Koh Samui

in case your wondering what a 3 dollar bungalow on the beach looks like..

I've decided that I belong on an island. I am most happy when I am surrounded by water. We've just spent the past week on the island of Koh Samui in southern thailand. It is soo beautiful here!

Last night could possibly go down in history as the happiest moment of my life thus far. Me and Asia got the chance to light the floating lanterns and let them go on the beach. It was such a beautiful moment and I had a permanent smile the whole time. It felt like I was putting my own star into the sky.

I really LOVE thailand. The people here are SOOO nice. They are so willing to give up a few minutes of their time to try to help you even though they have no idea what you're saying. All the people I have encountered on this trip have been such an inspiration for me to be more kind and patient with foreignors in the US.

This trip came at a hard time for me because I had to say goodbye to all of my friends in Hawaii right before I left. I've had a hard time letting go and I have a tendency to wallow in self pity when I get sad. I realized that when I'm in my "moods" I have the outlook of a 70 year old war veteran.

The other day I was laying on the beach and I started to think about all the amazing friends i've had and all the things I've done and seen. I realized that I am only 20 years old and yet I have met SO many beautiful people and had so many awesome oppertunities, I think its easy to get caught up in a certain time, but when I really think about it, how can I be anything but SO excited for the rest of my life? I've been so lucky so far, and I can only imagine what my life has waiting for me.

What better place to find a new attitude than some beach in southern thailand, right? :)

should I write eat pray love volume 2?

Monkey City / Chiang Mai

We met the most adorable thai boy named Jake, who is a friend of a friend of Sean's. He was so excited to have visitors and he devoted his entire day to driving us around and showing us bangkok and some surrounding cities. He took us to a place 2 hours outside of bangkok called monkey city where there are hundreds of monkeys running around. When we first got there we were scared to get close, but after 5 minutes we had monkeys jumping on our backs and following us around. At one point I had 4 little monkeys trying to untie my swimsuit and steal my earrings. They were sooo cute. I wish I could carry one around with me all the time.

After the monkeys we went to the floating market. It was so pretty with the water and the elephants walking around in the background. On our way back to the car, we passed the elephants and one of them picked me and asia up with its trunk which was really cool and extremely prickly.

Jake dropped us off at the train station so we could buy tickets for the next day, but when we got there we found out there was a train leaving for chiang mai in 5 minutes, so we got our tickets and ran to our train. We felt like in the beggining of titanic when him and his friend were running to get on the boat. Me and asia were wishing we had somebody to wave at and blow kisses from the train, (I dont know why we insist on turning every situation into a romance novel)

I love trains. I could stay have stayed on that train forever.

Our first day in chiang mai, we rented mopeds and drove them all around the city. It was so crazy driving on the left side of the road and they dont really have traffic rules, which I love. I think it works better that way.

Our second day in chiang mai, we left for our 3 day trek.

On the first day we went to this waterfall, which was soo pretty. We got to swim for a while, then we started on our hike into our first village.

We hiked for 3 hours and we got to the village just as it was getting dark. They started making dinner right when we got there, I ate Frog and Water Buffalo, which were both actually pretty good.

Our tour guide was adorable. He reminded me of Raffiki from lion king. He was a man of a few words, (all we ever heard him say was; banana, ladyboy, baby, things of that nature.) however, he seemed extremely wise.

There was also 4 other hikers in our group besides us, 2 from australia, 1 from iceland, and 1 from the UK. It was really interesting hearing everyone talk about where they are from and where they have traveled.

The huts we stayed at were REALLY cool. I could deffinately live in one of those forever. We slept under misquito nets on the floor. I managed to wedge myself in the middle of sean and asia because I figured thats were I would be least likely to encounter a giant spider. It worked out nicely. For me at least :)

On the second, we hiked another 4 hours (in the rain.) to another village. The time went by a lot faster on this day because we all played the name game, which is when you name a celebrity for example; Michael Jackson, the next person has to name a celebrity whose name starts with the first letter of that celebrities last name, ex; Jennifer Lopez. and so on. One of the guys we were playing with was hilarious, it would take him forever to think of a name and most of the time, the name he did come up with would be made up or he would just add "king" or "queen" to the beggining of a name and try to pass it off as the king of whales or something.

we got to our next place to find 4 elephants waiting for us. We got to ride them for about an hour which was really cool but also not as glamourous as it looks. every time they would take a step one way, you would go flying to opposite direction.

My favorite part of the trek was our last day, We went on a bamboo raft for 4 hours all the way down the river and back to the car. The river was soo pretty and all the trees were beautiful.

I really started to feel at home in chiang mai. I feel sort of attatched to the little city.

but after we spent a week there, we got back on the train and headed for southern thailand.

songkran and other madness

after a startling realization that the flight I was on was 13 hours, and not 5 like I had thought.. I was in japan! for 45 minutes. Just enough time to go to an internet cafe and take a picture, use a bidet, and give some guy love advice, and spend 700 yen on chocolate and gummy bears.

konichiwa.

we got to bangkok around 1 and all I wanted to do was sleep in a real bed after 22 hours of being on a plane.. So we figured out a guesthouse to stay at 10 minutes from the airport, but when we walked in the room there was just one bed, and it was hard as rock.. so we all piled in and took some ambien.. and that was my first night in thailand.

The next morning we took a cab into downtown bangkok to get to the hostel where we were planning on staying. Its the new year here and we got here just in time for the songkran festival. When we got out of the cab we got shot by the occasional squirt gun.. but by the time we checked in and put our things away, the festival was in full effect. You couldnt walk 2 feet without getting gooped with clay or sprayed with water. I swear they like to get the white people, cause right when they would see me or Asia they would make a B line strait for us. Nothing says welcome to thailand like being hosed down and gooped with clay.

Its cute and funny for a few hours, but by the end of the day I had swallowed enough clay to last a lifetime. We went to a place across the street and got $3 hour long massages. The ladies at the salon were so nice, they brought out a hose for us to shower outside since we were covered in clay. After the massage we were still a little less than a block from the hostel so we tried to run back without getting wet again, but some thai boys saw that we were dry and took it upon themselves to be sure we got covered head to toe once again in water and clay. I got home at 5pm and slept untill 8am.

When I woke up my eyes were crusted shut from the clay and the 15 hour coma. We walked around bangkok looking for somewhere to get breakfast and we found a little place to eat on the side of the road. We had curry and rice for less than a dollar. It was so spicy that Asia's face was dripping with sweat and all the thai people were laughing at us. After "breakfast" we took a boat up & down the river to see downtown.

even on the boat. They'll getcha.

Note to self; Thai coffee is equal to or greater than methamphetamines, not like I would know what meth is like, but they dont mess around with thier coffee here. We took a tuk tuk to see the temples, we went to one that had a giant buddha and the temple was made of marble. The architechture was really cool and the detail on everything is so beautiful. Asia and Sean were so amazed at the monks and all the buddhist stuff... they obviously have never been in mama and pa's basement.

ok gotta go.. cause i'm in thailand!!!!!!!!!!!!

Land of Thai

in just 3 shorts weeks I will be packing my bags and jetting off to thailand for a month. I am SOOOOO excited for this trip, I've spend HOURS googling pictures of elephants and temples that I want to visit.

Its kind of funny how things work out. Thailand has always seemed like a cool place to me but I'd have to say the most "thai" thing I've ever experienced is getting 4 stars on my curry at thai ginger. I never seriously considered traveling there. About a month ago, my roommate Asia comes home and says "me and Sean want to go to thailand. do you want to come?" Of course I said yes, but I assumed it was all talk and they weren't actually going so I forgot all about it. The next day I woke up to a text message from Sean saying "I am buying my ticket for thailand tonight, can you get yours today?". I couldn't believe he was serious! I actually started to panic because you always hear people saying, "lets go to australia" or "we should plan a trip to japan" but for the first time, somebody was ACTUALLY going. I knew I had to go but I wasn't sure what my parents would think. I called my mom and ran the idea past her and she said she thought I should definitely go and that this was a great opportunity to go with friends, and I probably wouldn't get this chance again. So one down and one to go, I called my dad. I was REALLY nervous because he likes to know all the details (which I didn't have), and I thought he wouldn't take me seriously since it was so last minute, but since I have the most amazing and supportive parents in the world, I had my ticket booked after a 15 minute phone call with my dad. I am SOOO lucky to have gotten this opportunity and I am SO lucky to have parents that are so supportive of all my adventures. I was a little worried because taking this trip means I wont be able to take classes until summer, but my dad said "you will learn more from 3 weeks in thailand than 3 years in some classroom." I couldn't tell you any other parent I know that would say that! I wish you were all coming with me!

The Fortress

Sorry to all my blog followers (mom and dad), for not writing for months.

There hasn't been much going on here, so when an opportunity for entertainment presents itself, I cannot resist.

This has gotten me in some interesting situations lately, for some reason most of them include giving my guy friends some type of makeover.

ex; Dying my friends mustache-

click here for the video.

ex; Waxing my friends chest-

after running out of boys to dye and wax, I was starting to slip slowly into a boredom induced coma, when at the last second, the song el tango de roxanne from the movie Moulin Rouge came on

Press Play.

This song makes me feel like I should be throwing things around and vigorously painting on an easel.

We have 4 bedrooms in my apartment, 2 girls in 3 of them and 1 room of 4, but this semester there is only 8 girls, so there is an empty room with 2 extra beds. I started moving things around in the empty room listening to roxanne on repeat and when my roommates came home they found this.

I hoarded all the extra sheets and anything else I could find around the house and starting pinning them up. Before I knew it I had a beautiful fortress that I haven't been able to leave for the past 3 days.

Pure happiness comes from sitting in a fort. There is nothing like reverting back to your childhood ways and enjoying the simple things. This week has been the best week and it just flew by. I have a theory that 5 minutes in the fort is equal to 5 hours of real time, it just allows you to get lost and forget that there is anything else going on.

I think that every house should come with a designated "fort room" and that everyone should spend at least an hour of their day sitting back and really enjoying their free time.

Instead of always waiting for your next vacation, you ought to create a life you don't need to escape from

Good Karma

I must have done something right, because I have been so fortunate lately.

If you recall my post back in April, which you can see here, I reveal my love for Justin Bieber.

Well, JB is on tour and had a show in Hawaii. I had been looking for tickets online because the show was already sold out. I was devastated that I was going to miss it, and I had been sulking all week. Finally, on Thursday, the day before his show, I found 4 tickets on craigslist and the seller lived right on the north shore, not too far from where I live. I went to waimea with my roommates, and planned on meeting this girl with the tickets on the way home. While we are at the beach, my friend Asia gets a text from one of our friends that says, "Justin Bieber is at Turtle Bay." I didn't believe it for a second, people are always claiming that they see celebrities but they really don't.

Then, we get a text from Paul, our friend who works at Turtle Bay. It is a picture message of Justin Bieber renting a moped from him.



We started freaking out and trying to figure how we were going to get there to see him. We walk up to the road and start looking for a ride and one of our neighbors just happens to be heading that way, so he picks us up and we are on our way. Paul texts us again and says, Justin is on his way to pounders, a beach a few miles past Laie.

So we get dropped off at pounders, and everything looks normal, I didn't see hoards of screaming girls, so i figure he must have already left. Then I see Shez running towards me mouthing "justin bieber is HERE!!!"

Usually, I am really scared of the water, I have an unrealistic fear of sharks and other unknown creatures attacking me, so it usually takes me a while to get into the water. Not in this case, i think i broke some kind of record for undressing and jumping into the water in under 3 seconds.

I swam right next to the little teen sensation for about 30 minutes. He is so cute and SOOO little!!! I didn't realize until I got close, how inappropriate my love for him really is. He is just a baby! The whole time i was trying to get behind him so that I could sneak into some paparazzi pictures and have my 5 seconds of fame, but I haven't found myself in a picture yet.





we were a little late meeting up with the girls who had the tickets, but i think we had a good excuse ;)


the other day, my friend Christine who I haven't seen in months called, she used to be my roommate here in Hawaii, but she didn't come back this fall. She told to me that she is moving to Tennessee with her brother in a week or so and she doesn't know if she'll be back any time soon. I remembered that she had a car here and I asked if my roommate and I could use it to go to the health food store in Kailua. She said yes, and that I could borrow it anytime.

I talked to her again a few days later, to make sure it was ok if we used the car and she said, "actually, you should just have it."

Really?? she just GAVE me a car?

It is a great car! it is a volvo, which i have always wanted. maybe not the year and style that i have always wanted, but hey! it was free! the only thing that is wrong with it, is the hood is a tinsy bit loose, so it is duct taped on.. but, i think it adds character.

Now there is a catch, I don't have a license at the moment, so I decided to make it a community quiet house car! anybody that needs to use it can whenever they need it! it has been great and extremely helpful for everybody! all the girls give me rides to work now!

we call it the chariot.

its awesome. i think all cars should be free :)

As if a free car isn't enough, i got even luckier this week.
I have been wanting to learn another language for the longest time, but I was too scared to take Spanish or French in high school so i never got the chance. I have been thinking about getting rosetta stone, which is a CD that teaches you how to speak certain languages, but it is about $200 per CD.

The other day I was talking to my friend Asia about learning another language and she says "Oh, I have rosetta stone!" she walks into her bedroom, and comes out with the CD. I figured it was probably the spanish CD because that is the most common one, but she puts it in the computer, and it has 27 different languages all on this ONE disk!! I was shocked! I didnt waste any time, i copied it to my computer immediately and i have already been learning french, spanish, and italian!


Hawaii is TOO good to me.
Cant wait to woo you all with my Spanish when I get home!!