What will we do for New Years?

I can't even fathom the carnage that has took place. More then 120,000 dead. Its strange really. I hear people make jokes about it. I don't know what to say. I don't tend to feel too much when people die, but I am still respectful.

So it would seem that tonight is the eve of the New Year. I plan to go to Warm Up, a very popular nightclub in Chiang Mai that I go to far too often. Meeting friends there for dinner around 8. Not sure if I will stay there all night. Its quite possible. They aren't doing an official countdown in Thailand, so perhaps we will do a countup?

Quick side story. A late night club (open 12-4am)burned down the other day while I watched from across the street. I was actually quite pleased as they had just doubled the price of small heineken. Those bastards!! Anyways, the amusing part is that I met this girl whose name is Beer. Yes, one of my favorite drinks! Upon hearing this I asked her to spell it in Thai to make sure I had heard correctly. I ran into her again last night at Warm Up. I just thought I'd throw that in for anyone who was amused by the girl named Cabinet.



Words of the Day:

津波 (つなみ）tsunami

余震 (よしん) aftershock

การทำลาย - destruction

ความเสิยหาย - damage

New Years is Cancelled...

It seems that they have cancelled all New Year celebrations in Thailand due to the tragedy. I don't know how successful that will be. We shall see. I have no special plans as of yet.

Thanks for the handful of people who emailed me inquiring if I was still alive! Also, my sister who sent me a rather rude email informing me that I should be sending out mass emails telling people I'm ok. Is that how it should work? For those that have any idea what I'm doing know already, I don't live anywhere near the beach. Thailand is not an insular country the last time I checked the map.

I nearly got swept up in a brawl the other night on Saturday. I went out with some considerably younger friends. I stepped out of the disco we were at for a few minutes (The damn disco doesn't sell heiniken! What am I supposed to drink?) I came back and found a bunch of rather large guys screaming at two of my friends from London. It seems one of these goons got it into his head that one of my friends called him gay. I jumped right into it and tried to ask what they were yelling about and managed to calm it down without taking or giving too many hits. Its rare to see any homophobia here. Foolish tourists aside that is. I don't get why people are such morons. This particular disco is where all the bar girls take the tourists. I don't particularly like it as I get into or mighty close to a fight 1 out of every 4 trips to the place, but a lot of my friends like it as its the only really good place to go if you want to dance any night of the week. Ahh well. It was still a fun Christmas! Met a girl named Cabinet! Or rather the Thai equivalent of the word, ตุ้. Thats a first for me. Usually their nicknames are adjectives, animals and the like.

I studied lanaguage for about 5 hours yesterday and I got some new words for all you languge buffs who religiously read my site and can't get enough of all this probably useless knowledge!! (Or rather by teaching the words I am more likely to remember them then just using them in my flashcard program alone. Either way...)

Today's possibly useful vocabulary:

不安障害　（ふあんしょうがい）－ Anxiety disorder

恐怖症　（きょうふしょう）－Phobia

มหันตภัย - disaster

แผ่นดินไหว - earthquake

Tragedy in Asia

It would seem that I managed to sleep through the "strongest earthquake in a century" as it rattled Chiang Mai yesterday morning. A number of friends told me of their condo's moving and they all agreed it was quite scary.

I don't think anyone knows how many are dead yet for sure. I've seen numbers ranging from 11,000 to 14,425. Where do these people get the specific numbers? I haven't found two news sites with matching statistics as of yet.

I had planned to go down South to Krabi for New Years, but I may wait until January if I make it at all.

A friend of mine living here is returning home to Japan for a while and has invited me to come along. I don't think I can scrape up the cash necessary for this, but I will give it a shot. I want to goto Japan!

งงงวย!!

Well I'm taken aback. It seems that someone reads my blog! Thanks Mr. Traina! Perhaps this will motivate me to write more often?

I have been drinking rather heavily since the week before finals. Since finals ended I have been staying out until nearly 4 am many nights! I will need to take a vacation from the booze pretty soon. During these many nights out, I have collected a rather large following of girls and their respective phone numbers. Its quite exhausting, but it sure is fun.

I really need to find a way to put pictures up here from internet cafes. Anybody know? I can't always be downloading and installing the program I used before.

Interesting words of the day:
窒息　（ちっそく）　－to choke, suffocation
อะหยัง - Northern Thai for 'what?' (อะไร)
moil \MOYL\, intransitive verb:
1. To work with painful effort; to labor; to toil; to drudge. 2. To churn or swirl about continuously.

Christmas Already?

So I guess it's Christmas. My second one in Thailand, it isn't nearly as hot as last year, but it sure isn't cold. I have been drinking far too much since finals. Last night was the first night I managed to get home before 4am in a week. Going to a small dinner party tonight before going out to hit up a few nightclubs with the team.

I've been trying to get back into my strict vocabulary-learning regiment. It works really well when I'm being productive. I have about 1200 words in my program now. I mix together Chinese, Japanese, Thai and I've started throwing in some words from กำเมือง, the Northern dialect of Thai. We'll see what happens when I get to Australia in Feb and will need to figure out how to type Arabic to use those words in my program.

Halfway!

Japanese and Chinese finals went well. They were rather easily actually. A's no problem. In 25 minutes I take Foundations of Southeast Asian's exam. I must write three essays on some a few rather uninteresting social topics. One more final on Friday. Oral Presentations.

The End of Days approches - Finals

So I have a mountain of homework to climb. I need to write an essay in Japanese on how I would teach if I was the teacher. Thats going to be stressful. Finals start on the 13th. I'm not ready. Not enough time. Argh.

Zoloft seems to be working great for the most part. I tend to be in a good mood all day. It is as if a cloud has hovered over my head my entire life and now it has cleared up a bit. On the other hand, I don't see any signifigant reduction of anxiety, but I haven't really tested it yet.