Yasmin's Place

When I Move, You Move Just Like That

2 New Albums!

Newcastle 2006 and Myall Lakes/Seal Rocks

So yeah..updating, I am total shit at that.

So the past few weeks have been really good. It’s funny because it has been amazing to see everyone I have missed so much but then there is still that part of me that is really missing AZ. The last time I was here all I was really leaving was Jason and a few good friends, this time I left a beautiful life. I had made and rekindled the kind of friendships novels are written about and a life that some people would envy. Yeah my job wasn’t that awesome but everything else was better than I would have ever imagined. One thing I really have to keep in mind is that things are supposed to change. If I would have stayed my life would not have developed like it should have. Could I really stay working at SL? Yeah, I could have, but what about school? Things are changing. I have to change with them. Even when I do come back to AZ, things won’t be the same. I just have to look at it as a chapter in my life and move onto the next.

So I finally have made some decisions. I am moving to Perth, West Australia. I know this wasn’t really in the game plan at first. I had planned on living in Brisbane and starting at the Uni. When I finally made it to Australia I realized how hard it was going to be to move to a cit where I didn’t know anyone, get a house, get a job, and just restart my life. After consulting with just about everyone and having some pressure I realized that moving to Perth is an easier option with similar rewards. Perth is gorgeous, the economy is booming, and they have a good Masters program. I will be near my mother and all of my “aunties”. There are garages of furniture for me to pick from, a huge selection of jobs, and a few friends. It was a hard choice for me to leave Newcastle. I was thinking about staying here for the summer and living with good friends from Uni was very appealing, but all I was doing was avoiding the inevitable. I would eventually need to find a job (there are none in Newcastle) and move on with my life. I need to be near a good uni with a program I am interested in and I need a job. Perth has jobs and a Masters of Community Development at Murdoch University.

I think things would have been different if I would have had someone moving with me, it’s just easier when you are not alone. Maybe that would have changed things. Who knows!? All I know is that in a few days time I will be on a plane to Perth. If I hate it, oh well. I will move again. I am not keen on the idea of moving anytime in the future, as I have been moving for the past few years knowing I only have a limited amount of time. I am ready to settle somewhere. I am ready to unpack. You have no idea.

When I first got back to Newcastle, I was a mess. I was sad about leaving Thailand, depressed about leaving the US and really didn’t know where I would be living next. It was strange, I was always moments from tears. I did really well at not crying and figured out how to suppressed the lump in my throat. It would be the strangest of things that would se it off. For example, the girl at the bank asking if my move to Australia was permanent or the check out person saying “Oh your American, are you here for a holiday?” Sometimes I just wanted them to shut up and stop asking me questions. What business is it of theirs? I just wanted them to leave me alone.

Now I have thrown myself into accepting my fate, stop all my internal bitching, and spend some quality time with my friends and family. I have been going out a lot. It’s great to be back in a country where the bars don’t close at 2AM, but that does lead me to stay out until 5AM. Whatever, I am on vacation. A few friends are now djing at a club so it was really good to be out and have them play all the fun dancie (sp?) music that I have missed so much. I am having a good time with everyone but spending most of my time with either Caro and those amazing girls or Alicia. Stu comes around a bit too but isn’t into going out so much anymore and prefers to fade away to his girlfriend at home. Totally understandable. He actually has given us a few good nights out.

I am flying out of Sydney on Tuesday night, but Caro, Stu (I have to run this by him as it was just decided a few minutes ago) and I are meeting up with some of the girls to go to the Sydney Zoo during the day and then to see me off at the airport! I am going to a pub crawl tomorrow night and then probably out to somewhere on Saturday. Big times ahead.

I'm in Australia...

Yeah so I am in Australia, actually in Newcastle at the moment. I have been spending time with friends and family and I have been loving every minute. Well every minute between my stress moments.

Ok so here are some pics to make your heart melt.
In other news...I am moving to Perth. Or atleast that is the plans for for the time being. I am not sure if I am making the right choice, but I do know I am makin g the easier decision.

PICS!!!

I added some photo albums, Southern Thailand and Out in Thailand!  Check them out!

Out and About

Ok so I know that I haven’t updated in a while, but I finally have some time. I don’t even know where to begin. So I will start with this weekend and work backwards. So I left on Thirsday afternoon to Krabi which is in Southern Thailand. We arrived and took a minibus to Ao Paenag which a little seaside town. I guess it is comparable to the Mediterranean, according to Rona. We stayed at a a guesthouse for the night had dinner and shopped around for a few hours. In the morning we took a long tail boat to Ao Railey. I think this boat ride may be been the closest I have ever come to death while laughing. Since I am from the good old AZ, I don’t know much about boating and what not and what the waves mean. It was a rough ride. We were gong onto waves and then slamming down. A few times I heard a crack and I thought we were all going under. The waves were huge and I think and one point they thought about turning around but then soon realized that in order to turn around we could have easily been dunked. It was fun for a bit. We were all soaked with water but then it got a bit worse. Then Rona started about a story of a family she knew that died somewhere and I guess the water wasn’t half as rough as our was. Looking back on it I see that it was dangerous, but hey what can you do?  We made it, but not without all of our bags being soaked. Once we arrived surprisingly safely we checked into the Ya Ya resort. We got a room with 5 beds and 2 bathrooms for 2000 baht…a freaking bargain. Then we were off to the beach. All I can say is that I have seen my far share of beaches around the world and these were by far some of the most stunning. There was crystal clear waters and amazing cliffs. Look for pics soon. We ended up meeting some Israeli’s and playing volleyball for a few hours. We even have the bruises to prove it. It really was a nice change from what all my other weekends have been like. After dinner we went bar hopping (there are like 10 on the while stretch) and ended up settling and a little place that was made of bamboo and had a platform with pillows and the ocean underneath. It was so relaxing. On Saturday we just hung out around the beach. We actually met this really strange/evil guy. I guess he was originally from Florida but had been living in Goa, India for the past few months. He was also gay and a psychic. It started to rain and we all headed in for lunch and he tagged along. At first I really thought he was just harmless and enjoying the company of 5 girls. We asked him abou getting a reading after lunch. I should have seen the cash signs in his eyes them. He came back to our room a little bit later and gave Christina a reading. Apparently her reading was so right on. The shady part is that she asked for a half hour and he went on and on for an hour and them requested 1000 baht instead of the 500 they agreed on. I thought it would be interesting to see what he had to say about me. I asked him how much it would be for one question and was informed I was only 200 baht. So I asked him about my upcoming move to Australia. He went on to tell me that is was a good move for me but he didn’t see me actually doing it for atleast 1 year. Ummmm yeah ok, take three weeks buddy. Then he told me that my family is a bad influence and I need to get away from them. Ok SURE….I haven’t lived near them in 16 years. If anything I need to spend MORE time with them. According to him they are a bad influence on my life. Well if you know me at all, you would know that my family is amazing. So I took that with a grain of salt. Next he told me that I was going to have a daughter. I was mildly pleased with that until he told me that I would never marry and be in a serious relationship. I guess I am going to date the same people I always have. That makes no sense whatsoever. Then he said that I would always be fine on money. Ok that is good. As for my job prospects in Australia, “I will work”. Oh really, how very insightful  of him. I also asked him about Carissa.I explained her as my best friends little sister and all the sudden it was like someone was talking to him and he says, “She was younger than you right”. Well no kidding, I did just pretty much tell you that. Overall I found him to be such a flake. What a joke. We were all pretty exhausted so we didn’t really party it up. Although our little psychic offered to take ous on a 40 mins walk to a full mood party where we could do shrooms. Ummm yeah, so not my scene. On Sunday we went island hopping to a group of islands. It was just like a post card. Overall the weekend was great. It was a nice change from the weekend of depression in Cambodia. Ok so I am sitting here at work waiting for this website I made to upload. It is taking freaking forever. I am in my last week of work and I need to get this site published ASAP. I am not sure what I am doing once I leave the house. I think I may go up to Chang Mai and do some rafting and then head over to an AIDS hospice in Loptburi. After that I am going to check on some flights into Malaysia. I was thinking about doing KL for a few days then heading to Cameron Heights and a few other places and then spending my last week in a group is islands off the east coast. I have no idea though. I think I have decided that I am going to just change planes in Hong Kong  instead of hanging around for a few days. I am just to eager to get to Sydney and see my friends and family. Now that I am so close I just want to speed it up. I also think it will be a pain in the ass because I have so much luggage and will be alone. I think I am can check it in at the airport, but still. By the end of my Malaysia trip I will have no clean clothes and will probably be so tired. I am not sure I want to take on Hong Kong.   I know I am being stupid but I just can’t wait to get to Australia. To everyone I live with when they leave they are going home, see I have still a few more months of traveling. After some time in Sydney I am heading to Brisbane to check out a school and then over to Perth. ThenI have to decide where I am going to settle. I have so many huge decisions to make. It is all a little overwhelming at times. Sometimes I just want to get to OZ ASAP so I can just start the process and figure things out. Sometimes I want to stay longer in Asia because it is so easy and amazing. It’s funny because right now I am pretty homeless. I mean I have a place until my programs ends but then after that I will be jumping from guesthouse to guesthouse. Then bouncing all around Australia, I know life is rough for me.  I was thinking about shipping some stuff home, but then I realized I didn’t really know where I am going to be. Where is home? Oh well, this is my life and I love it. What I do not love is how much I miss my friends. I really didn’t know it would be so hard. I like my roommates. I really do. They like me. Things are good, BUT I miss my “real” friends. Not to say that the people here aren’t but I feel like I could almost not even be bothered with trying to create a friendship. What’s the point I think there is a 99% chance that I will not ever see them again. Well that is minus Rona and Sonia, because I like them a lot and see myself in the UK within the next few years. It’s weird because I would think that out of 21 people I would find someone that I think is way fab. Look what happened when I went to Oz?  I came home with like 5 BFFs. Like serious friends. I guess I was just thinking that good, solid friends are kinda easy to come by. I have been very lucky in the past. I see they are not that easy to find. You girls and boys, you know who you are I seriously thank my lucky stars for you everyday. I am trying to think of funny stories. It’s so hard to get across because sometimes you just have to be there or understand Thai culture. We went out on Friday night and surprisingly the entire house went out. We had a huge able at a popular farang bar on Kho San Rd. I have not been that intoxicated in a long time. I have no idea how it happened. In Thailand they sell these “drinks” called buckets. It really is just a bucket of cola, booze, and red bull with a bunch of straws. It’s pretty unsanitary because you have like a huge group drinking them, but you are so drunk anyways you really don’t think about it. So I know I bought one bucket and then drank from many. There was also a tequila shot. I am sure we filled every expectation of Americans on a cab ride home. I think it was Jared, Tiffany, Kate, Rona, and myself. Four of us smooched in the back with Rona in the front. According to Rona, I guess the most sober person in the car the cab ride went something like this. The cab driver put on the farang (foreign) station. I guess Kelly Clarkson came on. We were belting it out like no other. He found it hilarious to turn the volume up and down as to hear us singing. I guess he was like cracking up. Then I kept on thinking that we missed our turn. So once again, this is hearsay but I guess just kept saying we missed out turn after every 7-11 we passed (we live next to one and there are like a million in Bangkok, I counted 13 on my 10 min drive to work today). Kate kept on grabbing the driver’s head (which is really disrespectful to in Thai culture) and screaming “BIG C WOOOOOOOOOONNNNNNSSSSSSAAAAAWWWWAAAAANNNGGGGG!” (Which is a big store we live near) We broke every cultural rule that had been implanted in our brains from the 100+ guide books we have all read. Good thing he was laughing the entire time. We are lame. The actual pics of the cab ride are hilarious. When I got home I thought it would be a good idea to call American. So I called Kate, but I think I thought my phone was broken because I could not get her voicemail. Well she was in the middle of one of her hardest tests in grad school. She answered because she thought I was dead or close to it. I am a bad friend sometimes. I just wonder what the security guard wrote about our entrance. See we have to sign in if we get home after 10PM. This is also hearsay but I guess if we are drunk or rowdy he makes a note of it for our administrators. Not that we are not able to go out or anything, but they don’t like us calling into work if we are hung-over. I guess we just need to deal with it. Either way I have been at work for way too long and I think that my stuff is just about uploaded. Much love…. Oh yeah, tons of mistakes. I know. Deal with it. I am too busy! 

I heart Cambodia!

I have so much to say..but I am so tired. I love Cambodia. I don't know what it is about it but I just know I will be back. Maybe in a few weeks, but then I would have to miss out on a lot of other places. It may be worth it. There are some pics in the aablum called "Cambodia"  but you may not undertand them all that well unless you know the history. I will write more about it when I have some time. All I know is that I am going to adopt a Cambodian baby one day and that I have to go back there. The history of the country is horrific but there is such promise of growth. Just wikipedia "The Killing Fields"  or "Pol Pot". Then look at the pics. Oh yeah they are pretty graphic.

Busy Busy

I just got back from Kanchanaburi and I am heading off to Chaam for a few days for training at the beach. I think I get back to Bangkok on Thursday night, but leave for Camdodia on Friday morning. Talk to you soon! :)

Kids

Oh Yeah my hair is even darker than when I left AZ. Since we are under marshall law (due to the coup) I decided to dye my hair out od a box for the first time since 8th grade.

Oh yeah military taking over the gov. It's ok, we are safe. No blood....yet. :)  Ha ha ha the coup!

Pics

FYI, I added a photo album.

There is so much for me to say, but at this point I just don't know where to begin.

Today I spent time in one of the Daycare centers that HAT helps support. It is located in the Yanawa (SP?) District which is condisdered to be one of the many slums in  inner Bangkok. I have never seen such horrible conditions. The cost to the parents is around 250 Baht which is about $6.75 US a month. They do get lunch and milk to take home with them but the actual facility is amazingly disgusting. The center is adjacent to homes for the very poor (whose average family income is a mere $10,000 baht a year (around $270 US). The actualy house is on stilts becuase the rainwater would flood it otherwise and the remaining water is dirty and ridden with feces. I wish I would write more but I only have 2 mins left on the internet.

More pics coming soon.

Pat Pong

So last night we went to the sex shows in Pat Pong. I saw a woman shoot an egg, pull about 3 meters of strings, drink water and piss it our, strings with needles, and string with razor blades, and do the banana toss all from her vagina. Oh yeah and of course insert and shoot flashing ping pong balls. It was interesting. I also saw a ton of farangs (western people) with thai prosties. It made me very grossed out and no amount of beer could take the dirty feeling away from me.

Today we went to the Grand Palace, The Reclining Buddha, and other various wats. It was really, really, hot. I just sweat. All the picture are pretty bad because we all look like greasy pigs. I will post them soon. I also bought like 20 post cards. So if I have your address, you will be getting one. If I don't and you think you deserve one, E-mail  me. That means you Ozzies.

I just booked a ticket to Cambodia, so I think we leave in 2 weeks. I think we are flying in on a Friday and then leaving on Saturday so that we don't have to miss work. It's great living with 17 other travelers. They plan trips and I jump on when I like the sound of them. No planning on my part, I just go with the flow.

I think we are booking another trip to the islands in a few weeks. I was planning on going by train all the way down but I guess it isn't very safe at the moment, esp to get into Malaysia. So we are looking into flights but that may limit the other countries I wanted to visit. Well my Internet time is up..

PS what do you think about a tattoo?  "You are your own refuge" in Thai? Maybe?  I think I am going to go for a hour hoot massage....only $6 US.

Love you all.

Excuse my spelling and stuff, I'm in a rush.

The Beginning

9.9.06

So here I am sitting here at the airport in Hong Kong. We arrived at around 5AM, so there were no duty free shops open. I wish there were because then it would have given me something to do other than chat to strangers in the Smokers Lounge. Although I am not really smoking, I really had nothing better to do.

So let me start at the beginning. After getting off the plane I needed, I mean NEEDED water. Eff the TSA and their no water rules. So I went to the one 24 hour fast food place to eat and realized that I was not eating I purchased a$3 Peach Snapple. It was delish. Too bad I just left it in the bathroom, hey give me a break. Better my Snapple than my purse right?

So I go downstairs to the Smoker Lounge and saw HIM. Now y'all know how picky I am about guys. I can honestly say this man was just so my type and I know that Saranden and Kate would approve. So we start talking and he is from Istanbul. So who wants to go? You would be a hit over there Kate.

Anyways after a mildly entertaining chat with him I moved on. In the past hour and half I have met more interesting people than I would encounter in half a year in Phoenix. Traveling is interesting.

Ok so you know how I was like a rock before I left. Se ya when I see ya..Well it all hit me right after I went through security in Phoenix. I could not stop crying. Somehow after an hour or so I was ok. I remembered how I had told everyone that I was not going to read my goodbye cards until I was comfortable with a glass of red and a Xanax. At this point in Phoenix I wasn't sure I would ever be able to read the cards. I really love my life in Phoenix. I love my friends. I love my everything. After composing myself and making it through the zoo they call LAX I was as comfortable as I was going to get on fourteen and a half hour flight. I opened the netter from Kate. OMG I could not compose myself. There was no stopping it. I felt like a complete jerk, I don't think people we watching me but wow. Thank you Kate. I am just speechless in responding.

So after my magic pills from the doctor kicked in an I slammed a rum and diet I passed out for almost the entire flight. Only to have a really funny dream. I mean so funny that I woke myself up from laughing.

I don't there where we were but it was Boyd, Saranden, Kate, and a random selection of people. I think Boyd had friends in town or something and we were all just hanging out. Then I randomly found this really slippery area on the bar (which was like a rooftop garden) and I started running and sliding on my feet. The Kate tried it and she almost fell off the top of the building but then her feet caught her. In real life it would have been terrifying but in this dream it was hilarious. I could not stop laughing. Then I snorted and woke myself up and still could not stop laughing. I swear people must have thought I was crazy. 

Well I think that I am going to try and read until we board the flight. I am starving; you know how I feel about airplane food. According to my time calculations I haven't eating a real meal in 24 hours. I know I am here to expand my horizons, but I think I saw a BK in the food court. Maybe they are open? 

9.11.06

So here I am, in Thailand. I haven't had the time or energy to write until now and even at this point I feeling weak from the heat and lack of electrolytes.

So first things first, I love my house. It is beautiful. It is two stories with an gorgeous garden and a maze of rooms. I was placed in the largest room with 5 other girls. Each one of them is very special and really sweet. We have our own bathroom and huge closet. Kari is from Ronoake , VA and a ton of fun. Loves to do crazy things and is full of energy. Rona is from Scotland but has been studying in England she is really level headed and grounded. I think Julia is from CA, and well is your typical CA girl with  a taste for Thai men and friends. Kate is our quite Canadian and I haven't gotten to know her that well.

On my first day everyone was in and out of the house, arriving and leaving to get goods down the road at Big C which is very much like Super Walmart. We ate dinner and got to know each other. On Sunday we had a long orientation of what we can and cannot do and had to complete a list of tasks in a pair. Mine was easy enough but there was a group of girls that ended up on the wrong train and almost in a far away city. We were all a bit concerned when they had not returned after three hours. When they did get home all we coulod do it poke fun.

After orientation and dinner 6 of us went for a Thai massage. The cost was 200 baht, which is around $6 US. It was an hour long and It really was unlike any massage I had ever gotten. I would recommend it to everyone. After the massage we ran home to get ready for our fist nigh ton the town on Khao Sun Road, the main back packers area. It was great and we met a wide range of guys including one gorgeous Israeli. After a few drinks we headed home. It was fun but after an exhausting day, jet lag, and a massage even beer wasn't enough to get me in the mood.

We woke up early to go to the Yesin Village about 2 hours outside of Bangkok. We had a luxury bus with reclining chairs. Since I was a bit hung-over I did sleep a bit on the way there. When we reached the village I thought it would be a good idea to go to the bathroom. Well as I approached what I thought was the bathroom I head a commotion. There was a snake in the bathroom. GREAT!  Foon (our friend/administrator of the program) chased it out with a stick, but I had the heeby jeebies and decided it would be better to use another bathroom. After that we browsed a museum I think it was "The Museum of Life". From what I gathered from the translator the villagers had no fresh water, they were totally isolated until like 50 years ago. Then we went on a boat ride along the river to where it meets the ocean. We stopped at a place for lunch that was built out of a boat and had like a 6 course meal of local seafood. It was different and I was convinced I would get sick off the food but I haven't yet…Then we toured some mussel farms and went back to the bus. Our next stop was Buddha Park. It was so surreal, lush, and clam. Next stop was out to dinner at opur choise of places around the neighborhood. After out exotic meal I was going to try some street food, but my stomach wasn't feeling it so I ended up at a place I think I ate at ONCE in the US, KFC (Will I know you are so proud, I even got Zinger sauce).

Next stop was home, I was exhausted. I watched an hour of Bridget Jones Diary 2 (and yes it was the part where she is in Thailand and goes to jail for accidentally smuggling drugs) and then I passed out. I had to be ready for my first day at work by 7 AM.

So I woke up and put on some appropriate clothes. I arrived at HAT (Reproductive Health for Quality of Life Development Association of Thailand, and no I do not know why HAT is the acronym). The office is great with a marble bathroom and western toilet. Trust me, that is awesome. When our Driver arrived, my mentor (who I think told me I could call him Tiger) and I headed on a 2 and a half journey to Anthong for a meeting the leaders of the informal education department of seven providences. From what I gathered from Tiger's broken Thai we were there to tell them about our HIV and reproductive health education program and set up a time for training. The meeting was 2 hours long and entirely in Thai. I just sat there and handed out brochures. It was interesting though because there was someone always taking a photo of the meeting and even though there were 10 people at most in the room, people found it appropriate to answer there phones. After more photo's we took off for Bangkok. We stopped at some roadside place for lunch and I was served everything I was told to avoid. So I drank my iced coffee and moved food around my plate. Wen we finally arrived back in Bangkok I spoke with the director of HAT, was given a desk, and then headed home in a taxi.

Ok I have to get to dinner but I did want to tell you how hot it is here. I have never swaet so much in my life. It is so humid. Unless I am inside out room with air con am constantly sweating, my clothes are wet. At first it is kinda gross, but I think I am adapting. Plus it isn't just me, it is everyone. We are just sweaty..but not smelly. Even though we all thought we would smell,  but we have set up some sort of buddy system to check that we do not smell and well I have yet to smell anyone. Strange huh?

Oh yeah and Tiffany got bit my a stray dog. That sucked.

Oh and Crissie kissed a Thai. We have established we miss our rabbits.