Friday, December 4, 2009
Time Dwindling...
So my time here is quickly coming to an end. Its come much, much quicker than I thought it would. I'm not ready to weigh in on my semester here just yet because I still have another week left but once I am at the airport in Bangkok I will. I have to stay the night there for the 3rd time so I will have nothing better to do. The only thing I can say right now is that I apologize for not updating this thing nearly as often as I should have. In my defense I was in a foreign country, busy experiencing new things. I will come back with a lifetimes worth of stories to tell so don't worry. Anyways, I hope everyone is doing well and I will see you all soon.
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Russia Part 2
Here are a few things I learned during my week in Russia that I want to pass along to you. The food is absolutely terrible. Without a doubt, the worst food I have ever had. It is unbelievably salty and just all around horrible. Eastern Russia is not a foreigner friendly place. Not that I ever recommend going to Russia but if you do, go to the Western part because Eastern Russia is all Russian. They are not very nice people either. Most importantly though, never fight a Russian in Russia.
The rules of the fight were explained to us as this: they were modified MMA rules that allowed 30 seconds on the ground to work before it was stood back up. Also, no elbows were allowed and no kicks of any sort to a grounded opponent. Those were the rules we were told coming into the night. Right before the fights we were told of a new rule that had just been added. There is no doubt in my mind that this new rule was thrown in because the Russian coaches and officials were in the room during our training session, which I was very suspicious of and I knew nothing good would come of it. The new rule allowed for knees to the head of a grounded opponent. This is something that I have never trained for. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want those allowed in all organizations but as of right now they aren’t allowed so I don’t train them. After our training session, however, they were thrown in. My guess is because they saw that all of our wrestling revolved around shooting in for the legs to take guys down rather than the upper body takedowns that Russians tend to utilize. Anyways, that new rule is thrown in; whatever, no big deal. My fight finally comes up and I go out there and dominate my opponent through the whole first round. I didn’t realize it until I reviewed the tape later that night but I was screwed out of a victory in the first round. So the fight goes to the 2nd round and I am dead tired. A combination of being sick the previous week and not being able to train at all and not realizing how tiring it was to take someone down only to have them let up by the ref a few seconds later only to have to take them down again. As the 2nd round starts we start throwing hands again and I really have no more energy to take him down so I kept falling back trying to draw him into my guard. He kept following me down but he would push me out under the ropes requiring a restart. This happened about 3 times. Then all of a sudden, completely out of nowhere, the ref brings us together and raises the other guy’s hand. I, or anyone else for that matter, have any idea why exactly he won. It was never explained to us.
After reviewing the tape, we quickly realized that 30 seconds on the ground didn’t necessarily mean 30 seconds on the ground. At one point, I took him down and he went for an armbar which I escaped and he transitioned into a kneebar which I escaped. That ended up with him in mount raining punches down on me. The ref didn’t stand us back up until I had gotten him out of mount. That was around 40-45 seconds on the ground according to the tape that I have of it. A little later in the round I slipped and he followed me down and fell straight into a triangle choke. I synched it up as tight as it would possibly go and I could see the end of the fight. He was still throwing some weak punches but his face was turning red. It was literally seconds away from being over. The ref also realized this and stood us up. This stand up was a full 10 seconds before the stand up was supposed to happen. I can’t tell you how furious that made me to see that on tape. I wasn’t too mad immediately after the fight, I was more confused than anything, but after watching the tape and really seeing all the shenanigans that went on and seeing that I was robbed of a victory I couldn’t help but to be very upset.
There was a lot of questionable officiating that went on that night but I guess that was to be expected. The event itself was very good though, I’m not going to lie. It was a nice big venue and everything was set up very nicely. It was a nice ring and they had pyrotechnics set up along the walk out ramp. The crowd was huge and there were photographers and TV cameras everywhere. It just sucks that that is how it had to end. It sucks that it couldn’t be fair fights all the way around so we could truly see who the better team was.
Fighters there are treated like celebrities though. Especially us since we were all foreigners. We were mugged for autographs and pictures. I was recognized everywhere I went because of the interviews and press conference I had done. I’m going to be honest though, I didn’t like all the attention. I don’t fight for the fame, I fight to fight. I don’t really want to be in the spotlight but I suppose that if this is really my career I should probably get used to it because it comes with the territory.
Russia really is a miserable country though. It was, hands down, the most miserable week of my life. I didn’t eat anything besides yogurt and fruit. That was eat the entire week, yogurt and fruit. People there are just generally not very friendly. I don’t know what it is. It might be that their country is so shitty and they are upset that they have no way out. I can’t say for sure. I can say though, that those people were miserable. The only really cool thing about the place that we went to, Khabarovsk is that across the Amur River we could see China. That was pretty cool. Other than that, nothing was good. Especially the hotel. We were put up on the 5th floor, the top floor, of the hotel and it had no elevator. Every single night there was techno music blaring on our floor until ridiculous hours in the morning. It also didn’t help that the Russian Mafia hookers had rooms all over the floor and they also added to the noise every night.
That is basically my experience in Russia. Sorry for such a negative post but I really can’t find much of anything to say good about the place. If anyone has any questions let me know. Be on the lookout for my next post which will catch you up on what I have been doing in Thailand all this time. I hope everyone is doing well and I will talk to you all later.
The rules of the fight were explained to us as this: they were modified MMA rules that allowed 30 seconds on the ground to work before it was stood back up. Also, no elbows were allowed and no kicks of any sort to a grounded opponent. Those were the rules we were told coming into the night. Right before the fights we were told of a new rule that had just been added. There is no doubt in my mind that this new rule was thrown in because the Russian coaches and officials were in the room during our training session, which I was very suspicious of and I knew nothing good would come of it. The new rule allowed for knees to the head of a grounded opponent. This is something that I have never trained for. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want those allowed in all organizations but as of right now they aren’t allowed so I don’t train them. After our training session, however, they were thrown in. My guess is because they saw that all of our wrestling revolved around shooting in for the legs to take guys down rather than the upper body takedowns that Russians tend to utilize. Anyways, that new rule is thrown in; whatever, no big deal. My fight finally comes up and I go out there and dominate my opponent through the whole first round. I didn’t realize it until I reviewed the tape later that night but I was screwed out of a victory in the first round. So the fight goes to the 2nd round and I am dead tired. A combination of being sick the previous week and not being able to train at all and not realizing how tiring it was to take someone down only to have them let up by the ref a few seconds later only to have to take them down again. As the 2nd round starts we start throwing hands again and I really have no more energy to take him down so I kept falling back trying to draw him into my guard. He kept following me down but he would push me out under the ropes requiring a restart. This happened about 3 times. Then all of a sudden, completely out of nowhere, the ref brings us together and raises the other guy’s hand. I, or anyone else for that matter, have any idea why exactly he won. It was never explained to us.
After reviewing the tape, we quickly realized that 30 seconds on the ground didn’t necessarily mean 30 seconds on the ground. At one point, I took him down and he went for an armbar which I escaped and he transitioned into a kneebar which I escaped. That ended up with him in mount raining punches down on me. The ref didn’t stand us back up until I had gotten him out of mount. That was around 40-45 seconds on the ground according to the tape that I have of it. A little later in the round I slipped and he followed me down and fell straight into a triangle choke. I synched it up as tight as it would possibly go and I could see the end of the fight. He was still throwing some weak punches but his face was turning red. It was literally seconds away from being over. The ref also realized this and stood us up. This stand up was a full 10 seconds before the stand up was supposed to happen. I can’t tell you how furious that made me to see that on tape. I wasn’t too mad immediately after the fight, I was more confused than anything, but after watching the tape and really seeing all the shenanigans that went on and seeing that I was robbed of a victory I couldn’t help but to be very upset.
There was a lot of questionable officiating that went on that night but I guess that was to be expected. The event itself was very good though, I’m not going to lie. It was a nice big venue and everything was set up very nicely. It was a nice ring and they had pyrotechnics set up along the walk out ramp. The crowd was huge and there were photographers and TV cameras everywhere. It just sucks that that is how it had to end. It sucks that it couldn’t be fair fights all the way around so we could truly see who the better team was.
Fighters there are treated like celebrities though. Especially us since we were all foreigners. We were mugged for autographs and pictures. I was recognized everywhere I went because of the interviews and press conference I had done. I’m going to be honest though, I didn’t like all the attention. I don’t fight for the fame, I fight to fight. I don’t really want to be in the spotlight but I suppose that if this is really my career I should probably get used to it because it comes with the territory.
Russia really is a miserable country though. It was, hands down, the most miserable week of my life. I didn’t eat anything besides yogurt and fruit. That was eat the entire week, yogurt and fruit. People there are just generally not very friendly. I don’t know what it is. It might be that their country is so shitty and they are upset that they have no way out. I can’t say for sure. I can say though, that those people were miserable. The only really cool thing about the place that we went to, Khabarovsk is that across the Amur River we could see China. That was pretty cool. Other than that, nothing was good. Especially the hotel. We were put up on the 5th floor, the top floor, of the hotel and it had no elevator. Every single night there was techno music blaring on our floor until ridiculous hours in the morning. It also didn’t help that the Russian Mafia hookers had rooms all over the floor and they also added to the noise every night.
That is basically my experience in Russia. Sorry for such a negative post but I really can’t find much of anything to say good about the place. If anyone has any questions let me know. Be on the lookout for my next post which will catch you up on what I have been doing in Thailand all this time. I hope everyone is doing well and I will talk to you all later.
Russia Part 1
Note: This was written last weekend, while I was in Russia but did not have access to the internet so this is not going on right now. It is already over and I will either update this entry with results or create an entirely new entry.
So I’m sitting here in my hotel room in Russia with absolutely nothing to do besides finally update this blog so here we go. I’ll start out with what I have done in Russia so far and then I will make another entry detailing what I have been doing in Thailand all this time since my last full update.
So I left for Bangkok Tuesday night at around 5:30 and arrived there at about 6:30 and waited around to meet the rest of my team (the rest of the fighters that were fighting in the same event as me; we are all representing Bangkok Fight Club). We all met up at around 9:00 and went through security and all of that stuff that goes along with flying on a plan. Our flight for Seoul, South Korea left at around 11:00. It was about a 5 hour flight and we waited around the airport in Seoul for about 3 hours. I have to say, Seoul’s airport is very nice. It is very clean, there is free wifi, and there are even designated places to go and sleep if you choose to do so. The other airports should take note. Anyways, after our layover there we then boarded our flight for Khabarovsk, Russia at about 10:30 A.M. The flight from Seoul to Khabarovsk was about a 3 hour flight. Upon arriving at the airport we were told that before we could get off the plane every single person had to get their temperature checked by a quarantine officer. The weirdest part was that they took everyone’s temperature rectally using the same thermometer for everyone. It took forever. That isn’t exactly true. They had this crazy thermometer that she just pointed at our forehead and it gave her our temperature instantly. After that little ordeal we then went through customs and gathered our belongings where we were met by a bunch of Russian media. There were photographers and a news crew there to get shots of us. Another fighter from Australia named Ross and I also got interviewed by the news crew, through a translator of course.
That is another thing I forgot to mention. While we are all representing the same team, all of us are from different parts of the world. Here are the countries represented by our 9 person team: United States, Canada, Sweden, Australia, Spain, Italy, Brazil, Slovakia, and France. Quite a collection of countries if you ask me.
Anyways, so far a lot of the week has just been waiting around. The only thing we have really done besides go and train a couple of times is we took a short tour of a couple of the main areas of the city. Along the city there is this massive river called the Amore River and on the other side you can see China. It is pretty crazy.
Earlier today after the training session, which was mainly compromised of everyone making sure they were down to weight for the weigh in which was earlier this afternoon, I was waiting around for everyone else in the lobby of this gym. We were told that at 12:30 we would leave and go to another place for the weigh in and the press conference. Well, while I was waiting there a group of Russians working there came up and got me and told me it was time for the press conference. Daniel, the Spanish fighter, and I were the only 2 of us there. Everyone else was off doing something else. What this press conference consisted of is a ridiculous amount of Russia news cameras and reporters asking Daniel, the governor of Khabarovsk, Don “The Dragon” Wilson (apparently he used to be a badass kickboxer and has been in a bunch of movies. I’ve never heard of the guy personally but I can tell you this, he loves to talk about how great he is), and I questions. I really didn’t like it to be honest. I’m not there to be in the spotlight, I’m there to fight but I suppose as I move up the ranks as a fighter, that type of stuff also comes with the territory. After that was over we then met of with the rest of the team and went to the weigh in for the weigh in and a bunch more pictures.
We fight tomorrow night at 6:00 P.M. I believe. It should be a pretty good time. The event has 9 fights and I am fighting 8th. Lucky me. More waiting around I suppose. After the fights I know there is some huge after party where I am told there will be a bunch of Russian hookers. I think I’m going to pass on the after party since I have a beautiful girl named Rebecca waiting for me back in Chiang Mai plus any of you who know me, know that drinking really isn’t my thing. As for the rest of the trip besides the fight, we will be leaving here on Monday. I’ve heard that we will be going with the Russian military or something like that and shooting some crazy guns. That should be a good time before. I have never actually shot a gun before. Yes, I am from Iowa. I’d also like to add that Russian food is absolutely terrible. There is an absurd amount of salt on all of the food. It makes it uneatable to me. It is, hands down, the worst food I’ve ever had. Also, Russia is just a miserable place to be. Everyone here seems like they hate their life and there is this never ending gloom that appears to be hanging over the country. If you have never been here as I’m sure most of you haven’t, you’re not missing out on much. If you’re thinking, “Oh, I think I’ll go on vacation in Russia,” just don’t do it. You’ll be pissed about it. I would much rather be in Thailand any day. Anyways, that is enough ranting for right now. I hope everything is going well for everyone else and be on the look out for my next entry soon.
So I’m sitting here in my hotel room in Russia with absolutely nothing to do besides finally update this blog so here we go. I’ll start out with what I have done in Russia so far and then I will make another entry detailing what I have been doing in Thailand all this time since my last full update.
So I left for Bangkok Tuesday night at around 5:30 and arrived there at about 6:30 and waited around to meet the rest of my team (the rest of the fighters that were fighting in the same event as me; we are all representing Bangkok Fight Club). We all met up at around 9:00 and went through security and all of that stuff that goes along with flying on a plan. Our flight for Seoul, South Korea left at around 11:00. It was about a 5 hour flight and we waited around the airport in Seoul for about 3 hours. I have to say, Seoul’s airport is very nice. It is very clean, there is free wifi, and there are even designated places to go and sleep if you choose to do so. The other airports should take note. Anyways, after our layover there we then boarded our flight for Khabarovsk, Russia at about 10:30 A.M. The flight from Seoul to Khabarovsk was about a 3 hour flight. Upon arriving at the airport we were told that before we could get off the plane every single person had to get their temperature checked by a quarantine officer. The weirdest part was that they took everyone’s temperature rectally using the same thermometer for everyone. It took forever. That isn’t exactly true. They had this crazy thermometer that she just pointed at our forehead and it gave her our temperature instantly. After that little ordeal we then went through customs and gathered our belongings where we were met by a bunch of Russian media. There were photographers and a news crew there to get shots of us. Another fighter from Australia named Ross and I also got interviewed by the news crew, through a translator of course.
That is another thing I forgot to mention. While we are all representing the same team, all of us are from different parts of the world. Here are the countries represented by our 9 person team: United States, Canada, Sweden, Australia, Spain, Italy, Brazil, Slovakia, and France. Quite a collection of countries if you ask me.
Anyways, so far a lot of the week has just been waiting around. The only thing we have really done besides go and train a couple of times is we took a short tour of a couple of the main areas of the city. Along the city there is this massive river called the Amore River and on the other side you can see China. It is pretty crazy.
Earlier today after the training session, which was mainly compromised of everyone making sure they were down to weight for the weigh in which was earlier this afternoon, I was waiting around for everyone else in the lobby of this gym. We were told that at 12:30 we would leave and go to another place for the weigh in and the press conference. Well, while I was waiting there a group of Russians working there came up and got me and told me it was time for the press conference. Daniel, the Spanish fighter, and I were the only 2 of us there. Everyone else was off doing something else. What this press conference consisted of is a ridiculous amount of Russia news cameras and reporters asking Daniel, the governor of Khabarovsk, Don “The Dragon” Wilson (apparently he used to be a badass kickboxer and has been in a bunch of movies. I’ve never heard of the guy personally but I can tell you this, he loves to talk about how great he is), and I questions. I really didn’t like it to be honest. I’m not there to be in the spotlight, I’m there to fight but I suppose as I move up the ranks as a fighter, that type of stuff also comes with the territory. After that was over we then met of with the rest of the team and went to the weigh in for the weigh in and a bunch more pictures.
We fight tomorrow night at 6:00 P.M. I believe. It should be a pretty good time. The event has 9 fights and I am fighting 8th. Lucky me. More waiting around I suppose. After the fights I know there is some huge after party where I am told there will be a bunch of Russian hookers. I think I’m going to pass on the after party since I have a beautiful girl named Rebecca waiting for me back in Chiang Mai plus any of you who know me, know that drinking really isn’t my thing. As for the rest of the trip besides the fight, we will be leaving here on Monday. I’ve heard that we will be going with the Russian military or something like that and shooting some crazy guns. That should be a good time before. I have never actually shot a gun before. Yes, I am from Iowa. I’d also like to add that Russian food is absolutely terrible. There is an absurd amount of salt on all of the food. It makes it uneatable to me. It is, hands down, the worst food I’ve ever had. Also, Russia is just a miserable place to be. Everyone here seems like they hate their life and there is this never ending gloom that appears to be hanging over the country. If you have never been here as I’m sure most of you haven’t, you’re not missing out on much. If you’re thinking, “Oh, I think I’ll go on vacation in Russia,” just don’t do it. You’ll be pissed about it. I would much rather be in Thailand any day. Anyways, that is enough ranting for right now. I hope everything is going well for everyone else and be on the look out for my next entry soon.
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Update
I would like to apologize for taking so long in between posts to have any sort of an update. As some of you may know, I have gotten an invite to fight on Team Thailand as we take on Team Russia in Khabarovsk, Russia on November 3rd. The fight is televised nationally in Russia as well as around 8000 people at the event so I have been working extra hard. That coupled with the school work (we just had mid-terms) has made it difficult for me to type a new post. I have so much to type, it is just a matter of finding the time to type it.
Anyways, tomorrow morning I am off to Bangkok for 10 days to train at Keatkhamtorn Gym since it is our fall break and I want to be able to explore Thailand a little more. Like I said, just bear with me, I have an update coming I just need to find some time to sit down and type.
I hope everyone is doing well.
Anyways, tomorrow morning I am off to Bangkok for 10 days to train at Keatkhamtorn Gym since it is our fall break and I want to be able to explore Thailand a little more. Like I said, just bear with me, I have an update coming I just need to find some time to sit down and type.
I hope everyone is doing well.
Saturday, September 12, 2009
This is Long Overdue
Hey everyone, sorry for such a long delay between posts. Like I said in my last post, things have really picked up for me and I haven't had a lot of free time. I have been doing a lot of cool things though.
A lot of what I have been doing is training muay Thai. I am very happy with the gym that I am at. The guys at Lanna Muay Thai (known as Kiat Busaba Muay Thai here) have been busting my ass. Over the past week I have graduated from the strictly farang (Western foreigner) ring, to the ring that the fighters get to train in. Let me tell you, it is significantly tougher. In the beginners ring I would do 5 rounds of 5 minutes with no problem but after the switch to the big boy ring, my first day they only had me do 3 rounds of 5 minutes and I was dead. I have been doing that same protocol for all week until today when they bumped me up to 4 rounds. Jesus I was tired. Not only did they bump me up to 4 rounds today, but also for the day's warm up it was the mountain run. The mountain run was quite an experience. The group got in Andy's truck (the owner) and he drove us out to the park where the path up the mountain is located and told us to go. Run up the mountain for 20 minutes. Get as far as you can and the person that is the furthest up the mountain turns around after 20 minutes and comes back down and the group follows them as they come back down. I was the second furthest today which I was pretty happy about because it was my first time. The road up this mountain had absolutely no break in it. It was just a straight incline. A ridiculous incline on top of that.
In other muay Thai news, the past 2 weeks I have gone to Gawilla Boxing Stadium and watched the muay Thai fights there. They are a lot of fun to go see. Last night I sat with the other members of my gym over on the Thai side and it was a lot more fun. The Thais were going crazy because they were all betting money on every fight. The betting culture is absolutely huge here. Anyways, we had one member of our gym fighting last night and he fought awesomely. He fought a Thai fighter and it was their 3rd time meeting each other. Heading into that fight they were 1-1. The 1st round came and the Thai fighter completely outclassed him and beat him up pretty bad. Same in the 2nd round. After the 2nd round he came back to the corner and he had a massive mouse over left eye. I've never had one before but I have to imagine that it didn't feel too good this morning. He finally got something going in the 3rd round as he started landing elbows in the clinch and then in the 4th round he finally knocked him out. He landed a flush knee right to his stomach and sent him to the canvas and the Thai fighter couldn't answer the 10 count. It was a really good win and I was really impressed with the heart that he showed. Reminded me a bit of myself to be honest. The guy who will take a beating and keep coming all day. Seeing this fights the past 2 weeks has prompted me to do something that I told myself I wouldn't do when I decided to come here to train muay Thai and that is fight. Watching these fights has given me the itch to fight and I think it will be fun to do something completely out of my element since I am more of a ground fighter. I am planning my fight for November so I will be sure to keep you all updated on my progress as I train for the fight.
Another big story in my life is the tattoo that I had done on Tuesday night. I got a tattoo tapped in with bamboo, the traditional way. The tattoo is pretty good sized and it is on my left side. I believe the measurements are something like 30 cm wide by 21 cm tall. It is amazing how good it looks, especially considering it was all tapped in. The artist suggested that I break it up into 2 different sessions, 1 for the outline and another for shading, but I told him I would be able to finish it in one. The ribs are a sensitive area so I knew it would hurt but I also knew I could take it. He had my appointment estimated at 4 hours so it was a pretty good chunk of time that I would be sitting there getting stabbed repeatedly. The first 3 hours of the session were a walk in the park. The only real difference between the bamboo and modern tattooing is that the bamboo is much slower. You can feel each strike of the bamboo. It really wasn't too bad though. After 3 hours he told me he was going to take a smoke break. We came back a few minutes later to resume and from then on my cake walk was over. Hour 4 started to hurt a bit. Nothing too bad but I could definitely feel it significantly more than before but hour 5...oh man hour 5 was one of the worst experiences of my life. It was absolutely excruciating. Also, as you can tell from what I just wrote, it went over an hour over his estimated time. I'm not complaining because he did an amazing job but wow it hurt bad. I pushed through it though. He said that most people would not be able to handle that all in one session. I am very very happy with the finished product though. I will upload pictures of it soon. The tattoo is supposed to give me protection in battle. It is an amazing design and a perfect fit for me since "protection in battle" is exactly what I need for my job.
Outside of those things I have been busy with school. They keep us in the classroom way too long here. That is my only real complaint so far. Each class is a minimum of 1 1/2 hours. I understand that we are here through an academic program but I don't think that they realize that people don't study abroad for the academics. If I weren't such a bastard of a student I would probably be a hermit right now because there are huge readings every night and a paper due every week but in typical Jake fashion I have yet to do a reading and I reserve the paper writing for Sunday nights. The last one was even finished Monday morning, a few hours before it was due.
That is all I really have for now. Sorry for the long post. I'll try not to go so long in between posts. I hope everyone is doing well.
Sawwaddee
A lot of what I have been doing is training muay Thai. I am very happy with the gym that I am at. The guys at Lanna Muay Thai (known as Kiat Busaba Muay Thai here) have been busting my ass. Over the past week I have graduated from the strictly farang (Western foreigner) ring, to the ring that the fighters get to train in. Let me tell you, it is significantly tougher. In the beginners ring I would do 5 rounds of 5 minutes with no problem but after the switch to the big boy ring, my first day they only had me do 3 rounds of 5 minutes and I was dead. I have been doing that same protocol for all week until today when they bumped me up to 4 rounds. Jesus I was tired. Not only did they bump me up to 4 rounds today, but also for the day's warm up it was the mountain run. The mountain run was quite an experience. The group got in Andy's truck (the owner) and he drove us out to the park where the path up the mountain is located and told us to go. Run up the mountain for 20 minutes. Get as far as you can and the person that is the furthest up the mountain turns around after 20 minutes and comes back down and the group follows them as they come back down. I was the second furthest today which I was pretty happy about because it was my first time. The road up this mountain had absolutely no break in it. It was just a straight incline. A ridiculous incline on top of that.
In other muay Thai news, the past 2 weeks I have gone to Gawilla Boxing Stadium and watched the muay Thai fights there. They are a lot of fun to go see. Last night I sat with the other members of my gym over on the Thai side and it was a lot more fun. The Thais were going crazy because they were all betting money on every fight. The betting culture is absolutely huge here. Anyways, we had one member of our gym fighting last night and he fought awesomely. He fought a Thai fighter and it was their 3rd time meeting each other. Heading into that fight they were 1-1. The 1st round came and the Thai fighter completely outclassed him and beat him up pretty bad. Same in the 2nd round. After the 2nd round he came back to the corner and he had a massive mouse over left eye. I've never had one before but I have to imagine that it didn't feel too good this morning. He finally got something going in the 3rd round as he started landing elbows in the clinch and then in the 4th round he finally knocked him out. He landed a flush knee right to his stomach and sent him to the canvas and the Thai fighter couldn't answer the 10 count. It was a really good win and I was really impressed with the heart that he showed. Reminded me a bit of myself to be honest. The guy who will take a beating and keep coming all day. Seeing this fights the past 2 weeks has prompted me to do something that I told myself I wouldn't do when I decided to come here to train muay Thai and that is fight. Watching these fights has given me the itch to fight and I think it will be fun to do something completely out of my element since I am more of a ground fighter. I am planning my fight for November so I will be sure to keep you all updated on my progress as I train for the fight.
Another big story in my life is the tattoo that I had done on Tuesday night. I got a tattoo tapped in with bamboo, the traditional way. The tattoo is pretty good sized and it is on my left side. I believe the measurements are something like 30 cm wide by 21 cm tall. It is amazing how good it looks, especially considering it was all tapped in. The artist suggested that I break it up into 2 different sessions, 1 for the outline and another for shading, but I told him I would be able to finish it in one. The ribs are a sensitive area so I knew it would hurt but I also knew I could take it. He had my appointment estimated at 4 hours so it was a pretty good chunk of time that I would be sitting there getting stabbed repeatedly. The first 3 hours of the session were a walk in the park. The only real difference between the bamboo and modern tattooing is that the bamboo is much slower. You can feel each strike of the bamboo. It really wasn't too bad though. After 3 hours he told me he was going to take a smoke break. We came back a few minutes later to resume and from then on my cake walk was over. Hour 4 started to hurt a bit. Nothing too bad but I could definitely feel it significantly more than before but hour 5...oh man hour 5 was one of the worst experiences of my life. It was absolutely excruciating. Also, as you can tell from what I just wrote, it went over an hour over his estimated time. I'm not complaining because he did an amazing job but wow it hurt bad. I pushed through it though. He said that most people would not be able to handle that all in one session. I am very very happy with the finished product though. I will upload pictures of it soon. The tattoo is supposed to give me protection in battle. It is an amazing design and a perfect fit for me since "protection in battle" is exactly what I need for my job.
Outside of those things I have been busy with school. They keep us in the classroom way too long here. That is my only real complaint so far. Each class is a minimum of 1 1/2 hours. I understand that we are here through an academic program but I don't think that they realize that people don't study abroad for the academics. If I weren't such a bastard of a student I would probably be a hermit right now because there are huge readings every night and a paper due every week but in typical Jake fashion I have yet to do a reading and I reserve the paper writing for Sunday nights. The last one was even finished Monday morning, a few hours before it was due.
That is all I really have for now. Sorry for the long post. I'll try not to go so long in between posts. I hope everyone is doing well.
Sawwaddee
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Hey everyone, just wanted to let you all know that I haven't forgotten about this blog. Its just that as the days go by, I am getting increasingly busier. There is always so much stuff to do here that its hard to find time to sit down and write. I will update this very soon though. Hope you're all doing well. Sawwadee.
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
New Pictures
Hey everyone, just thought I'd let you know that they're new pictures up from the village stay. There are pictures from the village, a waterfall we went to, several different Wats, and some miscellaneous pictures from a little trip we took around the district.
Monday, August 31, 2009
Back From the Dead
Hey everyone, sorry it has been so long since my last post. Quite a bit has happened so hopefully I don't forget too much.
First of all, as you may know the reason that I was not able to post anything during this last week was because I was at a homestay in the Ban Yang Luang village in the Mae Chaem district. The village is up in the mountains and it is surrounded by more mountains and rice paddies. There were some absolutely awesome views at this village. You will be able to see this from my pictures when I get them posted. There was one little pavilion that became the hang out spot for most of the students to get out of their houses and the view from it was probably the best I've ever seen. To get to this village we took a sam taew (it is a covered military style truck with three rows of benches in the back; sam means 3 and taew means row so that's where the name came from) and it was about a 4 hour ride with 35 or so students packed into the back of this thing. It was a little ridiculous to be honest because all of the professors going got to take air conditioned vans and because the vans were smaller they got to take a route that went directly over the mountains and only took 2 hours but since we were in such a big truck we had to go around the mountain. The guy that I roomed with for the week, Ian, decided that he was going to stand up and give everyone a little "mission briefing" before we got there to go along with the whole military style truck theme. It was hilarious. I will try to get that video posted at some point as well. For those of you with Facebook, it is up already and I'd say its worth the watch.
Upon arriving at the village I, along with many of my fellow students, headed straight for the bathrooms. Imagine our surprises when we came face to face with squat toilets. It was, for many of us, our first encounter with these. I knew right then that it was going to be a very eye opening week and I wasn't disappointed. All of us students split into groups of 2 or 3 so we could be separated into different houses. Ian and I were assigned to the religious leader of the village's house. He was 65 years old and lived with his wife. I imagine that she was probably around the same age. Also, living right next door to them were his daughter and his son-in-law. They were both in their early 40's. That is another phenomena of Thailand, especially in the villages; it is very typical for a child to live with their parents their entire life. If not in the same house then near by because there are no nursing homes here. When parents reach a certain age, it then becomes their child's responsibility to take care of them.
When we got to the house it was really shocking. It was literally a shack. We had an outhouse equipped with 2 squat toilets and a pipe connected to the well for showers. No hot water though. That took some time to get used to, especially since Thais typically shower 4 or 5 times a day and urged us to do the same. It was also really difficult to communicate with our family because they didn't speak any English. It was really frustrating at first. It made the first day or two really hard. That was the first time that the culture shock really hit me. I had never felt further away from home. After a bit of settling in though, it was a really great experience. It was actually kind of nice to get away from everything and just be able to truly enjoy what is around you.
The food there was a bit tough for me to stomach at first. This was all home grown stuff. All of the chicken was from a chicken they slaughtered themselves because there were thousands of roosters and chickens running all around the village. Those damn things started clucking and cock-a-doodle-doing at around 4:30 every morning. It was ridiculous. Anyways, the first few days I didn't eat too much because I was a bit nervous about some of the things our family made for us. Finally by the end I was able to eat almost everything though. It was our "sister" that prepared all of the meals for us. Also, women never at with men. It was always only men eating. That was another of those big cultural differences.
We had our Thai language class everyday while we were there at 10:30 A.M. and then we would go back to our houses and eat lunch with our family. After we got done eating usually we would end up going out and doing something as a program. We went to a few different Wats one day as you'll see in the pictures. Another day we went to a waterfall up in the mountains and swam in it. It was extremely cold. Another couple days we went to a few different markets around the area. One of the days we also went to see this old man who creates hair pins by hand and he is apparently one of the last guys in Thailand that knows how to do it. I guess the hair pins used to only be worn by the queen and princess.
It was kind of sad to say goodbye to my Thai family. They treated us so well and showed us so much hospitality. However, it was good to get back to the city. On our trip back they decided to give us air conditioned vans. That made the ride back so much better.
That is basically how my week was. As I think of more things I will create another post. My next post will also include what I've been doing since I got back from the village. I would just include it in one giant post but I feel like it'll be better for the people reading to break it up a bit and also because I have to go to my muay Thai gym here in a couple minutes.
I hope everyone is doing well and I miss you all.
P.S. I just joined a weight room. There are no racks, only smith machines, but there are a couple of benches so I have just been doing everything rackless. Kind of ghetto but I'm making due. I'm sure that disappoints you Phil because you still won't be able to beat me when I get back.
First of all, as you may know the reason that I was not able to post anything during this last week was because I was at a homestay in the Ban Yang Luang village in the Mae Chaem district. The village is up in the mountains and it is surrounded by more mountains and rice paddies. There were some absolutely awesome views at this village. You will be able to see this from my pictures when I get them posted. There was one little pavilion that became the hang out spot for most of the students to get out of their houses and the view from it was probably the best I've ever seen. To get to this village we took a sam taew (it is a covered military style truck with three rows of benches in the back; sam means 3 and taew means row so that's where the name came from) and it was about a 4 hour ride with 35 or so students packed into the back of this thing. It was a little ridiculous to be honest because all of the professors going got to take air conditioned vans and because the vans were smaller they got to take a route that went directly over the mountains and only took 2 hours but since we were in such a big truck we had to go around the mountain. The guy that I roomed with for the week, Ian, decided that he was going to stand up and give everyone a little "mission briefing" before we got there to go along with the whole military style truck theme. It was hilarious. I will try to get that video posted at some point as well. For those of you with Facebook, it is up already and I'd say its worth the watch.
Upon arriving at the village I, along with many of my fellow students, headed straight for the bathrooms. Imagine our surprises when we came face to face with squat toilets. It was, for many of us, our first encounter with these. I knew right then that it was going to be a very eye opening week and I wasn't disappointed. All of us students split into groups of 2 or 3 so we could be separated into different houses. Ian and I were assigned to the religious leader of the village's house. He was 65 years old and lived with his wife. I imagine that she was probably around the same age. Also, living right next door to them were his daughter and his son-in-law. They were both in their early 40's. That is another phenomena of Thailand, especially in the villages; it is very typical for a child to live with their parents their entire life. If not in the same house then near by because there are no nursing homes here. When parents reach a certain age, it then becomes their child's responsibility to take care of them.
When we got to the house it was really shocking. It was literally a shack. We had an outhouse equipped with 2 squat toilets and a pipe connected to the well for showers. No hot water though. That took some time to get used to, especially since Thais typically shower 4 or 5 times a day and urged us to do the same. It was also really difficult to communicate with our family because they didn't speak any English. It was really frustrating at first. It made the first day or two really hard. That was the first time that the culture shock really hit me. I had never felt further away from home. After a bit of settling in though, it was a really great experience. It was actually kind of nice to get away from everything and just be able to truly enjoy what is around you.
The food there was a bit tough for me to stomach at first. This was all home grown stuff. All of the chicken was from a chicken they slaughtered themselves because there were thousands of roosters and chickens running all around the village. Those damn things started clucking and cock-a-doodle-doing at around 4:30 every morning. It was ridiculous. Anyways, the first few days I didn't eat too much because I was a bit nervous about some of the things our family made for us. Finally by the end I was able to eat almost everything though. It was our "sister" that prepared all of the meals for us. Also, women never at with men. It was always only men eating. That was another of those big cultural differences.
We had our Thai language class everyday while we were there at 10:30 A.M. and then we would go back to our houses and eat lunch with our family. After we got done eating usually we would end up going out and doing something as a program. We went to a few different Wats one day as you'll see in the pictures. Another day we went to a waterfall up in the mountains and swam in it. It was extremely cold. Another couple days we went to a few different markets around the area. One of the days we also went to see this old man who creates hair pins by hand and he is apparently one of the last guys in Thailand that knows how to do it. I guess the hair pins used to only be worn by the queen and princess.
It was kind of sad to say goodbye to my Thai family. They treated us so well and showed us so much hospitality. However, it was good to get back to the city. On our trip back they decided to give us air conditioned vans. That made the ride back so much better.
That is basically how my week was. As I think of more things I will create another post. My next post will also include what I've been doing since I got back from the village. I would just include it in one giant post but I feel like it'll be better for the people reading to break it up a bit and also because I have to go to my muay Thai gym here in a couple minutes.
I hope everyone is doing well and I miss you all.
P.S. I just joined a weight room. There are no racks, only smith machines, but there are a couple of benches so I have just been doing everything rackless. Kind of ghetto but I'm making due. I'm sure that disappoints you Phil because you still won't be able to beat me when I get back.
Sunday, August 23, 2009
New Pictures
I have put up some new pictures. Most of them are from Wat Umong. It is a temple out in the forest and it is really cool. There are also a couple from the Saturday night walking street. I have a couple of some of the food too, just for you Jack.
Saturday, August 22, 2009
Finally Starting to Train...
Well today marked the first time that I got to do what I came to Thailand to do. I went and trained at Lanna Muay Thai. It was just what I needed. The training was great and I got a great workout in. The set up of the training is very similar but the way they hold pads is a lot different and I like it a lot better. Rather than just standing there and calling out combinations, the trainer moves around a lot and makes you really work to hit the pads. He also was throwing lots of kicks and punches at me from all kinds of different angles so it really made me work my defense. I will post a video of the gym. I won't be in it but you will be able to get an idea of what I'm doing. Later today I am going with a professor to another muay Thai gym to check it out. Hopefully it is as good as Lanna is so I will have a few different options.
Yesterday another guy and myself went to Carrefour (It's originally from France but it is basically a Wal-Mart) and I saw something that I would never see in a Wal-Mart in America. There is constantly wacky ass music playing over the PA and since Carrefour is within a mall, you can hear it everywhere. Well, as we were walking through the store, all of a sudden the Carrefour theme song comes on and all of the employees stopped whatever they were doing and all started doing this goofy ass dance. It was hilarious. It took every bit of me not to laugh hysterically. The guys had no clue what they were doing because they were watching the girls do it the whole time and were always a step behind. The guy I was with said the time before when he was there they played the Thai national anthem and everyone in the entire mall (it is always unbelievably busy) just stopped. He said that him and the people he was with didn't know what was going on at first because they just kept walking. Anyways, I also saw this lady about wipe out on a wet spot on the floor. As she stepped on it she like skidded out. I tried to conceal my laughter but I couldn't do it. I laughed so unbelievably hard.
I also had McDonalds the other day as a bit of a break from Thai food. I was just hoping I didn't get sick but surprisingly, Thai McDonalds is much better than American McDonalds. The food was not a bit greasy and it was really fresh. Ronald McDonald also looks even more like a pedophile here than he does in America. I have a picture of him that I will post.
Next week we are going to Mae Chaem village for a week long homestay so I will not be able to update this until next Saturday. It should be a good time though. There is a massage place in the village and apparently typically the students go every night. I think that will probably be my plan as well. Massages are ridiculously cheap here along with everything else. Its like 200 baht for an hour. That's equivalent to about $6.
Anyways, I hope everyone is doing well and I'll talk to you soon. Sawaddee.
Yesterday another guy and myself went to Carrefour (It's originally from France but it is basically a Wal-Mart) and I saw something that I would never see in a Wal-Mart in America. There is constantly wacky ass music playing over the PA and since Carrefour is within a mall, you can hear it everywhere. Well, as we were walking through the store, all of a sudden the Carrefour theme song comes on and all of the employees stopped whatever they were doing and all started doing this goofy ass dance. It was hilarious. It took every bit of me not to laugh hysterically. The guys had no clue what they were doing because they were watching the girls do it the whole time and were always a step behind. The guy I was with said the time before when he was there they played the Thai national anthem and everyone in the entire mall (it is always unbelievably busy) just stopped. He said that him and the people he was with didn't know what was going on at first because they just kept walking. Anyways, I also saw this lady about wipe out on a wet spot on the floor. As she stepped on it she like skidded out. I tried to conceal my laughter but I couldn't do it. I laughed so unbelievably hard.
I also had McDonalds the other day as a bit of a break from Thai food. I was just hoping I didn't get sick but surprisingly, Thai McDonalds is much better than American McDonalds. The food was not a bit greasy and it was really fresh. Ronald McDonald also looks even more like a pedophile here than he does in America. I have a picture of him that I will post.
Next week we are going to Mae Chaem village for a week long homestay so I will not be able to update this until next Saturday. It should be a good time though. There is a massage place in the village and apparently typically the students go every night. I think that will probably be my plan as well. Massages are ridiculously cheap here along with everything else. Its like 200 baht for an hour. That's equivalent to about $6.
Anyways, I hope everyone is doing well and I'll talk to you soon. Sawaddee.
Friday, August 21, 2009
Pictures Are Up
Sawaddee, I just wanted to let you all know that there are a few pictures on the bottom on the page now. They are linked to my Flickr account which have some more there. There isn't a lot yet but there are some cool ones. They are of various places I've been so far. There are a few of downtown Chiang Mai, the meditation retreat, a Wat, and the Khantok dinner.
I am going to talk to a muay Thai Kru this weekend and possibly go to a training session Saturday morning so I will update more this weekend. I hope everyone is doing well.
I am going to talk to a muay Thai Kru this weekend and possibly go to a training session Saturday morning so I will update more this weekend. I hope everyone is doing well.
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Orientation Week
So far this week has been ridiculously long. On Monday we started our orientation with a visit to the school's President's office where he gave us a big speech on the history of Payap University. After his long, and pretty boring, speech we broke off into groups where Thai students who are majoring in English took us on a tour of the campus. Now when I say tour I mean they showed us where a bank was and then took us to get our pictures taken for our IDs. It was a pretty shitty tour but it was hotter than hell as usual so I was alright with not walking around all day. This event was followed by lunch and then 2 long and very uninformative classes. This capped off a day that started at 830 and got over at 430. I felt like I was in high school again. By the end of the day I wasn't paying attention to anything.
That night we, as a program, went to a Khantok Dinner which is a traditional northern Thai dinner that also includes traditional dances and music. The environment was very cool. It was weird sitting on the floor though. I had never been to a restaurant where you had to sit on the floor and I must say, it is not very conducive to eating but I managed. Don't worry Phil, I don't think I am going to have any problem maintaining my weight while I am here. I have pictures and a couple videos that I will put up as soon as I have time.
Tuesday contained more pointless school stuff until lunch. After lunch we, again as a program, left for a Wat (Buddhist temple) to be lectured by the master of the temple before we went to the meditation retreat outside of Chiang Mai. This meditation retreat was something I was really looking forward to after hearing about it. It was so unbelievably boring. My hopes for it were way too high. Not only was it really painful to sit in those positions for that period of time, it was also just incredibly boring. I had hoped that it would help cure my sleeping troubles and if I had the monks telling me how to meditate as I was going to sleep I would be out like a light. I fell asleep several times over the course of the day that we stayed. Part of me felt bad because that is their life but at the same time, I couldn't help it. It was boring. I have pictures of the Wat and the meditation retreat that I will post at a later time.
After getting back from the meditation retreat this afternoon we had to basically go straight to our Thai culture class. We talked about geography the entire time and he had us draw a map of Thailand. I hate doing busy work and this dumbass didn't know what to do so he had us draw a map. This class is going to be really boring I have a feeling.
After class got over this afternoon and bunch of us went into Chiang Mai were they all got massages and I went and checked out a weight room. I was very very unimpressed. All they had were Smith machines and other stupid machines. Their dumbbells only went up to 45 lbs too. I guess the search will continue but my roommate, Pek, is going to take me to his gym and he says its a lot better so we'll see how it is.
That is all I really have for now. I am starting to get busy but I will try to keep this thing updated as often as possible. I will also get some of the pictures up very soon. I hope everything is going well for everyone. I miss you all.
That night we, as a program, went to a Khantok Dinner which is a traditional northern Thai dinner that also includes traditional dances and music. The environment was very cool. It was weird sitting on the floor though. I had never been to a restaurant where you had to sit on the floor and I must say, it is not very conducive to eating but I managed. Don't worry Phil, I don't think I am going to have any problem maintaining my weight while I am here. I have pictures and a couple videos that I will put up as soon as I have time.
Tuesday contained more pointless school stuff until lunch. After lunch we, again as a program, left for a Wat (Buddhist temple) to be lectured by the master of the temple before we went to the meditation retreat outside of Chiang Mai. This meditation retreat was something I was really looking forward to after hearing about it. It was so unbelievably boring. My hopes for it were way too high. Not only was it really painful to sit in those positions for that period of time, it was also just incredibly boring. I had hoped that it would help cure my sleeping troubles and if I had the monks telling me how to meditate as I was going to sleep I would be out like a light. I fell asleep several times over the course of the day that we stayed. Part of me felt bad because that is their life but at the same time, I couldn't help it. It was boring. I have pictures of the Wat and the meditation retreat that I will post at a later time.
After getting back from the meditation retreat this afternoon we had to basically go straight to our Thai culture class. We talked about geography the entire time and he had us draw a map of Thailand. I hate doing busy work and this dumbass didn't know what to do so he had us draw a map. This class is going to be really boring I have a feeling.
After class got over this afternoon and bunch of us went into Chiang Mai were they all got massages and I went and checked out a weight room. I was very very unimpressed. All they had were Smith machines and other stupid machines. Their dumbbells only went up to 45 lbs too. I guess the search will continue but my roommate, Pek, is going to take me to his gym and he says its a lot better so we'll see how it is.
That is all I really have for now. I am starting to get busy but I will try to keep this thing updated as often as possible. I will also get some of the pictures up very soon. I hope everything is going well for everyone. I miss you all.
Sunday, August 16, 2009
My First Day
Well I arrived in Chiang Mai at around 7:30 AM on Saturday morning (my time; it was 7:30 PM on Friday for you guys) after a very long night in Bangkok's airport. Apparently a big white guy walking around aimlessly is grounds to be stared at by all the airport security. Anyways, when I arrived at the airport I was greeted by a guy from the Payap school to take me to the dorm. He took one of my bags and started wheeling it out but to get down to the car we had to drop down from a little retaining wall. He attempted to get my bag down but I just picked it up and sent it down at the bottom and he was amazed. He kept telling me how strong I was for muay Thai. He also said he was going to talk to a few friends and get me a hook up at a gym so there was my very first contact in Chiang Mai in regards to where I can go to train.
Also on the drive back from the airport I realized how out of their minds Thai people were when it comes to driving. It was unbelievable. The lines on the road mean absolutely nothing. There would be motorcycles and mopeds weaving in and out of cars and cars would drive right in the middle of the lines. Apparently there are no laws on yielding to an ambulance either as an ambulance hauled ass up behind us with it's lights on and Jiu (the drivers name) just continued to drive at the same pace.
After arriving at the dorms I got all checked in and everything and I met my roommate. When I arrived it was still pretty early so Pek was still sleeping. He woke up momentarily but he wasn't too coherent (I found out later in the day that he had gone out with a bunch of freshman students at Payap and had gotten trashed the night before and hadn't gotten back in until 5:00 AM). I wasn't too sure what to think of him at first but after he woke up and came around I realized he was cool as hell. I easily got the best roommate that I could have gotten.
After lunch, which cost me less than $2 for 2 massive plates of food, Pek took me to a mall called Carrefour which contained a Thai version of Wal-Mart only with waaaaay cheaper prices. It really blows my mind how cheap things are here. I got a pack of Trident gum that would run over a dollar back home for about 30 cents. Red Bulls are also around 30 cents.
After getting back, Pek and I went and ate with a bunch of the other Thai students as well as some of the other American students that are in the program. Again, 2 massive plates for less than $2. After we ate, the plan was to go to the night market but I was way too wiped out. I would have gone but people were being too indecisive so I ended up falling asleep.
Anyways, my overall first impressions of the place: it is hotter than hell here and ridiculously humid, it is cool being so close to the mountains which you would think it would make it a bit cooler but no, Thai people are insane drivers, everything is unbelievably cheap here, and the food is incredible.
Tomorrow I am thinking of having Pek take me to a place to receive a tattoo that is tapped in, we'll just have to see how the day goes though. Other than that, my adviser, Jenjit, is taking me out to lunch with a few people that are going to hook me up with a good muay Thai gym (I've found that all of the Thais that find out that I am here for muay Thai love me because I am here to train their art). After that we are having some type of ceremony, greeting all of the foreign students here. Then we are being taken on a tour of the city. It should be a pretty good day.
I hope everything is going well for everyone back home. Like I said before, if anyone has any suggestions on ways to improve this, please let me know (pictures will be coming later). I miss you all (especially you Alecia). Bye bye for now.
Jake Pudenz
Also on the drive back from the airport I realized how out of their minds Thai people were when it comes to driving. It was unbelievable. The lines on the road mean absolutely nothing. There would be motorcycles and mopeds weaving in and out of cars and cars would drive right in the middle of the lines. Apparently there are no laws on yielding to an ambulance either as an ambulance hauled ass up behind us with it's lights on and Jiu (the drivers name) just continued to drive at the same pace.
After arriving at the dorms I got all checked in and everything and I met my roommate. When I arrived it was still pretty early so Pek was still sleeping. He woke up momentarily but he wasn't too coherent (I found out later in the day that he had gone out with a bunch of freshman students at Payap and had gotten trashed the night before and hadn't gotten back in until 5:00 AM). I wasn't too sure what to think of him at first but after he woke up and came around I realized he was cool as hell. I easily got the best roommate that I could have gotten.
After lunch, which cost me less than $2 for 2 massive plates of food, Pek took me to a mall called Carrefour which contained a Thai version of Wal-Mart only with waaaaay cheaper prices. It really blows my mind how cheap things are here. I got a pack of Trident gum that would run over a dollar back home for about 30 cents. Red Bulls are also around 30 cents.
After getting back, Pek and I went and ate with a bunch of the other Thai students as well as some of the other American students that are in the program. Again, 2 massive plates for less than $2. After we ate, the plan was to go to the night market but I was way too wiped out. I would have gone but people were being too indecisive so I ended up falling asleep.
Anyways, my overall first impressions of the place: it is hotter than hell here and ridiculously humid, it is cool being so close to the mountains which you would think it would make it a bit cooler but no, Thai people are insane drivers, everything is unbelievably cheap here, and the food is incredible.
Tomorrow I am thinking of having Pek take me to a place to receive a tattoo that is tapped in, we'll just have to see how the day goes though. Other than that, my adviser, Jenjit, is taking me out to lunch with a few people that are going to hook me up with a good muay Thai gym (I've found that all of the Thais that find out that I am here for muay Thai love me because I am here to train their art). After that we are having some type of ceremony, greeting all of the foreign students here. Then we are being taken on a tour of the city. It should be a pretty good day.
I hope everything is going well for everyone back home. Like I said before, if anyone has any suggestions on ways to improve this, please let me know (pictures will be coming later). I miss you all (especially you Alecia). Bye bye for now.
Jake Pudenz
Thursday, August 13, 2009
A Few Hours Before Take Off
For those of you who know me, this should come to no surprise to you that I am typing this intial post at this hour. In fact, you're probably a little suprised that it is happening this early in the night. Anyways, as I am sure you all know if you're reading this, I will be in Thailand studying abroad and training for the next few months and Phil asked me to keep this blog as a way to let everyone know what is going on with me. I am going to use it for more than that though, on top being of a way for anyone that happens to this to know what I'm doing, I also plan on using all of my future entries as a way to remember my time abroad as well as to aid me in writing the large paper I have to write at the end of my time in Thailand.
Like I stated earlier, I plan on training a good amount while in Thailand. That is actually the only reason that I chose to study abroad. As a fighter with mediocre standup at best, it is definitely the place to go to correct that. I also hope to be able to continue to make strength gains while I am there too. The consensus among everyone seems to be that I will come back skinny and weak. Well I have news for you all, namely Tim, Phil, and Jack, I will stay at least 200 lbs. When Phil was ridculing me for potentially returning "wearing a Buddhist robe with his head shaved weighing 180lbs cursing in Thai about how weak he is," I responded back to him and he told me to post my reponse. "I will eat as much as I have to and lift and heavy objects I can find to ensure that I stay over 200 lbs. There has to be a barbell and some weights somewhere in that city and I will find them." That is my plan. I want to get good and muay Thai and retain my strength and weight. It is going to be tough but I think I'm up to the challenge.
I am not sure how often I will create new entries but I will try to get it done at least once a week. I will hopefully be able to post pictures as well. If there are any suggestions as to how I can make it better, please share them with me or tell Phil and have him let me know.
This is going to conclude my first entry since I haven't actually left yet. I will be leaving for the airport here in a few hours and I need to make sure that I have everything. I hope everything is going well for everyone and I miss you all. Talk to you soon.
Jake Pudenz
Like I stated earlier, I plan on training a good amount while in Thailand. That is actually the only reason that I chose to study abroad. As a fighter with mediocre standup at best, it is definitely the place to go to correct that. I also hope to be able to continue to make strength gains while I am there too. The consensus among everyone seems to be that I will come back skinny and weak. Well I have news for you all, namely Tim, Phil, and Jack, I will stay at least 200 lbs. When Phil was ridculing me for potentially returning "wearing a Buddhist robe with his head shaved weighing 180lbs cursing in Thai about how weak he is," I responded back to him and he told me to post my reponse. "I will eat as much as I have to and lift and heavy objects I can find to ensure that I stay over 200 lbs. There has to be a barbell and some weights somewhere in that city and I will find them." That is my plan. I want to get good and muay Thai and retain my strength and weight. It is going to be tough but I think I'm up to the challenge.
I am not sure how often I will create new entries but I will try to get it done at least once a week. I will hopefully be able to post pictures as well. If there are any suggestions as to how I can make it better, please share them with me or tell Phil and have him let me know.
This is going to conclude my first entry since I haven't actually left yet. I will be leaving for the airport here in a few hours and I need to make sure that I have everything. I hope everything is going well for everyone and I miss you all. Talk to you soon.
Jake Pudenz
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