Sunday through Thursday recap!

Finally, some time to rest and write! Sorry my posts have been lacking, I've just been so busy and tired that I haven't gotten a chance to sit down and write. So lets see, it's been five days since I last wrote a full entry. I'm going to start with Sunday and go through to today.

Sunday Since I had shot my video interviews the day before, I stayed back at the resort to edit my interviews and prepare them for translation. Everyone has to stay at the resort the day after filming their interview. So I slept in a little, sat around in my room a little, and then went to the workroom around 11am. There was no one there to teach me how to capture video (transfer it from the tape to the computer), so I sat around for a while looking helpless and doing a whole bunch of nothing. Finally, someone helped me and then I had about an hour before the whole video would be transferred.

In that break, I decided to go down to the beach and take a swim! As soon as I got down there, Pailin (my coach) came down to tell me that the battery had died in my video camera and so it stopped capturing. I asked her if I could swim first, and she didn't seem happy, but didn't say no either. I deserved it, though! Jinda (one of the coaches/translators/language teacher) was down there, so I went out in the water with her. I was expecting the waves to be rough, but it really wasn't much different than the Jersey shore. Once you got past the breaking point, it's just smooth floating. So Jinda and I stayed out there for a looooong time talking and floating. Eventually I got tired and we decided to swim back to shore...it took a long time because the undertow is strong and I was exhausted. I got tumbled a bit because I was dumb and stood right where the waves crash down. Eventually I got back, found some coconut shells, and went back to the workroom.

So once my video finished capturing, I had to cut it into pieces and cut out the useless parts. We all have to do this so that Jinda and Pailin can translate the whole thing word for word. That took a looooonnnggg time because the interview was over an hour to begin with. I think I just did that for a few hours, but I don't quite remember.

I took a break to go see the sunset with some friends. It was even more amazing than I had imagined. Possibly the most stunning sunset I've ever seen. The photos don't do it justice.

That night, the coaches showed selections from each of their students' photos at the nightly meeting. Pailin seems to be pretty pleased with my progress so far and has given me some great tips.

Monday I'm trying to remember as much as I can, but it's all a bit of a blur now! Monday I left early for Phuket and ended up getting some great photos. I took Pailin's advice and started using my flash (I had forgotten batteries all the days before) and my telephoto lens. I focused on how the blind people use their senses, like listening to the radio or feeling their money. I got in really close, which really adds something to the story.

One of their friends came in the afternoon and brought them groceries. They got a bunch of guavas and Dom, one of the blind masseurs, gave me a piece. It was sooo good! It was a bit scary though because they all took out giant knives and started cutting their fruit. Then one of the women used the knife to tap the walls around her to figure out where she was. I was a little worried about getting slashed.

Oh yeah, I saw a brawl. I have no idea what it was about, but all of a sudden we heard yelling outside the massage place. I went out and found a young boy and older woman rolling on the ground, ripping out each other's hair. Once the brawl was over, there was a chunk of hair blowing in the wind across the sidewalk. So much for non-confrontational peaceful Thais, eh?

Num, my translator, was with me that day. Toward the end, he picked up one of my cameras and started taking shots!

I got bored after a while, so we called the van. On the way back, Num asked the van driver to stop at a shopping place. He dropped us off at a mall kinda thing and there was a huuuuuge supermarket inside, so I got some food. It took forever to find peanut butter! I did find some delicious sushi, though, and some cut up dragon fruit. I had to buy some cartons of soy milk and bring it to the coffee stand in the mall so I could get an iced mocha.

After the mall, we kept driving and then the driver had to stop at the K.I.Asia office for some reason. Right near the office, I found an elephant!! I got really close to it and he just stood there ripping apart grass. I also found a pack of adorable stray dogs...they really are everywhere here.



Num and I chatted the whole way from Phuket to the resort and we really bonded! I brought my iPod that day and let him listen to some of my American music, which he loved. I'm going to make him a mix CD in a few days. He plays guitar at a bar in town, so we're all going to go see him sometime. I've learned a lot about him the past few days...he's the oldest of three and the only one that isn't married with kids. His brother and sister stayed close to home while he traveled all over the place. He used to tour around Thailand with his band, but then decided to slow down a bit and moved to Phangnga. He lost everything in the tsunami and the only reason he survived is because he was out on a boat far from land. He had to move back to Bangkok after the tsunami and worked as a buyer for a factory, but he eventually came back to Phangnga and started all over again. He used to have an older brother, but he died at age 18 in a motorcycle accident. He had just bought the motorcycle a week before. His father found that brother right after the accident and watched him die on the side of the road. Since then, Num has hated motorcycles, especially for teenagers. He even did research on it while studying at university. He still drives one, though, out of necessity. He hopes to build his own wooden house sometime. His girlfriend lives in Germany and will be moving to Thailand in 2 months. And he was born on August 17th, my dad and sister's birthday! We traded e-mail addresses and I hope to keep in touch with him when I go back home. When we got back to the resort on Monday, he asked me to bring him again the next day because he had a really good time.

Back at the resort, I was in a really good mood after a good day of shooting, shopping, elephant finding, and chatting with Num. Everyone in the workroom was like "wow, it looks like you've had a great day!" Pailin looked through my photos that night and said that I have everything that I need to tell the story...now I just needed to stylize and experiment. Pat ended up canceling the meeting/show that night because a lot of people were still out or staying over at their story. Plus, he was going with Zack to a muay thai (Thai kick boxing) competition.

I went to dinner that night with Zack, Lillie, Pat, and Pat's family. He has three daughters, ages 10, 13, and 16. They're all really smart and we had a great time playing around with them. I got a delicious mixed fruit shake and chicken with cashew nuts.

After dinner, I came back to the resort and umm...I forget what I did. I think I talked to Alex through skype. Selket, my roommate, was sleeping over at her story for the night, so I was kinda bored. Around 10:30, Kendrick, Grace, and I walked down to the pool bar because Kendrick was having a bad day and we wanted to make her take a break. Unfortunately, the pool bar was closed. We ended up walking down the beach and then back the other way...it was really peaceful and I saw parts of the beach I hadn't seen before.

As we were walking, we saw some stairs leading up the cliff at one side of the beach. We decided to go up them, having no idea where they lead or even if we were allowed to be there. Turns out they were stairs through a resort that hasn't been reopened yet. At the top, we reached a restaurant where we sat down, got some thai beer, and talked about all sorts of things. They started closing up, so we each got another beer to go (yes, like hobos) and headed back down the stairs. We stopped at a cement platform thing and just sat there and talked. Then we headed back down, walked across the beach, walked in the water, and went back to our rooms. I really want to go back to that restaurant during the daytime because it overlooks the whole sea for miles.

Interesting thing about that restaurant: during orientation, we watched a video of the tsunami washing into a restaurant. Well, that was the restaurant we walked up to. I can't find the video right now, but I'll post it if I do.

Tuesday I woke up at 7am unable to sleep. After showering, I was pretty excited to have about a half hour of free time to write in my blog. I drank one of Selket's yogurt things (they're supposed to be good for your stomach, but I just wanted something to hold me over till breakfast). Right after drinking it, I started feeling nauseous...that continued throughout the day.

I was scheduled to leave the resort at 9am, but I got a call at 8am that said "can you come at 8:30?" I was supposed to meet Grace and Kendrick for breakfast at 8:30, but what could I do? So I rushed down, ate a few scoops of cereal and 2 pieces of pineapple, and rushed to the van. I didn't even get a chance to tell Grace and Kendrick that I wouldn't be meeting them, so I hope they eventually figured it out.

I then spent two and a half hours in the van (still nauseous) because we had to drop a bunch of people off. I also didn't have a translator for the first time because the coaches decided to give Num the day off. So I layed down across 3 seats and slept most of the way there.

At the massage place, I shot a lot on motor drive (shoots a few photos every second for as long as you hold down the shutter). I think those will add a lot to my story. I was still not feeling well, and being in the hot, smelly massage place wasn't helping. I decided to walk around the neighborhood. Everyone waved and beeped at me along the road. There really isn't much around the massage place but some dingy restaurants and car/motorcycle repair places.

Sidenote: People in the U.S. would be appalled by some of the restaurant's I've eaten it. The ones around the massage place are basically on the patio of someone's house. You can hear the TV on inside and see kids running around. There is usually some old woman pulling meats and fish out of an ice box, cutting it up on a grimy cutting board (if you're lucky), and cooking it up with some veggies that have been sitting out in the open air for who knows how long. Your meal is served on a random dish that was probably washed in a bin full of stagnant soapy water. All of the surfaces are nasty and there is black crap building up around the legs of tables and counters. But miraculously, the food is always really good and almost always served very beautifully. You just gotta ignore the surroundings, try not to think about all the diseases you're consuming, and eat up.

The convenience stores and markets are just as bad. I'm sure the stuff on the shelves have been there for months or even years.

So...I went for a walk. Eventually I reached a huge building called Rolly Tasker and noticed it had some sailing stuff on it. I walked in to check it out and it turned out to be a giant sail-making warehouse. I talked with the woman at the front desk and walked around taking photos for a while.

Walking in the blazing hot sun while nauseous was probably a bad idea, because I was feeling really sick by the time I got back to the massage place. I thought it would be a good idea to sit in the air conditioned room where they do massages, but the smell of tiger balm almost made me lose the 2 scoops of cereal I had for breakfast.

While I was taking photos, one of the customers (not blind) asked if I had babies while pointing to my stomach. I'm not sure if she meant "are you pregnant?" or "do you have kids?" but it definitely did not make my day any better. I also got the impression that one of the blind masseurs, Dom, has a crush on me. It's flattering and creepy all at the same time. They now call me SeeSee and now I know when they're talking about me...which is pretty much all the time.

I slept most of the THREE HOUR drive back to the resort. The coaches thought it would be a grand idea to send us inland to get Phil before going back to Phangnga. Phil showed me photos from the stilt village that he is doing his story on. It made me kind of jealous because everyone else has great stories located in picturesque villages, jungles, and fishing piers. I, however, got stuck doing a story twice as far away as any other story in a smelly, dirty, boring city. Don't get me wrong, I'm enjoying my story and it's challenging me to be way more creative than ever before...but I just wish I got to go to those beautiful locations, or at least have the free time to go to them myself. The whole thing put me in an even worse mood.

When I got back to the resort, I checked the whiteboard where they post the van schedule for the following day. Finding out that I was set to leave at 7am the next day and then stay the night was just the icing on the cake of a bad day. I specifically requested not to leave early because I didn't need to be there during the day...I had already spent many hours sitting around waiting for shots and felt like I had exhausted all possibly shots. I just wanted to get photos of them closing down the shop, going to bed, and then waking up and reopening the shop. But no, the van going in the Phuket direction had to drop off other people, which meant I had to go way too early. Since the budget is small, they organize the vans to make as few trips as possible. Since my story is the farthest away, they just pile whoever is going in my direction into the van and schedule my times based on them. The past few days, I didn't mind and always told the coaches I was flexible about when I leave and when I get picked up. Not once did I complain about getting up early or commuting for at least three hours everyday. I didn't even mention it when they made me leave 2 hours late on the one day I wanted to be there early. You'd think they could've cut me a little slack and been flexible for me for once. But oh well, there wasn't anything I could do.

I found out that Pailin was out and wouldn't be back before the nightly meeting, so I decided to go back to my room rather than edit photos. I decided to take a nap and had trouble falling asleep. I slept through the nightly meeting because I just didn't want to deal with anyone. I ended up sleeping until about midnight when Selket came in. We talked and shared our complaints about everything...poor Selket is being tossed around, too. They made her leave at 5am the day she was staying over, and then didn't pick her up till 4pm the next day. Then Pat told her she had to go out again the next day. And tonight (Thursday) she's staying over again. Pat also called her at 7am Wednesday because he wanted her to schedule his family's elephant rides (since her story is on the elephants). Eventually, I went back to sleep still feeling sick and angry.

Wednesday Woke up at 5:30am to shower, get dressed, and gather all my stuff. Luckily, I wasn't feeling nauseous anymore. Once again, we had to drop people off on a completely asinine route. We basically went in the complete opposite direction of Phuket to drop off Abby and then had to turn around, go back past the resort, and then to Phuket. Another 3 hour drive.

Num came with me to help me find a hotel. We found one around the corner from the massage place for 500 baht/night (about $15) and it actually wasn't too bad. The bed was probably the size of my entire room at home. Much to my surprise, there were no sheets to sleep under. Just a fitted sheet over the mattress and a heavy wouldn't-even-need-it-in-the-dead-of-a-new-england-winter blanket. Thais don't usually have much furniture in their houses, so the hotel room was pretty sparse. The bathroom was actually a water closet, meaning it was just one room with a toilet, sink, and shower head. Meaning there is no shower stall, you just stand right next to the toilet and get the whole bathroom wet. Interesting experience to say the least. There was also no toilet paper, just a bidet (spray thingy). And they didn't provide any shampoo, just two tiny bars of soap. I guess that's what it's like in Thailand.

After checking into the hotel, Num and the van left. I spent some time relaxing and took a nap. Then I asked the woman at the front desk where I could go shopping and she told me about a "de-pot-mint staw" about two kilometers away. I figured I could walk a mile, so off I went. It turned out to be a lot farther and it took me about 45 minutes to get there. The whole walk was along a busy road and I definitely almost got run over by a motorcycle a few times.

Finally I made it to the "department store," which turned out to be a typical mall. I walked around for about 2 hours and got some souvenirs. I also got a sandwich from Au Bon Pain because I'm so tired of Thai food. I took a car taxi for 250 baht (about $7) back to the hotel.

I gathered my photo stuff and went out to find a motorcycle taxi around 8:30pm. After waiting forever, the woman from the front desk of the hotel called me over. She got the woman who had showed me to my room and had her give me a ride for 30 baht. First time on a motorcycle! I then spent about three hours at the massage place bored out of my mind. They didn't do much different than what they do during the day, other than cleaning and showering. I got the feeling that they were waiting for me to leave to go to bed....mostly I just couldn't handle being there any longer...so I left.

I started walking back toward the hotel because I knew I had no chance of finding a taxi that late. Then a woman walked by me and tried to speak to me in Thai. Then a man on a motorcycle met up with her and said the woman told him to give me a ride. Turns out they were brother and sister. He drove her somewhere first, and then came back to get me. I tried to pay him 20 baht when he dropped me off, but he wouldn't take it and drove away. I know it's not the best idea to get on a motorcycle with a strange man, but I figured his sister had told him to do it (meaning he hadn't planned to pick up any small white girls) and that I was probably less safe walking alone at night down a dark street.

Thursday (today) I had set my alarm for 5:30, but I was just so tired of being at the massage place that I didn't get up till 8am. I took a real motorcycle taxi for 100 baht to the massage place. Surprise, surprise...they weren't doing anything different than any other time I had been there. Eating, sitting around and talking, listening to music, massaging. I was about to leave when I noticed one of those red and white sticks that the blind use to walk sitting on one of the massage beds. After a few minutes, Aoy (I like her) picked it up and walked down to the market. I got some great shots of her walking with the stick and picking things out at the market. On the way back, I motordrove some shots of her walking toward me swinging the stick from side to side. I can't wait to see that in the final project.

I had had enough at 11am, so I walked out to find a motorcycle taxi. Then Pailin called and said the van was waiting at the hotel, so I asked her to send the van to get me. Then I checked out of the hotel and rode the hour and a half back in the van. Got back around 1pm, came to my room, ate some cup noodles, and now I'm here!

Some thoughts:

• Thailand is actually not really a pretty country. Maybe it's because all I've seen is the route between Phangnga and Phuket, maybe it's because I'm used to the privileges of the U.S. There is litter everywhere, broken down buildings, stray dogs, terrible roads and sidewalks, and piles of discarded materials all over the place. The buildings are all made of concrete and don't get washed, so they just looks nasty and run-dwon. Sure, the tourist-y islands and beaches are stunning...but when you get into the heart of the country, it's nothing special. It's disappointing.
• I'm not a fan of the smells of Thailand. It smells of mildew and crazy foods. Nothing ever dries, so it gets that funky undried old towel stench. And they use different ingredients in their food, and most of it is cooked in outside kitchens, so those smells waft all over. There is also trash all over the place, and the few trash cans don't even get emptied.
• I'm really enjoying my story and I think it will be the thing in my portfolio that catches future employers' eyes. But I'm tired of Phuket and I would be happy to never return there again. I hope that when I edit with Pailin tonight, she says I don't have to return.
• I need some American food, or just something that isn't Thai. I bought oreos and Lipton peach tea for breakfast today because it was the closest I could find to food from home.
• I really want to travel around after this project is done because I really don't get any free time to do so. A few friends are going to Chiang Mai and Bangkok after everyone leaves Phangnga...I wish I could go with them. I don't want to leave Thailand thinking "man, that was ugly."
• Sanitation. It doesn't exist. Sarah, you would not survive here. Food is left outside in the heat all day, covered by a stainer-like thing, or just left open. It seems like anyone with a patio can open a "restaurant" and I'm sure the health codes aren't enforced because these places are beyond disgusting.
• I am really happy I come from a culture that wears shoes inside. Back home, I freak out if my feet are dirty...I don't know why, I just can't stand it. It's even worse here because you have to take your shoes off before entering a place. I wear "house-shoes" around the massage place because it's just way too nasty. Another pet peeve of mine is loose hair, and that is all over the floor.
• I've been here for almost two weeks and I haven't even spent $150. When I got here, I exchanged $150 for over 4000 baht, and I still have at least 2000 of that left! And I've been buying dinner, drinks, souvenirs, taxis, etc. Oh wait...the stuff I've bought at the resort gets charged to my room...I should go pay that off. Even so, I doubt that will even finish off the 2000 baht. I love that everything is so cheap!
• It hasn't been raining as much lately :) That means more sunshine, but also more heat. That's okay, though, I like the sun.
• The gradual sun exposure has given me a sort of pink tan....or at least I like to think that I'm tan for once.
• I need to do laundry. It's way too expensive at the hotel, so I need to find time and energy to take it into town.
• I like that I've gotten used to being icky and not really caring how I look. It's freeing.
• Skype video chat is amazing.
  

Tomorrow I will hopefully be going with Pat's wife, Emiko, to a school where she is doing a service project. They gave out fancy Canon G9 cameras to a group of kids and taught them how to document their lives. Their photos and stories will be part of our website. Tomorrow they're going back to see the first set of photos and teach some more. I actually need to go to the workroom right now to tell them I want to go and that I never want to go to Phuket again.

It may seem like I'm not enjoying my time in Thailand, but that's not true. It's not exactly what I expected and it's a ton of hard work, but I'm thankful for the experience. It gives me a glimpse into the life of a professional journalist, and it's showing me that I can work a lot harder than I usually think I can. It's also showing me a completely different side of life and I'm learning so much. I know I will return home more well-rounded and even more grateful for the things I have.

Well, I hope that was enough of an update for everyone! I know there is SO much more I wanted to write about, but I forget it all now. I will try to write more often :)

Kate, another student in this group, just wrote a really interesting blog entry that I completely agree with. I'm going to repost it here:

Lillie and I were just talking about how a lot of people don’t understand the work that goes into projects like these. When we explain it on a basic level, it sounds like we’ve just come to Thailand to take photos and get class credit for it. The finished stories show approximately 4 minutes of the 4 weeks in which we spent every day capturing and editing content - but so much more than that. It’s hours and hours spent trying to build good relationships with people, hours and hours spent in boredom and awkwardness. Days of shoving a camera in peoples’ faces in a culture that you’re desperately trying to understand to prevent as many disrespectful slip-ups as possible. It’s just… so much more than can adequately be explained.

Neither Lillie or I are certain that we can do this our entire lives… it’s just so… exhausting. That’s not even the right word. It’s sometimes extremely difficult. I’m so thankful for an opportunity like this that lets us really get the sense of a culture as closely as we are able to. It’s really a unique and incredible experience. But I feel like there are very very few people that can do things like this their entire lives, and I’m so happy that there are - they give us some wonderful stories of some unimaginable lives of people across the world.