It’s been 2 months since I’ve been back from Thailand.  I can say that I miss the country there.  I want to find an opportunity to go back, but right now that doesn’t seem very likely.  I guess part of the problem I don’t know which direction I want to go with a job right now.  I think I have a lot of things that would be interesting, but I don’t think I’ve been looking hard enough.

Recently I’ve been going to a Korean church called Hyungjae or New life, I’m not sure what the difference is right now, but I really enjoy going to this church in Bothell.  I like my home groups and a chance to be apart of a community.  I thought i was going to be in the bellevue group, but i've transition over to the north campus home group. 

i will try to update later

same computer in 4 months

I know i haven't updated this blog for a while, but i've been keeping a blog, just not updated.  I'll be sure to post it up later when i have time to upload it/type everything.  But i just wanted to make another post beacuse i'm at the same airport as in AUG 10th ish.  I thought it would be cool to write what i'm thinking as i get ready to go back home.

Even though i wanted to stay in thailand longer, i feel at peace, i don't feel like i missed out on anything really big even though i missed hanging out with the bba and be students after their finals.  I also didn't have the chance to go the the beaches that i was planing on going to, or island, but that's ok.  I hope that I will have a chance to go back to Thailand because it is an amazing place full of really cool fun people.  I think that's one of the things that impressed me the most about thailand.  It's the people's hospitality to take care of people who are new to the country.  I know there are signs that say beware of strangers, but i put myself out there, and trusted God and was greatly blessed by the outcome. 

I must also say that Hong Kong was quite a blessing too.  At first when i found out that I was going to Hong Kong, I was sorta sad because that ment less time with the friends that I made in Thailand.  But God has given me the gift to really make friends wherever i go.  I meet another guy in Hong Kong with the same last name as me sort of.  It's spelled the same in English, but in Chinese it's written differently.  Ron Ngai is a really nice guy, and I look forward to seeing him in the future maybe in seattle or some other place i might be able to meet up.  I also had the chance of meeting vanessa and having a great time at Ocean Park. 

I use to think that I really needed to hang out with other people to have a good time, and part of it is true.  Whenver I hung out with people in Hong Kong, I really had a good time hanging out with them, and getting to know them.  I also reailzed that when I was alone, I felt ok too.  I did manage to call people to see what they were up to and see if they had time to hang out with me, but when no one had time, I wandered around Hong Kong having a good time.  It was a good time for me to brush up on my Cantonese.  This experience in Hong Kong has encouraged me to embrace my culture more and try picking up Mandorine when i get back.  I also want to begin to learn how to read.  As China becomes a large and larger part of the world economy.  I see an oppertunity for me to bridge the gap and take advantage of being Chinese and American. 

Something I really look forward to is seeing my family again.  Especially my sister, after being away for so long, I look forward to hanging out and sharing stories of my adventures and hearing about her freshman year.  I want to thank all the loyal blog readers who have been reading the blog.  My dad, Liz, Wayman, Norm, and probably a couple other people that I don't know have beenr reading through the subscriptions.  I can't imagine you guys reading every word cause when i update there's quite a bit.  I will give a more thorough report when i get back to seattle.  I need to get going or else i won't catch the plane.  I don't need another adventure in Taiwan yet.  (Maybe later)

-Matt
An awesome adventure!

I can't believe it's December

So on this past Sunday, I went to service, and the afterwards, i went eat lunch with my adopted family at this health club.  It was really nice.  They had a race track there and the facilites were really nice.  The also were working on remodling the swiming pool.  It looked like something out of a movie.  I ordered fish and chips, I also had somdom, and some other foods.  I had this thai dessert which had ice and syrup.  It was pretty good. 

After finishing dinner I went shopping with Madeline.  We went to Platinum fashion center.  Driving around in Bangkok is a pain in the butt.  We finally got there had i started looking for clothes.  One thing that I really wanted to buy was button up dress shirts.  Unfortunately for me the only size that fits me is XL.  I think it's equiliant to a M or and L in the states.  I ended up buying just 1 shirt that is like a light woven shirt for summer/spring and a king's polo shirt, and a pair of shorts.  I had a lot of fun shopping there.  After finishing shopping we went to Maddy's house to eat dinner.  I was pretty excited about the dinner because i heard that we were having goose and some other stuff.  I really don't remember the last time i had goose, but i remembered that it was really tasty.  When i got to the house, i got mobbed by the little dogs again, but this time none of the dogs bit me.  I really enjoyed eating the goose.  Over dinner there was talk about going to watch the musical CATS for free, but since we started dinner late, and some of the family members had already seen it, none of us ended up going. The tickets were over a $100, and we could of gone late if we wanted to, but yeah, we decided not to.  We ended up watching some american comedy which was ok.  After watching the movie, I ended up getting a ride home with Angela's fiance, and he was telling me how they were going to get married on jan 20, and how he's been really busy with a lot of things at work. 

Monday I went to see the muay thai coach, and he gave me a head wrap and arm wraps.  I don't remember anything else about that day.

Tuesday.  After class I went with Mimi to synergy.  They are about to open their market in a year, and she said that if i open an account there, I would be able to benefit from everyone who joins the Vietnamese market.  While we were there, I had a chance to meet a guy named Pat.  I found out that he also lives at Ruen Indra and that his parents work at the embassy.  We ended up getting food after the meeting at Synergy.  We had kuay Tiaw with duck.  It was really good.  On the taxi ride home, i had a chance to talk with Pat about being an exchange student and making the most of my trip here in Bangkok.  I wish that I meet him earlier because it would of been convienent to go home with him instead of taking a taxi by myself.

Wednesday-- I started working on my paper for Thai rural development.  I was focused on getting a lot done.  I wrote most of it and then afterwards, I took a break to go to Thammasat to get lunch.  I ended up hanging around Thammasat and did some working out like sit-ups and pull-ups.  I ended up calling Chris to see what she was doing that day, and she said that she was studying in Khao San Starbucks.  Since I didn't have anything else to do, I decided to come out to visit her there.  Also on wednesday I was fed up with not being productive because i didn't have a list of things to do or a calendar, and with around a month left.  I felt that it was time for me to write everything i wnated to do down.  I was able to get a lot of that done on Wednesday.  So at Khao san we ended up getting really good food at this restaurant which we found by accident when we were trying to get to Khao San road.  The food was like 3-4 dollars for a set. 

Thursday.  Wrote more on my paper, and also worked on it during class.  I happended to find out that day, when i was almost done with my paper, that we had a one week exstention.  I guess i'm going to use that time to revise and edit the paper, and cut down on some of the things i wrote.  I thought that i wouldn't be able to write 7 pages, but I was.  I also meet up with Sky to talk about our Thai final.  We worked on a script together.  I went to synergy again, and after the meeting i went out with some of the people there to get shisha and to get food land afterwards. 

Friday:  I started packing up because i was going to move  out of my apartment the next day.  I was going to move out because i wanted to get the deposit money back from the apt.  I didn't want to stay till the last day, and be left holding all the thai bhat.  I did a lot of packing that day, and in the afternoon I went to my makeup class for 452.  I really like that class, I was able to get a lot of out it.  I wasn't looking forward to going, but i'm glad that I went.  After class, I meet up with my friends in the Canteen to go meet up for Kazu's birthday.  We were going out to a really nice all you can eat japanese restaurant. 

Thanksgiving and being adopted

2 Fridays ago, I had the chance to go out to bloq9 which is a club in Ekkamai area.  I went with Chris, Aey, Mimi, and her friend, and Punit.  It was a lot of fun.

The past couple of weeks have been interesting.  Two Saturday ago I went on a field trip to Yisan and Songkarn, a village/factory are where they producing many different goods.  We first visited a coal factory and they talked about mangrowth tree being used to make coals.  I had to write a paper for my thai rural development class for this field trip.  I'll post my essay which has a more complete and deatiled version of the things that I did. 

After I got back from the trip. I had a chance to meet up with Ryan.  We went to Shabu Shi fordinner. It was an all you can eat shabu shabu.  It was really good.  In addition to having shabu shabu, they also had some sushi, and tempura, and other japanese food.  It ended up costing 256bhat, which I consier a steal.  I'm happy i had a chance to go there with Ryan.  I had a good time catching up with him talking about my experience in Thailand, and how there might be a possibility of me coming back to start a job and a career here.  After finishing dinner we went outside to Paragon to take a picture.  It was fun.  I wish I had more friends from home come visit me, but i realize it isn't convienient for people to come out to Thailand.

Monday and Tuesday of 2 weeks ago were very taxing.  I helped Minako move from Ruen Indra Court to 3J.  I soon will be moving there too, I think at the end of the month.  I worked of my paper a little bit before i decided that I would go to a fair on Monday.  Loy Krathong festivle was coming up and the temple that was on my way to school had let a bunch of people use the space to make a small fair. I decided to check it out with Ryan, Pondi, Mas,and Bou.  When I got there, i was reminded that it was very simliar to a state fair.  They had lots of food stands selling different things like pork skeweres, and chicken on a stick, stick rice, and all these other good foods.  Ryan saw an oppertunity to win a prize by throwing some darts at the ballons.  The objective of this fair game was to hit 7 ballons with 7 darts for 20 bhat.  It was pretty challenging.  There was another version where you throw 3 darts to hit 3 ballons, for 80 bhat.  Ryan ended up winning once for the 80 bhat version.  I decided to give it a try, and on my first try I got 6 in a row and miss the last ballon by a little bit. From that point on, I ended up getting suckered into trying the game over and over again.  I didn't win. =(  I got really close, but no winner.  Fortunately for me, They had a prize of some nut snacks even if you didn't win a hello kitty doll. 

I was excited for the day to finish on Tuesday because I knew that the next couple of days would be a lot of fun.  I'm glad I made it through Tuesday. After class, I went with my friend Mimi to Emporium to a Synergy meeting.  I meet Noh, another BE student who was headed out to that area.  I just bought the mp3 "I don't want to miss a thing" and was playing that off my laptop while we were on our way to Emporium. 

Wednesday was a really nice day because I didn't have school.  I went to muay thai practice and then went back to get ready for the EAP dinner for the california students.  I was invited to go by Ying.  I ended up going with Vanessa from Ruen Indra Court to get there.  It was probably the more interesting trips through bangkok.  We first started off on a motorcycle taxi, and went to the ferry station, where we got onto a ferry and headed off to the bts station, and from the bts station walked a little bit to the 4 season hotel.  Vanessa and I got there early at 6:15.  Everyone else started to roll in around 6:40.  When we got there we were served champaign.  I must say, i'm not a big wine drinker, but this champaign was pretty good.  Once we got seated, we were served seared tuna salad.  It was a really good salad.  The next dish we got was a pumkin bisque soup.  It was really rich and creamy.  By that time I had eaten quite a bit and was feeling a little full especially from the bubbly champaign.  I really enjoyed the turkey that the hotel served.  I really like eating turkey, i think I like it better than chicken.  After finishing the turkey, the staff served a peacan pie.  It was ok, I think I couldn't really enjoy it compared to the rest of the food there because I was so full. 

Thursday THANKSGIVING DAY!  Unlike most of the people at home, I still had school, and had to wake up around 6:50 to get to school by 8:00 for class.  Most of the Thai people there didn't even realize that it was Thanksgiving that day.  I realize that Thaksgiving is only an American holiday, It was made a hoilday by Abe Lincoln because he was convinced that Americans had a lot to be thankful for.  That was some interesting trivia for that day.  I was happy to finish with classes and went back home to change to get ready for my Thanksgiving dinner at the Chiarapurk's house.  I went to a bts station to meet up with Madeline to get a ride to their house in Ekkamai area.  It took a long time to get  to their house because of traffic, but it was a lot of getting to know her time and bonding time.  I felt like she was my older sister.  When I got to their house, I was greated by 3 really big dogs, white, socks, and oreo.  I went inside and was mobbed by 5 little dogs.  I've never seen so many hyper active small dogs before.  One of them bit my toe, but it wasn't too bad.  When I sat down, they all started to sniff me to see who I was, once they did that, they calmed down.  I ended up hanging out for 2 hours or so before the dinner was ready.  It was ok waiting around, because I had a chance to meet the rest of the family and what not.  I had a soup to start off with, and then we got to turkey and mash potatoes, the mash potatoes were really good.  I wish I could eat more, but I couldn't.  While I was eating the turkey. I mentioned that the turkey was better than 4 season hotel.  That was quite the compliment, I ended up eating a little more turkey that I orginally thought because of that comment.  Oh well, at least it tasted good.  I had a chance to play with the dogs afterwards.  I'm glad i had a Thanksgiving with them. 

Friday I had the Muay Thai graduation.  I was really excited, I've lost weight and gotten thinner and become more healthier.  I also had a chance to learn self defence and learn more of thai culture.  When we got there, we were given a sleavless black t-shirt to wear for the ceremony.  We had to wait a long time before we were ableto have the ceremony, the dean of the university gave us the certificates. We eneded up taking a lot of different pictures while we were waiting for the Dean to come.  He was busy in some meeting untill 3:00.   I had a make up class for my international monetary economics class at 3:30-5:00 I ended up being a little bit late.  But I got most of the lecture notes from my friends.  After the class, I went to the Royal Hotel, which was some ghetto hotel near the school.  I ended up getting there early because i finished class and had nothing better to do.  Once it was 6:00 I started eating even though there wasn't that many people there.  We had all you can eat, and all you can drink.  They also had karaoke there.  I ended up singing a bunch of songs with Kenny.  I had a really good time.  Everyone had a good time, that the coach decided that we were going to have another party on the 16th of december.

Saturday = Loy Krathong.  It's a festivle where people send flowers and candle and insense down the river goddess to appease for the wrong things they have done.  I went to the international office at 1:30 to make the kratong.  It was a lot of fun.  We used banana trunks as the floating device, and then we used banana leaves to cover and decorate it.  The last part we had flowers to make it nice.  It was a pretty long process. It took an hour or so to make it.  Afterwards I went to the canteen to get a quick lunch and to show off my kratong.  Many people were surprised that I made it.  Other people asked if I had a girlfriend.  It was quite an amusing day.  Later that night I went out with Chris to Loy.  we went to Thammasat to let go of the boat.  Afterwards we went to Khao San for dinner.  It was Max's birthday we had some really good thai food, and then afterwards, we had roti, we ended up walking up and down the whole way just to get roti.  We went to gazeebo afterwards for shisha.  Chris drove me home, but before we went back i got a chicken kebab. It was so good.

Sunday Iwent to church, the pastor talked about stewardship.  Afterwards I will update this later. hahahah

DDM

So this weekend, i'm going to be going to be visiting a village.  I'm really looking forward to it.  As for the last few days, they weren't that interesting, except that i've changed my muay thai work out to do a little bit more running.  There's a park around there, and i run around the park,  I'm not exactly sure how long it is around, but it's quite a jog.  It's encouraging to run around, cause people see the muay thai shorts and like cheer you along as you run around.  Also it's a lot more interesting to run around the park cause it's like 3-4 times bigger than the small track that we have at school. 

On Wednesday
Oh so parking tickets.  I went out with my friends to get Korean food at DDM, it's a fun place to eat, cause the food pretty good, and the people are friendly.  They also have a pool table so you can shoot after you eat.  I always end up getting the beebimbop, it’s so good, it’s nice that they have the hot pot to go with dish cause it keeps it hot and yummy the whole way through.  After eating, Chris and Aey still wanted to hang out and chill, cause it’s been a while since we got to do that with all of us together.  After eating, we ended up going out to get the cars back and then decided to go to Khao San Road, to just walk and get desserts.

Before we parked the cars, Chris didn’t think the spots that we were parked at were legal, but Aey reaffirmed her that it was ok, cause she’s parked there many times.  We continued to walk down khao san.  At the end of the street I ended up getting roti.  It was sooooooooo good.  It was only 10 bhat, so after eating it and walking a few steps back down the opposite way, I ended up going back to get more.  I wish street food was as good and as cheap in seattle.  The way they do food reminds me of the bite of seattle for a fraction of the cost.

As we were walking back, I remember see there were signs on the cars saying something in Thai.  I assumed it was a parking ticket, which I was correct in guessing, but the girls pointed out that they locked out the wheels, so you had to pay for the ticket before you could drive back.  We ended up going back to the police station which is close to the Khao San Road.  I remember walking back to the police station, I was solicited by a hooker, but I just walked by.  I think it’s sad how many people have to choose that profession because there’s a lack of well paying jobs out there.  I ended up looking at some stuff that they were selling on the street to help pass time.  Finally the girls came back and paid the parking ticket.  They were able to negotiate the price from 700 bhat to 200 bhat. 

On Thursday after muay thai practice.  I went to meet up with Mimi to hear about a business opportunity.   The traffic was pretty bad.  I happened to drink a lot of water after practice and had to get out of the car mid trip to walk to a McDonalds to go pee and walk back.  The traffic was so bad, that I was able to make it back without the car moving too far.  We ended up going to a business building in Emporium.  The name of the company she’s working with is called Synergy.  They sell wellness products/ healthcare.  Basically things that can help you from getting sick and what not.  I listened to their business plan for a while and it’s definitely interesting.  I’m thinking about joining, cause I’ve heard so many testimonies from people that I knew and saw a noticeable difference in how these products have changed people’s lives. 

After finishing at Syngery, I ended up going to Subway to get dinner.  I haven’t had food since 12, and by the time we got there it was already around 9..  I think subway over there is pretty similar to the states, except they only have one type of cheese, and they also have carrots.  One other big difference is the fact they sell beer at subway.  It was also interesting to see them selling beer at the subway.  I guess they sell beer everywhere. 

I didn’t have school the next day, and I got along with the people at the dinner really well.  I ended up spending the night at one of the guy’s house.  His name is Teddy.  It was a lot of fun.  They have a pretty nice house, but it’s on the outskirts of town.  They also have have 2 cats, 2 dogs, and a canary named pippo.  We ended up staying up talking about life and I heard about their stories of ROTC back in high school.  Many of the students to it because they don’t want have to join the army afterwards, and if they do it as Rotc, they won’t have to do it after they graduate.  We also watched Russel Peters and some south park.  We ended up going to sleep around 4:00

The next morning we woke up and played some dota and then headed to paragon.  I ended up eating khao man guay for breakfast.  It was really good.  I’m glad I had a chance to meet all of those people from synergy.  It was getting later into the afternoon and I told them I needed to get home and get back and get stuff done.  WE ended up taking a taxi into paragon area.  Teddy, and pada went to meet up with their friends to watch the movie Baelwulf.  It looked like a good movie, but since I didn’t have any money, I decided to go back home.  Unfortunately for me.  I didn’t realize that it was rush hour when I decided to leave, so I ended up staying at paragon and waiting a while for the traffic to get better before I went and took the bus back.  The sad thing is that I only had like 34 bhat, so I didn’t have enough money to buy something to eat and take the bus back.  I just had to tough it out and wait till I got back to get dinner.

Which brings us to now, where I’m typing on the bus to keep my pre-occupied so I don’t bore myself to death. 

-Matt