So Long, Sriracha

I'm off. Sriracha is over. The bus leaves in about 2 hours, and I'll be on my way to Bangkok to spend the day then catch a flight to Khao Lak, where I will build houses, with 40 hour work weeks. Or so I am told. Anyways, I am hoping that I feel better before I have to build houses, but that is still two days away, so maybe I will. Uhm, I have not much to say to you right now; it's first thing in the morning and I am proper tired, from yet another night of restless sleep. Oh well. I will survive. And now I will go.
Takecare.
later.

Happy New Years!!

Apparently it's Chinese New Years today. I figured that out while lying in my bed listening to firecrackers in the field at like 4:00am. So loud. Definitely woke everyone in the house and probably on the street up. Sucked. What's the animal this year? Oh well, anyways, I'm up, so here goes another day...
later.

Mai Sabai

yeah, that's right, I'm not doing so good. Ate some bad meat I think, and my gut is paying. Couldn't sleep last night, so that sucked, but hey, I went and bought 'Dog So Sad', so that's good news! It's pretty small though, so if it shrinks at all, it won't fit, so that's bad news again. But I'm going to play chess with Moto-Sai guys today again, so that's proper shiney.
Plus, in town I think I'll get a peppermint tea if I can, and it'll make me feel all good.
So perhaps I'll be off then, to see what I can do about that tea.
later.

I hate mosquitos

But I love Thai construction crews.
I showed up to work on my first day and my contact was not there. I decided to find the foreman and tell him I'd help out anyways, so I did. As it turns out, no one on the crew speaks more than the token English words: 'Hello', 'how ah you?', 'well you go?'. And so it made for rocky beginnings, but once I convinced them to show me what to do rather than telling me, things worked out fine. They made fun of me alot, and I'm ok with that, cause my Thai is good enough that I could put forth a solid rebuttal from time to time usually to a fair amount of laughter. It's nice to have come to the point where I can joke with people in another language, as simple as those jokes may be. I actually made a pun today in Thai, I was so proud of myself. It's like a new level of understanding of a language, and totally risky cause you never know what associations the culture may have already made with certain words or phrases, but I got off scott-free so I'll risk it again perhaps. I think I made some friends though, so that's good. Can't remember they're names but there's time for that. We talk a lot about differences between Thailand and Canada, and I am teaching them English words, and they're teaching me Thai words. It's a mutually beneficial relationship.
I spent all day carrying buckets of cement,or lifting buckets of cement, or passing buckets of cement in a fire-brigade fashion. Fun times. So yeah, that's about all. The days are slow, but not in the dragging on and on sort of way. More in the relaxed way. Our 30 minute lunch breaks are like an hour and a bit long. So I think I'll go away now, I'm kinda tired, and I have to go to work for 6 hours tomorrow, then I'm going to a Skate-church in Pattaya that was started by some friends, I'm gonna hang out with a bunch of Thai skater punks.
wicked awesome.
ok, I'mma go.
later.

News Flash: Xerarch Asian Tour commences with a CD release party at a Korean BBQ in downtown Sriracha, Thailand!

I begin this post by letting you know where I am right now.
Thailand!!!!!!
More specifically, I'm sitting in the living room of my friends Chinnatas and Ta, and their daughter Tammy. Here I sit listening to Thrice, The Artist In The Ambulance, and typing on a laptop that is on the top of my lap. My friend Andrea sits 10 feet away watching a movie with Bum, (pronounced Boom) a friend of ours who is also staying with the Taksirisab family. I love it here, it's great, and now I will commence with the news.
I have taken a little over 300 photos since my arrival, but I have a lot more to take. There's so many interesting faces and interesting places to document, I am glad for a 1Gb card in my digiton, and the ability to burn CD's here since I'm already half done that card. HAHAHA, Ding-Dong, mai khap?
Last night I went to church at VBCI, the school I once attended here in Sriracha, and it was freaking AWESOME to see all my Thailand friends together in one place. It felt like a party, and church was very upbeat and amazing. I forgot how good it is there... I quite enjoyed the worship and the message and just being there in bare feet on the 4th floor of a building 300 meters from the gulf of Siam, overlooking a picturesque island temple just offshore. The sun was setting, and the lighting was incredible!! Unfortunately my camera was sorely incapable of capturing the majesty of the setting, but I tried regardless.
After church I talked to my friend Fee who showed up late. (An aside: 'Stare at the Sun' by Thrice is a great song). Fee along with a few others planned a trip to a Korean BBQ for supper after church, and I found out about it after it was official plans because I was in absentia; talking to more friends I suppose. Seven of us went. What fun! seriously, if you've ever been to a Korean BBQ you know what I mean. The last time I was at one of these things was my last time in Thailand, and I was forced by the two Thai gentlemen I was with to eat all sorts of unnatural meat products, all BBQed by yours truly on a hot plate in front of me at a table. So I figured that this time I could maybe get out of eating things like pig lung or goat liver or whatever else you could imagine... (yes I am sparing you some of the details about some of the 'meat' options; and yes meat is in quotations for a reason). My companions were feeling generous, and I was allowed to get away with eating primarily chicken and pork. ('Hoods on Peregrine' is also a good song... now you know how fast I am typing, or slow...). While eating and BBQing, the topic of good music came up. We talked about all sorts of bands, both American and Thai, and somone brought up the fact that I had brought along a bunch of Xerarch CD's to give to my friends. Aua was sitting beside me and I was obligated to give him one as well. I gave him one and we talked some more as a group, and suddenly a familiar sound was being thrown from various loudspeakers around the open-air restaurant. Yes, that's right. Downtown Sriracha got to listen to Xerarch: Overhead There Floats a Cumulonimbus. I'm not gonna lie to you, I was feeling a bit odd. Not odd as in sick, though some of that meat was fairly - how to say... - unique, but more odd like conscious off all the beady little Thai eyes pointed in my direction. I can't really call it embarrasment, or even modesty, it was just odd. Odd. Yeah, there's no proper word for it. Interesting.
So yeah, and elephant was there. Yup. Just standing on the sidewalk, gremmin' to the sounds of 'A Concise Apology'. How Bizzare!?! (not how bizzare like that cheesy song from a few years ago, more the legit bizzare. I think looking at that elephant induced one of those dreamlike states where you almost realize that you are actually in a completely foreign place, and saying that things are different is kinda like saying that the sun is kinda sorta far away a bit. It just cannot be described. I love that about this place, and I love that about that elephant. Sorry Mom, I didn't get a photo. Next time.
So yeah, after we finished eating we walked across the road to the Night Market, and man, what an amazing experience. Now, I'm talking mostly about the phenomenal t-shirt designs. 'Dog so sad' was probably my favorite. There's a black dog on the front, and it says 'Dog so Sad', and the dog kinda looks dejected, and it's all in black, and the dog is sad, and it SAYS that. Ok, I totally can't even describe it to you, I'll have to just go buy it. Probably there's another 15 amazing designs, all Engrish, all amazing, and if I decide not to buy them all, I'll have to take pictures of them for you. Then we found these shoe-painter people, and I was very tempted to order a pair of fake chucks and get them to paint Bubbles (the powerpuff girl) on the side, but I think maybe I've decided not to let that happen. I'm still in this city for another week though, so maybe I will change my mind by then, and come home sporting mad kicks!... I will be cool then for sure, oh yes, I will be cool.
Thrice rules, but listening to this kinda makes me miss Hamish, my roommate back home. He likes them too, you see... and so I... you know. Hamish, wherever you are, my friend, this one goes out to you: ROCK-ON MAN!!!!!!!! Do the dishes and clean the tub before I come home or I'll destroy-ificate your face-head. Joking!!! Love you!!!
So yeah, the night ended with me making plans with a 17 yr old Thai girl to take me shopping and buy me some wicked-awesome jeans. I'm gonna look like the hot Asian guy at UCFV. Hey, Bryce and the Vball ladies, ya'll know what I mean. Man that guy is hot!!! And with my Thai pants and 'Dog So Sad' tshirt, I'll be able to hang out with him!!! ROCK!!!!!!!!!
Ok, I guess I'll end the post with that... or maybe this. I went to Koh Sichang today, an island close to Sriracha, and we hung out on the beach, chillin' mad styles. So relaxing, and then we came home to Sriracha (Dear Mom, sorry for calling it 'home', it just kinda feels that way right now) and I went to EA Sriracha and had an Ice Blended Mocha and took an insane moto-cycle taxi ride back to Teddy's house where I now am. Seriously, I kinda thought I was going to die on that ride here, we were swerving in and out of rush-hour traffic on the highway doing a good 80 km/h. I kinda sat on the back, trying my hardest to look non-chalant, just sucking on my mocha, all the while praying for safety; fight or flight juices flowing like water on the side of the road during the worst storm of the year. Seriously, I think if it came down to an accident, I would have dug up some sort of super-power adrenaline move and jump onto the roof of a passing car, Tony Jaa style, cause hey, I'm in Thailand, chai-mai?? But anyways, I'm here, I'm safe until the next adventure.
So, until the next adventure, take care, and always brush your teeth. But never swallow the water cause you'll get sick.
later.

The Thai man says I won't go to jail

This afternoon my good friend Jessica from Alberta came down to Sriracha from Bang Saen to visit us. We had a good old time. She has been in Thailand for 2 weeks now, and is leaving tomorrow to go south to Khao Lak, where I will catch up with her in about 11 days. So we decided to go across town to the City Park behind the Municipality building. There is a large hill with a tower on the top of it. It's one of those touristy open air tower of stairswith a viewing deck up top. We started the walk up to the tower but soon realized that the stairs were completely overgrown. It was spooky! It felt like no man had been there for a few years, but we continued up the stairs anyways. We got to the base of the tower and met a Thai man and his (I'm assuming) grandson, and we asked them about the tower. He rambled on in Thai for a few minutes, but all I could get out of it was that it was very tall, which we could see cause it was right infront of us, and that from the top you could see Koh Samui on a good day. So, we began the climb. Except we didn't, cause as soon as we rounded the corner to go up the stairs we realized that there were no stairs. They had apparently taken out the bottom three flights for some reason,so we had to climb up the railing should we want to ascend the monolith. We decided it was maybe a not-so-good idea, and nearly chickened out, and would have were it not for another Thai passerby-er who laughed at us and when asked told us we would not go to jail if we climbed it, and so we did. It was gorgeous, and I got some good pics from up there. While up there we saw this small secluded section of beach and we decided to try and find a way to it. We did, but not until after we had been attacked by a rabid dog and followed by a few Thai men. Good times. So yeah, we got there and it was actually another really great place. We had to go down a road I had never been down, even when I lived here for 4 months. So that was cool, and similar to the tower, I got some cool pics. So yeah, overall it was a chill day, but now I am exhausted, so at 7:00am while many of you willbe getting up in the next few hours, here its 10pm, and I'm going to bed, cause Im exhausted from travelling and walking in the hot sun.
Kyle.
Oh yeah, I never told you how we almost missed our flight from beijing to Bangkok because we were given the wrong information. I then decided to check out the schedule on the computer, and found that we were supposed to be at another gate. b
Ut as you can see, it worked ou tin the end.
later.

China is cold and Sriracha is hawt.

I'm here, I'm in Thailand, I made it.
The plane ride was fun. I had a very crazy wierd gut thing going on right before we left, I couldn't eat right from the nervous excitement. But as soon as I got on the plane it got better, and the plane ride to Beijing went smoothly and relatively quickly. Seriously, how could it not go quickly when the first movie they played was Stealth. MAN!!!!!!!! Stealth!!!!! Ahahahahaa, I remember seeing a trailer for it this summer, and laughing at it cause I knew exactly what was going to happen, and that it would be terrible. As soon as it started I grabbed Andrea's arm (the girl I travelled here with) and was like, "Man, they're playing Stealth!!! You gotta see this, it's gonna be off the charts on the awesome cheese scale!!!" It was. Seriously, that was the funnest movie to watch on the plane. We were laughing so hard, it was great. Then the rest of the movies were sub par, and I ended up listening to music and writing.
Beijing was cool. we got there an hour late and that was nice cause we didn't have to wait as long to board the next plane, except that by the end of the first leg I would rather have spent time walking around an airport than confined to an airplane seat. Oh well. we had no chinese currency so we had to make do with free sandwiches from the airline and ... oh wait, that's all. I was starved. But wait, before that we had an adventure.
It seems that Beijing Capital Airport is quite short on boarding gates, so they parked the plan on the far side of the tarmad and we had to be bussed from the plane to the terminal. It was Freezing!!! like, actually freezing!!! Bad news, but we survived.
So yeah, the next flight came and we were separated cause we couldn't get seats together, so it was boring and long and by this time I was proper tired, form not having slept the night before and then a 3 hour wait at vancouver to fly away and then a 11.5 hour flight to beijing and then 3 hours in beijing, but I just couldn't sleep on the flight, it was to the point of disgusting. That 4.5 hour flight felt longer than the 11.5 hour one before it. It was painful. To make matters worse, the only movie they played on that leg was The Perfect Man... some cheesy hilary duff fluff film with 100% predictability and 0% originality. Tripe.
Ok, so I shoudl go before this thing crashes or something, but I'll speed thorgh Thailand so far.
Bangkok was hot, and I was completely ready for that from being on that freezing cold plane.
The taxi picked us up no problems and we drove straight to my friend Teddy's house where I slep from 4-6am this morning, before waking up and waiting for the rest of the world to do the same.
Then I took andrea around Sriracha a bit (we're in the midst of that), visited my old school, the cook, the friends, Grandma's fruit stand beside it, ate some banana bread and went' to look at sea turtles in a dried up pool on Ko Loi.
Fun.
So yeah, there's so much more I could write about, but Ii have no time, adn I wanna send this before it crashes, so I'll be off.
Leave your comments and I'll read them.
Kyle.
later.

45 hours and counting...

Less than 2 days. I'm getting quite nervexcited... to coin a term. I'm an academic, I'm allowed to make up wordses.
I still don't know much about my trip, but that doesn't matter. Also, this is still a really boring post that I am writing. But just think, 2 more days and I'll have something to write about other than 'I stayed up till 4 last night'.
So with that in mind, on to the boredom that is my life at present.
I did laundry this morning, er, afternoon, when I woke up, and then when I get home tonight I'm gonna commence packing. Packing is gonna be wierd for me, cause it'll be something tangible that I am doing to prepare for my trip. I can call people and email back and forth and tell myself that I'm leaving the country in 2 days, but all that is in my mind, whereas a physical entity such as a filled back-pack is something that I can't just whisk away to the black hole of my subconscious like some sort of apparition. It's there, it's real, it has three dimensions, and it means I'm going somehere. Somewhere far away by the looks of things. Probably Thailand. So now I am faced with a reality, and no matter what you believe about reality, (perhaps you're a constructionist), it needs to be dealt with in a real way. (Those being too fundamental about their constructionism invariably tend to become dead constructionists, having failed to notice that that pain in their gut is something more than a constructed feeling. But hey, a chair isn't a chair unless you sit on it, right?).
But now on second thought, in order to better deal with the situation at hand it may actually benefit me to adopt a mildly constructionist outlook on the whole endeavour. If I look at my trip as a mere construction, I will be less inclined to fret about this or that, and will become free to live life without realizing that I am leaving and I may be able to quell that odd sensation in my gut which I cannot quantify or qualify as either nervousness or excitement. Then in 2 days when I am on the plane, (which is only a plane if it's in the air), I will be forced to deal with the matter at hand; that being that while I stepped onto the plane in Vancouver, I will be stepping off of it in Beijing. Now that's a mind bender, isn't it! I can enter a room through a doorway, and upon a few minor shifts in the gravitational field of that room, I can look out a port hole and watch the ground beneath the room drop away and move below, and then a different part of that ground will approach a number of hours later.
Is it only me? Or is it true that the world just changes its appearance around me so that I feel like I'm somwhere else, when really, I'm still on the holodeck aboard the enterprise, playing a game that at times feels all to real. Maybe this is all made up. Maybe nothing matters. Maybe there isn't even anything anyways, I'm only a thought in someone elses mind. Maybe I should drop my constructionist influence and adopt an existentialist one. We don't even really exist anyways...
Or maybe I should re-adopt the constructionist viewpoint and decide that I'm only a thought if I think I'm a thought, and that I can be more than a thought if I think that this whole holodeck adventure is actually real. A chair can be a coffee table if I use it as one, so perhaps this thought that I am can actually be a real life if I choose to believe that it can. So hey, why not! I'm gonna go home, pack my bag, and freak out cause I'm going to Thailand, which is actually very far away and I have to get there by flying in a plane, and that plane is already a plane, even if it's parked on a runway in China right now, and I'm gonna go eat some food cause I'm at my parents house, and I don't have any money to buy food.
See you later.
Kyle.

5 days till blast off...

GUYS!!!!!!!
I have been told by a friend that once I return to Thailand, it'll feel just like home. I tried to believe that, but then I just got really nervous about what it would actually be like. But I just read a blog from my friend Jessica (her blog) who has arrived safe and sound in Thailand, and she mentioned that as soon as she got there it just felt like home, and so I think I'm feeling a bit better about it. I wish I had more exciting things to tell you, but there's nothing much going on right now, I'm just kinda sitting on my butt, watching the days pass until I leave, and hanging out with friends as much as possible.
I guess the fact that these posts are so boring will just make my posts from Thailand that much more interesting.
So hey, leave me a comment and say hi.
So take care.
later.

Oh hold...

I'm trying to reconfirm my flight, and I'm currently on hold. Seriously, it's taking forever. It's like they only have one person working. Or maybe a billion people just chose today to confirm their flights. this is crazy...
9 minutes so far. I'm getting a headache from the microwave emissions from this phone.
ok, it's over. Confirmed... WOOHOO!!!!
I'm going to Asia...
later.

Sunday Borening...

So bored these last few days. This morning I didn't really do anything, scept go out for breakfast. Now I sit at a computer. BORING!!!!!!
Uhm, I've been trying to 'pre-lag' myself by going to bed later and later, and waking up later and later, in hopes of reducing the effects of jet lag. Ideally I would be going to bed at about 7:00am, and waking up at 3pm, but that won't happen, so I have to settle on 4:30-12 ish-ness. I wonder if it will work? I suppose the whole flying through the night thing iwll probably mess it all up, but it's worth a shot at least.
Also... wait. That's it I have nothing else to say. I'm going home.
later.

I can't believe this thing is still up and running!

Wow. I almost forgot my password on this thing. Can't believe it's still here. So yeah, I guess I'll revive it for my trip to Thailand, since I'm going again. I'll be leaving in... what, 12 days maybe? I don't know. Soon anyways.
So yeah, let me know if you people are still out there, or perhaps if you're not, no worries, I'll still write on here. My mom will check, and other than that I'll just write to amuse myself I guess.
Uhm, do take care for the time being, I'll fill you all in later as to the ongoings of my somewhat less hectic life.
later.