because felicia told me i needed a tan...

 log cabins!

 on top of water

 i thought this sign was funny

 breathtaking...we didnt actually go in this one tho

 the huge fishies!

 wanna go bak

 that one we went in to eeek

 yea i though the sign was funny until my roomate opened a bag of chips on the water fall i look up and this wild monkey is three feet from me...felicia scrambles (she takes forever with everything but she was on top of a cliff in three seconds) and the monkey proceeded to battle lucy for her chips...it was wild...day swatted him away...i kno it was a him because...well i dont need to show the pics

 big momma tiger

 rawr

 my fweinds

 the 7 month old baby!

 notice all the people behind me...there were so many rules because tigers just attack real quick, they also got us cool biocep shirts that said our name!

 im honestly too cool

 hey parents..i sang for a band...jusst kidding it was for the pic

i stole this pic form sarah (pictured above) but we were just chillin

kachanaburi/koh samed

im going to a place with water falls and tiger temples and then an island for the weekend so i will post pics and write about it latata, did the presentation we werent enthused about the topic tho so it was blahz
muah

they use sugar in soda instead of high fructose corn syrup!

so i had been wondering why the soda tastes a lil different..and that's why

i'm trying to work on my presentation about natural disasters and the occurrence of ptsd. all i can think is that it happens, it is unfortunate, it needs to be treated. i'm looking at new orleans and japan even though there isn't much on japan yet except they are using telecommunication bc it was a radiation disaster and no one wants to go over there.  I think we are going to focus on EMDR, eye movement desensitization and processing.  essentially the psychologists wave their hands in fron of the patient for 30 minutes (many get strained arms and shoulders) and it somehow helps the patient to distance themselves from the event.  there is 8 steps, but I don't know if I am buying it.  I am always looking how to connect this to a medical ethics issue or a bioethical issue.  i guess because not everyone can get antidepressants (anxiety and depression comes along with ptsd) it would benefit rescue workers to find a cheaper and equally effective way to treat the populus. and also with ssri's essentially these block seratonin reuptake into the presynaptic cell meaning there is more in the cleft and more to bind to the post synaptic cell. this in turn helps the "happy feeling" stay longer. also with the stress that comes with ptsd, cortisol levels break down the immune system, enlarge the stomach and damage memory. so i guess I can say that giving out drugs will ynilly isn't fair because not everyone can afford and plus a lot of people say doctors over medicate because its the easier thing to do.  i don't really know however im sort of stuck, hopefully my partner will have ideas for tomorrow.

today we had class on monkey. i was confused to how it related to the medical ethics topic but it was a nice refresher in biology. we then went to the public health office and brainstormed how to help thailand with some issues. there was a sign for us and someone brought us coffee fruit and coffee cake, they are so nice! afterwards we went on a tour of a foundation in the slums. some kid in our program wanted a tour of the slums but we go this instead because a. it was just completely unsafe and b. how rude is it to walk around and take pictures of people's living spaces however poor they are.  He really didn't get it and it was kind of offensive that he thought it would be ok to do such a thing.  I politely told him and we went to the foundation.  it was an amazing place, a kindergarden, grade school, orphanage, and hospice all in one place.  the slums were absolutely no joke. like there was nothing that these families had. so many people in so little housing. but the foundation gave food and education and care and it was beautiful.

i found some dumplings today that were great but i was still hungry and my friends found PIZZA. i haven't had american food in so long. i hate pizza but i ate 3 garlic rolls and two slices. its not that im sick of thai food its just in america we don't eat american food every day so its weird waking up and eating pad thai for breakfast u kno?

welp thats all for now my eyes are bloodshot because i haven't taken my contacts out
peace police

sweet hat i was forced to buy lol, notice small right eye bc im squinting to keep the contact in much love!

pics

 she was convincing, but pretty sure it was a lady boy

 drag

 drag

 one dancers costume

puppies at the market

Recap

Hello All, I hope you are enjoying the new layout of the blog, I got bored yesterday because all I did was lay around.  Anyhoo shouting Claudel out, hes an avid reader of the blogeroooo.

If you like basketball you have to watch this>>> http://rivals.yahoo.com/highschool/blog/prep_rally/post/Meet-the-amateur-Shaq-prep-hoops-8217-best-du?urn=highschool-wp3891

So anyways back to Thailand.  The past two days have been eventful to say the least.  After a rainy saturday we decided to go out.  Our dean of students, this old balding guy who seems very strict told Larry who is a music minor to go to this bar.  Apparently it was authentic and only northern Thai people go and they had great music, he told us somethign happened at 12 that we shouldn't miss.  We just expected you know a Thai music fest, we definitely got sent to a Thai drag bar by our dear of students.  Though everything was in Thai, they had a comedy part first and we def knew we were getting made fun of. We were the only non Thai people, and we didn't have any Thai people with us. Some guys asked if we knew any Thai and started dying when we said no, they moved us tot he front, during the show people laugh and stared, and they called us furongs (westerners who come for the sex industry).  It was actually hysterical though, I took a million pictures bc the gay dancers had about 15 costume changes by the time we left.  People would get up and start dancing during the performances and it was just really fun, we couldn't believe thats where he sent us.

Today we went to a place called JJs market.  Its the biggest open aired market maybe in the world but definitely in Thailand.  I love to shop but I definitely was overwhelmed.  The amount of trinkets, clothes, food, spices, animals, and jewelry they had their was amazing and beautiful.  I probably spent too much money but it was all so pretty! We were there all morning and I just took a three hour nap!

Ok for the overview, Thailand can be summarized by five things. as in if you go for 5 blocks without seeing one, you are probably not in thailand anymore.
1. Buddhist Temples
2. Blown up pictures of the King and Queen
3. 7-11
4. Stray Dogs
5. open markets

There are no sidewalks,  no safety regulations ( no seatbelts, no age limits on being on a motorcycle, no lane change regulations).  There are just a lot of people all really very happy and nice.  I have seen so many people with so little, but they truly are happy to just interact and own their little rice stand or milk tea stand.  They truly love talking to you even if they are shy about their english skills.  When we didn't understand the taxi driver and he finally realized what we were saying, he taught us the phrase in Thai.

These are the phrases I kno
Sa-wat-dee kraup (male speaker)
Sa-wat-dee Kah (female speaker)
(you add ka and kraup at the end to make it polite,t hey say it at the end of everything).


Kop Khun Ka- Thank you


mai pet- no spice!


aaaaaand thats about it


My mother has emailed me that she is growing increasingly concerned over my crazy wallposts and would like to hear more about class.  So here it is.  The best classes that I have been too are about the human trafficking that I told you, Buddhism, which I will explain, and a disaster relief workshop with Thai med students at the the biggest hospital in Bangkok.
Due to the way their schooling system works, there were 5th year medical students that were the same age as me so it was interesting.  Anyways on Sunday 26, December 2004, Thailand had its worst natural disaster: a tsunami.  They were in no way prepared for this because no one expected it. It was a 9.0 earthquake that caused it.  Here are the facts...

No. people killed	5,395
No. people missing	2,817 1,972 Thai, 2,248 foreign nationals : 37 countries
Bodies still unidentified	1,650
No. of affected people	58,550
Children orphaned (loss of one or both parents)	1,480
Lost livelihoods in fisheries	30,000
Fishing boats destroyed or damaged	7,500
Lost livelihoods in tourism	120,000+
Houses destroyed or badly damaged	4,806
Estimated value of damages (not. inc. housing)	353.4 million USD

So we had a workshop of how to assess the situation, triage the victims (tell which one you should treat and in what order), and how to transport them to the hospital.  It is a growing field in Thailand whereas it is very developed in the United States.  In the US there is a very strict way on doing things but in Thailand regulations are still being made.  The workshop was difficult because of the language barrier but so fruitful because there was a beauty in trying to asses a disaster with the chaos of not understanding each other.


Onto Buddhism.  There will be no way that I do it any justice in this post but here it is.  The statistics say anywhere from 92-98 percent of all Thailand is Buddhist, therefore it governs the way the people act.  It is based on the idea that you want to essentially not be tied down by earthly possessions and that includes your body.  Monks meditate on the 32 parts of the body, essentially while breaking them down to objects in order to free themselves of it (bile, hair, skin, etc).  They believe in a kammic system, or karma, which means that people are reborn and every action has a karmic reaction, so things that happen in this lifetime could very well have been because you are serving out karma for a previous life.  It is so important to remember that in order to reach nirvanna you have to in a sence become enlightened by arresting the karmic cycle and freeing yourself from your body.  As you may  notice this has severe bioethical implications because sometimes when people are sick or dying, people tend to say or they are living out karma and give out hope.  With modern medicine it is hard for a doctor to take that, she/he wants to operate but you want to respect the wishes and autonomy of a person.  Also Thai people really believe in spirit mediums and other traditional forms of medicine which sometimes interfere with western practices.  How do you treat a person? You have to take into consideration that no matter what you tell them, they will probably still take their own medicine so you have to figure how it will interfere with what you prescribe and you have to be culturally sensitive enough to maybe incorporate the two. A doctor who practices here but was trained in the US told a story of a man who was badly burned.  The doctors treated him and dressed his wounds and his wife you always come in and tamper with his arm.  The doctors got frustrated but they couldn't deny her visitation.  Anyways one day she spit some "holy" grass on his arm because a monk chewed it and they believed that it was best for his arm.  Of course the doctors are upset because his arm will pronably become infected, but she was going to do it again so they dressed his wounds and put a plastic sheet over it so she could put the holy grass on it again.


Sorry for the long post! I'll post about our project on ptsd after natural disasters later and will put up pics of the drag show very soon!


love y'alls,
erin

pictures since my camera has decided to work!

 shark attack! i'm also modeling my new purse!

 no strange animals, weaponry, sex, dogs, alcohol, smelly fruit, or smoking in the cab

 it says daydreaming in thai

 i was really uncomfortable by this

 sharkss

 starfish!

 aghhh

 i got the nerve to take a solo shot, then i almost cried when they werent moving fast enough to take it off as its face turned to stare me down

 the thai children

 extracting venom

 the hostel was like a 5 star hotel

 about to get our thai massages, i had to wear this long skirt to cover my ATROCIOUS bug bites

 my adorable friend i made a the hostel, her mom left her and her dad for another westerner, and her dad just wanted to drink and watch boxing,w e took care of her

 sigh...

 i have actually never seen chicken at a mcdonalds so i had to take a pic

 markets

 maaahkets

 souvenirs?

 Buddhas!

 this was actually a blak and white pic, so im a g when it comes to taking pictures, i learned it all from my Unkie!!

 this bar's bathroomw as actually legit

 fairy dust at the iron fairies

 faaairy

 who can spot the fish?

 he was actually getting so close and the snake did try to bit him, many people have lost fingers and hands doing what he was doing

 the drink that caused so much strife

at empower, they taught them english words to get what they wanted