Life of Cast

Life with my new cast friend is coming to an end tomorrow. Sigh. We've had some good and bad times. Nothing is perfect, other than my stronger and better left wrist! Some perks I've noticed about life with my first and last cast of my life:

1-I've gotten away with not wearing a tie to work for the last six weeks. I love dressing up but business casual has been a decent upside to Roofageddon 2012.

2-Excellent excuse to be lazy. Not playing sports or being anti-social while healthy isn't very good and makes you feel poorly about yourself. Saying no to things because it is in the best interests of your long term health is a great way to spend more time watching football.


3-Solid icebreaker. Oh what happened to your arm? Oh that? No big deal..I was in the jungle and a small child was being attacked by some aggressive monkeys, don't worry, the baby is fine. 

4-People do a bit more for you in terms of bringing you things, getting you food, driving you places. I like it.

5-Actually a good reason to pay someone to wash my hair.

6-Getting good at driving, showering, putting socks on and other tasks with only one hand.

Small downsides:
1-People assume I fell off a bike and can't drive. I'm actually just someone who doesn't understand roofing standards in Phuket.

2-Typing is a bit of a challenge.


3-Not playing sports or being active is by far the worst part of all of this. No diving, no swimming, not a recipe for an incredible time.


It really wasn't that bad. All of the research I did was take it super slow, you might think you are getting better but breaking it again will put you out even longer and might have problems in the future. So I've been super careful and will continue to go super slow in the upcoming weeks.

The biggest thing I got out of this was even if a doctor is saying one thing, saying no and talking to other doctors is a great idea. The doctor in Phuket wanted to put me into a cast right away that went all the way up my arm. Wanted to send it to my brother's friend who is a doctor and who I trust. Also, there is a slight disparity between doctors in Thailand and Canada; I will leave it at that. 

I don't know anything about breaks and he was suppose to be a specialist and wanted to put me in a cast right away.  Not waiting for the swelling to go down isn't a great course of action and the cast might not have fit a week later. Anyway, don't let people persuade you into doing things you don't feel comfortable with. Do what you think is right for you. Enjoy your weekend, stay safe and out of the headlines!

"We are the average of the 5 people we spend the most time with" Jim Rohn

Bali, Amed, Gili Islands and Kuta!

A little behind in how Christmas and New Year's was. Mainly because typing with one hand isn't the way I want to live my life. Cast should come off on Saturday, wrist is feeling stronger and excited to get back to a two wrist lifestyle.

Bali:

The night before we left for Bali we had to spend a night in Hat Yai because we were flying out of their around 12ish the next day. Which is great because Hat Yai is our guy's weekend destination with good food and places to go at night. Good food? Check. Staying at a dodgy hotel? Check. Having one of the girls that had the same flight as Arvid and I ruin our next day of travel due to her purchase of a giant ton of non-alcoholic strawberry liquid? Check. Got to the airport the next day, fairly big rainstorm for 30 minutes, apparently long enough to delay us that we missed our connecting flight. Talked with the girl from Air Asia, said it wasn't their fault (shockingly!) and had to buy new tickets. So the girl gives Arvid a price for the new tickets, consults Chelsea and I, said alright, told the Air Asia girl we would like the new tickets, she then scribbles out the first number, then doubles it. Our fair doubled in the span of 30 seconds due to apparent online purchases. Air Asia 1 Red strawberry drink 1 Bert 0.

So a few short things about Bali first. 1-Have wanted to go to Bali for a while now but also very aware that having high expectations for anything, especially places is a bad idea. 2-Second biggest reason I wanted to go to Indonesia was to scuba dive. Really into it, haven't been since Similan Island live-a-board and really wanted to do a wreck dive. WELL, we have this roof to thank for no diving for Teacher Bert due to his broken wrist. 

3-Main reason I was down for this trip was getting to spend time with Jake, Emma and Kait who I unfortunately don't see as much as before. 

We spent our first few days in Amed. Spent Christmas Eve and Christmas Day there. Had a family villa, Kait got there around 1ish on the 25th, we all opened up Christmas presents, which was amazing. Got a Japanese book from Kait that I devoured quickly and a pretty fancy Japanese headband. Got some clothes and other small things, a very successful Christmas hall in my opinion.

Everyone went diving on Christmas Day, I stayed back, read and got a really great Balinese massage. Spending Christmas a second year away from home is a little easier, especially when it is plus 30 degrees outside.


Balinese tradition is to eat a babi guling; basically a suckling pig for weddings or special holidays. We drove around trying to find the cheapest guy to roast us a pig along with vegetables and a nice setting. Check, check, check. Our main man Regga hooked us up. Set up at a restaurant that nobody was eating at for most of the night, right on the water. Really good food, some Jim Bean, tequila and LED Hoops. Then grabbed some fireworks and set them off on the top of a cliff. Great day.

After a few days in Amed, we went to the Gili islands. Most accommodations were full but Emma had reserved us a decent place with hot water and breakfast in a big family room. Gili islands were beautiful but they have these little horses carrying passengers and luggage. Kind of sad actually. After researching it a bit, it is a major complaint of tourists and websites and petitions wanting change on the island. It really isn't a great situation.
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/189/--if-gte-mso-9xml-wworddocument-wviewnormalwview-wzoom0wzoom-wdonotoptimizeforbrowser-wworddocument/

Food was tremendous, eating off the grill, seafood and fresh salad and bread. Was unaware that I love escargots by trying them for the first and second time on this trip. No motorbikes on the island, just horses, bicycles and your feet.

After that we spent 2 nights in Kuta. Differing opinions exist of this place. One of friends my friends loved it. A blogger I read thinks this:

http://www.wanderingearl.com/when-tourism-goes-terribly-wrong/

My thoughts are that it has classy shopping and restaurants, definitely very touristy with way too many people trying to sell you anything and everything. If their were less of them, it would be way better. Ate a delicious steak New Year's eve, amazing chicken wings that tasted like North America but they also made Arvid and I 20 minutes late to watching The Hobbit but still worth it. The Hobbit was cool by the way, just stoked to watch a movie on a big screen in English. People in Indonesia love fireworks. They are everywhere. People are strolling down the street, talking with their friend then BAMM BAMM BAMM a firework goes off near their feet and people laugh hysterically. It isn't dangerous; just loud and rude. A kid through one at us one night so I kicked it back at him, as it was going off near him he looked at me like "well played".

Not a fan of New Year's so my expectations were low. Turned out great. Amazing steak, hung out on the beach for 2 hours talking and watching more fireworks go off in the sky. Hugged and talked our way into a rooftop party where it overlooked all of Kuta, the crowds, the buildings and the fireworks. I was thinking as my mom would say "I am greatly blessed' Being around people you love trumps where you are almost every single time. Even if you are in an incredible place. People over places.

We headed out a few hours after midnight to catch our flight, all good on the way back discounting Chelsea getting her yoga mat puked on outside of the airport McDonald's and happy to get back into the swing of things in Thailand. Loved seeing my friends, taking a break from school and just laughing and joking for 12 days straight. Air Asia 1 Strawberry drink 1 Bert-100. TAKE THAT AIR ASIA!!  


“Success is doing what you want, where you want, when you want, with whom you want and as much as you want.” – Tony Robbins

2013!

Typing with one hand is a bit of a challenge so I will try and keep this short and concise. First, I really do appreciate anyone who reads what I write and staying updated with my life. I know I'm not great at posting consistently or great at describing things but I think doing this is fun and will try and improve my writing as one of my New Year's resolutions.

I will also do a separate Bali post but I had a amazing time, loved being around people I love and checking out a new place with no stress or schedules.

A quick review of what I wrote for last year's resolutions. 1- Stop comparing myself so much to others and accepting that people are way better at activities than I am and not taking it personally. I genuinely think I have gotten better at this part of my life and accepted it.

2- To live with more urgency and getting out of my comfort zone a bit more. I did less well on this one. Staying a second year wasn't getting out of my comfort zone and i didn't exactly approach Victoria Secret models in my spare time. I will work on not being as lazy/complacent is some aspects of my life this year like reading, exercising and making good long term choices and not just short term decisions.

2013 resolutions:

Staying out of the hospital

No sunburns

Eating fresh fruit four times a week while still in Thailand

Continue to write down everything I spend money on

Read a book for at least 30 minutes everyday

Find another incredible job in 2013 in or outside of Canada.

Lastly, sometimes I get off track and find it hard to have a sole purpose that guides me. I thought if I chose some qualities I want to emulate, it would help me in my everyday choices and interactions. I looked through a massive list and here are the ten I came up with. If you want to give it a shot, let me know how it goes: 

http://www.fiction-writers-mentor.com/list-of-character-traits.html

I wanted five but it was tough getting to ten. It was fun, challenging and insightful. If I am unsure about a situation, I'm hoping this list will give me some insight and remind me what type of person I'm trying to be.

Having Integrity

Rational

Honest

Confident

Hard working

Original

Adaptable

Passionate

Grateful

Generous

"The best way to predict the future is to create it.” 

– Peter Drucker

I dislike roofs

Want to hear a story?  Here. We. Go.

Monday was Constitution Day here so we had the day off. Some of my friends were going to Phuket for the weekend so I decided to be social and go. Left early Saturday morning, got to Phuket around 12:30ish. Drove around for a bit looking for a place to stay. Ended up finding a little place a 2 minute walk from the beach. Had two beer waiting for people to get dressed, started throwing a frisbee around with Arvid. It might also be important to note that I'm not very good at frisbee. I can sort of catch and know how to run at a moderate speed but throwing is not one of the skills that the world blessed me with. So I eventually throw an awful pass to Arvid, goes way hard right and lands on the roof. We walk over to check it out. Looks a little flimsy but I'm not that heavy, won't be on it long and bad stuff doesn't really happen to me. I also didn't want to be responsible for losing a $5 frisbee. 

So I jump onto a small wall, put some weight on the roof, no problems. Start walking across the roof, get a hold of the frisbee, immediately throw it to Arvid. Then things started to go poorly. My left leg fell through then the rest of the roof I was standing on collapsed. I fell tailbone first, apparently landed on a water jug/cooler which may or may not have helped ease my fall. I fell into a Thai kitchen and luckily didn't land on anyone or anything dangerous. I really think I got lucky by not getting more injured. 


So picture a bunch of Thai people working at their restaurant, taking orders, speaking Thai and a massive white, shirtless white man rudely crashes into your kitchen via the roof. The word surprised might be a tad of an understatement. They immediately called for an ambulance, gave me water, fanned me down and were pretty understanding considering I ruined their roof. Ended up taking my first ever ambulance ride. Doctor took some X-rays, broke my wrist, got some stitches in my leg, a few cuts but overall feel way better each day. At the hospital they have a chart from 1-10. 1 being a green smiley face and 10 is a bright red angry face. They ask you about different parts of your body and you are suppose to point to the corresponding level of pain. I opted for orange for my back and a yellowish color for my wrist. Really is a brilliant system for a place that is inundated with several different languages daily. Tailbone felt like when you take a super hard fall snowboarding but multiplied by 9. Cast might be on for 8 weeks, I'm shooting for four. 


Waited until I came back to Nakhon to get my cast done, wanted to trust whoever was in charge of my long term health. Decent care here in my opinion. Although I have been called stubborn by a few doctors and friends the past two days; I disagree. My school covered all of the costs. Whenever people see me though they assume I am some dumb white tourist who got hurt riding a bike. I'm not a dumb farang. If they only knew I fell through a roof, they would respect me way more...


I returned the next night to apologize and ask about the cost to repair their roof. They could have easily called the police and gotten a bunch of cash from me but they were surprisingly reasonable considering it is such a tourist island that tends to overcharge for everything. Paid what amounts to about $45. To sum up, I'm fine, no scuba diving in Bali for Christmas and just happy I didn't get more seriously hurt. Enjoy both of your wrists everyone!

No matter how bad things are, they can always get worse.

A Canadian summer?

I'm starting to think I might like to come home. My reasons for not wanting to come home are not wanting to get a serious job with only 5-10 days off a year, a Canadian winter and a feeling that once I get home I will stop traveling, get a job, girlfriend, car, house etc. HOWEVER, the thought occurred to me on Wednesday during the Father's Day celebration that I could get the best of both worlds if I spent the summer in Canada, got a few part time jobs that aren't serious and once I stopped having fun or once it started to get cold, head out to either South America or Japan. The key would not be getting tied down by jobs or a serious relationship.

The only thing that might be better is if I got a job in May working in Brazil for the 2014 World Cup, which is the dream.

I legitimately miss my family. My brother and his wife are having a very cute baby soon and would like to be around to play with him. I'd like to see my mom, sisters, friends, go to concerts, cottages, festivals, patios, movies, play some beach volleyball, barbecue, flannel sheets, constant English, poutine, and other Canadian staples. And bagels, I love bagels. And pink lemonade.

These are my thoughts. If you have any comments or concerns let me know but I think I might be on the right track with this. Now I will stop talking about my feelings and have 2 more fun posts coming up about the internet and expectations. 

Loy Kratong!

Another Loy Kratong is in the books. Loy Kratong is an immensely popular holiday here where people make Kratongs, light them and put them into a river while wishing for good health, friends and happiness. It is very fun, students make them in class, to varying degrees of success. People also light and set off lanterns into the sky that would make almost anyone fall in love with Thailand instantly.

                                 The main reason for this post is when my friend said I should make a wish. I love wishes, specifically fountains that I can throw small change into. I think it is very romantic and optimistic about things to come. My favorites tend to be casino fountains. I can remember being in Ottawa and wishing for a girlfriend, a better job or any slight improvement to my average life. Before setting my beautiful Kratong alight that I may have received a mild bit of help with by my patient Thai teacher and one of my very bright students, I thought about what I wanted to wish for.
My wish: I don't want a single thing. 

I want my life to continue going exactly the way it is without any interference from  anything or anyone. Do I have everything I want? No. Do I have everything I need. Certainly. I'm also writing this with the prospect of a three day long weekend on Haad Yuan with some of my best friends, a no work Wednesday and a 12 day trip in Bali coming up with the legendary Kait, Jake and Emma so I might be in higher than usual spirits but as my Mother Goose would say: All is well. Here are some pictures from our schools beauty pageant on Wednesday. 

Thanks for staying tuned with my life. 
Stay safe, mildly sober and extraordinarily happy. 

Halloween and student quote

I will get to the best part right away. Once a week I have a writing class with my students. They are crazy smart and my favorite part is teaching them new vocabulary. This evaluation we are teaching them about letter writing and in their Thai class they are learning the same thing. I bought all of my kids postcards while I was in Malaysia and I am in the process of writing them each a personal note and will put it in the mail so they get a postcard from their teacher. Might be a bit lame but I think some of them will like it. I had them bring in their addresses because they need to write a letter to the other grade 3 class. So I wrote a sample letter on the board and had them write a letter to me or to one of their friends in class. This is an excerpt of what one of my brightest and funniest kids had to say: 

"Dear Teacher Bert,

Hi! I am sad because I study with you. What are you doing now? I think you are playing with another student. Why your face is red all the time? I know that your colouring is so ugly. Do you know that my mom said you are very handsome? I think my mom eye is not ok....Sometime teacher Bert is crazy (draws a sad face) because when I said something he will laugh and laugh and laugh...I hope you have a bad day.

Your student, Kiki."

So funny. Another student told me she wanted to kick me 10 or 11 times. 

As for Halloween, this picture speaks for itself.

Most classes had treats to give to the students. We have just over 220 kids so I bought a bunch of grapes, put them in a bowl and had the kids close their eyes, put their grubby little hands into the bowl and pick out an "eyeball" and eat it. I think it worked out well, had scary music going on in the backround. Any student who might have been scared just sort of looked at me and thought there is nothing dangerous going on in this class.