A Grand Adventure - Day 2 - Genie

Here we go again!

On the morning of Tuesday, October 15th, we got up and I put everyone's hair into sturdy french braids. It was going to be a day of on and off again goggles and I knew nobody wanted their hair in the way snorkeling!

At that point, Roxi was desperately hungry. The stomachs of our group determined when we ate: Amanda made sure we got dinner every night, Roxi made sure at least she got breakfast in the morning, and I made sure there was ample coffee. We went to McDonalds and Roxi got herself a fish sandwich. Amanda and I got ourselves a large No Thanks and we headed off for our adventure!

We were in and out of one of these boats for the rest of the afternoon. There were three native Thai persons on the boat with about 12-15 of us tourists. We got seats in the far back by our driver and eventually we were very thankful we did!

In the back left of this picture is Roxi's second Thai husband of the trip.

The first hour was absolutely gorgeous. We went to monkey beach and saw macaques. It was an interesting part of the adventure. As I walked around the beach, I noticed that there was no escape route for the monkeys. They had been trapped on a small beach and were obviously there as a tourist attraction. They were desensitized by the thousands of people that stopped by there each day on their 20 minute stop. 

I'm not sad that we took this trip. Don't get me wrong there. And I understand that if they advertise a monkey beach, tourists want exactly that. But as someone who has been around captive and wild animals my whole life, the scene was... tragic.

This macaque did more to clean the beach than any person I saw in my duration in Thailand.

A mother and her baby were trying to escape from the tourists to the far side of the adventure.

Obviously based on the pictures I'm taking, it didn't work.

These bois were not thrilled to be there. I think someone messed up their coffee order...

At this point, the activities improved and the weather devolved. We went to the island south of Koh Phi Phi Don. Upon arrival at Koh Phi Phi Le, our boat driver started saying the Thai word for storm and rain. Thankfully I've now lived in Thailand for an entire rainy season - so I know these words. 

Roxi and I laughed at what he was saying and agreed that it did appear that a storm was coming in. Per the usual when we respond with any Thai, every person who speaks Thai on the boat gets involved. We had a great little chat for about 15 minutes before the wind picked up and we could no longer hear. These were Roxi's second and third husbands of the trip.

During this time, we passed some truly incredible rock faces.

There was no bad seating on the boat, but from the back, I got great views without splashing!

I didn't bother to edit any of these photos. What you see is what you get. 

There are many caves that locals have taken over. Tourists are not allowed in them, but the boat driver took us past slowly so we could sneak a peak!

We made it to a beautiful lagoon by the Maya Beach (which is currently closed because tourism ruined it and the Thai government has shut it down until it has a chance to recover). This was supposed to be a swimming spot (off of Maya beach by about 1km). However, our driver started yelling at the other boats "tide changing. storm." and we didn't stop. 

The water in the lagoon was the most beautiful teal I've ever seen.

The boat took us out of the lagoon and to a small outcropping of rocks just outside the mouth of the lagoon. There we got our first taste of what was under the sea:

Yes, Mom. My iPhone is underwater. No, I did not test the waterproof bag before I JUMPED FROM THE BOAT INTO THE ANDAMAN SEA!

It was worth it.

We even got some cute shots of us in the water!

At this point, the sky opened and our driver asked everyone to come back into the boat. 

It was a very good decision. Not thirty seconds after the last person boarded the boat, the sky opened and boats began to get their engines running. 

Every boat except ours. 

For the next twenty minutes, the sky poured, wind ripped through the valley we were nestled in, and men leapt from their boats to ours to try and help fix the engine. It was amazing to watch people leap from one boat to another, soaking wet, with no shoes, and land perfectly with a full toolbox - sometimes a solitary pair of scissors or a screwdriver. 

Lunch was passed out while the boat was under repair. It was a fried rice dish with egg and vegetables. It was actually incredible. As usual, we were saving Koh Phi Phi by eating out of single use Styrofoam with plastic spoons. 

Deep sigh.

Finally we heard a loud roar from the engine. The boat let up a loud cheer and our driver took us out of the lagoon. Waves lapped up against our boat. The sea was swelling and crashing as the rain tore on. From inside our boat, it was a little scary. Obviously we knew we were in capable hands. The man at the helm looked to be about 50 and looked to have spent every moment of that time in a boat like this. The way he turned the rudder and engines was deft and almost musical. It was comforting to watch him as the sea around us made me nauseated.  

Our driver took us to several other swimming spots until it was about 4:45pm. It was still drizzling, but the water was amazingly warm! At this point, the majority of our boat was not getting back in the water, cold, and whinier than a Californian in a Minnesota winter. 

This explains the sunburn on Amanda's scalp.

Our boat driver asked every person if they wanted to go in early. If we went in early, we got no refund and we didn't get to see the plankton at sunset. This seemed a no brainer for the three of us, but apparently we were the only group to think so! We were sad, but outvoted. We sat quietly as the boat turned back toward the pier. There were excited clamoring from people excited for beer. Suddenly we pulled up alongside another boat. Our driver looked at us and said: "see plankton. other boat."

We brightened considerably. We clarified in Thai that this boat was staying and our boat was going in. He smiled and confirmed. 

We hopped from our boat to the other. Honestly for me it was like getting to be a kid jumping around kayaks in the river again. I enjoyed it muchly. I do not think Amanda enjoyed it near as much. Roxi walked the middle path.

There were five people in the boat staying out until 7:30. 3G1M and two people from Portugal. We called ourselves "Team Plankton"!

We got to spend the next two hours swimming as the sun went down. There was plenty to see. At one point Roxi hurt a sea urchin. It responded accordingly by stabbing her in the foot. Her foot then hurt.

This new boat driver also told us it was ok to jump off the sides of the boat. I took advantage of this and treated it like a diving board. He also didn't force us to wear life jackets like our previous driver. The irresponsible child in me that is also a certified lifeguard enjoyed not being strapped down by a life jacket that in no way, shape, nor form fit me. It was also exciting because for the first time all day, I could dive down under the surface of the water and see things up close. Having a lot of practice in pools, rivers, and lakes definitely helped for doing 6m pike dives to the bottom layers of coral!

Around 7 when the sun had gone down and the only light was coming from our boat, the new boat driver turned the lights out. He told us to put our heads under the water and move our hands around. 

We did and the results were magical. Plankton shone like little specks of light under the water. It looked like stars. We started playing around in the water - doing somersaults and splashing. My favorite move we called "hyperspace". We held our breath and went underwater and shoved water toward our goggles. The plankton came frenzied toward the goggles and it looked like spaceships from our favorite old shows and movies. It was honestly incredible. 

After 20 minutes of swimming in the plankton, our driver called us back onto the boat one last time. All five members of #TeamPlankton were happy, tired, and chittering about how cool the experience had been. 

We landed on the beach 10 minutes later and exited the boat for the last time. I think Amanda was pretty thrilled about that. She had been a trooper about it the whole day, but this boat was definitely not setup for anyone larger than about 160cm and 75kg. 

Exhausted and exhilarated, we walked the 1km back to our hotel, took showers, and changed into cute clothes. Amanda wore her new snazzy romper (thanks, Mary! It's super cute!), I wore my little black dress (that my mother threw at me in a GoodWill saying "it'll look good, trust me", and Roxi wore the dress I gifted her in Nong Khai (That I got from a church fundraiser in Lanesboro)!

We walked down the road to Phitharom Restaurant where we were the only people there (yay low season!) and ordered drinks: mango daiquiri, coconut temple, and pina colata. 

The drinks were fabulous. I got the mango drink. It was fantastic. Amanda got the coconut temple. It looked like liquid tums, but it tasted better. 

We also got a massaman curry (traditional Thai potato curry and my personal favorite of all curries known to humankind that aren't made by my dear friend, Shashi.), vegetable spring rolls, and pad thai. 

Amanda had previously seen a Bing Su place on our walk the night before. She and Roxi had never had Bing Su before!

For those of you who haven't been treated to this delicious Korean dessert, imagine eating delicious flavored snow. We got choco-explosion! There were also a slew of board games. We played Ticket to Ride: Europe. Roxi had never played before and we only had 50 minutes of playtime before the restaurant closed shop at 11pm. 

According to Roxi, the game was still fun, although rushed. 

Amanda and I already knew this, but it had been SO long since we got to play that we were just happy to have gotten to play at all!

On our walk back to the hotel, we stopped by stores and stands, grabbed another 6L container of water from the store Pew showed us, and saw a very cute little frog!

Much to everyone's shagrin, I even found the clitoris!

We headed off to bed, but this time we set the air conditioning to a more reasonable level!  

Stay tuned everyone, this was only day 2!

Amanda's Two Baht: I was overjoyed that I was able to see anything on our snorkelling adventure. As a glasses wearer who doesn't have contacts the likely hood of me seeing any fish or the reefs was questionable. I saw them! I saw this beautiful blue and green fish that took my breath away. I enjoyed this experience so much I'm considering getting a pair of prescription goggles...or at least contacts. 

A Grand Adventure - Day 1 - Genie

There are going to be many segments in this post and you'll come to understand why. I took up a bullet journal for this trip in order to document it as accurately and gloriously as possible.

This trip was brought to you by Dramamine.

It was Monday, October 14th at 3 in the morning. Alarms started ringing through our apartment. Unfortunately, I was already awake. It was going to be a marathon day and I was going into it without a moment of sleep. At 3:15am we called a cab and took off for the airport.

We arrived at the airport about 3:40am. We had no issues with ticketing, baggage, or security. All in all, the airport experience went flawlessly. The night before, we bought sticky rice with beans and bananas. That was our saving grace in the airport.

Snacks eaten, security passed, boarding passes in hand, passports checked, we headed toward our gate.

Upon settling in, we noted we had about an hour and forty five minutes before takeoff. I went off on an important mission: someone had put up a magnetic lure on a nearby PokeStop and I had a Magneton and a Nosepass in desperate need of evolving.

ALSO I was off to find some airport snacks. I found an open Burger King (it's hard to find even airport food here at 4am) and got us two tater tots. I can't remember the last time I had something smothered in American ketchup, hot, fried, and guilt-free. We were on vacation and the first expense after plane tickets were these delicious babies:

It was finally time. We had our boarding passes checked one last time, got a shuttle to our plane and boarded the little hopper down to Phuket.

We took a shuttle bus to a stairway leading to our plane!

The pilot got to go in first. Does that make him the FIRST first class?

The flight was an hour and five minutes of uneventful travel. Food and drink are not provided on small flights like this so we were all glad for our big breakfast.

We landed at the Phuket airport and had to answer the most frequent question of the trip:

None of us really wanted to spend much time in Phuket. It's a tourist and party destination, but it is the easiest place to travel TO in southern Thailand. So at the airport we decided we would make our way to Koh Phi Phi (also known as PP Island).

Koh Phi Phi (pronounced Koh Pee Pee) is an island off the coast of Phuket. According to Google Maps, it would have taken us a little over 10 hours to walk there. Nothing better than a 60km "walk" through the Andaman sea, right?

Just kidding. We hailed a Grab (Thai Uber) and got a ride down to what was supposed to be a travel place to book tickets. It should have been a dead giveaway that our driver didn't know where we were going to. In a place this relatively small, every taxi driver knows the majority of places. It's like asking someone in Winona where to get the best sandwich. (The answer is Acoustic Cafe.)

Anyway, he was incredibly annoying. We kept asking him where the most beautiful islands were, what his favorite islands were, and where he liked to go. His answers were rehearsed and boring: the party islands. He was also super annoying. He kept trying to turn off our route to take us to tourist locations so he would get paid more to wait around for us to look around. At this point, we were tired, un-caffeinated, hungry, and sick of this man. When he stopped for a smoke break, we all agreed we weren't tipping him much and wanted to get to our dropoff point ASAP.

He dropped us off exactly where we wanted and as promised, it was the middle of nowhere.

However, I remembered driving past a temple on a mountain a couple minutes back and we headed off to find the temple on the mountain!

The temple is about 60m above sea level and we walked STRAIGHT UP a mountain road to get there! It reminded me of running the golf course hill in high school. And we were doing this in full packs for vacation! We reached the top, passed the beggars, spun the PokeStops, and laid our eyes on Wat Koh Siray.

Wat Koh Siray is a Buddhist temple that contains a replica of Kyaiktiyo Pagoda, also known as the Golden Rock. The original in Myanmar is one of the most important Buddhist pilgrimage sites in Myanmar. The replica exists in Phuket because of the large population of people from Myanmar living in the city.

There were so many chickens and roosters at and around the temple!

We climbed up that mountain packs and all!

Almost to the top view!

Now we're at the top!

The Golden Rock

Looking out over the edge of Phuket.

We were so excited to see the sea!

A golden chicken. It reminded me of my cousin, Maggie. Maggie, if you're reading this, the golden chickens were all over the temple and I laughed and thought of you. Also, hello. It's been a long time.

When the Buddha is laying like this, he has reached his final enlightenment (death).

People put gold leaf all over the parts of the Buddha they can reach - especially his feet.

We checked three times. Snapchat spelled it wrong.

We had to document that we came here. However, we were not very Thai. We did not bring digital cameras, a dedicated camera person, OR a rice cooker.

And then we made our way back down. It was only 11am when we made our descent.

The views were sublime and the company was not shabby either.

We climbed back down and Roxi decided we should turn right an continue toward town.

This marked the first time on vacation that Roxi did not walk the middle path. We went in the exact WRONG direction for a mile and a half until we ended up at a dead end on a beach.

We called another cab to take us to the ACTUAL pier. In the meantime, we rested our packs on a table and looked out over a beach for the first time on our trip!

This cab driver was so much better! We referred to him as Roxi's "first husband of the trip". He got a touch lost getting us to the pier but eventually we made it. We tipped him. He was great.

We didn't already have tickets and discovered that the LAST ferry of the day was departing in twenty minutes. Amanda and Roxi were famished so they took off to find food while I hunted out how to get tickets on the ferry.

I found tickets for 1000B each that included both a one-way to Koh Phi Phi and another "any day, any time" return to Phuket, Krabi, Koh Lanta, or Ao Nang. I booked three immediately and went to find Amanda and Roxi with fresh fried fish sandwiches. Correctly, they had not ordered me one. I ate one bite of both of their sandwiches and I was STUFFED. Amanda put hot sauce on her sandwich and was entirely correct. As the pattern you will soon will see began to emerge: Amanda walked the middle path and made the correct decisions.

We boarded the ferry and chose to keep our bags with us and not under a tarp with the other luggage. I chose seats at the very back of the ferry facing forward. There were only bench seats on the top. One long bench across the back (where we were) and long benches going up the sides of the boat. We were above the main cabin of the ferry and never actually wandered below.

Before the boat even left, it started to sprinkle. The few people who were above deck quickly scampered below. We stayed up top. Now we basically had the entire top of the boat to ourselves. The rain lasted maybe 5 minutes, we claimed even more space, and then it let up.

Bye, Amanda's Bitmoji. We're heading off!

Jesus, Amanda. Way to walk on water. #ShowOff

Ok. Now we're all in boats. It's all good now.

People slowly began to emerge as the sun came out stronger than ever! About 90 minutes into the ride, we started to see the islands appear in the distance. The looked like towering cliffs rising from the water. It was incredible to see the shrubs and trees clinging to the sides.

This is the southern Phi Phi Island. 

This is what the islands look from above. We went swimming in there. But that's a later blog post. HA! You're going to have to wait!

This is the outside of the main portion of Koh Phi Phi.

As soon as we round that tip, we're there!

Problematically pretty... and the tourists have found our haven.

Ok. We landed on Koh Phi Phi.

We then had to go through the "entrance". This was two men getting 20B from every single tourist coming to the island. They are doing this to "promote ecotourism" and "help save Koh Phi Phi".

Reusable water bottles on hand, we were so ready. First off, it was already 3pm. We needed to find someplace to stay before town got hoppin or WORSE: everywhere was full.

We went to a coffee shop, ordered drinks, and settled in. Roxi and I started researching places to stay while Amanda looked for things to do. Eventually I found the PP Golden Guesthouse. We got 2 nights of stay in a room for four people for 1360B (45$). We left the coffee house and walked the streets until we found our hotel!

Fun fact. Do you see the roads on those photos? That's it. Those are all the roads. That walk is 1km. There are almost no mopeds on Koh Phi Phi both because the roads aren't roads: they're more like single lane walkways that during high season are packed with people.

But we were there during low season... which means it was only packed sometimes!

We made it past all the stalls of items and up the hill to our hotel!

We got an amazing room. The balcony looked out over the main part of the town. We got one queen bed and two twin beds. Naturally we shoved all three of them together into one giant bed, each got our own blanket, and had an epic slumber party!

Then we were off to find food. There was a Mediterranean restaurant near the pier and we all thought we could find something there to satiate our hunger.

We were correct. Fistuk Restaurant had the best pita I've ever eaten in my life. We got a pita and hummus plate, falafel, Roxi got her own falafel plate and Amanda and I split a chicken schwarma pita. We also inquired into how much a bottle of water would be. It was 30B. Hahaha... absolutely not. To refill a water bottle at a refill point should be about 1B/L so paying 30B for it seemed extreme.

We soon discovered that Koh Phi Phi does not do refillable water. They do single use water bottles.

That's right. They took 20B from all of us when we got to the island to "Save Koh Phi Phi", but they had no refillable water stations. The only option for water was to buy bottles, drink them, and throw them away.

That's right.

No recycling.

Throw them away.

*sighs deeply*

But now it was the early evening and we were debating what to do on our full day the next day:

After a spot of debate, we decided on a guided snorkeling tour. We didn't want to do the full day (8am-7pm) so we opted for the shorter adventure (2pm-7pm). There were a couple reasons we decided on this:

1. Amanda needs prescription glasses and there were no prescription goggles for her to rent on the island. We weren't sure if she was going to be able to see anything the whole time we were out and about.

2. We are delicate Minnesotans (ok, Amanda and I are) and we burn so easily!

3. I hate getting up early. Ok. Actually I really wanted to do the early tour that went from 6am-2pm, but that one only runs during the high season...

It mostly came down to #1. If 1/3 of our group wasn't going to have any fun, maybe we should only spend half a day doing it.

So we went back to one of the places to buy tours from. Originally when we got to the island we had stopped by this place and the lady working there had been friendly but not pushy. The theme of our adventure was "reward good behavior" so we went back to Pew and got 3 tickets for the next day's afternoon. We also asked her if there was anywhere to fill our water bottles on the island... she laughed at us. However, she did send us down the road to the locals store where water was the cheapest.

Tickets in hand, we needed two last items: a hat for Ms. Amanda and a waterproof bag to hold necessities. Fortunately we had gotten waterproof phone cases already so we managed to save a lot on those. We bought them at the local hardware shop in Min Buri for 30B. They were selling them on Koh Phi Phi for 200B!

We found a little 5L waterproof bag very quickly and after some brief bartering in Thai (if you barter in Thai with Thai numbers, the shopkeepers will get you better prices) walked away with it for 300B. We ended up talking with a lot of other foreigners over the next few days and the cheapest anyone else got one that size was 375B. One man paid 475B for the exact same one as mine, so I was feeling pretty good.

Then we wandered and found the perfect "vacation Amanda hat".

If you're imagining Vacation Terry from Brooklyn 99, you are on the right track.

Four shops later we had the hat and we were tired. I hadn't slept since the night before last and all three of us were getting to be cranky zombies.

Once inside our room, we turned on the air conditioning and passed out.

By the time we got to bed it was around 11:30pm. We had been up and TRUCKING since 3am. But we could hear the ocean outside, the windows were closed so the monkeys couldn't get in, and we were ready for a full day the next day!

I wish I could say I slept like the dead, but the air conditioner worked too well and SOMEONE stole all the blankets.

*looks at Amanda*

That's all for now! Catch the next blog post to find out what happens on day 2!

A Big Month - Genie

A New Beginning

A lot has happened since our last posts: new apartment, new jobs, new moped, new foods - and I wouldn't change a piece of it. The move to Min Buri hasn't been all sunshine and daisies, but it's been very entertaining change.

Min Buri is one of the sub districts (suburbs) of Bangkok. According to the 2017 census, the population is about 141,750. It is officially the largest city I've ever lived in. The best way I can describe Min Buri is the suburb you drive through in order to get to the wealthier suburbs further out or to get into the city.

It's the Hopkins to Minnesota's St. Louis Park and Minneapolis.

Sorry, people of Hopkins.

But it's a perfectly fine place to live. The best part is the location. We're perfectly out of Bangkok proper that it isn't swarming with people. However, there is always something to do and it's only a 45-60 minute drive to get into the city. It's the perfect weekend adventure to go in, have a few drinks, get a pizza, and come back.

We'll start with the new list above and in order:

New Apartment

We made a post earlier, but our new apartment is still adorable. Somehow the floor is filthy all the time. Both Manders and I lose so much hair. Don't ever get pale floors. It's a disaster. I wish I had a Roomba constantly running in here. But that's the only downside to the apartment. 

The biggest change in the apartment (other than price) is the constant attention to putting things where they belong. Living in a space this small means that everything needs a place and everything needs to be in that place or the whole apartment looks small and dirty. Due to this, both Amanda and I have gotten very good about putting things back immediately and doing the most WILD CHORE I NEVER THOUGHT I WOULD LOVE: making the bed. 

Yes, mother. You're reading this correctly. We make the bed every day. We got decorative pillows and a duvet - the whole place really looks top notch. 

New Jobs

Amanda and I both started at new jobs. I've been there for three weeks and Amanda has been at hers for 5.

Amanda teaches a 5th grade homeroom and 4th, 5th, and 6th grade Science, English, and Phonics at Sarasas Witaed Nimitmai school about 10km from our apartments. It takes about 20 minutes to drive to her school in the morning.

Two weeks after Amanda started at her job, I started at mine. I'm at an elementary school called Ek Burapa. It's less than 2km from our apartment, but including dropping Amanda off in the morning, my commute is a little over 35 minutes long.

As the semester is coming to a close, we're both wrapping up semesters with kids we're just meeting. I'm doing an international course (that the Thai teachers keep shortening to "inter-course" which just kills all of the English teachers) at EBS. It's a special (and very expensive) two week program where there are only English classes (no Thai language classes) and very small class sizes.

I currently have a class of 11 children.

The oldest one is three years and five months.

That's right.

I'm teaching babies.

They can't even do algebra.

Heck, some of them can't count on their fingers in English.

Yet, here I am teaching them. And their nicknames are glorious:

• See U
• Kao Kao
• Wachi
• Meechum
• IQ
• Ink
• Abby
• System
• Gainny
• Preme
• Owner

I'm fond of some of them. I'm not going to lie, I'm enjoying this age group. The days are long and I come home absolutely exhausted, but it's not emotionally taxing. The kids are genuinely sweet and the exhausting part is keeping up with them. 

They. 

Have.

So. 

Much. 

Energy.

Here for your daily dose of adorable are my tiny humans:

Perfect. Follows instructions to a fault. Flawless child.

Ink: Refuses to sit anywhere but my lap. Does not like to dance. Has remembered every English word I've taught so far in class.

Terrified of lions. Scrunches her face up adorably when she makes a joke.

Most outspoken English speaking boy in the class, but he only ever seems to say "teacher look".

Minor troublemaker and toy stealer but also a people pleaser. Very loud.

Very quiet. Cannot pronounce the hard "c" sound like in "cat". So he thinks his name is I-U.

The phrase "herding cats" was created to describe trying to get this girl anywhere to do anything. 

He really likes to punch me in the butt, but he's so stinking cute that it's hard to be mad. I call him "Ling" because he's a little monkey.

Probably un-diagnosed autism. He has clear and concise grammar and speaking skills but will only speak when asked a direct question. He's picked up on all my sign language.

Definite toy stealer. Cannot sing but she can certainly scream all the words. She has the most involved mother of any of my kids and her mother's English is much better than hers. Also, her mom has pink hair. She seems pretty cool. 

Literally looks like a Pinterest ad for children's fashion every day. Very cute. Loves to dance. Her grandmother drops her off every morning and I love both of them. I call her Babbing Gabbing Abbinggail because she talks all the time. System's mother thought this was hilarious.

New Moped

We got a fancy new bike. And I mean NEW bike. It's GLORIOUS. It's a red, Honda Click with hardly any kms on her!

She gets decent mileage, but she can go fast! I've gotten her up to 135km/hr on the highway because I'm renting the whole speedometer - not just part of it! Don't worry. We always wear our helmets and I don't drive nearly so fast when Amanda is on the back.

The bike has a small compartment under the seat that allows us to put a decent amount of shopping under us before taking off! An interesting thing about mopeds: you need to refill the tires about once a week. It's very obvious when the tires go below 25psi (they're supposed to be around 36psi). It's odd how much I don't miss driving a car - the only times I miss it is during the rain. Come rain or shine, this bike is definitely the most convenient way to avoid Bangkok traffic.

New Foods

This is probably my favorite part of living abroad: the food.

Moving to a bigger city opened up a whole new world of food we didn't have access to in Nong Khai. Don't get me wrong, that food will forever hold some nostalgia. It is delicious and a very different cuisine than southern Thailand. Don't worry though, chicken feet curry is still alive and well in southern Thailand as well.

About seven kms up the road from us is a very large shopping complex called Fashion Island. It's somewhere known in Thailand for good shopping. It's like a mini Mall of America. However, the best part of it is a five story complex next door that is entirely food! You imagine it, it's there! Last weekend, we got Mexican! It was shockingly accurate!

We got a delightful plateful of tacos, quesadillas, and horchata!

Another fun discovery was thanks to our new friend, Olivia. She, and another girl, brought us to Soho Pizza where we got a New York style pizza!

NEW YORK STYLE PIZZA.

It was just as good as you'd imagine. We got the vegetarian (because I'm a big believer that the best pizza is made without meat). It was covered in mushrooms, garlic sauce, lemon zest, and mozzarella cheese! Amanda, like a champion, carried that pizza box (it was a full meter wide!) on the back of the motorbike the full 40 minutes home while I wove between traffic. It was so wide that when we passed between rows of cars, Amanda held the box over our heads and out of danger!

Anyway, Amanda is giving me a look that means it's time to go to bed and now I'm very hungry.

I'll tell you all about our local food markets another day.

**To Be Continued**

My Weight Loss Journey ~ Amanda

I was recently asked what my “epiphany” was that inspired me to start getting serious about
losing weight. I didn’t have an immediate answer but I’ve been thinking about it and my
weight loss journey which inspired me to write it down.

The first time I was ever told to lose weight was in second grade. My mom took me to
a dietitian at Mayo Clinic who gave me a list of food I should eat. It was set up
like a traffic light; the good food was in green, the okay food was in yellow, and
I couldn’t eat anything in the red. We then proceeded to start buying food in
the green circle for me to eat while the rest of my family ate ‘normally.’ Eight
year old me was jealous, stopped eating, and started sneaking downstairs
to eat the cookie dough rolls behind the lazy-boy. Eventually we
stopped trying this, I’m not sure why we stopped but I only recall a
few months of this and not liking kiwi.

My eating habits didn’t change and the only physical exercise I got were on days when we
had gym class (even then I barely exerted myself because I hated it). So I kept eating badly
and ballooning. Of course I was made fun of and of course it hurt. I hated the way I looked
and instead of doing anything about it, I turned to food for comfort. “You feel like shit? Ok.
Here have a Reese’s or this entire bag of chips.” These are my kryptonite and it is still
very hard for me to say no.

My junior year of high school I started trying to ‘lose weight’ and that resulted in me
deciding to not eat lunch. I figured if nobody saw me eating they would stop making fun
of me. Nope. They still called me a cow. My best friend at the time started getting
scared and called my mom to tell her that I wasn’t eating lunch. They were all concerned
but I told them I was just trying to lose some weight and I figured starving myself during
the day and just eating dinner was the way to do it. It wasn’t. I didn’t know any
better and gorging myself on huge portions at night wasn’t healthy and I know that now.

When I got to RCTC, I started losing a little bit of weight. I was a little more active but my
eating habits didn’t change. I was in my first relationship in 2009 and that was when I
was truly motivated to start working on my weight for the first time. I used to believe that
nobody would ever fall in love with me for the way I looked and so I figured why bother
trying to get serious about losing weight until I had a significant other because they liked
me for me and not the way I looked. Part of my reasoning for finally wanting to start
working on my weight was because I never wanted to be a fat bride...did I want to
marry this guy? NO!  THE. LOGIC. DID. NOT. EXIST! So, I started dating
this guy and started working out at home in my room, in private because god
forbid a fat girl go to the gym. I have no idea how much I might have lost cuz
I never weighed myself. When he dumped me I stopped exercising and turned
back to food to comfort me. 

At the UofM, my weight fluctuated a lot. I felt like I was losing a little bit of weight during
my two semesters when I had a dance class...gee I wonder why? I wasn’t looking for a
significant other at the time, I was still emotionally broken so I wasn’t working on my
weight. My brother and I had a lot of Ben and Jerry’s during this time, the
mini-mart in our building sold the pints and it was easy to walk 50 feet to
get them. 

I progressively got lazier and fatter during grad school. By this point I had already
resigned myself to never being on stage professionally, I had been repeatedly told by
professors that I wasn’t good enough and too fat to be an actress and that I should
focus on directing and/or stage managing. I lived by myself in grad school and would
make giant portions of food, most dinners I would eat half and then put the rest in a
tupperware for lunch. In reality, I should have split it up into thirds. My consumption of
carbonated beverages increased as well. I was tired and stressed so I wasn’t sleeping
well and there were vending machines full of Mountain Dew everywhere. I’d have 1 or
2 bottles a day along with my water consumption. My knees were in so much pain it got
to the point where I stopped using the stairs in the Performing Arts Center. We had two
floors and I was too tired, too winded, and too embarrassed to walk up and down the
stairs so I used the elevator. For one of the shows that I stage managed, I made my
assistant stage manager walk up and down the flights of stairs to give calls so I
didn’t have to.

After graduation I moved back home and got fatter and fatter. I do not actually know
what my highest weight was but I remember being weighed around that time at
450 pounds. I was probably bigger but there is a record of that weight at Mayo.
I hated myself. I hated that I was giving up. I was in my late twenties, working a
few part time jobs, living with my parents, didn’t have any friends, and decided that
I was just going to live in Rochester for the rest of my life doing community theatre.
During this time I realized that I was addicted to caffeine so I made the decision to
start cutting it out. I started weaning myself off of all pop and stopped drinking
Chai Tea (the sadder of the two). My migraines weren’t as constant and I started
feeling a smidge better about myself. Step 1 of turning my life around had
happened.

A theatre friend told me about the apprentice program at the Commonweal and on a
whim I applied. Three weeks later I was in my interview, three days later I was
told that I got the job, and two weeks laterI moved. This was one of the best things
to ever happen to me.

My Commonweal year and half was full of challenges, new friendships, discoveries,
but most importantlyI had my epiphany. There was a lot of physical activity while
at the Commonweal; walking to the theatre, changeovers, strikes, builds, front of
house, theatre cleans, and classes. It was physically difficult at first but every day
I got more and more energy. I started going for walks along the Root River a couple
of nights a week. It was on one of these walks that I stopped dead in my tracks and
realized that I had to lose weight for me...not because society told me I had to,
not because some doctor told me I had to, not because my grandparents told me
I had, not because I had to do it in order to find a significant other, but because I
wanted to. I was done feeling sorry for myself. I started eating better, going for walks,
and, for the first time in my life, I started putting myself first. 

Post Commonweal I continued to drop the weight, went for long walks during my
brief time at home, again. I started cooking all of our meals at home and when we
did eat out I would watch my portions and order healthier food. Then I met Genie
and she helped to teach me even more about living a healthy lifestyle. When I moved
in with her we started doing dailies together; pushups, kettlebell squats, planks, etc.
Little things, but it was enough to keep me moving...not too mention the many walks
with the goodest girl. Genie continues to teach me about healthy living and I am
so grateful for her. We recently started working out here and I have started jogging.
That’s right, I, Amanda Pyfferoen, am jogging. WHO AM I??? 

I used to have a goal size that I wanted to get down to, that was 16. I thought I would
be happy as a 16. I’m currently at a 20/22 shirt wise and a 22/24 pants wise...
at least that’s my guess cuz sizes are very different in Thailand. Seeing what I’ve
accomplished over the past three years however has made me think that I can do
more. I don’t have an ideal weight but a range between 150 and 180 seems very doable to me.
It seems very scary to me but I’ve already lost more than that so I know that
I can do it. 

Here’s what I’ve learned from losing weight: 1. It’s about you and nobody else - you have to be the one who is choosing to
make these changes in your life
2. You have to keep moving forward - there are going to be rough days,
have them, but then pick yourself back up and keep moving forward
3. I am still fat and that is hard to deal with some days cuz society still sees
me as a fat person and treats me as such - I know I shouldn’t care about what
other people think and believe me when I say that I am working on that
4. It takes time - I used to want instant results and have now learned that you
have to have patience and do little things every day over time
5. Build a support system - surround yourself with people who are proud of you,
who remind you of how far you’ve come on days when you only see what still
remains, and who love you unconditionally
6. Don’t get angry at yourself 7. It’s called a journey for a reason 8. I’m still me - just with a little more confidence 9. All weight loss and body image issues are valid ...whether you are a size 38 or
a size 8, if you are unhappy with the way you look those feelings are valid!
Body positivity should be with every size! Everybody can have fat days.
10. I don’t want pity from this I only wanted to share my journey - please do not
compare your journey with mine, they are not the same!