A Year Late

I made this video a year ago and am just now uploading it here

PS no one reads my blog but the post before this was supposed to go up a full week ago. Also this video took me like 7 hours to edit >:(

Songkran Festival

It's here! The week i've been waiting for since the plane touches down. Songkran festival! Otherwise known as the country-wide, weeklong, water fight of your life. The Songkran festival celebrates the Thai New year from the 13th-15th of April every year but festivities last all week. The water is about washing away the previous year, coming out of the festival anew ready to start the next year right. Today I got drenched over, and over, and over, and over, and over... It was a lot... I still have 2 more days. This is the week I shoot the video i've been waiting to make my whole trip and i'm super excited. I got some awesome shots today and i'll get more the next couple of days as well. Stay tuned for the edit, I can't wait til you see how ham the thai people go for this. I can't think of a better way to show the land of smiles than with the most smiles i've ever seen in one place. Stay tuned!

Khao San Road

Hey! Long time no.. write? I'm back because this weekend I did something fun and unusual to my normal time in Thailand and took the tourist plunge to the #1 backpackers destination in Bangkok, Khao San Road! Woo! I even tried to make a movie for YOU, my imaginary avid follower of my trip, consistently checking my blog for updates, but the camera card I brought was filled with random music that I definitely didn't put on there and forgot about so... That didn't happen. 

To start we went to Wat Arun and a sky bar to see the temple lit up at night (video) and that was amazing. I had a giant beer-a-rita in classic Thai (?) fashion and then we made our way to tourist central. Khao San Road is an interesting place to say the least. It's not unlike many other heavily tourist destinations in Bangkok although it's one of the most popular ones. But while it has the same generic shirt booths and street food of the other tourist markets, what is unique is the willingness of Thais here to put aside traditionally held Thai conservatism in order to swing a profit.

Generally Thai culture is very respectful. You dress business casual or better all the time, you don't raise your voice to others in public places, you pay respect to the buddha and your elders.... Not in Khao San (well, everything except the elders part). Girls in skimpy dresses trying to get guys in bars, LOTS of yelling, Buddha tattoos (super not cool to most Thai People and Buddhists in general)... Whatever they can do to get western tourists to spend their money. I got comfortable with the setting uncomfortably quick. It's just normal western culture. Is it bad or worse? Whose to say, but I've gotten very used to the conservative nature of Thailand that it was a complete shock to me, even if it only shocked me for about 5 minutes. 

However, other than that it was a pretty fun experience. We stopped at lots of bars, heard lots of live music (all covers of English pop songs of course), got drunk, found a different side road way better than Khao San and had a nice late night snack on some good Thai food in a weird Latin/Thai fusion place. Overall, worth it. If you ever make your way down to Bangkok, I think Khao San is something you can skip over if you're only here for a few days. You aren't in Asia to experience western culture. Go find a smaller market and try and buy something with a Thai who speaks zero english if you want the true experience. If you're here for a longer stay though, I say go for it, if not to remind you of why you needed to get to Asia in the first place.

All for now,

Max

What to write about?

It's not like nothing happens here in Thailand. In fact, I just got back from my second trip to Chiang Mai which was awesome. Really, MOST days are an adventure here. But when I sit down to think about what to write on my blog my head is toast. This weekend I'll make a video and take some pictures... for now i'm blank.

We're not so different

The last few weeks i've really been settling in to life in Thailand. School is moving along, I have a few great friends, and most importantly the culture shock phase is over. Culture shock can be really bad for some but it was more a feeling of excitement for me. Finding out what is similar, and more importantly, what is totally different from life in the US is what makes it feel like a new experience after all! But thats all been stripped away now. Rarely these days do I have moments of realization that something would be done a completely different way back home, which was an every day occurrence my first 2 months here.

I've been struggling with this, this week. Once you strip back the culture of a place, humans are really all the same. Experiencing new culture has been awesome but now that i'm so used to it i've had thoughts like "well why did I travel to the other side of the globe just to hang out with more humans?". These thoughts also feel a little selfish. How can I ever let myself feel bored when i'm so lucky to have this opportunity? If I don't make every single day memorable, what would someone who doesn't have this opportunity think? What would past me or future me think? But every day I settle more into a normal schedule, the harder it becomes to make every day memorable. 

However, I think that when you look back on phases of your life you don't remember a lot of specific days, but you do remember periods of feelings. I'll remember the first months in Thailand as exciting and new and always changing and crazy. I'm not sure what i'll remember the next few months as but I know that some of the friendships i've made will have an impact. The people i've met here are not so different from myself, or even my friends back home. The more I travel the weirder it is that we've segregated ourselves into these communities. That some are choosing to literally wall themselves off rather than feeling this sense of global community that we should obviously share. 

That's all, just a few thoughts.

Max

The Art of Confusion

Classes started today and I immediately F%#ked it up. Because of the way the scheduling works here, classes are much more fluid. Times change constantly during the first week as every class on campus arranges itself (somehow??????) to have no conflict with any other class students are taking at the time. I have no idea how this works but somehow it does and I have no conflicts so I can't complain. However, students (I assume) at Chulalongkorn have been doing this since day 1 and any problems or confusion with the system was worked out years ago, so coming in new as a third year is a different story. Everyone knows the ropes and sort of expects you to know them as well. Anyways take a look below at the process of figuring out my Monday.

I got a text on the Tuesday before classes start from one of my Thai friends telling me my lesson will be "next Monday at 13:00". I, of course, screwed up this entire sentence. Mistakes 1 and 2. Next Monday (or whatever), in english, is my least favorite combination of words. What does that mean? If used properly it means not this coming Monday but the Monday after that. However, people often use it incorrectly (including me) to mean this coming Monday. You almost never know if the person is using that phrase correctly or not and so it's basically useless. I, of course, thought she was using it correctly without asking so assumed my lesson was next week at 3:00 because even though I've done it constantly since I got here, I messed up my conversion of 24hr time. Will that come back to haunt me? Probably not right?

Next up, I meet one of my professors on Friday. She shows me the room that my Thai drumming class will be in, tells me the meeting time is 1pm, and tells me I should take Thai strings too. Yes, of course I want to do that! So she tells me the first meeting will be January 29th, then leaves. Wait, was that for strings? Drumming? Both? I don't know and don't ask for whatever reason. Mistake number 3. I go back home feelin' good.

Sunday I get a text from a student I don't know yet: "Don't forget to go to your drumming class tomorrow at 1pm." Ok, solid. Now I know that the professor was talking about strings and that drumming will actually meet this week. (nope, mistake number 4) So I go to the drumming room on monday at 1pm. No one there. I ask one of the students out front of the room if there is a drumming class today. They say no meeting til the 29th. Great, so I was right all along. I wanted to check out one of the malls so I walked to one, which is about a 20 minute walk. I walk in the door and BAM. A text. "Where are you?!?!?"

Great. What could this be about? It's the student from before telling me they are waiting for me for the drumming class. ?!??!?!?!?!?. He says I had the wrong building and I should come now before it's too late! I sprint back along my path plus some and get there out of breath. What the heck could this be? They sit me in the percussion practice space alone and a professor i've never met walks in. She turns out to be my private lesson instructor and I am now unwittingly entering in to my first lesson with her with nothing prepared thinking I had a whole week (mistake number 5). Awesome.

Now, i'll place some of the blame in my lesson being called "drumming class" and the Thai drumming class being called "Thai drumming class" but really it was my lack of clarifying that really boned me. My advice to you: if there is a language barrier, never assume anything. It makes a... well... whatever I am today.

-Max

Temples, Sunburns, and the Thai culture of not giving an F

Today was a crazy day and there's no better way than to just write it all down at once. Will it fit into a nice, cohesive, brilliantly written blog post? Probably not. Does anyone care? Also probably not! So lets get right in to it.

Today we visited Ayutthaya. It's the old capital and filled with hundreds of ruins and temples, some still chugging along and others that burned down hundreds of years ago. The breathtaking beauty of this city cannot be described by words so keep a look out for pictures in lieu of a video this week about my trip. The amount of history in every brick of every temple was incredible and it honestly floored me. The highlight of the day was visiting a temple containing some of the spread ashes of Sidhartha Gautama (the historical Buddha) himself inside. However, while the ancient Thais were able to have the latest and greatest technologies at their disposal, such as roofs, many of the temples has moved past that stage into something known as "no roof" and so I got sunburnt pretty bad today. (that roof thing was a joke)

In other news, school technically started today. In further news, the two schools that I will split classes between this semester has no idea what my schedule is. Classes won't start in earnest until next week, but it's times like these that I can't help but remind myself; I would have had my schedule in the US months ago. Yet, none of the professors advising me seem panicked and are convinced everything will work out fine, so I have no choice but to trust them. Hopefully from this experience I can take a nice middle ground of US and Thai priorities. Perhaps it's not necessary to be ultra precise with scheduling and planning months in advance, but to me, this seems like pure insanity.

That's all for now,

-Max

Home is where the heart is

I'm back from my trip to Chiang Mai! Our performances went well, we explored the city, ate some dope food and I finally got to see some famous Thai nightlife. The difference between northern and southern Thailand was very stark. It serves as a reminder not to group cultures under one country name.... Every country, no matter how unified they seemingly are to outsiders, has lots of diversity and cultures are spread wide. Northerners in Thailand are stereotyped as being more friendly, laid back, soft spoken. While southerners are said to always be in a hurry, always loud, don't have time to be polite. Think New York VS Los Angeles. 

New Years Eve in Thailand was just as crazy as it is in the US and I had a blast dancing to music at bars and clubs! There was a giant 4x4x4 city block street fair that I couldn't have gotten through in one go even if I tried my hardest and the beers we got at a rooftop restaurant came twice as big as could ever be necessary. - it was a little overwhelming. New Years in Thailand will be one of the memories i'll take with me throughout my life, reminded of it every year when that clock strikes midnight. Every trip has to come to an end though as so back to Bangkok we went.

I was amazed how comforting the skyline of Bangkok was when I came back. The two weeks I spent here leading up to the trip felt like vacation - Like I was living out of a hotel room. However, when I got back to my apartment and laid on my bed I felt home. My bed is uncomfortable, my room is messy, all my friends are asleep during my days here, but somehow Bangkok found a way into my heart. 

Watch out for my video on Friday of my trip :) I think i'm starting to get the hang of editing. 

-Max

Chiang Mai Part 1

Last night I arrived in Chiang Mai with a small chamber group. This city is much farther north than Bangkok but still around the 70's in the winter! I'm hoping for this to be the subject of my next video. Today we are driving up a big mountain (I think?) and then having a rehearsal and tomorrow we are going to the zoo (I think) and then having our performance (although no one knows what exactly we're playing at). We got in late last night and had some northern food which consisted of beef and pork (southern style is more seafood) and Thai curries but that's as much as i've seen of the city so far! I'll be sure to post about my thoughts of the city when our trip is done and i'm back home. 

Keep a lookout for my video tomorrow from Queen Sirikit Botanical Gardens!

-Max

Jet Lagged

Hey everyone, I've made it to Thailand! After 42 hours of traveling i'm finally in my new home for the next few months. I mostly unpacked today but I was able to make it down to what i'm told is the biggest department store in South East Asia (I believe it). It went on for about 7 floors and it would take 15 minutes to walk from one end of each floor to the other. Insane! I already ruined my sleeping schedule because of it though. I tried to stay awake until about 11 so I could wake up in the morning here but instead I made it until....4. So now i'm awake and fully rested at 1am! :(

I'm thinking of making "snapshots" of my first few weeks. Short minute long videos filled with snippets of my day to sort of capture the feeling of Thailand. I'll try and post them on Fridays so keep a look out! 

I'll post again soon :) <3

-Max

Leaving anxiety (behind)

Hey everyone, 

I'm less than a month away from my trip to Thailand. The more prepared I get the less ready I feel. I probably won't be truly ready to leave the US until i'm already on my way back, but maybe it's best that way. This blog will serve as my personal journal for my trip but feel free to follow along.  I'll try my best through the craziness to update it regularly! Leave comments below if you want or follow my trip as a ghost without me knowing. I'll update again the day before I leave. I'm currently filled with a lot of anxiety about going but the only way to get rid of that is going to be to get on the plane and not look back. 

-Max