Day 16: June 6, 2008

I woke up around 8 this morning- feeling much better, but not completely better.  Breakfast made me feel even better- then we spent the rest of the day working on programming and creating our first html pages.  I really like programming so despite not feeling great all day I had a wonderful time.  Walked to town for dinner, then came back to the resort for the meeting.  Watching a really cool graphic video thing Mike was a big part of making with horizon productions during the meeting (it was really good- using aftereffects alot) and saw some other people's work and talked about how to cover the tsunami drill that is going on tomorrow (I actually won't be covering it as the design team is going to stay in a try to get some more serious work done tomorrow).  After the meeting I'm going straight to bed as I'm exhausted!

Day 15: June 5, 2008

So today I did pretty much nothing.  I slept in this late and then ended up having a fever al day.  So literally I was in bed sick all day- sleeping 95% of the time.  I skipped meals and the meeting and just slept- straight on through the night!

Day 14: July 4, 2008

Happy 4th of July!  I didn't even realize that it was the 4th until about halfway through the day today!  We started out with a big group going to the school where we are hosting our Canon service project (we got a bunch of cameras from canon to bring and our working on a service project where we're giving the cameras to some kids- ages 12 - 16 or something- and we're sort of teaching them how to use them.  So we got to the school and each got a kid to work with- I ended up with 2 last minute- and we imported all their photos and sort of worked through which one's were good and why etc. and gave them tips.  The kid I was working with first spoke a fair amount of English so it was pretty easy to communicate with her- and other than that we just used hand signals and drawings.  It was so fun- and all the kids were so cute!  After that we came back to the hotel and just kind of hung around all day, I didn't actually do much work- I even watched a really cheesy movie in my room called "just desserts" on the hallmark channel (it's one of 2 English channels) while I was being lazy and sort of napping.  Then Stacey and I went swimming and ran out of the ocean after she got stung by a jelly fish!  After that we decided to just lounge in the pool.  Then I met up with some people for happy hour and afterwards a bunch of us went down to the restaurant down the beach (on the deserted resort stairs) for dinner.  Then Stacey, Selket, and I went to Stacey's translator's bar to celebrate the 4th(Num is his name- though I don't know if I spelled that right).  He's in a band that plays there every night and they play good jam bandish music- so it was really fun.

Day 13: July 3, 2008

Today was a very exciting day for me-- I officially found a home for my kitten!  But to rewind...I woke up late (answered the phone for my alarm and was unable to actually wake up- dream about us using the moon to somehow capture solar power from the moon because the power went out and I got scared because I thought the moon would fall out of the sky because that's not natural, then it did and hit a street lamp near me, that's when I woke up...I know, weird!).  So I got dressed fast and ran down to breakfast, then I went to a hospital with Julie to help her do an interview for her story.  The interview was with a  5 year old burmese child and we had trouble getting him to sit still, but I think in the end we ended up getting enough stuff to work for what she needed.  Then I rode on my first soong tao ("two bench"), which is basically a bus in thailand.  It's a truck with 2 benches and an overlay on the back (I have a picture Julie took of me on it- so I'll get it up eventually).  So we rode on our soong tao for only 50 baht (about a dollar) back to our hotel.  When we got back I went to my room to check on my kitten, and ended up taking a nap with him (he was so cute- he cuddled up under my chin the entire time!).  Then Charissa, Phil, and I went into town for dinner.  On the way they dropped/picked up laundry and we dropped the kitten off with is new owner.  He's this swedish guy I had previously met.  His name is Per Oolaaf and he is a retired swedish doctor military person who now lives here in Khao Lak with his Thai girlfriend who owns a coffee shop.  He named the kitten "Baghera" from the Jungle Book and was really nice!  He said I can come back and visit the kitten whenever I want!  Then we ran some errands, got pizza for dinner (we were all craving cheese and non-thai food!), then headed back to the hotel.  Grace and I had a beer before the meeting, then went to the meeting, then did some work afterwards.  Bed soon after to prepare for an early morning!

Catching up...again...

So I really will try to be better at this...but here are some rough summaries of all the days I've skipped blogging (I'm writing it starting with today- so the first few entries will be really short, and possibly out of order because I have a really bad memory!):

Day 7: June 27, 2008

Today I got up early, got breakfast, and did some work for a few hours before heading out with Stacey to Phuket to help her shoot her interview.  Her story is about a blind massage parlor where 12 blind people all live together in a pretty small place and run a massage parlor.  On the way to Phuket we discussed her questions and basically just prepared for the interview (reviewing everything with the translator and what not to make sure things went smoothly).  The interviews went really well, although it got really hot in the room because we had to turn off the air conditioning and fans to get good audio.  After the interviews we got picked up again and headed back to the resort (stopping to get Abby on the way).  On the way back we saw a beautiful sunset and most of the people in the van fell asleep, but I forced myself to stay awake because it was so pretty outside.  The sunset lasted for forever and the colors were amazing the whole way back!  Once we got back...I think I just went to the meeting and then back to bed?  I'll come back and edit this if I remember differently!

Day 8: June 28, 2008

I honestly don't know what I did this day.  Probably just had breakfast, worked, had the meeting, then went to bed.  Sorry!

Day 9: June 29, 2008

Slept 4 hours in the middle of the day.  Meeting with Mike.  Work most of the day.  Not much more.  Went down to see the sun set and take pictures of it.  Erin, Selket, and Stacey came down and met me for a beer- then Grace came down and we had another beer before the meeting.  Then we had the meeting and went to bed.

Day 10: June 30, 2008

Today I went out to help Kate with her interview.  The van was leaving at 7 am, so I had to skip the resort's amazing breakfast for the first time!  Kate's story is about this guy who is a farmer/fisherman- basically he does whatever is making money at the time.  His life is very "sabi-sabi" (I probably butchered that spelling- sorry!)- this basically means "whatever happens happens".  He was very nice and so animated- though a bit stiff during the interview because I think he was trying to be formal for us, but it still went great.  When we first got there we went with him to the bean fields.  We got to ride in a side-car thing on his motorcyle, they're called tuk-tuk's and it was my first time on one so I was really excited!  When we got there we pretty much had to just sit around and wait for him while he went through all the rows of beans and picked the ripe ones.  He has to do this every morning because you have to pick them when they are just right.  After that we rode back to his house and did the interview.  Then we got in the van, picked up Pat and his family, then went and picked up Grace.  We all stopped for lunch in the little fishing town where Grace's story is, then once we got back to the hotel we got chocolate popsicles- yum!  After that I went back to the tree house and did some work.  I started getting kind of homesick, and the meeting was cancelled so I went back to the room for some alone time (Charissa went out to dinner) and I got pictures off all my old memory cards (really old pictures- and some precious one's of my cats when they were little!).  Then Grace and Stacey came and got me and when went for a walk down the beach.  We walked to the end of the beach and went up some stairs to a resort that got destroyed by the tsunami.  The stairs led up to the restaurant that we've since footage of the actual tsunami hitting taken from and had a few beers- then hung out for a while and headed back for bed.

Day 11: July 1, 2008

Slept in until around 9 (despite plans to meet for breakfast with Stacey and Grace at 8:30- although I discovered Grace didn't make it up that early either!).  Got breakfast and then went to the tree house to work on design.  Pretty much did that all day until heading out to dinner with some of the group.  On the way into town we found a little kitten living in a pipe on the side of the road (little did I know I'd be taking that cat home when me on the way back from dinner!).  Had dinner at a place we go to quite often actually, then hit up the 7 Eleven for some snacks to keep at the hotel since I skip lunch almost everyday!  On the way back from dinner Erin and I found that cat whining on the side of the road- and just couldn't leave him there!  He fits in the palm of my hand and can't be more than 2 weeks old, he would have died for sure!  We brought him back to my room and spoon fed him some yogurt, then set up some water and a blanket for him in the bathtub before heading down for the meeting.  After the meeting I rushed back to the room to play with him (I'd already given him a bath and what not so he was nice and clean now) and curled up with him to go to bed.  He woke up a few times in the night and I took him into the bathroom and left him there while I fell back asleep, then went back for him as soon as I heard the whining and he came back and slept with me!  Probably the best sleep I've had since I've been here...I miss my cats!

Day 12: July 2, 2008

Today we had a "design frenzy" as we showed the rest of the group all of our work thus far for the first time.  So I woke up around 9 and headed out to catch the free breakfast (like I do every morning).  Before going I put away some of my clothes that have been out on the porch drying and played with my adorable kitten I rescued from the road the night before (then had to leave her/him crying in the bathroom as we walked out the door and put the 'do not disturb' sign up so the hotel staff wouldn't catch us!).  Had a quick breakfast, then scouted out areas near the restaurant where the kitten could live as a resort cat (and be fed by all the tourists because he's soooo precious).  Came back to the room and took a million pictures of the cat (I'll put them up whenever I decided to figure out how to add pictures to this blog), then put the cat in my bag and headed out to find the bank so I could attempt to get my money back from them.  I decided to just take the cat to town with me because he's too cute to just leave out on his own so he sat in my bag and eventually climbed out and crawled all over my shoulders and arms as I walked.  On the way into town I ran into one of the other members of the group and she offered to take the cat back to the hotel and watch him for a while so I could go to the bank.  I walked to the bank (which wasn't that far despite what everyone had made me think) and talked to the guy there and hopefully got everything straightened out.  Then I came back to the hotel and got to work on our design frenzy.  We worked until around 5:30, then headed back into town for dinner.  On the way into town I talked to a guy we had met earlier in the trip who had found a cat and adopted it and asked him if he'd like a friend for his cat- and he said most likely!  So tomorrow I'll be taking my kitten down to him and hopefully he'll have a permanent home...yay!  We had dinner at a cute little place with a 'lady boy' waiter who was so funny!  He guessed I was 27 and Julie was 17- way off on both of us!  After dinner we came back to the hotel and power-housed on our design for about an hour and half before our 9 o'clock meeting when we had to present it.  Everyone said they loved the design- so we're happy!  After the meeting I headed up to bed to update this blog and get some rest before going out to help Julie with her interview tomorrow.

Day 6: June 26, 2008

Today I didn't do a whole lot- apart from work!  Woke up around 9 and got breakfast, then headed to the tree house to get to work.  I actually spent a good bit of the morning setting up this blog and catching up on some e-mails, then when Grace got back from shooting we got together with Charissa and worked on the design.  Around 7 we walked into town for dinner (at the same place we had lunch yesterday).  We went into an art shop near the restaurant that had some really beautiful art!  I want to buy some so badly, but the cost for shipping it would probably double its price!  After dinner we came back, I showered, then we had our nightly meeting.  A little bit of work after the meeting and shortly I'm off the bed!

Catching up...

So here's to catch up on what I've done on my trip so far:

Day 1/2: June 21, 2008, June 22, 2008

Picked up Grace and left for the airport around 4 am.  Was on a very small Delta Airlines plane to New York (Kennedy).  Once there we had a five hour layover and then we were all on the same flight to Seoul Korea (the flight was 14 hours long).  We flew Korean Air which was great!  We all had individual TV's at our seats so we could watch whatever movies we wanted to on our own time.  They also had a pretty good selection of Disney music under the kids music channels (why they put it there I have no idea!).  I watched 27 Dresses (started with a chick flick!) then I watched that Bob Dylan movie, I think it's called I'm Not There, and then I watched La Vie en Rose which was really good!  Once in Korea we had another layover before a 6 hour flight to Phuket, Thailand.  In Korea we noticed that a lot of the couples walking around the airport were wearing matching outfits (like exactly the same thing!).  We found out from talking to someone on the plane that they were all on their honeymoon- so it must be a fad to dress alike on honeymoons in Korea.  We got into Phuket around 12:30 am local time and had an hour long commute (on our vans that we'll have through the duration of our stay) to our hotel.  Once at the hotel we got all checked in, got our room assignments and keys, and then hit the sack after traveling for about a day and a half!

Day 3: June 23, 2008

We woke up really early so we could get breakfast and walk around the hotel (and see Thailand for the first time since it was dark when we got here).  Then we met with the whole group at 10 am in the meeting room- it was really nice, we felt like we were at a nice business conference!  We had sessions on Thai language, culture, history, etc. with Paul Wedel and his daughter Jinda (Paul is the director I think of KIAsia which we're working with on this project).  We also had a session on the tsunami and found out a little more about how it effected the area and how bad it really was.  Lunch was included that day at the hotel (was really good), then for dinner we all went into town.  We ate a restaurant called "Viking" which was actually not 'real' Thai food.  There were burgers and pizza on the menu- but lots of people in the group wanted to eat that- haha!  I still got Thai food from there though!  In town when I tried to use the atm it wouldn't give me the money I asked for- then apparently it still took it out of my account...just my luck on my first day in Thailand (but I think we've got it all worked out now)!  Went to bed fairly early as we had meetings early the next morning!

Day 4: June 24, 2008

Meetings again in the morning (more language etc.).  Then in the afternoon we went into a nearby town for lunch (it was traditional family style which is how most meals are in Thailand).  After lunch we walked around the pier there (which was built by KIAsia to help after the tsunami- look on their website for more information).  Me and a few of the other people got onto one of the longtail boats...someone has pictures of it so we'll get those posted sometime!  After that we went to see the sea turtles that are being taken care of in a facility until they are large enough to be put back into the wild.  They were all so cute!  We got to see some really small ones and a few pretty big ones.  Next we went to a government facility to kind of touch base with the military here so they would know we're here and recognize us when we're out in the field working and not be offending or put off or feel like we're stepping on their toes.  Then we went through a couple of the towns nearby.  We also stopped to see a police boat that was displaces (I don't know how far, but it was FAR from the ocean) by the tsunami.  After all that we headed back to the resort, had another meeting, then some of us went swimming in the rain and got some drinks at the bar.  Had a blast, stayed up kind of late, then went to bed.

Day 5: June 25, 2008

We had to meet at 8 am this morning- so I was kind of tired, but it wasn't too bad.  We got breakfast, and coffee, then headed to our meeting.  Everyone was given their story assignments, then the majority of the group headed out to start shooting!  Those of us who didn't go out that early had a video camera workshop with Steven- which was really helpful considering most people had never used the camera.  Even though I've used this camera before it was great because I still learned stuff I didn't really know!  After the workshop we went into town for lunch.  Then Stacey and I sort of shopped and slowly headed back, but right before we were actually about to walk back in started pouring rain (hard)!   So we hung out under cover and waited for it do die down a bit before we walked back.  Once we got back we were just working in the work room (called the Tree House) and people started getting back from their long days!  We all sort of hung out, met with coaches, and worked for a while.  Then I went back to the room and napped before our 9 pm meeting.  The meeting was short and simple, and afterwards I went straight to sleep!