Happy Thanksgiving everyone :)

We even had one here, Thailand style.  The turkey was actually chicken and it was fried up by nice Muslim women in front of 7-11, but we all felt it the same.

That's Joey, Chelsea, Hannah, Jennica, Chris and Daisy.  Add in Claire, and you've got the Thanksgiving crew of Chumphon.  I hope you guys at home have a good one as well!

The official word

Not until December 6th, at the earliest.

Chump-on it! Chump-on it!

The reason I haven't updated about the flooding or my school situation is because I don't know anything about it yet.  I spoke to a woman at my apartment last wednesday about coming home, and she told me it wasn't possible right now.  Neither the school, nor my agency have been in contact with me, and I've tried to call both twice.

The school's official reopen date was yesterday, though the woman at my apartment said that wasn't possible, either.  I'm just milling around Chumphon right now, but it is boring as hell.  I knew it would be, but I had to leave the island for money reasons.  It just got too expensive there for me to stay, and I couldn't pick up any extra cash on the side, like I'd hoped.

On the up side, my friend in Bangkok (who still isn't able to go back to her apartment, but is staying with a friend) let me know that the stores have beer again.  This is good news.  If the beer factories in Bangkok are working again, that means the floods are receding from some areas.

Oh to heck with it.  I'm gonna go to the beach and relax.  When they want me to start work again, they'll call.

Bonus Full Moon Party Photo

Photo courtesy of a friend, Greg.  I met Greg on Koh Tao awhile back.  We bonded over both having escaped Kentucky.  His job is to travel Southeast Asia and blog about it on About.com.  Needless to say, I am deeply jealous of Greg's job.

 That's Greg, pretending to use the sleeping area on the beach.  I would like to add that the painted lightning bolt over his eye was my idea.  Painting his fingernails was his. 

I got the moves like Jagger

Phew.  Been awhile, hasn't it?  So Bree, are you home yet?

Hahahaha.  No.  The flooding is moving to my area now.  So lord only knows when I'll be able to get back there.  I spoke to a Thai friend and said I thought we would see each other soon.  "I think one month" was her reply.  Oh dear.

My first stop on this journey was Hua Hin.  I am never going back to Hua Hin.  It's nothing but old men and prostitutes.  Sex tourism is real, and it is gross.  I avoid anywhere it occurs like the plague.

So I bailed and went to my next destination, my favorite island, Koh Tao.  You all remember Koh Tao, yeah?

So good to see that tiny little island again.

Not sure what else I can say, so here's an image dump...

That's Charles, an Israili guy, and Noy, who owns my favorite bar on Koh Tao.  See those lovely shoes I'm wearing?  Yeah, those didn't make it home with me that night.  :(

 The big guy is Maxi, a tattoo artist from Bangkok.  He was living at Noy's bar tattooing.

That's, um, I can't remember her name.  Charles' wife.  Malaysian.

So we all randomly met at Lotus Bar, and made plans for the next night.  It was Halloween, so we all went a bit crazy.  Maxi painted us.

I was a phoenix, by the way.  The guy with a star over his eye is Adam, who is a jerk.  But we'll go into that later.  The girl with a mask painted on is Miki.  So we hit the town.

I do not have any idea who any of those new people are.  No clue.  There were a lot of tequila shots involved.  Really, any time I see Noy, I know tequila shots will be involved.

And that's Bond.  He is a complete mystery to me.  I have no idea what he does on the island, he just shows up to bars briefly and then moves on to the next.  He offered to help me find a job in high season if I want to live there.  That is so tempting.  I'm genuinely kicking it around.  Anyway, here's the rest of the trip.

 This is Groove.  I met him when I was stretched out on the beach in front of his bungalow.  His mother is Thai, his father is from Hong Kong, he was raised in England.  He is a loud gay kid that was sooo much fun.  He lived in Bangkok, about to go to university.

That's Melissa, from Oregon.  I met her by happenstance on Sukhomvit in BKK one afternoon.  She escaped the floods as well.

Tequila!  Doot doot doot doo doo doo doot doo!  I actually did the Pee-Wee dance after a shot once.  All three of my Thai friends were really confused, and I could not properly explain it to them.  Oh well.

That's Dew and Robyn.  Robyn's from the UK, been traveling all the islands.  She has an interview for a job in Bangkok next week.  Dew has a girlfriend from Finland that looks a lot like my cousin Katherine.  I have no pictures of her because she hides her face anytime there's a camera around.

 And there's me with my Loy Kratong!  I love the idea of Loy Kratong.  You make these fancy flower arrangements with incense and candles.  Put some money, a few strands of hair and some fingernail clippings into it, and then light it up and push it out on the water.  You ask for something good, and the Thai people say that on this day, the universe listens.  You literally float your troubles away.  I love it.

Bye bye troubles.  If you're curious, I asked for the continued love from everyone around me and the safety of everyone I care about.  I have friends I haven't heard from since the flooding business started.  I think about them every day.

Before I Loy Kratonged, I went to the shooting range because, I dunno, guns are fun.

Then I found a bunch of taxi drivers partying in front of 7-11.  We danced to some Thai pop and they gave me a whiskey and soda.  It's kind of like that, here in Thailand.

My last night on Koh Tao.

Bye bye Koh Tao.  Sniffle.  I'll see you soon, I hope.

Now, a special note about fire dancers.  I've talked about them a lot because they are all over Thailand.  Kids start learning to do it when they're really young.  I've met some kids that already work as fire dancers at nine or ten years old.  They'll have a job for as long as they want it, so it's a good thing.  So, here's some fire dancer things.

And look, I got video!  Sadly not of the two guys pictured above.  They were really really good.

Well, this blog operates stupidly, so I'll just link you to the videos.  Here and here they are.  Enjoy.