Reverse Culture Shock and the Effects it has on the Sleepless Mind

Monday May 23rd

This was long, though if I add everything together correctly, we were in the are for a less amount of time than we were on the way there. I think it was about twenty hours in the sky.

Bangkok - Tokyo = 6 1/2 hours
Tokyo - JFK = 12 hours
JFK - Columbus = 1 1/2

We got up at about three fifteen in the morning. Wayyy before the sun wanted to rise here in Thailand (due to the fact that days are shorter there cause we were closer to the equator). I think the sun was finally reaching it's fingers over the horizon as we took off three hours later. But anyhoo we take the van to the airport and slowly start going through everything. There were two different security checks. The normal 'take out your liquids, lap tops, shoes' blah blah blah but the second one was much more intense.

Everyone would have their bags searched and have a body pat down, but throughout these people being filtered through they would choose, at random, people for, what I called the "Mega Pat Down", I so happened to be one of those people. So out of the sixteen people traveling from Otterbein it ends up being Amber and I. Her search was very quick not even three minutes really. But then they called me in. I had to take my shoes off, stand on a platform and all the men were changed out to women. So I was mega pat downed, seriously. They also took everything and I mean everything out of my two bags I had. Even better is that they broke the seals on things that had been tapped shut to see what was inside (though they were nice and re-taped them afterwards). They swabbed all my electronics and made me turn all of them on. My laptop, my camera, my nook, and my phone. I was asked three times to turn on my laptop. And they even sent Doppellump through a scanner. I mean seriously? He's flat as a board really, I doubt anyone could get away with anything in him cause it was just make a bulge in that area. This time around though, they took their dang time checking everything for me. By then the plane was pretty much ready to take off. I felt horrible because Janice and Shannon were waiting for me after that. I was kind of annoyed, I apparently just look like the sketchiest person out of us all.

The flight from Bangkok to Tokyo is kind of a blur. I know I didn't really sleep, I was trying to stay up the entire time to get my body back on schedule (that didn't work). We landed and had a good twenty minutes before our next plane would start to board, but I had seen several things that I wanted to get on the way back that I had seen the first time around. We were released to do what we please and I raced to the store and grabbed what I got. I then met up with the group at our gate and left my things with people to use the restroom only to see that the store next to the bathrooms had the one and only Japanese Glass Bell Wind Chime. For the longest time, practically since I saw my first anime, I have always wanted one because the sound they make is just so pretty and ahhh! So I tried peeing as fast as I could and raced to the store next door. I couldn't reach them what-so-ever and one of the women who worked there helped me only to say the one I wanted was the last one. She showed me others but I had fallen in love with the one I wanted. So she graciously pulled out a stepping stool and took it down and boxed it up for me. OMG I can't wait to hang it! I want to hang it outside my window at Otterbein, but I fear that someone will take it, like it needs a good amount of space on all sides so that it can ring but it's glass so it also needs to withstand the weather. Luckily, Oklahoma is very similar to Japanese weather. Though...I don't quite now how the paper will withstand water, and most of the time when I see them they're hung in an area that gives it enough room to jingle, but not get wet....sigh. When we were getting on the plane to JFK, it was the first time that it really hit me that we were returning home and I would never know when I would return to Thailand. I totally blanked out because I only remember waking up on the plane a while after.

I know on the flight from Tokyo to JFK I watch Citizen Kane, Dr. Strangelove, Inception, and a very weird, but funny Japanese Movie called Assassination Classroom, which apparently is a manga...but this was a live action version. I had seen scene from a screen in front of me while I was watching Strangelove and was really confused but also intrigued by what the guy was watching. Throughout this entire trip though from the moment I noticed we would be having movies on these flights I really wanted to watch Rear Window, but alas they did not have it.

We arrived in JFK when we should've been asleep and went through customs, baggage claim, and then security again. We had a decent time before our flight to Columbus so we were given free time to wander around our terminal where I traveled further into the terminal found our gate before I backtracked to a pizza place and called my mom.

The flight back to Columbus is really the only time I actually slept. I felt the plane take off, and then I woke up to empty cups of beverages the next minute. We didn't have a party bus on the way back to campus, thank the gods. I was not up for it, but it was the same driver. I lugged back to my apartment, sat down and talked for quite sometime with Caylin before we both went to bed.

Tuesday May 24th

It was our first class back and I don't think anyone was up to being there. We went over our exhibit images before being released. I called my mom for a few things before deciding to take a nap, only to wake up at nine. I did not go back to sleep that night. I couldn't, my schedule was so off that I was more awake at night then I was during the day.

Wednesday May 25th (Today)

So considering I didn't sleep I got up at about seven-ish and decided to go to Target and Kroger's for a few things that I would need while I was gone. So I got tea and a nice lotion to help my molting skin. Before I hung out in my room until class. I had a meeting with a teacher about a project for next year before attempting to waste time before dance.

This is when I had my first real big reverse culture shock. I walked into dance, gave my presents to Ed and Byron, put my hard shoes on and dance began. Yeah I still remember everything, but just to be back felt so weird, almost foreign after missing three weeks of dance. Like when I go home, I practice, but this was completely different. I had no time or really anywhere to practice while I was in Thailand. I did dance about when we were standing around and things but not like actual dance practice. I gave the Kit-Kats to the dancers and second reverse culture shock when I went through the window of Wendy's. I know my stomach has shrunk in size, due to the smaller serving portions that they have in Thailand. Though the small looks like they have grown from small to medium.

My parents arrive Friday and we leave Saturday for home.

I am not really tired, and should take a shower. I'll probably read to help my brain calm before I try to go back to sleep. Tomorrow will be last little bit of image uploading and editing. Tomorrow will probably be a blog of more images like the Elephant Nature Park Mash.

My blog after that will tackle a few things, but for now

Good-night

-Claire McGeehan

Koh Chang's Bangkok Side And the Horror It Holds

Friday May 20th

We woke up to the sound of drying clothes indicating that the night before it had rained. Though my clothes had fully dried by then and I brought them in, what I wore for this day would be the last time I would ever wear a piece of article, one that I had worn only three times before and bought in Chiang Mai the second time around at the market. We first went to the Jungle, something I wasn't quite interested in doing which came from the fact of possibly getting ticks, which I think that came from that one time I was getting ready to take a bath and mom found a tick on me and we had to get the neighbor to come over cause he knew how to take it out completely without leaving the head in. So I was really nervous about that entire fact, that and that Olivier would stop every few seconds to talk about one of the plants and I just wanted to trot along in silence to listen to the sounds. But then it started to rain. I like rain, in fact I love it. Thunderstorms I just adore and could never live without, but when I'm caught in the rain, thats a whole other side of things. I don't mind if I'm running through it, or if I have a hoodie on because then I am not getting wet, the hoodie is. But I was getting drenched wearing only a t-shirt and my elephant pants and my elephant bag that luckily didn't have any electronics in and I slipped my phone into a dry bag one of the girls had brought. That just changed my entire mood of annoyed that we were taking forever on one plant and not silently taking it all in to the most sour person ever who felt incredibly stiff and wet. We trudged back to the trucks for the people with cameras but then ended up heading to a coconut shop before heading to Mangrove and then finally, the rain had lightened up and we went to lunch. My mood changed as I got some good prawn omelet and rainbow ice cream into me. But then the worst happened, as we were loading up to head back to the hotel, my elephant pants ripped, right at the crotch too. I am completely devastated at the fact that those pants ripped. I am hoping that my mom can possibly fix them or my aunt but they may already be too far gone D: I really like them and the only way I can get these pants with the patterns again is if I probably go back to the Sunday Market in Chiang Mai... ~sigh~ I was happy to get out of wet, ripped pants and change into something dry (that didn't last quite long). As we headed to an 'abandoned' island. It was abandoned when Shannon, Janice, and Johnathon went last year, but since then it has picked up and been being cleaned and people are now living on the island again. Two other girls and myself did find some abandoned places that were out of the eyes of the caretaker of the island and I took some photos before we got back onto the boat and went into the middle of nowhere for one last plunge into the Gulf of Thailand. At first, I didn't want to do anything with it, I was comfy, hiding from the sun, trying to catch some sleep and not get into the water. Plus I didn't wear a bathing suit. But after quite along time of every other student being called into the water, and even Janice it ended up for me taking my shirt and pants off and jumping from the second story of the boat in my bra and underwear, which you can find the image somewhere on my FB, thus of course I am in the water so it's actually not that obvious.

We returned for our final night of Koh Chang where we were given the best meal of them all, crab. Well there was more, but I really enjoyed the crab. Though my body quickly rejected it the next day. And a nice glass of wine, where I once again learned, no to white or red wine, but I could do rosé. Bed.

Saturday May 21st

Carli and I were woken up at about 3-45-ish to the sound of a very wonderful thunderstorm and the really weird sounding frogs outside. Though I think I actually just woke up to use the restroom. We talked a little before falling back asleep and waking up for breakfast before leaving Mangrove Hideaway to the tourist side of Koh Chang. There we stopped at an elephant trekking camp where we watched the elephants sway and...this is what Shannon wrote, I just can't....

"Before leaving Kog Chang, we went to one of the least seven elephant camps on the tourist-industry-devastated west coast of the island to learn the painful practice of witnessing as activism."

"We know now that the swinging head is a clear sign of derangement, that those are likely urine puddles on the floor (she had taken a video), that they only escape the stalls with metal seats on their backs, that the chunks missing from their ears are pulled out by hooks while training, that the buckets of water (when available) are not adequate, that the chains serves only to remind the elephants of the trauma of the crush (Look up elephant crushing/ or elephant training crush, it's horrifying). And unfortunately it can get much, much worse than this."

"We rejected the welcome, did not pay any money, did not touch the elephants. We looked until we saw, took photos to raise awareness back home, and somehow found the strength to walk away."

I lasted a good two solid minutes before I couldn't hold it in and turned my back wanting to leave as I wept. I seriously wept. To have worked at Elephant Nature Park the week before and to see those free elephants and then see what some may have done...I...mmmmmm....

We went to a view point afterwards, have some recovery food, cinnamon roll for me, talked a little, had a group photo taken, said good-bye to Olivier and Jean-Luc before getting on the Ferry to return to Bangkok.

Ten hours, ten freaking hours in those vans. I lucked out again on getting into the one with less people and read Hollow City the second book of Miss Peregrin's Home for Peculiar Children, and got pretty far in it. We stopped three times, twice for bathrooms, once for lunch where it was supposed to be only fifteen to twenty minutes that slowly turned into forty-five minutes. So haha...Arrived at seven at night to the hotel. So from nine-thirty to seven-thirty we were in those dang vans, getting in and out and getting caught in traffic due to several things.

Sunday May 22nd

A full day in Bangkok. We took a van to the airport, then a train to the city subway, city subway to a mall. Where we had lunch, and I bought a few more souvenirs for some people before we went to an itty-bitty Hard Rock Café Bangkok, where I got my pin and a pin for a friend before we headed back to the mall (all of this was walking) before we took a Subway to a stop and got off and walked to where we would have dinner. We had one last group chat of how we felt about leaving.

Like I said before I'm "Ehh" I could stay probably much longer but I could also go. I am very glad to have gone on such an amazing trip that I truly feel like I may have found my calling of working at Elephant Nature Park, or one similar to it somewhere else. It was amazing, peaceful, and I still can't get over the fact that I was there. I fell the urge to return and sometimes do wish that I had just not gotten on that van to return to Chiang Mai and waved good-bye to all the Otterbein students as I turned to return to working there.

Things have been running through my head and my weird dream from Friday to Saturday I think was a very big worry dream that had to do with the possibility of returning with diseases. Thank you anxiety...

We took a large van back to the hotel and now here I am, showered pretty much packed besides the last few things I will use today and tomorrow...making sure everything is charged.

I am not able to transfer the last of my images to the interwebs so that will have to wait until Tuesday until then I will be in no contact until I am sure we have fully entered the US area to turn my data back on before landing in JFK. So this time around it's:

Bangkok -Tokyo = 6 1/2 hours

Tokyo-JFK = 13 1/2 hours

JFK- Columbus = 2 hours and 10 minutes

-Claire

P.S. I will post when I have landed safely in Columbus :3

Cooked Claire! Nice and red! Only 20 Baht!

I didn't post for yesterday due to the fact that I only did two things.

This first was actually pretty cool, but also very challenging. We visited a local school. We were with the oldest students who ranged from thirteen to fifteen. We all lined up at the front and introduced ourselves before we let of the Thai students pick us to talk. We then did like a musical chair thing where we would get up and go to a different Thai student. In the end we grouped together and got a tour with the last group of Thai students of their school. During this entire time it started to downpour, which Koh Chang needed but it also made it kind of hard going around the grounds because unlike the schools in American their school rooms led directly to the outside. There really was no indoor inclosed room unless you closed all the doors and windows, but considering Thailand is always so hot, I doubt they ever do that. So they were all very opened spaced.

It was very challenging for both the Thai students and us. Their English was very minimal, which is why where were there. To help them with their English. But it was also hard for us because we had to slow down and really pronounce what we were saying. There were times where they students didn't understand our questions and we would have to try and use a different word to change things up. I had to go back to when I was learning French to get kind of the feeling of what they might have felt and to remember what I learned first. So the age and colors were the easiest thing to ask, but then the questions that we could have asked like, 'What does your parents do?' 'Do you have any pets?' etc, were a little harder. We were supposed to be there for another reason but it ended up just being their trying to figure out how to get words across this language gap that we both had. All together though, these students were very good at their English for how little they had. There was one boy who obviously had a little bit more English experience than some of the others for he could go on and on about a few things. He was also the one that really told us what things were around the school.

After that we had a group photo and released the students to lunch and we headed out to get food as well somewhere nearby. We then returned to the hotel and were given a few options of visiting a temple, or the Mangrove, or even kayaking. Me? I slept for five hours and got up thirty minutes before dinner. The funniest out of that though? I slept through the night.

Today we did island hopping. I can say that I have never really been on a beach so this was really a cool experience. We even saw a coral reef where I got to break in my Dicapac Waterproof camera bag and snorkel! I saw so many things that I thought I wouldn't see. Like a sea cucumber and even an octopus! There were even a few fish that I had seen from the Newport Aquarium in their natural habitat! There was two of us that really kept on snorkeling after everyone else was done because we kept seeing things and I kept taking pictures. We then visited a second beach on the way there is when everyone started to notice that we were all horribly burned. I am horribly burned all down my back, like seriously all of my back side is burned, none of the front cause that was always in the water, but everything that wasn't covered while snorkeling was burned and even the top of my head. I am in so much pain, I was one of the worst burned I think, but I'm not quite sure cause I'm assuming that there can be worse. But I feel like I have never been this burned before, I'm kind of grateful that I'm a stomach sleeper and not a back sleeper! Everyone was pretty badly burned though, so I'm not along in the agony of pain.

Tomorrow we will travel through the mangrove jungle and then in the afternoon we will explore an abandoned resort where I will act like a vampire the entire time trying to hide from the sun as best as possible for I doubt this burn will turn into a tan. Send me good vibes and hope that my burn will go away with the help of the Aloe cream and your good vibes!

-Claire

That Fishy Mosquito Swirl

So today was the day of travel. We got up at around 6-ish, me running a little late, but I had a quick breakfast before the van and two cars came to pick us up and headed to the airport. The flight was short, almost like flying from Tulsa to Dallas, maybe a little longer, but shorter than flying from Tulsa to Chicago. We landed and wander/waited for a good solid hour getting food and just waiting for the men who were driving us to get the vans and pick us up.

From there we road and stopped with a total travel time of six and a half hours. Stopping five times along the way, twice for food and bathroom, once to a pharmacy, once to refile, and once for bathroom that turned into getting food for a few, including me. I read, slept, and listened to music before we all kind of got ready for the ferry ride as we speed our way around cars, sometimes on non-passing areas on a two lane street, yikes!

The ferry ride was actually kind of cool even though it scared me to death. I think I have decided I can probably only do a cruise cause they are major on safety. And the few boats I have been on have either had really tangled, no way to get them untangled life jackets, or really old jackets you don't understand how they would work in the first place. Though the ferry on the other hand (on the top deck where we hung out) didn't have any at all! Yay!

We arrived not that long after where we drove off the boat and took a windy road to the hotel. It is probably the best hotel yet. It is gorgeous and the staff here is great! Sadly, though, we learned that we will be the last guest ever to stay at this hotel due to some issues. There are two cats here, but the best part is that it is run by two French men, Oliver (Olivi-eh) and Jean-Luke. Oliver actually says his name is All-i-ver, instead of the French probably due to the fact that we are American, or that his actual name and we didn't know that. The staff that works for these two men are fantastic and we learned that when they opened this morning they were very emotional due to the fact that the time has come where the last guests have arrived. It was very touching.

We had about an hour to relax before dinner and while everyone was raving about the fact that the food was wonderful, I couldn't do it. Too spicy, really weird tastes, or foods that I just don't like in general like squid and clams. Though it freaked me out a little that it was the full clam, the tongue and everything besides the shell. ~shutters~ Desert came and I got the pumpkin ice cream with ginger on top and still didn't like it...so I kind of let it melt into liquid form as I sat listening to Oliver speak. I feel kind of bad about that, but I do hope that breakfast will be better (which it should be, but I'm still going to avoid the banana bread) and lunch is on us to get.

Tomorrow is kind of exciting cause it will be our first day with the kids. Though they're more like teens. I think Oliver said they were 13-15. We're going more to help them with their English than anything else, but what we need to wear and say must be kept in mind. I'm not sure exactly what we'll be talking about but whatever the topic, I'm kind of excited to meet these kids.

(My phone doesn't want to connect to Google drive so it looks like it'll be another week without images. It took me a good hour to just get this gif downloaded and the loaded onto here).

I don't remember what our afternoon thing is, I think it's the jungle walk and the waterfall but I'm tired and my brain is shutting down.

-Claire

P.S. We're staying in a fishing village and they have those cool mosquito swirls that keep the mosquitos away.

Recharging

Today was a very relaxed laid back day. We all got up at about eight-ish to have breakfast before we all gathered outside the pool area to head to Wat Chedi Luang also known as the Elephant Temple of Chiang Mai. Sadly it was under construction and we couldn't go inside (though I couldn't go inside at all because I wore shorts and a tank top and you're supposed to cover your knees and shoulders). There was one that was open but only men could enter that one...So there really wasn't anything that you could do...

There was something that peaked my interested (besides me counting how many monks I saw). On the far side of the entrance they had the Chinese Zodiac. I ran the bells for the year of the dog, cause I'm one before continuing on. Out off all the years, the year of the dragon had the most offerings. Like no one else had nearly this much. You can't even really see the dragon itself...well I guess you kind of can. But it had the most offerings.

I continued to wander on before I stumbled upon something that I had seen before but there was no English to explain what it was. It's a huge roll of orange or yellow fabric. Like huge. It's on a triangle form where one side you can see all this writing rolled up and the other side is completely fresh rolled up, but the piece of fabric that is on the triangle may or may not have writing on it already. The whole point is to donate to the temple and then write your name, where you're from and something else, either it be a blessing or just a small prayer to give some peace to your mind. They then will take this fabric once it is done and walk it up to the top of the temple and leave it unraveled for the prayers and blessings to be seen by the Lord Buddha himself. So after a few minutes of contemplating, more like ten minutes I decided to donate and wrote this:

Considering I had just come from the Elephant Nature Park I only thought it be appropriate. And I hope you don't mind Mom, but I added you too cause I know how much you like elephants as well. So when the roll is finished this will be taken to the Lord Buddha on the top of temple and hopefully may this a thing where we do not have to worry about elephants leaving this world forever.

I then headed back with a few people before I hung out in the room for a while, before the same people invited me to food. I was quite happy too due to the fact that I was sick and tired of Thai food, which I thought was kind of funny. So we headed to an Italian restaurant where we ordered two pizzas. Let me just say this: That pizza was AMAZING. Like seriously, I wish this was how pizza was in America sometimes. Like out of them all Donato's will always be my favorite, but this pizza was just incredible. Not too much sauce but not too little. A nice stringiness for the cheese and the meet on top was mmmm. I'm drooling just thinking of it. We also did that because there was going to be a cooking class later on in the day where we would be making our own Pad Thai and then eating it for dinner.

We returned where I got a little alone time before the other girls left for the cooking class. I took this chance to fully recharge from being around humans for a good, what, ten days now? I needed it badly and didn't really feel like Thai food once again. So yeah....this is a short post. I've been by myself now for a good...four hours just reading and watching New Girl. For once, I'm glad that sometimes I need to be a hermit and pull back into my shell. I felt like I was back in a normal position even though I'm on the other side of the world right now.

Tomorrow is the crazy travel day, so that'll probably be a short post too...If you haven't seen the last post the last post is all the images from Elephant Nature Park I thought worthy of posting. Also if you haven't seen it, I posted on my FB a video of the baby elephant attempting to drink water.

-Claire

And I thought the electricity wires were insane in our cities!

Photo Mash from Elephant Nature Park

One week old baby!

Baby trying to drink from the water

The massive amounts of food for the elephants

So many cats slept like this

This cat fell in love with me and wouldn't leave me alone.
I had only just noticed that she is very similar to Olivia two days before we left.

Cation! Elephant Crossing!

Cat on the shoulders. She wanted company and saw I had the Olivia cat with me
on my lap so she took my shoulders.

Cat basket! 

Future flag twirler of Elephant Nature Park

Sunday Market Walk

There are a few things that every city I have seen so far is really obsessed with. For starters, the cars, it's either Toyota, or Volkswagen, but mainly the Volkswagen Bus. They are EVERYWHERE. If you aren't driving either of those, I have no idea what they do drive cause I've only seen those two plus one Infiniti. Another thing is motorbikes, either vespa like things or motorcycles. I thought that India had a decent amount (from what I've seen in photos and whatnotes), but so does Thailand. They don't follow the laws of the roads, but no one really does. We did something that could get us in trouble in the US of completely avoiding the stop light by changing directions just to go around the light.

This morning was kind of sad. I got up, had breakfast and we had our last gathering. We did a second elephant walk...er...third? We had one on Sunday or was that Monday...? Those first two days blurred together so I don't remember anything from those. I worked a little on my project as we went around but it was kind of hard cause the babies wanted to play. Like seriously wanted to play! The only problem is is that when a baby elephant wants to play you have to move, but they move fast, but you can't run or they think you want to play too. So it was the Otterbein Group going in circles trying not to run from a baby elephant that was chasing us around the area. It was kind of fun, but also a little disappointing that you actually couldn't play with them. We went around until the very end where Mix gave us certificates of actually doing Volunteer work there.
That place was so amazing. There was so much to do, and so many things that frankly I seriously can't sum it up in one word. I am completely speechless towards the experience I had that I can't get over it. So don't ever ask me to describe it one word because I will say many many many things about it. Lek is the coolest woman in the world (minus my amazing relatives and friends). She really has taken it upon herself to dedicate the rest of her life towards working to free elephants from how horribly they were treated. Its overwhelming and I swear if you ever EVER have to pay to ride, or pay to give it food or Teak Wood, or the furniture from World Market, just don't. Don't. NEVER. Those are elephants beaten into submission to give you those things, to drag those logs to create those furniture. Nope, just no.

We returned to Chiang Mai and the same hotel where we had an hour of downtime, which I used practically in the bathroom the entire time because my body did NOT want to deal with the last meal I had (even though they were all foods that I had and handled before). Before we had a class meeting at three to catch up and reflect before we were released to the Sunday Market. It happens EVERY Sunday. It's insane! It's incredibly repetitive, but also not cause there was a few things I saw last time that were here this time and vise versa. I can understand that it's a treat to the locals, and discount galore. I will not be spending money until Koh Chang or the second round of Bangkok. I went around with my roommates before they left and I did a little bit more wandering, looking into the side streets that we didn't do together and learned that's where all the food is. I was always wondering why I had never found really any food and thats why....they're all on the sides.

I'm working on uploading the images as I write this. But boy do my feet hurt and its almost midnight....sooo you know...goodnight :3

-Claire

The Elephants' Last Night

Over this past week I have had an experience that could happen once in a lifetime and can make it even more. Although I have no idea if I will ever come back. I was told that they only hire Thai citizens, but in fact there is a woman from the Us who is now working for the ENP. She started off just like me, a volunteer whose heart felt her calling here. She kept returning until she decided that one day she would do a long term stay. I happened upon her room on the way back from a walk to the convenient store earlier in the day and she had decorated the whole area she lived in with images and a normal comforter and everything. She said that I could talk to her more tomorrow.

But today was another day of elephant poop cleaning. I have no idea if we finished faster, but it felt faster. Since we had the day before to learn how things worked we had it down quickly on what to do. Today I really did just scoop poop. Over and over and over, and I never felt grossed out and I do have to thank the zoo for my immunity towards the smell. There were many flies, but I was totally fine.

That was the only job that we had today. We got to hang out after lunch where I finished one of my books and watched some of the girls play the card game speed while I waited for my Nook to charge to continue with my second book that I had started to reread so I could continue on for the second and third book of the trilogy/series?

At 1:45 we took a group photo with a few elephants and the rest of the volunteers and then had just an Otterbein Group photo with Mix and an elephant before I hung out in the Pavilion for a while before wanting to return to the room only to have been called over by Mix to unload watermelon from a truck. I didn't mind even though we weren't assigned and worked on my upper arm muscles as I caught watermelon. We finished a little before I returned to get a few things before going to Lek's talk. It made me even more inspired to want to work here as we watched a horrific five minute movie on the treatment of the working elephants here in Thailand and the surrounding areas.

We then had dinner and a performance by the local school before coming down and doing an evaluation and a drink with the rest of the class. Today wasn't much but it was still amazing to do what we have done. this place is amazing and always expanding and I really want to come back for years to come. I could do this for the rest of my life and really hope that Lek will think again about an apprentice cause I know what to expect. It'll be hard work, not full of luxury until the end when another elephant is saved and die with honor free here like she said herself. This world is harsh, and she encouraged us to use social media to promote the Save Elephant Foundation and any and everything that has to do with the cruelty of the animals of the world. So I do apologize but I will be taking that to heart and may swamp people with my Facebook about that. Please please please go follow Elephant Nature Park and do not fear on donating. The money always go towards things like food, expansion, and the most important, saving not only Elephants, but the cats, dogs, horses, goats, rabbits, pigs, water buffalo, etc. that are living out their lives in this wonderful place.

-Claire

The Queen of Poop

During my times of working at the Tulsa Zoo, I was recognized for one thing that I got a certificate for, Top Poop Cleaner. I got this reward manly because the guy I was working with in the Africa area that day, I think his name was either Eric or Chris, we were struggling to get through the smaller animals to get to the giraffe because a storm was coming in and the Tulsa Zoo has one of the tallest male giraffes in the country. So we had to hurry to get the inside enclosure clean so that we could bring him in for the fear of an eighteen foot tall giraffe getting hit by lightening. We got most of it clean but it got down to cleaning out the drains. He opened them up reached his hands in and said "This is a giraffe waffle, you'll never look at waffles the same, or at least everyone else hasn't, but we need to clean these out." At the time I was either completely oblivious to the fact that he was actually holding up wet, mashed together giraffe poop or something but I was like "Okay!" and reached into all the other drains bare handed and not afraid as I fished the giraffe waffles out of the drain and into the back of the truck. Now your probably either thinking, yeah I've heard this story before, so what? and then what does this have to do with being in Thailand working with elephants?

Well for starters I have also cleaned up elephant poop, and everyone thinks its the worst smelling poop out there in the world. Ha! Lies, tiger poop after the day they get their meet fresh off the bone, that is the worst poop out there, but it's because this morning and this afternoon (even though it wasn't our assignment) we picked up elephant poop. It was interesting to see the stalls we had cleaned out the day before with piles of chopped corn and piles of poop. We went around the whole camp of the enclosures, or at least the ones that I know of minus the male elephants enclosure, and cleaned them out. It was kind of weird, cause they normally group two groups together for this job, but there was so much of us there were moments where people would be standing around not sure what to do because everything was being taken care of or already over crowded. We were done at a decent time and I laid down to take a nap in the upstairs area of the Pavilion until lunch time, which I devour because I got up and arrived too late to sit down and eat any breakfast (luckily I was running on a lot of water so I wasn't dying of starvation until after we were done for the morning).

I wasn't as tired of the food, but I did shake it up a little by getting soup instead of sticky rice and the potato curry that I have been having for the past week. I still had fries and watermelon, but those I thin are things I won't get tired of.

We had asked Mix in the morning what we were doing for the afternoon but he wasn't quite sure what cause none of the groups were assigned to anything. But while we were waiting for people to do...things...there was a guy who was selling popsicles and boy am I glad I got one. It was refreshing and it was good. It was two colors of red and orange and both flavors I have no idea what they were but I liked them. Though I liked the red a little bit more than the orange and hope that he returns tomorrow or Sunday so I can enjoy some more before we leave.

For the afternoon we were assigned up cleaning up the park, which in the beginning was confusing cause we weren't quite sure what that meant until Mix had us all get rakes and we climbed into the back of the truck. We took a five minute drive to land that ENP owns, but a little separated from the rest of the park (ENP is always looking for land to expand into) and cleaned up so really old elephant poop and corn stalks. It was very similar to the morning routine, but we kind of avoided the elephant food? I wasn't quite sure why cause we were cleaning and was told to clean up the piles, and there was elephant poop in the piles so who knows.

We were done at about three where we returned and I rinsed off (though you can see where the dirt still is from where the water reached the top of my legs and no father up), crawled into my neatly made bed where Doppellump hung out from the cleaning ladies that morning and read.

I was better today, but only because I had my predicted mental breakdown yesterday after writing the blog for yesterday. I wanted to talk to my mom the most, wanting to hear some sort of familiar voice who happens to be half way across the world right now probably just getting up. So to hide from people and be able to cry openly I went to the elephant stalls we had cleaned out earlier that day and watched the elephants swing their heads back and forth and eat as I cried. Though one stopped what she was doing and watched me until I couldn't cry anymore and got annoyed by the buzzing of a bug that wouldn't leave the area and left to return to the room. With this my emotional battery meter is a little bit under 50% because of today, but Saturday afternoon and Sunday I'm taking all the time I can to sit in the shade, alone to fully recharge my emotional battery cause it's not as easy as plugging in my computer or phone, who hadn't been charged for a while because someone always kept unplugging them and plugging in their phone over night this past week. Again, google drive does not want to work with me so images will not be on until probably once we return to Chiang Mai where I will like promised post a blog page filled with just images and descriptions.

Well the dinner bell has been rung and I have been still typing. I might get an alcoholic beverage tonight in celebration of feeling better and cheering to the elephants for tomorrow morning is our last day and we will be having a small powwow tomorrow to talk about projects possibly. I have settled on my and hope to get some more images of elephant eyes on our elephant walk on Sunday and then try to withstand the pain of the tourist elephants on Koh Chang for I have decided to focus on the eyes of the captive elephants versus the free for I feel you can probably read the emotions within both strongly.

-Claire

P.S. I wore my Zoo Teen shirt from the Tulsa Zoo in honor of picking up poop today

Emotional Battery at -2%

The last two nights the elephants have been very vocal, trumpeting when they can. One just did it and it sounded very angry. I do have to wonder why they have been doing it so much recently. I hadn't started hearing them until two nights ago.

Today was kind of a nice day where we were working the shade both the morning and evening. The morning we did elephant food. We washed pumpkins and cucumbers, then washed watermelons, then peeled bananas and threw them into tubes of rice, then made rice balls adding in brown sugar and grain. Then we got to feed them. This was also the time where I finally got to get a photo of Doppellump with an elephant. I had several taken but the ones that turned out the nicest were when I was holding him. I wanted the elephant to hold it but I doubt there was anyway to actually get her to hold him, but Happy Birthday and Happy Retirement to him. He is now a wonderful sixteen year-old who could try to get his drivers license.

Begin rant: Although I cherish him very much, most of the students that I have been traveling with don't understand why I have him with me. The two teachers and a few people think it's actually sweet that I brought him along, but the students were talking about me carrying him around when we went to feed the elephants. I'm sorry that I brought him? Seriously, I am quite proud I brought him, and haven't lost him yet. I have always left him on the bed or in my bag and this has been his only outing where I knew he would return promptly after feeding. There is a girl who in the beginning didn't mind me (not my ex-roommate), but now just by the slight body language she has with me or the slight wording she has used with me I can tell that she dislikes me a lot. She was the one that began it all she was whispering to her close friend about why I had him the entire time we were walking to and feeding the elephants. I'm a little irritated that she has whispered about me these past few days, but from elementary school I have learned that people either like me and we're good friends, or hate me. I don't really know any people in between. End rant.

I didn't eat a lot for lunch today, I wasn't really hungry, and my emotional state is at an all time low that I know a break down is just around the corner if I don't actually get alone time, that has not happened. We have always been doing so many things that I don't think I've ever been alone alone. Alone time is usually me in bed reading or at my desk somewhere online surfing or typing.

My computer is hot and an elephant is rumbling. Google drive kind of working, I got a few photos up, but it will throw fits, so I don't know when they'll all be uploaded.

In the afternoon we cleaned out the overnight enclosures for the elephants. Never trust Mix or the boys with the hose, they were just get water all over you. I lucked out by not getting too wet, so my phone was safe, it was just my shoes that were soaked in the end. So I kind of wished I had brought some flip flops but I told myself Shannon said closed toed shoes, and I doubted we would actually be going to the beach. Bad decision on my part, but oh well.

We finished pretty fast leaving us a decent amount of free time to hang out so I went to get a few gifts for some people before going back to the room and reading for a while before deciding to come here for snacks and hopefully so solo writing time that didn't happen. So I've been playing music, they don't see to mind.

We've been sleeping with the door open now because it cools down a lot during the night. With this we have been having a lot of visitors throughout the night, one was a yowling cat that really wanted attention. I was woken up by him but it was a very drifty state that it was really only my ears that were functioning as well as a little bit of my train of thought but nothing else before I fell back asleep.

Google drive has stopped working.

Can't you just tell my energy is in a low area right now? I seriously need alone time and that is not possible at all. People always want to talk or they are always around. I have not found any alone time and I cannot withstand it for much longer. I hate to say it but I might take tomorrow off in the morning to actually have the room to myself. I'm getting completely irritated and I know it's just showing in my writing.

So yeah...a guy just walked up who smells really bad.

I haven't had dinner yet, but I think I might get some happy water tonight, cause they sell it here.

GAHHHHH....

-Claire

Two Triangles, Four Triangle

Guess who’s allergic to the sunscreen she was told she shouldn’t be allergic too! So now I’m allergic to the normal sunscreen everyone uses and the special sunscreen that was supposed to be used by people who are allergic to the normal sunscreen. It’s really annoying right now due to the fact that every day I have to go outside and work and I still have four more days left at Elephant Nature Park and all of those days will be spent outside in the sun. ~sigh~

So yesterday after I posted my blog for the day, I ran into Lek and was able to ask her if she was willing to take on an apprentice. She said she had done that a few times before but each time had to let them go because they thought what they were getting into was not what they thought. I kind of assumed that was probably what happened when she said she did. I was even prepared for many of the things she said she did. No hotel, just staying with the village, cooking and eating with them and sometimes there is no running water or shower. Traveling all around the country sometimes getting no down time. If anything it would be trying to withstand the torture the captive elephants go through. I got a lot of alone time after that to think, and walked back to the room with Thaichewie (a dog that Shannon named Thaichewie because it reminds her of her dog Chewie back in the States) and crawled into bed for a little more alone time before getting ready and falling asleep.

I got up a little late today, well I was woken up a little late today and let everyone leave for a little bit more alone time. I arrived with forty-five minutes for breakfast were I told Shannon and Janice my emotional meter was dropping decently due to the fact that I have not had a day of just me in the room all day long, alone. They gave me the choice of staying behind but I wanted to cut the corn, get the full experience and not try to get out of it. So we all gathered a pair of gloves, again, gloves that don’t fit my hand well, though Janice had this little trick that made my fingers actually fit and all clambered into the back of a truck. It took longer to get to the cornfields cause the truck needed to get gas and we took a total of like three u-turns just to get to where we were going, which was like in the middle of nowhere from Elephant Nature Park. We were given these hook things that would cut the grass and Mix told us how to us it. We were then sent to work in the field and each of us made at least six bundles of twenty-five. They were then wrapped by some of the men that worked for Elephant Nature Park then we hauled them to the side of the road while the men loaded them onto the two trucks. This is supposed to be a day long project of cutting the corn, it took us a total of an hour and a half to cut, tie, and load the truck. I have no idea if the guys were impressed, but I know I was.

Although I wasn't totally alone, it was a very zen thing to do that I did check out and feel like I had a little alone time even with the men and students around me. I have no idea if I'm actually allergic to corn or not but I still have some pretty bad red spots from the corn left on my arm.

We then had lunch that was actually really good for being out in the sun and transported around for a while before Mix passed the time by giving us a game to play. It was a spacial game, but I didn't get it probably cause I was way too tired to even think. He laid out two triangles where one point was touching two he then said "I have two triangles, I need four triangle. You can only move one stick and they all have to be the same size." We took about thirty minutes before we gave up and Mix gave us the answer where he moved one of the sticks to form a four and left the other looking like triangle. We asked for another where he laid out thirteen sticks to look like a pig and four sticks to look like a spear and we had to figure out how to change the position of the pig so that it would dodge the spear. We could move two sticks this time. We were definitely over thinking it and took us less time to give up when Mix move two of the sticks our of the four that formed the legs to the other side so the pig looked like he was laying flat on his belly.

We then had a small class meeting in which we were asked to describe the experience we had with Lek and the elephants yesterday in one word. I seriously was drawing blank on a word to describe it then but the more I think about it know I would have probably said release or relaxing. I didn't feel scared and Lek is probably the most amazing woman to work with if anything to do with animals. I swear she could probably walk the earth and not only have elephants, dogs, cats, and water buffalo to fall in love with her but every animal on earth. If there was any way of talking her into letting me become her apprentice I would love to. Mom sadly told me though that they only hire Thai citizens to work there. (So sorry mom but I am leaving America to become a Thai citizen! Probably not, I don't know if I could last being so far away from my parental units for the rest of my life...and I'm not sure about how everything works over here in Thailand, besides that my body can handle the food XD. By then the truck to take us back had arrive.

If there is a speed limit in Thailand, they don't listen or pay attention to it. On the way up to Elephant Nature Park the speedometer reached one hundred and thirty kilometers, a good eighty miles per hour, but boy I swear we were going faster. If not, we were totally going faster today on the way back from the fields. The wind was a cold wind either, it was a hot breeze and it just made my skin way more irritated. We got back, I filled up my water and returned to the room to plug my dying phone in and reading for a little bit, but I ended up falling asleep and being woken up again for dinner.

Today was good, but the dam was much harder than the corn cutting. I am burned on my shoulders,  a little lower on the arms, and back of my neck. Worse is that I am running low on my 'special' sunscreen, and will end up having to use other sunscreen that I will also react to. Is there seriously a sunscreen I won't react to? It's annoying and incredibly unsatisfying that I can't were sunscreen without reacting anymore, especially cause I pale as a piece of white lined paper.

Today I have a cat and dog friend hanging out with me, and somewhere below me there is a guitar being played, but is being out tuned by Rhianna or Beyoncé (my computer added the accent over the e on its own, lols).

Again I can not upload any of the images that I took from yesterday, I didn't take any today, and I do not know when I will be able to so for now probably the rest of the stay here there will be no images and I might just post a blog thats just images when I return to Chiang Mai.

Now to go back, take my contacts out and read until I fall asleep.

-Claire