clubbin

Hey all,
So that touch of dodgy stomach that I mentioned in my last post turned into a full night of stomach cramps! not fun. Since then though the livin's been good. My classes for the rest of the week went fine and I went ice skating with some students on friday night after work.
On Thursday (i think) I stopped by the mall after work and had a look around. The Mall just opened about a week and a half ago and was nowhere near being done when Johnny and I started here. I can't remember if I have talked about this buildings construction yet but it has been one of the continuing sources of amazement to me here. People worked on this building for at least 18 hours of everyday! Well into the night and early in the morning the building was crawling with people. The structure itself is really tall. At any given time you would see people suspended hundreds of feet up, sitting on a wooden plank that was attached to rope at either end, working. No one wears helmets or straps in while working high up on planks or on the scaffolding. Instead, they pound this version of redbull called M-150 to help with the long hours. I am pretty sure that I have talked about M-150 before but in case I have not, it is banned in Europe because it has amphetamines in it. Three people died during the first week of construction of this mall. And there is at least one mall within a mile on both sides of this one. So, obviously I needed to see what was so special about this mall. At the top there is a bowling alley and an Ice skating rink. The bowling alley, named "Rhythmic Chic Bowl Club" is appropriately named as the comical combination of a nightclub and a bowling alley. On thursday Johnny and I stepped into the black-lit bowl-club and invaded some students games for a few frames, trying to wrap our heads around something so silly as a hip and chic bowling alley. It had really futuristic looking seating areas including those chairs you see in movies that look like giant eggs you can sit in... i think Dr. Evil had one in the first Austin Powers. Either way, seeing the bowl-club made me really want to experience the skate-disco.... which was also hilarious.
I dont know if it is funnier that they combined a skate rink with a night club or that someone thought it was a good idea to try and keep thousands of gallons of water in the solid state in the hottest country on earth, but the whole thing is a blasty. Equipped with a hip DJ, sexy costumes for the staff and little penguins on skis that you can rent for the little ones who are just learning (really really god damned adorable), the "Sub-Zero Ice Skate Club" (of which I am now a "member") has something for everyone. Again, futuristic lounge area for the voyeurs, swanky snack area for those who really dislike the feeling of having money in their wallets, and yes an inch and a half of water covering the ice that lets everyone differentiate between who has fallen and who will soon. The tiny rink also boasts two "death zones" where the finicky water holds out in liquid rebellion. These two areas are right on the main beltway of the outside edges and welcome all who can neither turn nor stop... which is most people. It was a great time and I left with my dress shirt and pants completely sopping wet on my right side. It was really fun teaching students how to ice skate and trying to show off the few tricks I have reserved from when I was little (thus the wet right side... "look, I can go BACKWARDS"....nope, i cant). I will say that two little things bugged me. 1. obviously there were guys there that were really good and tearing around the tiny ice rink. Thats all well and good but my students are not all very good and sometimes made erratic direction changes. Every time one of these jackasses buzzed my students and almost or actually did cause them to fall I wanted to kill them. The good news is that I apparently like my students enough to feel protective of them. They other thing is that as I am being continually ingrained into the school, I am getting more and more of the gossip. And too much of the gossip is about Johnny and I. One specific piece of gossip was that there was an informal task force that was monitoring us to make sure that we were not flirting with girl students. Now, I really appreciate this, cause I know how many westerners come over here and yada yada yada. AND I really appreciate that the "task force" knows that where Johnny and I come from giving "high fives" and agreeing to be in pictures with students is not flirting and they now trust us! good! But hearing all this has made me a lot more conscious of my actions in public (which again is good) but there was a girl who came skating and was pretty much stuck to the edge unless I helped her. Earlier, I told her I would teach her to skate. But then, there, I start to teach her to skate and I look up and there is the futuristic lounge area full of parents watching their kids, and I am in my work get-up and I can't help but be paranoid of how it might look to some of the conservative people in the crowd. In Thai culture, men don't touch women. If you remember I went to the ancient capitol a few weeks ago. There is a temple there that was built to honor a queen who died on a river trip trying to get there. She fell out of the boat and was drowning (prob cause she was covered in gold... vanity strikes again) but no man saved her because they couldn't touch ladies and she was a LADY. I suspect this has its roots in the whole women need to be pure BS so i'll go ahead and say misogyny strikes again.... but i digress. Back on topic, I want you to imagine me teaching (or trying to teach) a girl to ice skate without touching her. She kept reaching out and grabbing my arm so she wouldn't fall and I kept being like "well you'll never learn if you are always holding on to something!" haha. Of course I didn't just let her fall but I could tell that she was wondering why it was cool if the male students needed an occasional arm but she couldn't just hold on to make sure she wouldn't fall. Ah, again, I appreciate everyone's vigilance, and I am glad that I knew not to act in an offensive way... I guess Im just mad at the scumbags who gotta muck it up for everyone.

On saturday I bussed it down to pattaya (which is still really really gross by the way) and met up with my friends. We got a hostel and some food and cabbed it down to the next town where we all had tickets to "smileyfest" which is a one-day reggae festival. It was right one the beach! So awesome! There were these bars that were elevated up out of the water and you walked out to on a plank. Sweet! The beach was really cool cause you could walk out into the water a full football fields length and the water would still be mid-thigh! Weird! Most of the acts were actually ska not reggae (which is good cause I prefer ska) but the reggae they had was mostly old school and really solid! In general, Thai pop music is awful. If I ever dig out my ear drums with a crude wooden instrument, it would be to the whining, flat-pitch of Thai pop. Thai metal can be pretty cool but Thai rock is a little shaky. Thai ska however, is a winner!!! A delight! A tour-de-force that keeps you coming back for more! hahah Ska music in general is pretty theatrical and I think that is why it works well with Thai culture. who knows, i'm probably wrong, i dunno. What I do know, is that Thai Ska is as refreshing as a cool breeze on a hot summer's day! haha ok that's enough of those! haha. We got to the festival at 4:30 and for the most part I was dancing or swimming non-stop until we left at two. If you would like a ear-full of fantastic, check out the Super Glasses. They are a breath of fresh air! haha ok last one I promise... maybe. The only incident of the night is that my accident prone friend Stephanie (who has given me many opportunities to practice my EMT training) cut her foot on a rock and had to go to the hospital. I was not near her when it happened and actually didnt meet up with her and the other two that went with her until we were back at the hostel. I changed her bandage on sunday for her and it was nar nar. She is currently missing a fair amount of her big toe. oooph! she was less than happy about it (don't worry, she keeps a happy spirit about it though!)
This week is mid-terms at my school. I spend the mornings proctoring (aka watching the students take tests while pretending to not be completely spaced out) and the afternoons either on a computer or grading. It is kinda lame, but it is giving me a nice break from teaching to reflect and reanalyze my strategy. PLUS after this week my beautiful girlfriend gets here and I have a week off for the new year, which we will spend on a tropical island!! SWWEEEEEETTT!!

OK, now i have to go stand in a room for the next hour or two so when some important person walks through on the tour, the school can put its two westerners on display! fun fun fun fun fun! I get to be a window dressing! oh merry christmas to all and to all a good night!

and now, you are all caught up on the happenings of Ashley Watson's brother!

---JON!