Friday, January 21, 2005


Retro Pic. Gotta love that digi cam! (13 Jan 05).
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The Royal Gardens at the Grand Palace had some beautiful bonzai trees and sculpted bushes. (13 Jan 05)
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Thursday, January 20, 2005


Changing of the Guard. I missed it in England, so it was nifty to see it in Thailand.
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This is where I normally stay, but there was construction (wink wink). The Grand Palace in Bangkok. (13 Jan 05)
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Top Ten Reasons to go to Bangkok to study Comparative Corporate Governance

10. It's a free trip to Bangkok
9. To hear Pro. Jo. sing karaoke
8. To sing "Piano Man" as it was meant to be sung -- by a drunken mob
7. To fly into Tokyo and see the sights of Japan
6. To eat dinner at a Yacht Club, because you were stranded in bungalows, because your yacht wasn't ready yet.
5. It's a free trip to Bangkok
4. To fly the International Flag of Good Times
3. To bond with fellow law students in times of ridiculousness
2. To see flying bananas and darts
1. To meet fantastic Thai students

This list is neither final nor exhaustive. Suggestions and additions welcome!!

Monday, January 17, 2005


That's our weekend transportation/home in the background.
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Sunday, January 16, 2005


"A Yellow Submarine". I don't know the song. But the picture was fun.
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"The International Flag of Good Times" as named by Dave. Again I ask, why is my swimsuit top flying at the top of the mast?
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Saturday, January 15, 2005

Reprogramming

This is just another filler paragraph to break up the monotony of watching the pictures download.

I woke up at 8:09 a.m. today. It is now 11:30 a.m. and I can hardly keep my eyes open. The time change is definitely much rougher to adjust to coming home than it was going there. Oh well, being up all night tonight just means that I will be the life of the party at the club tonight!
This may very well be the most entertaing story of all. 2 of the guys decided to spear us some dinner. So they found big sticks on the island (Koh Horseshoe) and used athletic tape to attach forks to the end. They proceeded to attempt to spear some fish. In the end, all they got was stung by jellyfish.
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A sunset picture with some local flavor. This is just one of the many fishing boats we saw.
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Sunset at "Koh Big". We couldn't pronounce the names of the different islands, so we renamed them in typical American style. This is the first night on the yacht. 7 Jan 05.
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Something to read while the pics download

In the interest of giving you something to read while the pictures download, allow me to finish the tuk-tuk story. Now, after the day I missed the boat, I didn't think I'd take a tuk-tuk ever again. I was wrong.

The next day, Randy, Mandy and I were going to meet Thai students Champ and Toh at the school so they could take us to the Grand Palace. Randy and Mandy talked me into taking a tuk-tuk because Randy has a bad knee and we were running late. So we get in a tuk-tuk on Khoasarn Road. What's kind of funny about that the tuk-tuk started having mechanical difficulties about 1 block away. The driver asked one of his buddies to to take us. So we hop in the next tuk-tuk. This driver has no idea where Thammasat University is. (At least he admitted it). So he shows us a map, and asks us to point to where we're going. I say we're going to the Grand Palace and point to it (the University is about a block away from the Palace). So, the driver says "No, Grand Palace no good. Is closed today. I will take you to a temple." Would you believe he refused to take us to the Grand Palace which was NOT closed. So we ended up getting out and walking.

We also ended up being late, but so were the Thai students. We shoulda known, because nothing had been ontime since we'd gotten to Bangkok. The rest of the day was great. Definitely check out the pictures!

Friday, January 14, 2005


This is the view from behind our classroom at the Learning Resort. See? I said classroom. Yes I did go to class. (4-8 Jan 2005)
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The guy in the middle is Jade, one of the Thai students. He actually paid to get a polaroid of this picture. The whole show was like a car accident -- I just couldn't look away or stop taking pictures.
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"The Tiffany Show". Yes, that is a man. No, I don't know how that is possible.
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This is the view from my balcony at the Learning Resort. Aahh, life is good! (4 Jan 2005).
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Bangkok Nights. This a picture of Khoasarn Road at night. Where our hotel was. See the electric blue oval? Ok, I was on that side of the strip, about a block from where this picture was taken. Very cool. It looked like this every night. Very busy, very polluted, very crowded, very fun.
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"The Red One". AKA the temple I attempted to see, but didn't, because everybody in the Tokyo metro area got there first. I did, however, miss my bus. Grr again. (3 Jan 2005)
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Back to Reality

Hi all,
I am back in Mil-town. Sad times for being far far away from lovely weather. Hooray for finally being able to get some pizza. And for being off that darned plane. And no, I didn't get footies or peanuts.

Now that I am back on my own turf, I will be officially posting pictures. Happy looking!

Near Death, Near Miss, Great Story

Well, if the chicken story wasn't scary enough for you, allow me to describe the experience of riding a "tuk-tuk". A tuk-tuk is a scooter that rides anywhere from 3-190283019 people. No, it does not get bigger, people just sit closer together. There is a driver and a backseat.

Anyway, riding the tuk-tuk is very scary, because they weave in and out of traffic, and it is basically open air. The tuk-tuk is just like a scooter--you're not surrounded by much metal. These drivers would make a NY taxi cab driver look like driving miss daisy. On Thursday night, the Thai students and faculty threw us a farewell party on a river boat. Dave, Jennie and I decided to take a tuk-tuk to the University. Although in walking distance, traffic makes crossing the street a live game of frogger. What should've been a 5 minute ride turned into a 40 minute saga of the driver being lost (and denying it. Typical male). We ended up missing the boat entirely.

We raced to the boat dock, in hopes of some sort of miracle. There was one. The boat had left, but there were kind Thai students with a cell phone and who spoke English! They called Pik (one of the Thai students on the boat) and Pik gave them directions to hail us a cab so we could attempt to catch the boat at the halfway dock. (Thank goodness Jennie had Pik's number!!!). So we hop in a cab. Thanks to Bangkok traffic (which, by the way, I've come to loathe), the ride was another 40 minutes. We just barely made the boarding time for the 2nd leg of the trip.

I'll tell you, I'll be darned if I ever set foot in another tuk-tuk again. Or so I thought....More to follow. Right now, the timer is counting down on the airport computer. I'll be in Chicago in 15 hours!! And I'd darn well better be arriving with peanuts and footies. See you across the Date line.

Tuesday, January 11, 2005

Good Times

Ahh, back to the real world -- well as real as the world can get when you're halfway around the world. We started class again today. After I gave a riveting presentation on Significant Corporate Actions we had a buffet lunch served to us here in the Thammasat University campus court yard. It was pretty good. MUCH better than the food at the learning resort. I've officially decided that catered Thai food is equally as bad as catered American food. Good, now I don't have to come back to the states and discuss how bad the Thai food was. Instead, I can talk about how good the Thai food was, and how bad the catered food is all over the world. Although, I do have some warnings about the Thai food:
1. They eat some things that we don't. For example, today, we had squid soup as
an option. No I did not try it, and no I do not regret not trying it.

2.
There must be some sort of moral opposition to using knives. Instead they cut
with spoons here, and this is a habit that runs rampant in restaurants and homes
throughout Thailand. I think we should start a petition to change this; as I
have no idea how they manage to cut things with a spoon. Yes a spoon. I saw it
with my own eyes and I still don't believe it. Maybe Ripley's should capture
this on tape.

3. Speaking of the spoons, they are gigantic. Ok, not
gigantic. Just picture eating your food with a serving spoon. And there you go.
That is eating in Thailand. All meals, all the time. Yeah. You get a serving
spoon and a fork with every meal. Sometimes, you get the fancy-schmancy butter
knife in restaurants. And that's it. For the love of pete does anyone have a
steak knife they can send me? A butcher knife? A letter opener? SOMETHING!!!

Ok, enough about the food. I'll bet you're dying to hear more about the yacht trip. Well, as it was my first time on a yacht; it was fairly fantastic. Except I don't swim. So I was bored out of my mind on the last day. You can only take so much of watching other people snorkel. And I don't tan either, so I had my share of being baked on the beach the first couple days. So honestly, I was not a happy camper on the 3.5 and 4th days. But, what are you gonna do? Swim home? Ok then.

The views were rather spectacular, and the beaches were very pretty. (Still working on the pictures. I have one more computer lab to try before I give up). It was also kinda neat to live on a boat. It was like camping, minus the wide open spaces. Inside the cabin of the boat was not meant for a claustrophbic. We 8 students took our relationships to a whole new level once we figured out the sleeping arrangements. Since we were actually on a 3 cabin boat (i.e. sleeps 6 people), we had to use the galley table as a bed. Don't worry, it was meant to be used like that. Except for the fact that it was put together incorrectly. Making raising and lowering the darn thing quite a challenge. As was figuring out which cushions went where. That was my bed, and on the upside, it was the biggest bed on the whole boat. And therefore worth the trouble. Dave, our captain and sailing enthusiast (he has a sailboat back in Mad-town, and used to sell them for a living pre-law school) opted to sleep on deck, under the stars. So I had the bed to myself 1 night. Yay!

We took PB&J sandwiches with us on the boat, and some lunch meat. Grocery shopping in Thailand was quite the adventure. As was purchasing some fish from a fisherman who happened to be docked on the beach on the third day. Which we later cooked on the grill on the deck of the boat. Fortunately, Quentin had also purchased some semi-ripe coconuts on the previous island. Here's our Gilligan's Island recipe for Red Snapper and a gigantic Reef fish:

1. fillet fish.
2. in the pan mix butter, rum, and coconut milk from a semi-ripe
coconut that you actually bought to be a beverage.
3. sautee fish in the pan holding it over the grill
4. enjoy.


Our final adventure (and most dangerous) turned out to be on the ride home. We rode in a van which seats 11. We nearly died at least a million times. The driving in Thailand is...harrowing to say the least. The speed limit is somewhere near 1000 miles per hour. The lines drawn to indicate lanes are just suggestions. Oh, and yes it is ok to pull over and stop in the middle of the far left lane (they drive on the opposite side here). We also pulled over and stopped in the white striped part between an on ramp and the freeway. We also played chicken with a bus. For those of you that don't know, that's when a bus is coming at you and you keep going to see who the first to pull over is. Like I said, it was scary.

So that's it for now, as this is getting pretty long.

Monday, January 10, 2005

Summer in the City....well Winter in an equatorial city

Hi Friends!

Guess who's back from the Sea of Thailand, f.k.a. the Sea of Siam. (The name of Thailand used to be Siam). The beaches were simply incredible...and simply deserted. If you happen to be into swimming and laying on the beach, then this trip was for you. If you are adamently opposed to living in extremely close quarters with 5 men and 2 other women, then you should absolutely NOT rent a 42-foot yacht with 7 of your classmates, and then sail around islands in a tropical sea.

Our trip started off a bit rocky, however. First, our yacht wasn't ready yet. So we were forced to live in these cute little bungalows, which cost about $13. THEN, we lost the phone number of the van driver, and so we had no way to get to the nearby city. So we were once again forced to walk to a nearby upscale hotel/condo (one where you could go for 6 months without seeing anyone, because the people that own the condos live in Bangkok and vacation on the marina). Once at the hotel, we had to eat wonderfully delicious food at the yacht club. While lamenting over the necessity of eating at a yacht club, and staying in a bungalow because our yacht wasn't ready yet; I was interrupted by FIREWORKS!! What a great start to a lovely 4 day weekend.

I'm working on the pictures. It's late here, so I'll sign off for now. More about the weekend to follow...hopefully with graphics. Keep the comments coming, and don't forget to sign them! :)


Thursday, January 06, 2005

Unbelieveable!!!!

I will definitely not be posting for the next four days. We're renting a 40ft yacht to cruise around the islands in the Siam Sea. How awesome is that?!!?

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Wednesday, January 05, 2005

Picture Free :(

Well friends, I am sorry to report that while I am in Pattaya, Thailand, there will be no posting of pictures. I have attempted (unsuccessfully) to download the program that puts pictures onto my blog; but alas, the 4 year old computres here at the Learning Resort are not cooperating.

The upside is, I am at a "Learning Resort". Which is basically a regular resort with a classroom. There are palm trees, a swimming pool and helpful staff all around. Apparently, some rich benefactor opted to leave an obscene amount of money to Thammasat University. And so, here we are, living it up in a resort (complete with meals and beverages) for free for 3 days and 2 nights. Oh! Woe is me :).

The downside is, I am not a big fan of the food. Thai food is not for the picky eater. All the meals are served with rice though, so fear not! I am getting all the carbs I can eat. The other downside is that thanks to the loverly snowstorm in Tokyo, I have a cold. Being in a tropical paradise just isn't the same when you're hacking up a lung. D'ah well. I guess I'll just have to "suffer" through. :).

Last night we sang (badly) to karaoke songs in the dining hall. There are pictures (hmm, maybe it's good I can't get the program to download). Tonight, we'll be heading into town (the resort is 500 miles away from everything) to watch a cabaret. The director of the program told us that this cabaret show features the best looking "women" in Thailand. Ahem, a drag show. I'm afraid I might get jealous. Who wouldn't hate to see a man make a better woman?!

We return to Bangkok tomorrow afternoon. Where I hope to have more stories, and more general ridiculousness. We'll even try to have some pictures up -- no guarantees though. Keep sending those comments!

Monday, January 03, 2005

Bangkok, Thailand

Bangkok, Thailand is hot! Loving the 90 degree weather, which did not come with free bugs!

The airplane ride was loooooooooooong. Felt much longer than the last one. Probably because I boarded the plane after a harrowing day which included missing my bus to the airport. This particular bus was supposed to leave at 12:40. After a "series of unfortunate events" I arrived at the hotel at 12:43. April, her sisters and I attempted to see a shrine in Tokyo. (I generally referred to it as "The Red One"). Sadly, everyone else in Tokyo had the exact same idea. This caused a rather body-to-body crowd which had a tendency not to move quickly. Thus making it impossible for me to actually get close to the temple. After fighting the crowds, I was seen running through subway stations and the streets of Tokyo trying to catch the bus leaving for the airport from the New Sanno hotel. Too bad the bus left without me.

Fortunately, this bus was 5 hours before my flight was scheduled to leave. I am proud to say that I took a Tokyo city bus and the Narita Express train all by myself! I made it to the airport all in one piece. By the way, that airport is HUGE! It has its own mall and about a million restaurants. It definitely put O'Hare to shame, because it allowed nonpassengers to wander around with their loved ones until time to enter the gate. Stupid al Queda.

Anyway, after a long day, and an even longer flight, I was hardly in the mood for what happened next. Upon arrival into the airport, I waited, along with 2 other students in my class for hours. Allegedly, we were waiting for 3 other students to meet us before we could leave. Our guide was incorrect in believing the other students were coming, BECAUSE THEY'D ALREADY LEFT. GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!! To top it off, our guide didn't have a car for us, but was just there to hail a cab for us. (Something I feel we were perfectly competent to do on our own). Guess what, when we got back to the hotel (after the cabbie getting lost and charging us for his ineptitude), come to find out the other 3 students had a car. I swear, if someone had tried to attack me at that point (it being 3 am and all) I probably would be writing this from a Thai prison.

But alas, after a super high quality shopping trip, all is well. Stay tuned for other ridiculousness and pics.

Sunday, January 02, 2005

Headin' South

Well friends, this will be my last blog from Japan. After spending the day in Tokyo, I will be leaving for Bangkok at 6:36. Hopefully, I'll find a computer there to post pictures. Stay tuned.......

Saturday, January 01, 2005


This is a shrine in Fussa, Japan; at sunset. We were lucky enough to see some of the New Year's Day rituals while we were there.
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Ok, I know Mt. Fuji at sunset may be gettin old. This is the last one, I promise!
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