Florida bound

I recently accepted a position in Orlando, Florida. I never thought I'd move to Florida, but I'm always up for an adventure. I applied with Public Allies at a couple different locations throughout the country. Orlando called me to set up a phone interview. Something was calling me down to Orlando. I passed the phone interview and was asked to fly down to Orlando for in person interviews with the local nonprofits that were partnering with Public Allies this year.
The interviews were a quick 15 minutes and the room was full of potential allies. After interviewing all morning and then staying after to get in a couple extra interviews in, I was exhausted. The whole process was information overload. I wasn't quite sure that I really "clicked" with any of the nonprofits. Some I knew I was suited for, but honestly unsure if I was up for the challenge. Before I left I chose my top 5 and added "open to any position" at the bottom of my list. I'm very adaptable and I hopped that the right fit would just work out.

I received a rejection email that weekend and although I was bummed I tried to just keep positive. Keep myself motivated at my current job and see what would happen. I didn't give up and applied at some more nonprofits.

After a stressful week of work, the following Friday, I received a personal call from Public Allies. One of the allies turned down a position and a nonprofit was requesting me. Quest Inc I pulled out my notes and remembered speaking with them. I had put them on my top 5 but crossed them out. I know that working with physical and mental disabilities can be difficult and from my past experience working in Special Ed, I was apprehensive, but due to that experience, my understanding of special needs must have impressed them and they felt that I would be an asset to their organization. So after a nice chat with the ladies from Quest, I accepted the position. They inflated my ego by telling me that I was their first choice and when someone declined they asked right away if I was available.

Why not? It's what I had wanted a week ago, and my current job wasn't very fulfilling. I smiled and reminded myself that I had to be patient and keep the faith.

So...here I am two weeks away from driving down to Florida with y new position as a Vocational Training Coordinator for Quest Inc..... stay posted.

Day 7 Disco.....Relax....Trip back to ROK Day 8

Disco and inflatable animals…

We walk into the Disco and it is HUGE and PACKED anyone from anywhere is dancing. There are small platforms with poles, tables, steps and the floor filled with people dancing. Like I said earlier we were dressed very cute, flower dresses, minimal makeup, and sandals…. most of the girls/guys here were in their black club clothes. We like dancing so we mosey our way to a dancing spot. We are dancing and this ‘lady boy’ gets K to get up on one of the small platforms and dance. As soon as she does she/he proceeds to flip up her dress. He tried to do the same to me but I stop him. It was funny and not at the same time. We decide to move to a different area. The steps seem safe and we can look out and observer the crowd. We are up there shimming and shaking for bit when the DJ behind us starts throwing Inflatable animals into the crowd. This causes a massive amount of Thai girls to congregate facing the stairs/dj booth. They throw Barbie’s and other toys but mostly these inflatable animals. It was interesting to say the least. By this time we’ve had enough so we venture back home through Patong back to our Hotel. Ahh sleep at last.

Relax...

The next morning is pamper day. We got Thai massages (which is a small Thai woman using her whole body to give you a massage...her elbows, lets to pull your legs, it's pretty amazing there was one point when she linked my arms and aligned my back with her body weight.) We also got super cheap manicure/pedicure. A pug dog kept trying to sit on my lap the whole time. We also just sat by the beach and watched the massive waves; it was a really windy day. Our driver wasn’t coming until around 6pm. This was very relaxing and everyone was just lounging around, taking in the breeze. Watching the ocean and the sway of the palm trees. I did try to do some shopping but most of the merchandise wasn’t as nice as Phi Phi or Krabi and they were pricing things high, so I didn’t buy anything.

Trek back to the Republic of Korea

The trek home was long. Our flight from Bangkok-Beijing was delayed. 12-3am So when we finally got to Beijing at 7am we’d missed our connecting flight to Seoul. There were about 20 random teachers that needed to get back to Korea. Two planes departed for Seoul that day. Kaleena got on the 1:00 flight but I had to wait until 5:30. Everyone was upset and in a tizzy. I asked about the lounge and they agreed. We were escorted up to the China Air lounge/hotel. We were provided lunch and dinner in a comfortable area to rest. The couches and lounge chairs were so nice and comfortable. I was thankful we didn’t have to wait down in the cold air-conditioning on awkward metal seats. It was fun being in a room with all new people; we played some games and got to know each other a little bit. We also partook in the fridge of Chinese beer, pop, tea, and other snacks they provided.

When I arrived in Seoul it was 9:40….the last bus to Cheonan left at 9:30…I was very tired and upset at this point and I was adamant not to sleep on the bench of the airport till 6am, I had to work the next day. So after a couple failed attempts I managed to get a hold of an Air china rep and they agreed to give me a night in a hotel. They had a shuttle bus in the morning back to the airport where I could catch the bus to Cheonan. I definitely thanked my lucky stars knowing that someone or something was looking out for me. When I got to the hotel I kicked back and rested in a plush bed appreciating life and decompressing from the week in Thailand.

Caught the bus back to Cheonan the next morning and headed straight to work.
Ahh the life of a jet setter. ;)

Day 6 Phi-Phi island - Phuket

Early morning up and I walked to the view point. As i am trekking up the hill past hostels and locals working I take a few moments to take in the view. As i ascend the mountain the views become more and more beautiful. I can see both bays on either side of the island. A giant crescent cut into the island on my left and right. I notice a shop set up for the viewpoint. Along with some benches and flowers. A small boy no older than 1 year is standing at the edge of the open front shop on the side of the mountain grinning and waving at me. Soooo cute! I walk up and take a couple pictures. A young woman comes out and feeds the boy some breakfast. A couple cats curl up next to him and wait patiently for their helping. I watch them and then take a few more glances at the view before I head back down.

I am in the mood for more adventuring so I turn at the fork in the road away from the main beach area. There are more hostels and hotels that are usually filled during peak season. Birds in cages hang randomly. Boys pull carts with water and other supplies. Life seems simple and relaxed.

I go back to the room and pack up. Kaleena and I need to catch a ferry at 2pm over to Phuket. We check out and leave our bags at the front desk. The sun is shinning and I am sad to already be leaving Phi Phi island. We venture around and end up at another beach and opt to get some tropical cocktails to kill some time and get out of the heat. One Phi-Phi sunrise later we ask our waiter, Mow, the time. He informs us that it is 1:00. The island is small so we opt for another drink. I am feeling anxious and inquire the time again from a different waiter...he says 2! We should have known we had to be somewhere..we are having too much fun relaxing. Definately need to invest in a travel watch with an alarm...too bad i dont' really like wrist watches...i guess that's why I'm always running places...but it would have been very helpful on this trip.

We jump up pay our bill and RUN to our hotel....they tell us our bags are at the ferry. So we RUN to the port. I take the back way that i discovered earlier in hopes that we'll be able to run faster without all the people, shops and turns the other way. As we are running up to the ferry along the dock, the man from the hotel is waving us toward the boat saying "why?" "why?" we jump on the boat and they unlatch it from the dock. They were waiting for us....We find a spot in back and brave the journey to Phuket.

Phuket is not as relaxed as Phi-Phi and it is a bit of a shock. Similar to Bangkok. We get our room, which is the poorest of all of our rooms besides the first one in Bangkok...but we know we've been spoiled so far. Our stomachs start to grumble indicating a desperate need for food. I want to splurge on a nice seafood meal so we stop at the first place called Mr. Goods. I order a seafood basket and K got an entire fish. The food was delicious.... i felt happily guilty totally devouring everything...We also got some fun tropical in coconut drinks. This was our most expensive meal at ~$23 each

Phuket is supposed to be a good place to 'go out' so since we haven't done that since Bangkok we are determined. We set a wake up call with the front desk for 11pm and take a nap. We turn on the TV and the Wondergirls music video comes up. Ahhhh! Korean pop music is everywhere! Some other Thai and Japanese music videos play as well.

All dressed up we head out and walk down the street. We both feel a little too cute looking but we venture on. I see a side street and we go down it. I think it is called Patong..... It is completely lined with bars after bar after bar, there are bars inside of bars. Everything is dark and dirty. Thai girls dance on poles and taxi driver try and get us to go to a ping pong show. A man shoves a picture in my face after asking me if i want to go to the show I don't' look down but I'm pretty sure a cigarette was being smoked....you fill in the rest. Western guys walk down with a Thai girl on one arm and another Thai girl or Lady boy on the other. We spot a bar with a balcony view and head up there to observe.

After the crowd clears a bit down below we walk back down. We meet these random blokes from somewhere and then other woman tells us about a disco. We love dancing so when we find out where it is we head over there.

Disco....

Day 5 Phi Phi Island, snorkeling, kayaking, sunset

Day 5

I wake up early and head down to breakfast. I try to see how K is feeling but she is not well. I go down and have breakfast and float in the pool. After a while I go and see what K is doing. She is trying to pull it together. I really want to go snorkeling and there is an afternoon/sunset tour. We head over to the pharmacy to get her some proper meds. When in Thailand we must go snorkeling at least once!!!

We meet up with the group and head out. It is beautiful! We cruse a bit and pass this cave nestling on the edge of this island.There are all these bamboo poles holding up the structure and a couple people sitting on the platforms. I guess no one lives on this island but a few people live in these caves collecting a specific bird nest. It is exported to China and they cook it in a soup. VERY EXPENSIVE……. China still has a lot of old superstitious and ancient practices to improve health and lengthen life.

The boat stops at our snorkeling/kayaking location. It is an inlet on another island. We snorkel first. I dive right in. I love it! The fish and reef all around. So beautiful! I dive down and wave my hands at the sea life as it retracts back. I chase after a rainbow colored fish, I spot Nemo, and dive down to get a better look at a sea urchin. Kaleena is behind me observing as well. She takes some pictures of me as I dive down. This is a small slice of heaven for me...being in the ocean so weightless surrounded by hundreds of colors.

When we've had our fill of snorkeling, we hop on a kayak and paddle further into the cove and discover some small inlets. We are enjoying ourselves and relaxing until we realize the main boat is waiting for us to leave and go to the next point. We manage to sync our paddling and make it back to the boat.

All of the participants on this boat get together and walk though a cave and a path to Mayabebay (sp?). It is one of the beaches that the movie "The Beach" was filmed on. The pristine white sand and aqua blue water is breathtaking. This is the second beach I've been to where the movie was filmed (the other in Australia) but I've still never seen the actual movie. We take some pics and bask in the water.

Our ride back to Phi Phi island is calm and they give us some mixed rice for dinner. I put some spicy sauce on mine and try it, i put some more on and after I'm eating it i realize that it is FIRE in my mouth and i quickly pick the red peppers out and put it to the side. I get more rice in hopes of squelching the fire in my mouth. I drink a beer and the fire in my mouth slowly dies a little. Beware of lingering spice!

We trolled back into the harbor of Phi Phi island and watched the sun set behind the clouds. Once again breathtakingly beautiful.

Our evening is chill and we rest from our long beautiful day!

Day 4 Krabi-Phi, Phi

Day 4

I woke up early and walked down to sit by the beach for a bit. I sat there a while and just watched the ocean out from our hotel down from the main beach in Krabi, not sure of the name. There is always something so soothing and renewing about the ocean. One of the things I find most beautiful in this world, of all the places I’ve been…I love the ocean. Took a few pictures in a small hope to capture this feeling forever but knowing only experiencing it in real life is ever as fulfilling.

Went back to see if Kaleena was up and pack to check out and head over to Phi Phi Island. Kaleena is starting to experience some traveler’s sickness. I tell her I have some anti-diarrhea pills and that I’ll give them to her. As we are packing she thanks me for the pills…. that I didn’t set out. When she shows me the empty packet, it is some decongestants that must have fallen out of my bag. Needless to say she was VERY groggy and it didn’t help with her other sickness…. We waited for our driver to the ferry as she went in and out of crazy dreams.

The ferry ride over to the island was rocky, and the boat was small. Lots of locals were transporting things to the island, bikes, clothes, and other effects. We exit the ferry and find our escort to our hotel. There are no motorized vehicles on this island so he has a cart that we put our ruk sacs in. …. Okay backpacks, but I just like the sound of ruk sac…and takes us through the pathways of restaurants and shops. It really feels like a tourist beach town. The cabanas are all booked but the plus is that we get an upgrade to a bigger room. The room is comfortable and clean, a perfect place to rest.

We unpack and head down to check out the beach. Kaleena is starting to feel worse and worse, so we lay low and relax. She takes a nap and I wander around for a bit. It is beautiful. I go and drag her out of bed and make her go down to the beach. It is an inland cove. We lie there and look out at the water, boats, and local boys and traveling guys playing soccer on the newly available beach. The tide is going out and the boats sit on the sand with their anchors linked. They look lost without the water hugging their sides. Some clubs start to set up for the ‘fire shows’ I am tired from getting up so early and K is not well…so after falling asleep on the beach we go back to our room and call it a night. It’s best anyways so save us from being hung over the next day.

Day 3 jungle trekking

According to our itinerary we are to be picked up at our hotel at 7 am for elephant trekking and kayaking. We are up and ready to go get some breakfast and we sit and wait...and wait...and wait...finally we are told they'll be coming at 8:30. So a bit of exploring is in order. We walk around the hotel and discover the other hotel, that is next to us. There is this gorgeous pool that has parts that go directly up to the rooms, of course I love this because I know we aren't supposed to be there but no one is around not a single person and it's completely quite with the sun shinning and the water perfectly still...so it makes it more fun. We wade through the water and take some pics.

Our driver shows up and directs us to his car. He starts our journey. He informs us that the other two people have cancelled so this will be a private day. It will take about 2 hours to get out to the elephant camp and kayaking area. He puts on some Thai love music and we settle in, happy to be in a car relaxing to music not in a huge group of people. The scenery is amazing high cliffs and luscious green trees creating a canopy down the edges of the limestone. The small houses and people driving were quant and simple adding to the uncomplicated nature of the environment.

About an hour and a half into the drive we slow down. Our driver tells us that if the police ask us if we're his friends to say yes. It is a police stop. When it is our turn to go through the line the police officer asks him a lot of questions. Then he asks Kaleena(who is in the front seat) if he is her friend. She replies yes. I figured it had something to do with us being in an unmarked car but I wasn't sure. He ended up explaining that the police try to get extra fee's from people in unmarked cars taking tourists out. I'm not really sure about the legalities of this situation but hey we were friends for the day.

We arrive at the first stop where we will take a kayak. It was an inflatable kayak and a guide paddled down stream. We were traveling with the current so it was a leisurely ride. We saw a big frog, a boa constrictor, a big lizard(not sure of the name) along with birds and plants and such. It was so relaxing. The mountains and cliffs when straight up covered in green. In one view of the mountain there were about 100 different shades of green. I wish I could stare at it forever, took a pic so we'll see if it represents it the same. I love looking at trees.

After about an hour we got out and they took us back to where we started. A HUGE meal was waiting for us. A pineapple coated fish, chicken and pineapple salad, some wonderful soup. I wish I'd actually paddled a bit to work up more of a hunger but after getting up so early I was definitely hungry. We ended the meal with some mangosteens (a thai fruit, it was really good).

It was time for our elephant trekking. We pull up to the elephant camp. There is an area with picnic tables and we walk down a way to a structure that is elevated so it is above the elephant camp on the edge of the hill. There are a few elephants tied up with saddles on waiting for tourists. Our elephant is waiting for us. We step off the platform and get on. The elephants name was Tu Tu. I really didn't know what to expect but off we went. The first part was pretty mild just walking along...next thing I know we are going into the jungle UP a stream. Kaleena reminds me that we signed up for elephant trekking not strolling. It was fun and a little strange at the same time. I felt a bit weird having the elephant take me up this stream...but hey it was pretty cool. When we got up to the top we walked into the jungle a bit while Tu Tu got a cool down bath and drank some water.

Going down was a lil less scary than going up but equally adventurous feeling. After we made it back we purchased some bananas for Tu Tu and fed them to him. His trunk was rough and he readily gobbled the entire banana.

Our day of jungle adventuring was over and now for our two hour drive into town. We sat back and relaxed as our driver took us back to our hotel the Thai love music lulling us to sleep. No police stop on the way back.

After a good rest in the car we went out to get some dinner downtown. Kaleena did a little souvenir shopping. We ate at a little food stall and I had some great red curry. Got some beer from the 7-11 and headed down to the beach. We talked, sang some songs, looked at the stars and waded in the water. After a while we walked back to our hotel.

When we arrived at the entrance to our hotel two other guests were coming in. Their room was connected to the pool so we went down and swam for a bit. Kaleena participated in some lap races and won! We hung out for a while in the pool. I floated on my back, looking up at the stars. It was our last night in Karabi...off to bed for our next adventure to Phi Phi Island.

Day 2 Bangkok-Krabi

After staying up all night because our room was crap in Bangkok and fear of oversleeping because no alarm, we make it to the airport after Kaleena scares the living day out of our taxi driver. It was funny. She was serious about getting to the airport by 6...he drove SOOOO fast we got there at 5:30...lol . The slap happy delirium started to set in and we were a sight for sore eyes laughing eating a burger from Burger King and donuts in the airport cafe...after not sleeping it sounded like a good idea. My feet felt like they were balloons. Everything was so funny. I fell asleep on the plane and didn't wake up until an hour 1/2 later when we exited.

Arrived in Karabi and our driver was waiting for us to take us to our hotel. We pull up to this extravagant building that looks like a tourist site. Our hotel was on the side, but it was still very nice. We walk into the room and are very excited, in comparison to our last room we are in a bit of shock. White netting over the beds and a balcony. Everything is clean with beautiful tile and wood working. I thought the woman had left and I started doing jumping jacks, she walked in and laughed at my excitement.

After unpacking our things we headed downtown in a tuk tuk for some food and relaxing. The beach was to our right and soo beautiful!! Kaleena got green curry and I made the mistake of getting jungle curry...it was SOOOO spicy with weird jungle plants in it. After dinner we walked around and went down and sat by the beach. The stars were amazing. I hadn't seen that many stars in such a long time. The moon shimmered off the ocean. It was picture perfect. We sat a while and a Thai man came up and sat with us. At first I was a little apprehensive, but he just wanted to talk. He told us about his brothers, one of which was caught in the tsunami and the other who lost a leg. It was interesting listening to him but we had end the conversation after a while. We had an early morning going out to the jungle for kayaking and elephant trekking....our first night sleeping in our comfortable quite room in our clean wonderful beds.....