Phuket and more

I know its been a while since I’ve written a blog post, and I know many of you out there have found yourself thinking hey what are Pat’s thoughts about everything. Well I’m about to give them to you. Keats and I just got back from a pretty awesome vacation in Phuket. It’s one of the larger islands a bit north of Trang. We were lucky enough to have a family connection in Phuket that hooked us up with a place to stay. Keats Aunt Carter, who passed away about 10 years ago, was friends with this guy Barry who now lives in Phuket. Through Keats uncle we were put into contact with him and arranged to go up to Phuket to visit. Phuket is a great place to go for a vacation, especially when you have a nice free place to stay for a few days. Barry had a really sweet house with all kinds of art and souvenirs from all over Asia and India. He was very much a traveling hippie back in the 70’s and had some really great stories to tell us about some of the things he has seen and done. He was also generous enough to share with us several bottles of red wine, something we had definitely been missing greatly in Trang. He also had a kitchen and a grill so I took it upon myself to cook some meals for us all while we were there. We had filet mignon, not the cheap fake filet that Trang is famous for but real stuff, and ribs and a salad for dinner one night. The next night we had pasta with tomato sauce and fresh vegetables and another delicious salad made by our friend Sven, from Berlin visiting his Thai girlfriend Aow. Barry also had a really nice garden where we did a lot of eating and equally as much drinking, I’m pretty sure his extra dry martinis could have been lit on fire. It was just really awesome to have someone be so welcoming and generous with everything that he has. I think its something that Keats and I appreciated even more given the fact that were both poor college graduates. On one of the days Barry drove us all over the island in his truck to see some of the viewpoints that not to many of the tourists know about. Some of these sights were really amazing to see, the sea mixed with the green hills and blended with the development of some of the major beaches made for some great photos. He also took us by one of his favorite local artists, a guy named Niran. Barry has several pieces by him in his house and he encouraged Keats and I to buy some art from him that we really liked. It was nice to have someone encourage me to buy something I have absolutely no idea of where to put. I think I might take him a photo of a giant Buddha in nature and have him draw his interpretation of it. That’s right I’m commissioning art over here, what are you doing? I’m like the Catholic church, minus that whole child sex scandal. One of my favorite things about the trip was the food that we had in restaurants, it was nice to be able to order a pizza or a sandwich and not pay too much for it. I still really enjoy Thai food but it is nice to have an alternative every now and then. The beaches in Phuket were absolutely gorgeous, they cost 100 baht to get on but that got you a nice chair and an umbrella. They also would bring whatever drinks you wanted right to your chair, it was pretty much like a living Corona commercial except it was just a different kind of light watery tasting beer. Needless to say the beaches were amazing the water was completely clear, I could see my feet in 6 feet of water. I don’t think I will ever go back to the beaches in North Carolina again knowing what I do now. And one of the best parts is Phuket is only a 5 hour trip from Trang, I have driven 5 hours to go to way worse and much more boring places, I’m looking straight at you Aiken SC. Well I’m done now trying to explain how awesome and great my past weekend was. The only bad part about it was Barry got bitten by his neighbors dog but in the end it kind of worked out for Keats and I because it meant we got to stay an extra day and take care of him, sorry Wichienmatu School. What kind of guests would we be if we left him in that condition.
I guess now I will try to talk a bit about school and some of the frustrations I have been having with it. It has gotten very difficult to deal with the extreme language barrier with some of my classes. Some of my better classes will pick up on an idea almost instantly and some others will just stare at me with that classic stare that lets you know they have no idea what your saying. We also have pretty much no interaction with the Thai teachers who teach our kids English. I still don’t really know who my co teachers are and I’ve been working here for almost two months. I’ve been trying to understand the Thai education system and not get to angry with it but for the most part I don’t really see why they keep it in place. If they ever wonder why their number one industry is other people coming to see their country they must look no farther then their school system. I don’t want to complain to much right now but if I post another thing about this in a few days you will know things have gotten worse.
Now I would like to discuss something that has given me much joy lately. That is watching our Tar Heels destroy anyone who would even think of stepping to us. Through the great power of the internet I was able to watch us demolish Michigan St, in the state of Michigan no less, by 36. Was I the only one who loved seeing Sheed in the house, I love that guy. Here is a great website to look at if you also love Sheed http://www.geocities.com/Colosseum/Loge/7346/ . My personal favorite on that list is that he got thrown out of the McDonalds All American game. Anyway we are absolutely dominating right now something I really love to see. Lawson is a machine and Tyler has been his usual animal self on the block. Its been nice to see Deon man up as well. It was also nice to see Duke lose to Michigan and shoot 20 percent from three. See what happens after you fire a Duke grad, Tommy Amaker, good things start to happen. Whats Quin Snyder doing these days? I cant wait to skip work and watch the UNC-Duke game in an internet café. I might have to re schedule my return flight by about a month and land in Detroit so I can watch us cut down the nets. Well I think that’s enough writing for now. I’m about to watch an episode of the Sopranos, anyone who thinks that show is better than The Wire is definitely white and definitely not a smart person. Is the Wire still on BET, I hope not. Is there still a BET, I really hope not. I’ll post more soon I promise.


Pat