we'll be singing when we're winning

One of the best things in Korea is the noraebang. A noraebang is a karaoke place with small private karaoke rooms for you and your friends to wail into a microphone without disturbing strangers. Autumn and I visited one and paid our 10,000 won for one session. The timer in the room said an hour, but as it got near 20 minutes, the time started going up. This may have been because of our mad karaoke skills. Or maybe it always does that. After two not-really-an-hour sessions, we emerged from our room and realized that FIVE HOURS had passed. No wonder I sounded like Bob Dylan near the end.

And the next day… we did it again.


This was an experiment to help the people around us, as we tried out lots and lots of songs in order to determine what to sing when it wasn’t just us.


Also a reason to rock a lilac wig.

What do you eat after hours of singing? A balanced meal of circle cheese, square brownie and triangle kimbap!

Ain't there one damn song

I didn't finish work until just before 9:00. I assigned myself the mission to go to the little shop and get some soy milk, but I recognized the looming temptation to walk down to Oliver's instead.

As I left the building, I saw Tim's silhouette returning from Oliver's, so I walked down to meet him and we talked a little and I decided to head down there, at least long enough to pass along a Hello from Celine.

It was a good decision. There were some cool people, some bad jokes, and I sat through the entirity of The Wall album (and giggled through drunk people describing the film to one another) and then... and then there was surprise karaoke!



At first it was just me and Annie (my boss...ish...person) and Pete (how can I describe Pete?)



Soon other people came too, including Oliver himself which is a thrill.



We chose a little karaoke place between Oliver's and the school, where the English song selection is limited to a hip-hop remix of "Zombie," which I sang. I was reminded that Annie can actually sing.



And that Pete can make some glorious death metal growls. It was a fantastic, unexpected evening.

Grooving up slowly

Children's Day was fine, but the evening that followed was better.

When the Thai staff arrived back at the school, they pulled up chairs in the kitchen and dove into the leftover rice and ribs from Children's Day. Somebody filled a pitcher with ice and poured over it a big bottle of red Fanta, then dumped in some dozen straws and they passed it around. I didn't understand much of what was said, but this was such a magical experience of communal eating and bonding over the day that it made me miss communal meals like that. I've eaten in groups in restaurants here, but the focus is always something else. This meal had a great sense of relief and accomplishment and leftovers. It was fantastic.

Later, Bert took Autumn and me on a little road trip in his newly on-the-road-again Mercedes where we visited a village on stilts. There were cows.



Afterward, we went to dinner where I had tasty Pad See Ew Goong and Bert installed karaoke software on his laptop. As we were the only people in the restaurant, it was important that we make sure that the new program worked. We chose "California Dreamin'" and "Unchained Melody." This, of course, was only the beginning.

Bert brought his new portable karaoke machine to Fern Bar! I sang a few songs with Autumn. Later, Bert was singing "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" and this guy apparated out of the aether and sang the drunkest, loudest karaoke I've heard.



He was amazing. I tried to get some really epic tunes out of him (Dream On was a failure, but Stairway to Heaven was glorious.) We sang like fifteen songs. I don't even remember everything we sang, but "Come Together" by the Beatles and "Eternal Flame" by the Bangles stand out. I do appreciate that the audience was so supportive of my karaoke problem.

After Bert and his karaoke went home, I went to Oliver's for a bit and then tried to sing more karaoke at the place on my street but they shut down about five minutes after we got there. Instead, I sat in the dark and chatted with cool people for about an hour before heading home.

I'm always happiest when I have a song in my head, and I don't know if it's because singing makes me happy or because happiness brings out song, but karaoke nights are always the best nights, especially after a long Saturday.

What's in your head?

This week I discovered that it's possibly a bad idea for a couple of girls to go kayaking at night. There are rocks in the ocean. We had to carry the kayak across the beach for a bit but made it back safely. Back on the beach I came the closest I had yet to singing "Zombie" in Thailand, but the guitarist didn't know the whole song and neither did I.

Rocks, by the cold light of morning:


The next day I got to skip class to go on a fruitless field trip to the labor department. The staff of my school took the opportunity (being in the Big City of Rayong and all) to get the tires changed on the van, so I had a couple of hours at the mall to kill with Autumn. I've written before about this mall, where all the clothes are too small and quite expensive. What I discovered last time I went there, though, are the little glass karaoke rooms on the top floor. Autumn and I copied the Thai staff and rented one. It took awhile to figure out how to show actual karaoke instead of a music video with no lyrics, but once we got it down we got it down!



It was in this small glass room that I came even closer to singing "Zombie" than I had the previous night. The song in the catalogue was called "Zomble" which was apparently not a typo, and it was a crazy dance version of the song...with no lyrics on the screen. Foiled again!

The following day was New Years Eve which was fantastic! I have no pictures of the evening, but a group of us went to dinner at Christies and then moved to the Tawan Inn for karaoke! This time, Autumn and I requested "Zombie" right off the bat. We didn't want someone else to sing it before us, since it is probably the most popular English-language karaoke song in Thailand. I think we rocked it. Other karaoke highlights not sung by me include "My Heart Will Go On," "La Bamba," and "Looking Out My Back Door."

New Years Eve was great for other reasons, too. I've made sweeping changes in my life and it feels like a great opportunity to recognize that. I also got to see the fantastic Alan (who taught me to teach and now works in Singapore.) All the company was great, actually. There was dancing on the lawn! There were fireworks at midnight! We kept going until about 3:30 in the morning, but I felt plenty refreshed this morning. I only dislike the unfortunate pattern of singing karaoke at the Tawan Inn with awesome people who will shortly leave the country.

I hope that your 2010 or 2553 is fantastic!

It is perhaps worthy of note that almost every adjective in the preceding tale was going to be "fantastic" until I made a conscious effort to change most of them. I think "fantastic" might be the word of 2553.

Feeling near as faded as my jeans

The night of the king's birthday didn't hold just the excitement of parade, ceremony and abundant free food. After the ceremony, Autumn and I were invited to hang out with Bert's cool friends at the windsurf place. Now Bert's pretty much the coolest guy in Ban Phe, with his aloofness and his irony and his janky fabulous old Mercedes. Autumn and I were confident that if we did not end up covered in pig's blood, this was going to be an awesome time.

Bert's cool windsurfing friends are indeed pretty cool. His friend Ter, who I had met before a few times and whose name I hope I am not misspelling (*I was misspelling it but have now corrected it--Ter is pronounced like "Duh,") was playing guitar and some dozen or fifteen windsurfers and windsurfer groupies were singing and drinking and generally being awesome. I practiced my Thai a little. I regretted still not knowing the words to "Zombie," but did sing the first verse of a few songs in English. It was great.

As the evening went on, Autumn and I decided to go swimming-or-kayaking. Autumn wanted to go kayaking, but my thought process was that my jeans would get wet, so I would have to take them off and if I take off my jeans I might as well just go swimming. So that's what we did. We put our jeans on the rocks by the shore and went swimming in tee shirts and underfrillies. Bert and Ter, having witnessed our decision-making skills, dragged some kayaks into the water and we all went kayaking around Ban Phe harbor at night, with only the light from the moon and the piers and the festival. It was beautiful. And when Ter and I returned to the beach, I discovered that the tide had come in and my pants had been taken by the sea.

Oh how magical evenings can turn sour, even without pigs blood. My fairly nice Seiko watch was in the pocket of those cheap Old Navy jeans. I scoured the shoreline with some of the cool windsurf people but it became clear that my pants were at sea, and it remained unclear whether I would see them again. I was lent a pair of board shorts and lay shivering in a beachside hammock, contemplating my pathetic life for a bit before the other kayakers returned and we searched the shore again.

Lo! What dark matter was this teasing Autumns feet with each wave? My jeans! And my watch! Still ticking! The bountiful ocean was feeling generous that night after teaching us a lesson in humility-and-leaving-our-pants-above-the-tide-line.

Autumn's pants would not wash ashore until the following day, but we made the shameful trek back to the windsurf place in the morning to retrieve my pants, at least, and to cheer for our new friends.

You thought the leaden winter would bring you down forever

I visited a magical island this weekend. Ko Samet is the reason Ban Phe is on the map, but this was my first visit. I was deliriously happy all weekend until the very end, which was still a perfect ending.

On Saturday after being booted out of Condochain and bidding farewell to the folks who won't stay in Ban Phe, I caught the ferry with two girls from my TEFL class. On arriving on the island we found some available bungalows (very rustic accommodation) and went down to the beach for drinks. We met a cute, sarcastic, whiny Canadian who we joined for dinner at a restaurant on the beach a while later. The food was wonderful. The sand was white. The drinks were abundant.

After dinner, we walked to a hookah bar on the beach. Rugs were laid out on the sand, and there were pillows to lean upon and short tables. The four of us shared a hookah and I listened to the music from the bar and watched the fire dancers down the beach and the lanterns floating up to the heavens for good luck and it was beautiful. This island's culture and inhabitants are so intentional and warm and transient, like Ren Faire or Khao San without the touts.


Paisley Glen or beachside hookah bar?

I didn't think it could get better, but inside the club at the hookah bar there was a wonderful cover band. They played the Cranberries and Guns and Roses and... uh... Shawty got Low. It was FANTASTIC. The singers, the guitar, the dancing, the energy, the music.

We left when the band finished their set and it went back to a dj and walked back the other way to a gay bar on the beach. I dipped in the ocean with one of my companions and it was beautiful. Then we headed back to our bungalows, and found that one of them was full of ants, everywhere. We all slept in one big bed then and in the morning realized we had shared the bungalow with this guy:

I am very glad that we didn't see the spider until the morning. Otherwise we would have had to sleep outside. It is by far the largest spider I've seen outside of a tarantula, and it is fast.



In the morning, we met up with another friend and found a secluded beach with white sand and still turquoise water and just played and swam in the ocean, laid on the beach and ate delicious food. I had an ovaltine shake and banana with coconut milk. While resting for awhile I played some music (it's odd that I haven't listened to my ipod at all on this trip until now.) I put it on shuffle and "Tales of Brave Ulysses" came on and it was perfect.

The mermaids here are whiter than the sand.


I was completely enchanted by Ko Samet, but had to leave to catch the ferry at around 5 pm. I came back to the school here in Ban Phe where I am spending one night before leaving tomorrow for Cambodia with a couple of others. After dinner I walked back to the school with a friend and we stopped at a restaurant that was having a lawn karaoke party with two of the TEFL employees, including our trainer. Both of them are leaving in the coming weeks, one to Singapore and one to England. It was wonderful to sing karaoke with them. I sang three songs--Proud Mary was a duet, it was great. I Will Survive was great. The other was Take it to the Limit by the Eagles. But the music was not right. It was just a generic drumbeat and I couldn't sing to it! Especially with a song that is so slow, Emily singing that song was the most horrible thing I have ever heard. It was better to watch them sing karaoke. When I left it was bittersweet because they're both leaving while I'll be in Cambodia and they're pretty cool people who it would have been fun to get to know outside of the TEFL-trainee relationship. They'll have great adventures though.

I realized when I got back to my room here that my phone was missing! It must have fallen out of my purse at the karaoke place. I called the place but there was a language barrier and a loud karaoke happening in the background barrier so I'm not sure they know what's happening, but I will stop by tomorrow in the hope that they have my phone. If losing my phone is payment for the amazing weekend I had, it was worth it. But I still want it back.

Yesterday

I don't get to actually sit down with the Internet very often, but hopefully within the next couple of weeks when I get my teaching placement it will be in a place where the Internet is a little more convenient. This week I taught my first two classes. It was a learning experience, and I teach more classes next week. In the afternoons and evenings I've spent a lot of quality time with the ocean.



My hotel sits across the street from the beach. On the side of the street with the hotel, there are other (mostly empty this time of year) hotels and some small restaurants. On the beach side, there are lots of beach chairs and umbrellas and tables. Sometimes people order food and then walk across the street to eat on the beach. Sometimes at night people drag sound equipment down there and throw karaoke beach parties.

On Wednesday after school I joined some of my fellow TEFLers at the beach. There was a huge jellyfish in the water, and some of them were trying to play with it while others were keeping their distance. These shots are from my underwater camera.





The top feels like nubbly plastic. It's not at all what I expected. That is not my hand; one of the brave gentlemen was making sure it was safe.

The jellyfish had a live crab inside of it, which later escaped when it was herded to shore for further investigation. Afterward, jellyfish was promptly returned to the water alive. Crab wandered away.

On Thursday I headed down to the beach with a book after class. The sky was clear with some haziness at the horizon and wispy white clouds overhead. Behind me, inland, the sky was overcast but light gray. I was hoping for a spectacular sunset. I sat down with my book (The Masked Rider, by Neil Peart) and started to read. I noticed a flash on the page, which I thought could absolutely not be lightning behind me, until a good few seconds later thunder rumbled above me. This was the longest, loudest thunderclap I have ever heard. I looked around behind me and the sky was still light gray. This happened again until the sky started to downpour on me, and I hurried across the street to take shelter at a restaurant and eat dinner (garlicky squid on rice.) Sudden weather changes are typical this time of year.

Most of my TEFL class was going to go out Friday night for karaoke to celebrate the birthday of one of my fellow students. Our instructor mentioned that a bunch of the TEFL employees and students from the other TEFL class were going to Rayong (the big city with the giant TESCO Lotus) for karaoke that night and that we were welcome to join them. This sounded like a great idea!

So we rented a songthaew (that's a pickup truck with two benches in the bed and a roof on top) and 14 of us rode into Rayong. We joined the TEFL group at a huge restaurant/bar where a cover band was playing songs in Thai and English. After an hour or so of this, the whole horde (about 25 people) walked to the karaoke place where we had a private room. This was amazingly fun. There were a fair number of English selections. I sang "A Whole New World" from Aladdin and "Desperado." I also sang "Yesterday." While I had a great time, I'm glad that I don't work at the karaoke bar. Having to listen to other people's karaoke parties all night long might be one of the worst jobs.



I'll leave you with Chaoying. She seems to live in the Condochain lobby. Her coloring reminds me of my kitty Clarice. She's chewing on my camera strap here.