So I’ve been ridiculously busy lately, and I’m sorry I haven’t updated a bloody thing on here. But… I’m done being busy now, so I have time to catch up. On the 6th was the PAWS (Pets Are Worth Saving) Birthday Bash. You might remember me talking about it last year, too. This was my second year running the show and I think it went well. Hopefully there will be a newspaper article on it and I’ll post that later.
On the 27th of August I had my last day at S and S Bilingual Institution. By the way, the Japanese website has lots of videos of me. (http://www.sands-kinder.com/ English site) (http://www.sands-edu.com/ Japanese site with one video of me) (http://www.sands-edu.com/prog/index.html several videos of me). If you’re bored, you can see what I did everyday here in Japan. When I get more time, I’m going to put together a DVD of all the little clips I’ve got of me teaching.
Then, on the 29th, I went to Thailand. I’ve been working hard on learning how to swim, and I am proud to say I’ve been upgraded from “Swimming for Potential Drowning Victims” to “Guppies 101.” As my reward, I got to swim with dolphins in Thailand.
Thailand was a lot of fun. I discovered that I really don’t like Thai food, though. So I found a Mexican restaurant in the heart of the strip club, bar, and go-go district and ate there almost every day. I have to say, the food was fantastic! And right near the beach.
I rode in both of the famous public transports of the country, the Baht Bus, and the Tuk Tuk. Baht is the currency of Thailand, so a Baht Bus is a cheap mode of transport. People drive around in trucks with rails welded on. And they honk constantly for passengers. Very annoying, but cheap enough to get around rather than taking a taxi. Taxi’s are pink in Thailand, by the way.
The Tuk Tuk (pronounced tuke, not tuck) is a motorcycle with a bunch of seats. They are not really street legal and therefore fading out, but these are the Rickshaws of Thailand.
I also went to the famous Tiger Zoo where they take tiger cubs away and trade them with piglets. Yes, that means the sow raises the tiger cubs and the tiger raises the piglets. The zoo has found the baby tigers grow up stronger and healthier this way. It’s a great way to save the tigers. And the tiger moms seem ok with piglets running around in stripped jackets. You’ve probably seen them in e-mails. They train most of them for shows, though.
I fed lots of baby tigers.
And a wallaby, 2 deer, and some rabbits. (Can we say Snow White?)
I fed baby elephants, too. (I LOVE his red hair)
And we went to see an elephant show at the zoo. They needed two volunteers from the audience. A guy got up immediately, but no woman was willing. So, naturally, “I’ll do it myself said the little red hen.” 
Only to be stepped on by an elephant while I’m sure they made some form of sexual joke at my expense. They had the elephant put it’s truck over they guy’s crotch, so at least I know it could have been worse for me. Then, they brought out all of the elephants to walk ‘over’ me. Some pretended to stumble, some pretended to fall. It was a very funny show. And, I found out, that in Thailand, to have an elephant walk over you will bring you tons of good luck. Well, I had a whole zoo-ful of elephants walk over me, so I should be set with good luck for a few years, I’d say.
Later that day I went on an elephant ride. We rode to a silk-worm farm in some very old Jeeps. The driver had porn magazines all over his dash board, so I felt more than awkward sitting in the back with a gaggle of female French tourists. But, I got to feed the elephants at the end.
And the next day was the dolphin tour.
http://swimwithdolphins.information.in.th/ We watched a show first, then we were off to the ‘pool’ though I’d call it a pond. The water was sooooo dirty! (Side note – you cannot drink the tap water in Thailand.) Our tour guide took lots of pictures of us since we were the only ones in her group that day. First, we played with the pink dolphins (Indo-Pacific Humpback Dolphin: http://www.fishntales.com/whalewatching/indo.htm).
Then, we got to swim with them by holding onto their fin. They have very fragile skin, and all of the dolphins here are rescues from fishing nets and such, so they all have scars and cuts. To prevent any further damage, we were not allowed any jewelry or anything sharp on our persons. We all had to cut our fingernails down to the pink, too. My fingers still feel so odd! But they have skin like satin and were very sweet animals.
Then we went to another station with the Irrawaddy dolphins. These cheeky little guys like to spit water in your face. They did the same little tricks as the pink dolphins – wave, dance, jump, and pulled us around the ‘pool.’ But these guys can also “kiss” smile, and spit.
Way too much fun!
Then, back to The Hard Rock pool, which was awesome! They had a swim-up bar and a sand pool with rocks for sitting on with y our drink. It is very hot in Thailand.
I tried to do a bit of shopping because “everything is cheaper in Thailand,” but from what I saw it’s only cheap of you’re Thai. If you’re a foreigner, they jack the price WAY up. My big purchase was an oil painting. I walked through ‘Artists’ Alley’ and found the most skilled painter of them all. His stuff was beautiful! I couldn’t believe how good it all was. When I noticed how cheap his stuff was, I couldn’t resist commissioning a painting. But what would I want hand painted? Monet? Degas? Dali? Corot? I couldn’t decide, but as I walked away, a thought struck me – the Oiran pictures. Probably the best photo experience of my LIFE! So I hit up an internet café, and lo and behold, here is my beautiful painting!
Gosh, my hands are tired from all of this typing! I’ll save anything else for another day.
Hope you enjoyed! -Lacey