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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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