Posts Tagged vacation

Thailand Holiday, Day 1: The World (or at least Thailand) is Waiting

Spirits are high, but Brandon did have to go out of his way to meet up with the rest of the group. No worries, though… my final destination is Thailand!!!

Meet the cast:

Brandon

Brandon

Craig

Craig

Jim

Jim

Kate

Kate

Shelli

Shelli

We’re all teachers in need of a break.

As we left the subway station, we implemented a 3-strike shun system to keep troublemakers at bay. Craig hit his limit 15-minutes into the subway ride (still in Seoul). Jim self-imposed his shun after looking into the wrong pocket of Shelli’s suitcase. Kate saw lots of shiny things.

The flight was long and Craig and I sat together in a part of the plan infested with children. Craig got a perfectionist child seated next to him. She was playing with a small Simpsons hand towel and had to continually adjust it until it was centered in her pull down cup holder. Lots of screaming and restless movement throughout the rest of our section!!! At one point, a child just started screaming and instinctively Craig and I put our headphones in simultaneously. Also, apparently Thai airlines doesn’t mind if you freely roam about the cabin… even if you don’t have to just go to the bathroom or are getting something out of the overhead bin. I soon fell asleep only to be jarred awake when the beverage cart ran over my foot.

The dinner of curry and rice was one of the best airline meals I’d ever had.

I fell asleep again and when I woke up again, the girl sitting next to Craig had turned into a woman. I tried to fall asleep again, but couldn’t sleep very well with the painful and traumatic memory of being run over by the beverage cart fresh in my mind and the fear of it happening again. I passed the remaining dark hour of the flight (an overnight flight thankfully means light’s out) by playing Sudoku on my iPod Touch.

As we were preparing to land, I looked over and noticed that the woman next to Craig had turned into a young teenage boy. Either this airline has a liberal policy about staying in your assigned seat or we were dealing with a shape-shifter. Also, the Christmas music they were playing was a nice mix that consisted mostly of Michael Buble’s Let It Snow Christmas album. Just during landing, 3 out of the 4 songs played were from this 6 song album.

Apparently, the rest of the group flew in peace and quiet in the “adults only” section of the plane. Jealous!!!

When the hotel sent a car to pick us up at the airport (we did get in at 1:30am), I got a lesson on riding in this country. Don’t get in on the front right side unless you’re about to drive.

We got to the hotel to find the guys were going to be occupying the pink room.

IMG_0781

This only made Jim more uncomfortable about having to share a bed with me and he used a towel rather than sleeping under the comforter. It was a decision he would regret by morning what with the air conditioning going full blast.

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How Do You Say “A Little More Off The Top” In Korean???

Historic day here at My Reboot @ 30… I got my first haircut in Korea!!! Four and a half months into my stay here, I finally decided to take the plunge and brave the world of hair styling in a country that doesn’t speak my language. I figured that my trip to Thailand deserved a shorter look, considering my hair was long enough to help me through the cold Korean temps, but would probably be uncomfortable in the hot Thai ones.

It started out pretty good. I tried to tell the girl that I wanted my hair short. I illustrated this my pulling my bangs up and using my index finger and thumb to show how short I wanted it. She began cutting away. After a while I started wondering if she understood me because she was only using scissors and never took out the trimmer. It also seemed as if she wasn’t returning to places she had trimmed, but not cut to the specified length. It became incredibly apparent that she didn’t understand what I wanted when she took off the drape and my hair was still touching my ears and the top of my head was still rather thick.

I tried to illustrate again and finally her boss came over and tried to figure out if she could understand what I wanted. She started flipping through books and magazines in search of an illustration to show me, however, this seemed to be a mostly female clientele salon and they had NOTHING that they could show me.

I tried once again to illustrate with the finger method and she gave it another shot. I figured I might end up sitting here for a while. But soon the trimmer came out and I felt like I was starting to get through.

AHHH… the buzzing of the clippers on my head. One of my favorite parts of getting a haircut. Thankfully, when I opened my eyes, the look was complete. Not quite to my specifications, but I suppose having a little more hair on my head will help me not freeze once I get back to the cold weather in Korea. Then I got a quick shampoo… I love it when people mess with my hair… so relaxing. It was definitely a good start to my vacation.
So what do you think? Here’s the before and after:

Before...

Before...

...and after

...and after

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Schoooooooooooool’s out for… Christmas!!!

I can’t tell you just how happy I am right now!

Exams are graded, grades are in, and I’m just finishing the unwrapping of gifts from my students. This is one of the best days of my semester. Knowing that the 80-90 degree temperatures of Thailand await me makes me even warmer inside… which was the only way I made it through school crosswalk duty all week in single digit and teen temperatures.

It’s not that I’m happy I won’t see them again for 3 weeks. It’s not that I won’t have to look at another textbook again for almost a month (I’m taking novels on my trip to choose what 7th grade is doing next semester). It’s not even about the fact that half the year is over. It’s about breathing…

For the past few months, I’ve gone from one stressful situation to another. First, there was the transition to life in Korea. Then, there were the new situations I found myself dealing with as a new teacher. And cap that all off with the incredibly difficult times I had at home with my roommate and finding school to be less stressful than my home life. With no time or place to catch my breath, suffocation seemed a likely possibility. DJ even told me a couple weeks back that there were a lot of people here that didn’t think I’d make it through the first semester… and he was one of them. He told me he was surprised and encouraged by the strength I’d shown during all the tough times and impressed with how much I’d grown because of it.

I will be the first to admit that I’m not the most courageous person when it comes to confrontation. I avoid it like the plague. Those who know me can attest to that fact. But living and dealing with DJ has shown me that even though I may be uncomfortable with it, confronting my problems and not being afraid to stand up for myself can be an easier road than just ignoring the problem. It can help take the weight that’s suffocating me off my chest.

So for the next three weeks I’m going to rest, take in the scenery (I can’t wait to see what Thailand has to show me), and enjoy the moments that I get. But most of all… I’m going to breath.

Oh… and not drink the water.

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