The Wanderings of Snowy Florimell

2006-05-15T14:31:00.000-06:00

This shall be the final post of this here blog. For more from me and my increasingly confused mind, check 09/11/81-?. For alternate perspectives, browse through the links to the left of these words.

loose ends

2005-09-15T19:02:00.000-06:00

the end of my 2005 post-MA reading list:

27. Midnight's Children by Salmon Rushdie
read this book!!! strange on all accounts but compelling. my favourite book of these last five.
28. Chronicle of a Death Foretold by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
not bad but i say read love in the time of cholera first.
29. A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth
(well, to be honest, i only made it up to page 1070 or this 1400 page novel and then lost patience and skipped to the end - yes i do feel ashamed). still, i loved it! (i just ran out of time). very victorian in a modern indian setting.
30. Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi
obviously written by a scholar with some amazing experiences and not by a skilled novelist. but still, worth it. i never knew much about iran before this. eye opening. especially interesting because she is an english critic and talks about austen, james, and other great writers in the context of her own experiences.
31. Mai Pen Mai by Carol Hollinger
a fitting last book for me to read. about thailand. brilliant. hilarious. not sure if it's accessible to those who haven't travelled. but if you've even been to thailand you'd love it i'm sure. and even it you haven't, it's worth it.

ok, that's it. this blog is now officially over until i begin wandering again.

ciao

2005-09-08T17:51:00.000-06:00

well, i've decided this new stage in my life requires a new blog. a fresh start. something with no history. these wanderings have served the purposes intented. i'm starting to feel less transient. the path is getting straighter and i'm feeling less scattered. this might change within the week but for now, farewell to snowy florimell. i shall miss her.

ottawa!

2005-09-02T00:12:00.000-06:00

having been in close to 30 different countries, and many of these countries' capital cities and airports, i pride myself in being a knowledgable airport critic. naturally, as i landed in our nation's capital, i was prepared to be wowed by the welcome of the best country in the world. imagine my disapointment when i had to walk from the plan over the tarmac into a sidedoor of the terminal. i then ascended a sort of windy fire-exit staircase and proceeded to wander my way down an extremely long temporary looking hallway. all this with an over-weight carry-on in my dry hand. so much for the "first impression"!

i was relieved when i entered into the main part of the airport and discovered that my experience was due to "construction" and was presumably not a permanent situation.

mum and i were then picked up at the airport by friends and driven around ottawa. this city is unbelievable! i had no idea there were so many big old buildings. and castle-like too. and lots of green. and walkways. and a river. and then we went to quebec. right over the river! man i'm ignorant about my own country!

highlight of the day: driving past an odd protest on parliament hill blaming canada for religious persecution. turns out it was falong gong (you know, the cult). complete with meditating monks and a handful of pot-smoking activist types on the sidelines trying to get in on the "en-vogue" protesting.

as i usher you to your death - ha!

2005-08-31T13:20:00.000-06:00

yesterday i went to say goodbye to joel. as he drove me home from lunch he put in a cd called "music to die for". it was basically a compilation of classic funeral dirges. it was also raining. so here we were within minutes of farewell sitting silently in a car listening to melancholic foreboding music as rain drops splattered the windshield. it was so intensely dramatic that the two of us could not help but laugh. so goodbye was humourous and therefore manageable.

i have resolved to overhype every goodbye from now on. in the past i attempted to make goodbye flippant. but this was just interpreted as crass and callous. however, if you make goodbye as painful as possible, it will end in absurdity without the feelings of "did i really mean nothing to them?"

kingston is beautiful

2005-08-29T02:50:00.000-06:00

i was going to rant about how annoying the "prolonged goodbye" is but i've just discovered that the "actual goodbye" is worse. today has been full of actual goodbyes - from breakfast to church to later. actual goodbyes are difficult. i am emotionally drained. there is the "i wonder when i will ever see this person again" as well as the "even if we do meet again, things will be different". change is good. it can even be better. but the thought "now will never be again" is enough to make me sad. i've had a fantastic august back in s'toon. seeing "old" friends, meeting some "new" friends, getting to know "old" friends in "new" ways, including 20 "quotation marks" in a relativily short blog.

i officially leave thursday morning at 6 am. so if any of you want to, we can always say goodbye for the 10th time in the next 3 days... i think i'll tell people i've already left. write a mass email saying "well, kingston is beautiful" while i'm hiding in my saskatoon basement. just so i can avoid the final "cheers".

ugh. good bye is strange.

yes, it's me

2005-08-25T17:02:00.000-06:00

this appeared on page 16 of the august/september 2004 issue of pure woman.

the article read thus: "Rochelle is an active U of S student and in her spare time is devoted to camping and other athletic outdoor activites. She devotes her summer to working at camps running the canoe challenge programs and lifeguarding. In the fall she's ready to have a change from her low maintenance hair and style. She wanted something short and fun that can be styled wild and funky for evenings but a littl etame fo the day. She had dark hair and I thought wiht her skin tone this chocolate colour would really liven her up. Adding chunky highlights of bright copper really brings out hte texture of the haircut. For a fun, flirty look we gave her false lashes and funky canary yellow eye shadow. Finally we added some balck liquid eyeliner to give her eyes a more dramatic look. Rochelle is an attractive woman in her early twenties and is ready to look as good as she feels!"

i'm not even joking, that is what it said. sadly, i have returned to my "low maintenance hair and style". luckily i still feel "great"!

p.s. this is clearly the "after" photo. no, none of you are allowed to see the "before" shot that is sneaking into the left side of the picture. yes, it was as hideous as most "before" shots are. no, i didn't have any say on the makeover. yes, it was a favour to a friend. and yes, i did love it - mullet and all!

two VERY different books

2005-08-24T22:06:00.000-06:00

25. Arabian Nights:
(a) A necessary book. Before reading it, I finished Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things. Roy so thoroughly depressed me that I ran in desperation to my brother for advice. He recommended this Persian tale.
(b) Not only was I humoured but I was also shocked. Considering the Islamic nature of “Persia” today, I would never expect such explicit writings in its past. (p.s. By “explicit” I suppose I mean “tastefully suggestive”, well maybe.)
(c) The book was nothing like I expected. The central theme? The power of the imagination and story telling.
(d) Within days of reading this frame narrative, I picked out references to the writings in two different sources. (By the way, itÂ’s the source of Aladdin). It is a must read for those who care about context. These ancient tales have influenced much in modern culture. And, besides, they’re funny too.

26. A New Kind of Christian by Brian D. McLaren
(a) I normally dislike religious books. I figure the Bible does a better job. However, I read McLaren right through.
(b) I’m one of those “slightly disillusioned with Evangelical Christianity kids”. As I read this book I couldn’t help but agree with most of what he said.
(c) You for sure should read this book if you presently find or previously found Christianity important to you but are annoyed with the church and think Christian tradition needs to be interrogated and possibly reinterpretated.
(d) Downside of the book: now I hate the term “postmodern”! Words CAN be overused!

p.s. no beth, this is not "the" blog. my courage has waned.

resolutions about militant feminism by rochelle knox, author of the wanderings of snowy florimell

2005-08-21T11:46:00.000-06:00

the first blog from my "back-to-school" present to myself - a sleek white apple i-book. tiny 12". tres portable. a guilty confession: i've always wanted to be one of those "laptop-coffee shop people". goes well with my english literature pretension.

a goal for this year: to spend innumerable hours sitting in chic kingston coffee shops nursing an already cold coffee in my eco-friendly indisposable coffee cup whilst pretending to tap away at my non-existent master's thesis on this vain machine.

what i would actually be doing: presumably polluting cyber-space with this here blog.

why i wouldn't be working on my master's thesis: somehow my m.a. english lit will allow me to add letters behind my name within twelve months by merely completely 8 graduate level classes. though i'm not sure this is moral in a discipline which consists purely of reading and writing, i plan to take full advantage of this lack of thesis by clearly not writing one and instead blogging/playing solitarie/reading online comics/seeking out other equally useless personages at my future alma mater, queen's university.

unconnected postscript: today i vainly googled myself and my blog. what sadness i felt when i discovered that the "rochelle knox" that i am did not appear until page 6. however, i also discovered that the link was due entirely to this blog and the fact that i typed my own name in a post. hence my new resolution to type my name, rochelle knox, as oft as possible as i, rochelle knox, post. secondly, it was odd that the "snowy florimell" that i am was first found as a link on some random feminist blog simply because i once typed the words "militant feminism" in a post. resolution number two: to include as many "catch phrases" as possible in order to increase the "popularity" and "relevancy" of "the wanderings of snowy florimell", which is updated by "rochelle knox" and on occasion includes thoughts on "democracy", "feminism", "politics", "post-modernism", "religion", "liberalism", "conservatism", "evangelical christianity", "pacifism", "greg the bunny", "eminem", and the like.

who knew there was a 5 in the morning!

2005-07-25T04:48:00.000-06:00

i thought i was immune to jet lag. i didn't sleep for about 3 full days so when i got to saskatoon i crashed. i then spent a productive day seeing people in the day light and responsibly lay down at 11 pm with a content feeling that i would sleep till mid morning and awake fully normal and alert. well, hello 3 am! i've now been attempting to bore myself to sleep by browsing through innane websites. nothing has worked. hence my rare presence on my own blog.

btw, I'M HOME! and jet lagged... have never felt quite this same degree of relief during my previous home comings. tangible comfort. thailand is a country with too much pressure. appearence is critical. because of the class system, what you wear indicates who you are, how much money you have, and how much respect/attention someone should pay you. one lives a life of judgement there regardless if they are a taxi driver or a CEO. the only people who seem oblivious to the constraing social presence are the travellers who see thailand simply as the friendliest, cheapest, most entertaining travel destination. people have called thailand the country of smiles. but you must live there to see behind the smiles. it is more apt to call thailand the country of the false smile. i love the country. as i love canada. it will always partly share the label home. but right now. i'm glad to be gone.

hello saskatoon. hello sweatpants. hello wearing anything i want and still just being me. hello old friends. hello saying whatever i want whenever i want.

I LOVE SASKATOON! (in all its rustic backwoods glory. it is being slightly "behind the times" that is the key to all its wonder. that and the thrill of seeing someone you know wherever you go - be it midtown, the uni, tim hortons, broadway, church, or just at some random intersection waiting for the light to change.)

and of course, on the other hand (because a key facet to my basic personality is that there always is another hand) parts of me already do miss thailand. particularily those friends i worry i will not see again. there is bound to be a chronic ache when i think of them.

conflict of emotions: leaving + returning = ?

2005-07-22T13:59:00.000-06:00

um, yeah. thanks leah. by august, i mean july. and by july 23rd i mean saturday. and by saturday i mean TOMORROW! well, kind of tomorrow. really in 2 days. but what with transit and international datelines and all... i arrive the day i leave and spend a whole lot of hours inbetween.

so i got confused and thought the 8 hours of sleep were reccommended over 2 days and not 1... been wandering around bangkok in a jet lagged stupor. and i haven't even crossed a single time zone yet! packing at at 4 am and sleeping for 2 hours until waking is quite simply unsmart.

it's finally hit me: i'm leaving thailand with an unspecified date of return!!! i hate leaving when i don't know when i'll be back here. i am an unstable person divided between 2 hemispheres.

but YEAH tim horton's. and krulers. and dairy queen skor blizzards. and the kahlua latte at the living room. and a car (don't get me wrong - i love the scooter and all, but i've had my fill of motoring through monsoons!)

oh, and TEACHING IS DONE!!! i've reached the stage where i might actually do it again. so i don't exactly hate it. but... not quite the ideal.

what's the ideal? lets hope i can answer this before i discover i've missed it.

3 days...... ACH

2005-07-20T16:47:00.000-06:00

i'm teaching my last class in exactly 20 minutes. i can hardly contain my excitment. or maybe it's anxiety i'm feeling. not being prepared to teach is both exhilerating and nerve racking. but it's my LAST CLASS!!! surreal. and i fly away in less than 24 hours. i'm unpacked. my mind is spinning. i am scattered. (my favourite adjective in describing myself).

i've actually reached the state that i will miss chiang mai dreadfully. people mostly. and cheap food.

i wonder who reads this. i think i've effectively lost my readership! well done rochelle!

in case you do check here: Rochelle Knox flies into Saskatoon, Saskatchewan at exactly 2317 on August 23rd. (that's 11 pm for you unaccustomed with 24 hour time).

my coworker (and good friend) just informed me that she has a sudden urge to leave work, find a man, get pregnant, abandon the man, and flee the country with her baby. the minutes before teaching are strange indeed. comparable to what one feels before stepping on stage in a play. the little fluttering things originating in my belly have reached my toes and ears.

i have far too many things to pack in my small suitcase. i might be wearing 3 pairs of pants and have a frying pan in my jacket. (reminiscent of the poisonwood bible).

the scooter!

2005-06-10T17:05:00.000-06:00

yes i am wearing a skirt.

cheers!

2005-06-09T23:34:00.000-06:00

well mum and dad leave tomorrow. farewell computer. farewell accessible internet. hello freedom. hello lonelines... makes me think of a simon and garfunkle song.

the next time i shall see you faithful bloggers will be from an internet cafe. (if you have not given up on me already!)

tonight the teachers got together at a mexican restaurant called the salsa kitchen. for the first hour after teaching we were all in a zone. not making any sense. poor waitress trying to take our orders!

the next couple months will involve me spending more time with these "out of it" teachers. good thing i'm one of them too!

cambodia pics

2005-06-09T23:22:00.000-06:00

break down in the middle of nowhere. this was a "good" road. "bad" roads consisted of potholes literally the same size of this truck. and, yep, all of those people somehow fit in or on the truck!

boat-trip from battambang to siem reap. people actually lived in these floating houses along the river side.

i was there! angkor wat at sunset.

and at sunrise.

seeing the temples old style.

mike reading at the bayon. trying to look all intellectual...

oops...

2005-06-07T21:43:00.000-06:00

...i've been rather negilent lately... sorry.

yes, i am still alive. yes, i do think often of those i am separated from (that's YOU!) yes, it is still hot here in thailand (but not AS hot since it has begun raining - scratch that - POARING/FLASH FLOODING lately). and, yes, i am working working working. hence the lack of blogging - actual responsibilities (ach!) have replaced my "surfing" time.

i have officially become an ADULT. i plan lessons, i teach, i come home, i crash into my bed, i wake up, i plan lessons... i dream about being a student again. i long for essays and exams. patience, patience i tell myself - academia is only 3 months away.

odd that i can be living in "exotic thailand" and find myself feeling that life is "normal, ordinary, routine".

a warning: i doubt this foray back into the cyber-world is the beginning of diligence. my parents and my brother return to canada this week and take with them the laptop. :( i will be left alone in thailand with only a house, a scooter, and a job. computing will be confined to irritating internet cafes. however, on the converse, i might be so bored/lonely that i will daily burrow myself into a cubicle.

about the scooter: it is my present joy. it's a small black honda automatic. i wear a large white space helmet. i love puttering about. notice the word choice: "puttering". the scooter can not go over 30 km/hr so i truly do "putter". putt-putt-putt. my little scooter slowly coasting through thai traffic. trying desperately to catch up with the "big kids". having horns urge me on from behind. being passed by trucks, cars, tuk-tuks, motorbikes, bicycles, young children...

do email me. this is month six away from saskatoon. i miss it. (people and place).

my first and last land journey to cambodia

2005-05-18T13:26:00.000-06:00

it all makes sense when you remember pol pot killed off everyone with any type of education (and anyone in any sort of leadership position, and anyone who had travelled, and anyone who wore glasses....). doctors, teachers, people with drivers licenses...

(which was all a bit hypocritical since pol pot himself was educated in france. it's always those with smart sounding theoretical ideas that ruin countries. mao zedong, lenin, hitler...)

but back to cambodia today: infastructure? huh? i have never seen such bad (non-existent) roads in my entire life! if you want to go anywhere within cambodia you cannot simply jump in your car and drive. it is an entire day experience. each day mike and i went somewhere required us another day to recuperate. not only are the roads and vehicles a challenge, so is the HEAT! a developing/war ravaged country in south east asia is possibly the most uncomfortable place to be! we would sweat by 8 am! (ended up waking up before sunrise to go sightseeing, retreating to our air-con hotel during mid-day, and then venturing out for sunset - yes we were weak, weak, weak.)

our trip in summary was: chiang mai - [night train] - bangkok - ["air-con" bus] - poipet (mafia-run border crossing - began our trip on a slightly annoying note) - [back of a pick-up truck - chose this option to excape the gang-employed tour guides who followed us for 2 straight hours trying to get us to take their bus to angkor] - battambang (visited david and doris strong - a welcome visit as it alerted me to what i had not previously seen, ie. what was good about cambodia) - [pick-up truck #2, refugee boat - picture bodies squished under the 3 foot tall roof of a fishing boat for 6 hours - but excellent for seeing floating fishing villages and "real cambodian life"] - siem reap/angkor wat (why we came in the first place - spectacular century old khmer ruins - a must see though the town is the "banff" of cambodia - not "real cambodian life") - ["air-con" bus #2, side of the road - while the bus was being fixed] - poipet - [bus] - bangkok - [ah the wonderful air-con sleeper train - i've always loved the train in thailand and now after cambodia, we have become even closer] - chiang mai!

a whirl wind trip but well worth it! everyone should visit angkor at sometime. my only piece of advice? FLY!!!!

#24 The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy

2005-05-15T10:46:00.000-06:00

just finished the god of small things by arundhati roy. expertly written. tres inventive with her language use. realistic. stunning imagery. captivating. only thing: extremely DEPRESSING!!! i am in the need for an UPPER! anyone have any suggestions of abook that won't leave me lying in bed staring at the ceiling for half the night?

(warning: the following comments aredirected at those who've read the book. stop reading if you haven't read the book yet. i don't want to spoil things for you.)

first, the book frequently talks about "breaking the love laws". at first i thought that roy's main point was that caste is superficial and should mean nothing. that people must be allowed to love those they love regardless of family background. the book appeared to be a pretty heavy condemnation of racism. but then the scene close to the end of the book between rahel and estha confused me. roy again brought up "breaking the love laws" but my opinion is that while the "love laws" separating ammu and velutha should have been broken, those between rahel and estha should not have been. it seems that by bringing up this second topic, roy weakens her initial argument. what do you think?

secondly, what does "Locust Stand I" mean? my university sharpened mind has been somewhat dulled by the tropics in the last few months. i can no longer interpret literature. all i can understand are straight forward comments. this does not bode well for my fall plans...

lastly, do you agree that baby kochamma is the book's catalyst? she made me cringe thoughout my reading. i began to loathe her. she brought on a lot of evil. interestingly, she did not neccessarily want "bad things" to happen, she simply acted out of a childish selfishness. (making the name "baby" appropriate). so perhaps, instead of "anything can happen to anybody... always be prepared", roy could have chosen "personal selfishness is the root of all evil" as a theme for the book.

and now to pay for the holiday...

2005-05-10T15:15:00.000-06:00

home again! i do love travelling but it is nice to be back with the p's. and each time i come back i am amazed at how much chiang mai does feel like home. though i must admit i've been thinking about the fall every single day. i've even dreamt about moving east. i guess it's all a mixture of anticipation and anxiety. new beginnings are exciting though a little nerve wracking at times. i'm seriously going to be starting fresh. no connections whatsoever in kingston. no pre-made friend groups to fit back into. just little ol'me. and a ton of new people to meet! i do like meeting people. and i do miss english literature conversations. all in all, except for the first 3 lonely months (they always exist when you move), it should be some good times.

i'm a bit too lazy at the moment to recount my cambodian excursion (a word picked carefully for it's similarity to the word "excruciating") so i'll just post my reading list and you'll all have to come back to read my next blog. (btw, in case that sounded too negative, i must note that the sum of the trip was positive. but then i've always loved piling into the back of a pick-up truck with 20 other people, riding over a non-existant road that more closely resembles detonated land mine field, and breaking down in 45 degree heat without a tree in sight.)

14. Waiting for the Barbarians by J.M. Coetzee
15. The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
16. The JoyLuck Club by Amy Tan
17. The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera
18. Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom
19. The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiquro
20. The Rapture of Canaan by Sheri Reynolds
21. A Passage to India by E.M. Forster
22. The Quiet American by Graham Greene
23. An Artist of the Floating World by Kazuo Ishiguro
24. The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy (presently reading)

the "must-reads" are in bold and the "reccomended" are in italics. though i did enjoy each of these books. all worthwhile. i'm not going to write summaries or what struck me as inciteful (yes, i do spell insightful incorrectly but also intentionally) because i'm sure no one reads them anyway and it's ever so much more beneficial to simply read the books yourself!

off to cambodia!

2005-04-30T09:19:00.000-06:00

last night was the last night of the summer 3 term at aua. and now there is a one week between terms break. hurrah!

my brother, mike, is now here visiting having escaped from taiwan. he decided to leave his teaching position there early (which, not having a contract, he was perfectly allowed to do). being a nice guy, he decided to give the school one month's notice before he left. not being a nice school, the school then decided to pay him nothing for the last month he was going to work. naturally, mike realized that there was little reason to continue teaching. so he left. which brought him early to thailand and allowed him to be here during my break! hurrah!

this brings me to the point of the blog: tonight mike and i will get on a train and go to CAMBODIA. (that is, IF i ever begin packing my bag and IF we ever get around to buying train tickets... might just end up staying in chiang mai after all...) neither of us have ever been there so we're quite excited. we don't have much time so we'll only make it to angkor wat. unfortnately we'll miss phnom phen. guess i'll have to go back sometime.

so i might not blog as faithfully in the next week. however, when i return on may 9th, there will be fantastic pictures to post from some of the most spectacular ancient ruins in the world.

why i am single

2005-04-28T23:05:00.000-06:00

the men-women situation in thailand is humourous. someone explained to me that thai women are attracted to western men because thai men are too feminine. (you only have to wait 3 minutes to run into a "lady-boy" anywhere in thailand - think rupaul, everywhere!) later i complained to a co-worker that it is virtually impossible for a western woman to meet anyone in thailand. he commented that thai women were just more attractive because they were more feminine.

let me sketch a chart for you:
thai man: feminine
thai woman: feminine
western man: masculine
western woman: masculine (due to her newly found independence)

conclusion? while a thai woman and a western man are an ideal match, there is very little (read: miniscule, next to impossible) chance that a thai man and a western woman will work out. or, for that matter, a western man and a western woman in thailand since the men who come here come because they are attracted to the thai women and the women who come here come because they are adventurous (as in: NOT weak, obliging, housewifish, dependent). (as a side note: an alternative hypothesis for why western women don't seek out thai men is that monogomy and faithfulness are not respected as values in thailand. in fact it is a true rarity to find a husband who does not have affairs or visit the brothels. many men actually have "minor wives" who have their own households).

so how does this all work out?
thai man: little need for women with so many lady-boys about. if he is the rare heterosexual type, there is always the local brothel.
thai woman: constantly on the look-out for manly western men with foreign dollars. thai men are always a back up option as most thai men feel marriage is an inevitable life stage.
western man: little boy in a candy shop.
western woman: alone.

hence, the western men here are egotistical little kings and the western women are generally bitter.

in other news: happy day! tomorrow is the last day of the term. my boss hosted a free dinner for the staff. my brother came today. he and i will be off to cambodia on saturday. to see angkor wat and phnom pen. all good things. happy happy.

Vomit…

2005-04-25T09:43:00.000-06:00

…is unpleasant. Particularly at 3 am in the morning during the Thai hot season. I think it was food poisoning. If not, some kind of virus. After teaching till 830 pm, I returned home and fell into bed looking forward to a restful sleep after a stressful day. The sleep did not come. For the first few hours my heart raced and I resented the coffee I drank at 4 pm. However, sometime after midnight, as my stomach began to churn and my head ache, I realized my ailment was more severe then simply caffeine-overdose. This diagnosis was confirmed when my body chose to fling my previously ingested dinner out of my mouth and into the porcelain toilet. After filling my mouth with half a tube of toothpaste, I wandered back to bed. Unfortunately, my sickness not only forced me to regurgitate my food, but also, since I had stayed awake most of the night, caused me to sleep in and miss a rather important meeting with my boss. Only the first week and already I am delinquent at work! The rest of the day I concentrated on nibbling bits of toast, slowly drinking water, and spacing out my Tylenol intake since it was important to both keep down my fever and show up to work that evening not resembling a spaced out chemical dependent. Despite my bodily discomfort, the evening lesson proved to be successful… I think… I don’t quite remember it…

news from phuket

2005-04-25T09:40:00.000-06:00

My parents returned from their week surveying the Tsunami damage in Phuket. They found the week challenging. Not only were the sights devastating, but the conversations with local people were depressing. Generally, the Thai government has done little with post-trauma counseling and though there are many foreign aid workers in the area assisting clean-up, few of these people speak any Thai. Therefore, when my parents arrived, their fluency in the Thai language prompted numerous tear-filled conversations with people who had not yet had opportunity to vocalize their grief.

Though there is still some clean-up to do and much grief counselling needed, many hotels/resorts/guesthouses are up and running in Phuket. However, most are presently empty. In order to attract tourists, prices have often been cut in half. As the majority of the people living in Phuket depend on tourism for their livelihood, the best way to help them is to VISIT PHUKET! The beaches are unsurpassable, the hotels amazing, the service stellar. And besides having a relaxing holiday, you will leave knowing that you have employed someone for one extra day.

i gues i've still got it!

2005-04-21T22:12:00.000-06:00

some highlights of this week so far:

1. my parents are back! it sounds lame to say i am glad to have them sharing this house with me again since earlier i was feeling like the arrangement was rather chafing but, being alone for 4 whole days was extremely boring/lonely. back in saskatoon it wouldn't be such a big deal because i have more of a life there.... but here, if mum and dad are gone, i end up eating every meal alone and not having a conversation with anyone until i make it to work.

2. hanging out in the teacher's room. it has been unbearably HOT here in thailand! so much that if i stay home sweat beads form on my forehead by 10 in the morning! the teacher's room at work has air-con. it also, occasionally has people (see #1 for the significance of being around people).

3. getting picked up. so i'm just harmlessly wandering across the courtyard in front of tapae gate when i am accosted by two twenty-something men, the one obviously thai and the other apparently african. "can i have a conversation with you?". i am understandably taken-aback. after a couple minutes i understand that they have an assignment for their english class and need to interview a foreigner on tape. they explain that it was hard to find one (in the middle of a city flooded with white tourists) because either the people were too busy or they were FRIGHTENING. (backpackers: note that comfortably dressed, hairy, unwashed travellers are frightening people for most thai people to approach). since all i was doing was heading for the air-conditioned staff room to pass time until class started, i was more than willing for the diversion and proceeded to "have a conversation". the chat went well. the students recieved ample material for their class and i got a dose of human interaction. we said farewell and i proceeded to my cool refuge. about an hour later, one of the teachers motioned to me "rochelle, i think one of your students is trying to get your attention." expecting to see just that, one of my students, i was shocked to find the interviewer peering into the windows of the staff room. i quickly went to speak to him. "um... the conversation went really well... um... i'm sorry it ended so ubruptly.... um... i enjoyed talking with you - and not just for my assignment... um... i think we got along well... um... maybe we can talk again," he stammered. being on the comfort end of things i smiled inwardly at his awkward attempt to ask me out. so, feeling charitable, i interupted him "here, have my cell phone number. call me sometime for coffee." delighted, he speechlessly accepted the scrap of paper and mumbled a good bye before dashing outside to pass out. all in all, an enjoyable day for me. (an update: he hasn't called yet - i don't think he will - it took all his courage to just return and say hi again - probably for the best since i am NOT in the market for a relationship - not that i'm "off" the market or anything, but...)

4. valerio. italian friend i met in laos presently touristing in chiang mai. some enjoyable evening dinners and chats about religion, life purposes, the mafia...

5. being an "ok" teacher. not yet stellar but surviving. i think my class is fun-ish and the students learn some.

first day!

2005-04-18T22:46:00.000-06:00

it was..... ok. managed to communicate passably well despite my cold. and the kids were attentive. mostly about 16 years old. one 40 year old lady. the rest high school kids. only 3 boys. 18 students in all. i think i'm a bit of a boring teacher. followed the book too closely. not enough games. and, of course, i talked too much. but i think they enjoyed some of the lesson. even though they were tired. crazy how busy these kids are. they go to school in the day and then they go to english class for 3 hours in the evening. and somewhere in there they do their homework and eat. i think it's going to be hard to keep their focus. and my focus too! when all i really want to do is go back to the beach... i'm already missing my hours and hours of reading time. guess i took it for granted. was actually becoming a bit bored of reading. will never think that again!

so i sent out a mass email to everyone on my address lists on my two email addresses. within this "update" of my life i included the address for this site. i wonder if anyone has actually made it here. it's a strange feeling not knowing who is reading what i am writing.