First Weeks in Samui

So as I mentioned in the last post, I've been doing some teaching at the college.

Thai's are fun to teach. They're extremely communal and love to laugh together, work together and help one another out whenever possible. Even at the college level we do a lot of skits, acting, and games. We laugh a lot.

On the right here is a pic of my classroom at Rajabhat University sans students (later I'll get some photos of them to add, I promise). It's actually a pretty posh place with projectors and cushy seats that remind me of a fancy airline or something. So I feel like "I'm kind of a big deal" (Anchorman).

This is my desk; as you can see it's very personalized complete with the junkiest, most likely-t0-shatter-in-the-event-of-a-head-on-collision helmet you've ever seen in your life. Since then I've bought a proper one that looks a little overkill for a scooter, but hey, it just might save my life you know? Those scooters still scare the heck out of us by the way. Every day there's another funeral at a local temple from some bike accident or another (1.5 deaths a week on average which is pretty crazy for a road that only loops 50 kilometers). Anyway, sorry to be all maudlin and all, but they just freak me out.

The main building in the University is a standard square with five levels, courtyards, cafeterias and the like. It's quite pretty.

If you're wondering about Ty's working digs, she will take some pictures soon hopefully. She's working with two different groups. At first she was subbing for the little tykes which were cute little 5-year-old Thai kids (one just straight up barfed all over his nap mat; Ty said it was just like that kid on Southpark and it sounded like it was pretty projectile too which added a chunk (pun intended) of interest to the whole matter. Her other group is adults; she teaches anywhere between 1 and 3 adults private lessons which she seems to enjoy quite a lot.

When we're not teaching, we're playing of course. As I alluded to above, the scooters scare the dickens our of Ty and I but they are a necessary evil. A taxi to my college costs about 12 bucks each ways (I make about 22 bucks a lesson which would have me paying 2 bucks to work. I'm no mathmagician or anything but I think I'm coming out behind on that one. Anyway, so we're renting this hot pink little bike by the month. Damn it's powerful (tops out around 80 Kilometers an hour or so which is plenty fast if you ask me).

One person who has effectively eased some of our bike anxiety is our new neighbor, Simon. Because of Simon we've had the chance to practice a lot lately. As of two days ago, Ty refused to ride on the back of my bike because having another person on the back jacks up the balance and makes these puppies much more likely to tip and dip - gulp. Shortly after we got to our new place though, our neighbor Simon took us under his wing and organized a small calvary of local teachers for a tour around the entire Island which doubled as an orientation building event and as a time to get used to the bikes. The next pictures are some of the sights Simon took us to; the idea was he'd just point them out and then we can come back on our own time and explore if we dug em. This is his favorite secluded beach for swimming.

Ty and I love swinging on these big swings that occasionally can be found hanging from the tops of coconut trees. Tim and Kelly Borsheim like to swing too by the way. Ask them about it.

Somewhere along this motorbike excursion I saw a Papaya Salad hut and had to photograph it. This is my latest culinary love - consider it a variation of Ty's Roti obsession. I love them. Fresh unripe Papaya, lemon, chile and a lot of other goodies. Yum.

This is Simon. He's my good natured neighbor that I talked about above. He's the English bloke who arranged this seven hour long tour for us newbies out of the kindness of his heart. Ty and I enjoy Simon's company quite a bit as he's kind and funny as hell which is a plus in our books (we have different books). I've been working out with him lately too as he's got a solid repertoire of some pretty kick-butt Muay Thai knowledge that he's been teaching me.

Along the way, we stopped at a super touristy waterfall area. Because it's only at the beginning of the wet season, it left a little to be desired in the way of overall H2O (that's a scientific term for water for any layman reading) output. Apparently the thing flows like Niagra after the rainy season.

Ty lookin' all pretty (and precisely nineteen shades darker than melanin deprived me) in front of the falls.

So after the water fall, we arrived at this famous temple that harbors the under-composed body of this mummified monk who predicted his own death (read about it below if you're curious) crazy stuff.

I got in big-time trouble for taking this picture; apparently the monk is not to be photographed, but hey, it's not like I could give it back so I thought the least I could do was throw it on the blog. Check out those shades. It's like Siddhartha and Rhianna had an illegitimate.

If you rub the center knob in the middle of this gong long enough and with enough skill you can produce an eerie elongated ring (think wet fingers around crystal wine goblets but on audio steroids). If you get the thing to hum, it's supposed to be super auspicious. The kid on the right showed me how to do it eleven times; I finally figured it out baby which is great because I need all the luck I can get knockin' around on the death-mobiles.

Careful, he bite.

We stopped here for a cool inland photo of Samui.

We also stopped at this funky little artistic place called "Magic Garden" which is filled with sculptures and other various weird things that we couldn't resist posing with. It seemed funnier at the time. I'm not going to comment on the next photo series, but you'll get the idea...

Okay, I lied, I love this one and you should too.

Slappin the bass man! Big time!

We started motorbiking at 11 in the morn and we didn't get back to Mea Nam until after sunset! I was so tired mentally from trying not to die that I almost didn't enjoy the views. Shew! Caught this one just in time.

After our epic bikeride we got cleaned up and WALKED out to this place called the "Three Legged Dog Bar" which is an establishment literally named after Mesa, the resident adopted three legged dog. Ty, as usual, immediately fell in love with him - hence all the glimmering patterns of elation dancing across her face.

Come here Mesa! I'll give you a cookie if you high five me with one of your three awesome legs!

Priceless.

Okay, so here comes, ostensibly, a bit of a non-sequitor, but I think it's fitting. Shortly before Mesa high-fived Ty, I felt compelled to dress up like a giant bunny and do some impromptu break dancing along the street and inside the bar. If your curious, I wasn't drunk at all which scared the Thais even more. Instead, I was delirious from the amount of mental focus it takes to negotiate the windy curves of Samui on a scooter all day so in short, this is how I blew off steam. The thai people think I'm officially "Ting Tong" (crazy) and I don't blame them. On a brighter side,the owner of the bar is thinking of using the Youtube video for his marketing campaign. "Hare of the Three Legged Dog" get it?

View them at your own risk.

We miss everyone. If you're sick of my writing, I am too. Ty will do the next post and tell you all about her take on this whole crazy life we're living.

Muchas Amor,

Nick and Ty