What happened to January!?

Happy winter! Hope everyone is staying warm. This has been the most mild winter of my life and I love it. No snow. No ice. Around 9C during the day, down to maybe -2 c at night. Very nice.

This month, Marco has been here. Marco and I did track together at Wooster, his facebook status is what put Korea in my head, and he gave me this current job. He is getting his Masters in Korean now, and on his way to Korea for a year of intense school, he stopped by Iwatsuki. It's been a good month. He introduced me to a lot of his friends and showed me some awesome places to eat and to play. Its also been nice to have someone to talk to and he gives me hugs. You don't realize how important physical affection is until you go months with out it. Japanese people are very reserved, even the kids, so hugs have been really good.

What else...MOM is coming to Japan during my spring break at the end of March. I'm really really excited. I've even been planning...that's hard. I've also been speaking to Cheney about some traveling together in July, which is also very exciting.

BigguyBill and Neda came to dinner. They live in Korea and were in Tokyo for a week. It was great to see them.

Japanese lessons are going well. I'm not good at studying during the week though, so it's slow. Real slow. But it's all right. I'm getting there.

I think that's it really. Just hanging out. Living. Laughing. Learning.

Thursday moms and kids came over for lunch on Saturday.

Me, Marco, Taka at an Izakiya.

Marco and I in a traditional area.

It was a beautiful day.

Meeting some Iwatsuki friends.

People who live very near me. Yay!

Weird space dogs?

We made Korean food one night. And Marco was introduced to Making Bacon Pancakes.
He thanked me for that song.

Marco's "welcome back to Asia party"

Marco's main drinking buds. And me.

This is a video from the traditional town that we were tromping around. We stumbled on this show. It was interestingly weird.

 

Country number 15

December 25th, I took the 5:15 am train from near my house and got to the airport just in time to check in for my 9 am flight to China. I had a 5 hour layover, and I got to Bangkok at 10pm. I then took a taxi to my hostel. Nice place. I was in an all girls, 2 bed dorm. After checking in, the host invited me to the Christmas party that all of the guests were at. I said I would go down after I took a shower. However, after I showered, I lay down to type an email. Next thing I know, it's morning! Whoops.

December 26th. Woke up around 7:30. Two other girls in the room, one who had been in Bangkok for about a week and was just relaxing and one who had gotten in about an hour after I had. She is Canadian and is working in Korea for the year, so we teamed up and saw the sights of Bangkok. We took the river ferries around instead of taxis and managed to avoid the protests. Bangkok is a nice enough city, but I felt that one solid day was plenty of time. I went to be at 10 because I had to get up at 4 the next day.

December 27th. Woke up at 4 to get a taxi to the airport for my 7am flight to Krabi. I passed out before take off and woke up after landing. From the airport, I bought a shuttle bus ticket that the sign said would take me to a ferry. It did not. It took us to a hotel, where we waited for about 2 hours for another bus that took us across two ferries and dropped me off at my hostel, on Koh Lanta, an island in the south. Checked in and went to the beach! Nice hostel. Mixed, 6 bed dorm.

December 28th, Woke up at 7 and went snorkeling around 4 different islands via a longtail boat. It was loud and wet, but I enjoyed myself. I obtained a bruise on my shin during this trip because while I was snorkeling, a Swedish woman decided that it was a good time to feed the fish, so a parrot fish promptly swam right into me. After the last snorkeling spot, we all put on life jackets and swam into a PITCH DARK cave, After about 7 minutes in this cave, we came out into what looked like the inside of a volcano. It was beautiful, but I have a hard time with caves.

December 29th I slept in until 7:30, then I got up and explored the island. I just walked around for a few hours, bought gifts for my boss and coworker. Then, I went to the beach! When I was done, I went to a bar for dinner and a beer. Starting chatting with an English dude. Hung out with beers on the beach until 2. (That's late for me on vacation!)

December 30th, Beach day. Delicious food, and more beach.

December 31st, Beach and food. Traveled around to various beach bars and parties chatting with random people. Made it awake until 12:16. Saw the New Year Fireworks and went to bed.

January 1st, got up at 8. Checked out of my bunk, went to the beach. Had all my favorite foods one more time. Said good bye to the ocean. Went back to the hostel, had a shower and hopped on an airport shuttle van. I was in the very back, in the left hand corner. About 20 minutes into the trip, he backed right into a palm tree, right in my corner. Scared me pretty good, not going to lie. Flew from Krabi to Bangkok, used the free shuttle bus to switch from the small Bangkok airport to the big one, made it to my flight with 4 minutes to spare.

Turned into January 2nd, Flew through China again. What happened in China immigration/passport control? I opened my passport to find it SWARMING with red ants. 1. that's not great anyway. 2. that's especially not great in immigration. 3. that's terrifying in China. But it was ok. No problems. Don't know where those suckers all came from, but it made the next 8 hours of traveling go by with my skin crawling! I was also worried about getting back into Japan, as I wasn't sure if my visa was processed, but it all worked out fine.

Books I read: The Dinosaur Feather ( I like), Gone Girl ( I like), The Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet (I like), Home ( I didn't love), The Sea Sisters ( I like, but wish I hadn't read while traveling SE Asia alone), Slapped by an Angel ( I did not like), The Engagement ( I did not like, but I can't stop thinking about the mindfuck that it is), The Kingmaker's Daughter (on the fence about) and that new one by the Harry Potter lady that she wrote using a pen name, The Cuckoo's Calling ( I like).

Good trip. I will consider going solo again. It was hard. I was about 60:40 loving:hating it. It was hard when the sun went down because at the point it's either go to a bar and hope or go to bed. But I enjoyed myself a lot. I wore sunscreen everyday, so no burns. I have about 4853 mosquito bites.

Pictures: (they're chronologically backwards)

Koh Lanta, Thailand

American, Chinese, Japanese, Thai.

Happy New Year!

Obviously I wasn't allllll alone.



Toilet in the middle of the room. It seemed important to document on NYE.

Inside the volcano thing. Cave behind me.

I survived a cave!

Snorkeling break to play with the camera.

That's me!

Dino's in Thailand

Can you see that red mark in the shadow of my hand? That's from the fish.

Snorkel trip lunch on the beach.

The Longtail boat we were on.

They came too.

Koh Lanta.

First lunch on the beach. Book, wine, dino, Mango.

Bangkok from the top of a Wat.



Giant, reclining Buddha.

Line of Buddha's in Bangkok.

That's me.

Dino up high in Bangkok.

Reclining Buddha.

Thailand Architecture.

Bangkok-Korea buddies.

Dinos in Bangkok.

Beach flowers.

In front of the Grand Palace. We didn't go inside because it cost 500 baht. The other
Wat's cost about 100 baht to get in, so we did five smaller ones instead.

Thailand.

Shiny!