Getting Around and my First Beach Trip

School and Bangkok:

*One day a couple weeks ago, all by myself, I managed to take the right bus from school to Bangkok, buy a camera (to replace my poor camera that fell out of a bike basket in Ayuthaya), get my hair done, and then find a different bus to take me home--and all despite the language barrier! I was so proud!

*I joined the hip-hop dance team here at school and made the "show" team. (I was asked to be in their show this weekend but I'll be out of town.) The 8 counts are in Thai, so it's a bit harder to dance because I'm having to think so much, but it's been a lot of fun. It's quite a workout and the girls are amazing dancers! (Think "You Got Served")

*Superbowl: woke up at 3:45am, took a cab at4:30 am, and found a bar by 5:30am to grab seats for the 6:30am game. And get this, I was with 3 other guys--2 from Canada and 1 from London. The bar was full of white, presumably business men. I was the only white female in the whole place and received a fare share of laughs for being so into the game. Needless to say, it was a great game! (My mom has raised me as a Steelers Fan. She voluntarily e-mailed me every time they played to keep me up to speed :)




Tropical Ecology Field Trip

My Tropical Ecology class took a field trip to Sack, a very small island near Pattaya. There were only 7 of us, including my professor, and we had one of those big wooden double-deck boats all to ourselves. The first half of the day was all play! We snorkeled, had a great lunch, and took an hour nap with our professor on the deck of the boat. After our nap, we split into two groups and began our field testing on the coral reef. Along a 5o meter tape, each group dove every 50 cm and recorded the type of hard coral or other benthic substrate (sand, silt, rubble, etc.) found. My professor then gave us the task of helping him take solitary coral (looks like big flat mushroom) back to the boat so that we could take it back to the University for another professor's research. I was the lucky one chosen to balance 8 corals on a clip board UNDER WATER all the way back to the boat, which was about 200 yards away. We then swam to shore and walked to the other side of the island, which tool all of two minutes. After a day of snorkeling (without life jackets), I was pretty tired and stayed on shore with a couple girls while the others went out and snorkeled some more. By the time we got back to the boat, the sun was pretty low in the sky and it was actually kind of chilly. It was an awesome experience, especially since I was "learning" about coral reefs.
That night, this girl Jill and I got dropped off in Pattaya with hopes of finding a bus to Koh Samet, a really popular beach among both locals and tourists. However, we had missed the last bus and ended up being stuck in a not-so-touristy part of town. After about an hour of wondering and well after the sun set, we finally found a cheap "room for rent" and set out to find some dinner. Dinner was great, but the room was disgusting. The four locks on the door and giant cockroach in our bathroom didn't help either. Before going to bed, Jill said, "Ok- we're only going to be here for 6 hours--that's not enough time for anything to eat us." The earliest van left the next morning at 6am but we had no trouble waking up. In fact, I barely slept past 4:30.

Koh Samet

After taking the van and then a ferry to the island of Koh Samet, Jill and I were finally able to resume our weekend vacation. We met up with 8 other friends and spent Saturday and Sunday on the beach. We stayed right on the beach! The weather was amazing and the water felt so good! My roommate, Kelli, and I rented a raft and spent the majority of our Saturday lounging off the coast. At one point there were 6 of us piled on and we managed to float/swim all the way out to where the big boats were anchored.