another fischman goes off the proverbial grid!

greetings. just got insider news that my sister, victoria fischman, has begun blogging about her semester abroad in buenos aires, argentina. attempting to plot a way to visit. i miss the days of travel...

anyway. CHECK OUT HER BLOG.

laugh, cry, smile.

happenings, breaking news, current events

the ban nai soi community learning centre is ONLINE .  

this is wonderful news, and will hopefully bring much-needed funding and awareness to all the work that the school is doing in the area.  if there are any devoted followers still out there (besides my mother) in the unknown depths of the world wide web, take a peek at the new happenings in northwestern thailand.  

until we meet again.

burma vj

an intense and unflinching look at the current political and human rights situation in burma.  i just watched it again, and, dearest follower, encourage you to do the same!  watch it for the first time, i mean.  i realize i haven't explained much about the civil conflict in burma.  i do promise to try and disentangle the history of the conflict, and it's effect on many of the nai noi students, soon. to be honest, i'm still trying to figure it all out.  but.  watch the film!!

coming to a gallery near you!

the final products from the BNSCLC's photography experiment. an exhibit is in the works at oregon state, in corvallis, oregon.  then who knows! global takeover is certainly an option.  the above pictures are a sneak peak of some of the students' work.  if, dearest follower, your curiosity has been piqued by these pictures, and you are interested in learning more about the project, please inquire! there are PDF's floating around with many more photographs and witty captions written by the students.  

HOLY COW

i've been in india for the past two weeks. i just finished this book. camel safari guides love the song hotel california. indian food is really spicy and can make you ill. the taj mahal is all you thought it could be and more. colors have never been so bright. i have never seen so much trash, nor smelled such interesting odors. i love this country one minute and hate it the next. no country has ever inspired such intense feelings.

phitsanulok, i am here.

ssssaaaaawaaaadeeeekkkaaaaaaa. HI ANNA. got my first thai massage today. it was pretty sweet.

hearts,

R & R

farewell snaps of nai soi

sunset from my "patio"
local postal hut
where all the magic happens
just a small fire no more than a foot from my home

SNAKE MASTER AND TIGER BALM

dearest follower, i'm sorry if this blogpost's title was a bit misleading. if, after reading the title of this post, you suddenly had grand visions of me crouching in the brush fighting a giant poisonous asp with nothing but my bare hands, and then soothing the roars of a fearsome lion, i do apologize. it might not have been intentional. what i really wanted to discuss today: (1) my most recent accomplishment and (2) my fave new salve.

(1) i've reached 2,280 points in the game "snake." remember snake?? i'm positive my first nokia cellphone had it. well, my current neon green, and somewhat glow-in-the-dark, mobile has it. to put it gently, i've become a bit of a gamer. after dinner, and on mondays after photo class, life here at the BNSCLC slows down. even more than during the day. and by dusk, the mosquitoes are on the prowl. conditions force me into my hut by around 7PM. so, snake saves the day. in a world where tv is never an option and internet is only available in the morning hours, and your closest friends are 12 or so hours away by bus, one must cherish the simpler pleasures in life. like snake. also, did you know that ipods have games? solitaire and bricks. a nice little surprise.

(2) tiger balm is a potent potion concoted by the thai people for the purpose of curing just about anything. it's best use?? the treatment of insect bites. not only the aforementioned killer mosquitoes bites, but other, less identifiable bites as well. i've gone through the webmd insect bite slideshow and i still can't figure out what is attacking me. the closest match is bedbugs, and since this is my last week here in nai soi, i'm just going to pretend that i never found that match. and pretend that nothing can get in my sleep sack.

in summary, snakes and tigers are saving my life in thailand. it all seems a bit counterintuitive...

is the fence supposed to be on fire? and other curious incidents on the burmese border

greetings, dearest follower! you must be intrigued by the title of this post. so, i will not delay the explanation any further, lest you lose interest and move on to thefacebook.com. god forbid. tehehe. on monday, the day proceeded as normal. the morning, like many of the mornings here, remained foggy and cool. my favorite part of the day. i ate my mueseli and yogurt happily. i logged on to the interwebs, not even getting too frustrated with the lackluster connection and audience. then i "lesson planned," attempting to create the most fun and most educational game possible to earn the title of the coolest teacher at the learning centre. then lunch hour. the day progessively gets steamier and infested with insects. two hours of english grammar teaching. exercise hour. a hybrid of yoga on my small patch of tile floor and jogging. yes, i now jog. i jog into town, a grueling 2k loop. i've attracted quite the following of local dogs and village folk as i complete my third week in nai soi. yes, i've noticed that you drive your motobike past me 5-6 times, each time gathering a new passenger to stare at me and giggle. and yes, i realize i am sweating profusely and look like i'm about to pass out. and that i'm foreign. ENDORPHINS! ok? ok. i'm just trying to make it to that next tree. so after the spectacle of exercising, it was dinner hour/reviewing the week's photos for photography class hour. chad, the other volunteer, and I remarked from our table that it looked like more fires were burning than usual. chad departs our perch to investigate. one fire appears to be particularly out of control. a few seconds later, the fence surrounding the school bursts into flame! screaming and panic ensue. the students sprint to retrieve their watering cans, and the fire is ultimately extinguished. a close call, my friends. a close call.

another curious incident, dearest follower, was my first attempt at doing laundry. because of the lack of a flushing toilet and an electric shower in my room, imagine my surprise when i found a washing machine on my porch. giddy and full of hope, and ignoring some backhanded comments about the actual prowess of the machine, i put my clothes in for their first wash. almost two hours later, the machine beeped. the spin does not work on this machine. the clothes were drenched. not a problem, i thought. the sun is baking me. it will bake my clothes in no time. i transport my clothes to the nearest bamboo pole. first disaster. i lose 2-3 items to the dirt. back into the machine. then, after hanging up around half of the load on the pole, unsure of what to do with the rest of the clothes, especially my underwear (which can not be dried in front of my students, of course) i realize the pole itself is quite dirty. to avoid writing a short essay on how i completed this enormous task of doing my laundry, i'll leave you, dear follower, with the knowledge that most of my clothes are now more dirty than when I first put them in the washing machine. i think i'm slowly understanding why the motto of thailand is "mai pen rai," or "no worries." one of our students got malaria? ohno teacher, do not worry. he is ok. he will be back soon. why do we not have electricity right now? when will it come back on? teacher, do not worry. i think it will come back soon. why do we not have school tomorrow? teacher, it is family planning day. do not worry. and i thought i was sooo laid back.

last weekend i traveled to mae hong son, the thriving "megapolis" around 25 minutes by motobike from my school. i say megapolis, but in actuality it's same same as yarmouth. MHS does, however, provide juicy burgers, access to world news, a beautiful lake with limited mosquitoes, and some wats. if you're willing to climb a small mountain, that is. proof of my trek above. i did not pay someone to climb up and snap some pics. and, just to reveal my inner, or maybe totally obvious, nerd, i learned about the importance of MHS in my comps research, so it was pretty surreal and cool to see some of the sights mentioned in my sources in REAL LIFE. ugh i feel exposed. this weekend i am heading to pai, which is rumored to be a totes heady hippy town. full of crooning thai rastas. while there, i'm planning on embarking on a two day rafting adventure, following the river from pai to mae hong son. i can only hope for extremely hilarious content for next week's blogpost. i leave you, dearest follower, with an image of one of my favorite hangout spots in nai soi. until next time.

visuals. pictures. images. photos. snapshots. memories.

close encounters of the thai kind

this might be my most clever pun yet. and totally applicable to my first week in thailand.

i write to you, dearest follower, while remixes of thai and american pop songs shake the walls of the school's computer lab. it is aerobics time. this will be the theme of this blogpost. since i have arrived in the country, i have participated in thai aerobics twice. it's the new yoga. rebecca riddell generously took me to my first "class," a gathering of around 50 thai men and women on the shores of phitsanulok's mighty river. a visual, stolen from the interwebs and not actually our aerobics class, opens this post. to successfully participate in one of these, shall we say, gatherings, one must be incredibly coordinated. like to the point where one can predict the spasmodic movements of the tiny instructor leading the group. imagine contorting your body to do the grapevine (like high school soccer practice), then tae bo-esque punches, then high kicks, then running up, down, to the left, and to the right. yet really only sweating because its 100 degrees. not because you are actually gaining muscle mass or increasing your cardio. all to the beats of a remixed "barbie girl" and that song about going to san francisco with flowers in your hair.

my first monk's funeral in chiang mai additionally inspired this blogpost's title. a group of kids staying in my hostel encouraged me to go, promising a rager. and indeed it was. fireworks, bonfires, free food. fireworks so close that you were sure your death was imminent. bonfires so large that the burning ashes fell over the entire crowd, with no escape. did i mention free food??

i tried to include pictures from the fiesta/funeral, but i can't find the cord that connects my camera to the computer. i'm not freaking out. really. i'm sure it's just lost in my backpack that i've already unpacked. right? i can't possibly have forgotten it at home. or already lost it.

this week has also marked my first foray into teaching. i am to specialize in english grammar. my opening joke, an attempt to make the students comfortable, totally flopped. i said i totally split infinitives still. silence. we can only hope for improvement.

heading out this weekend to camp in the surrounding mountains with my fellow volunteer, a guy from oregon who has been out here for six months, and his friends. i can only hope for a new insight into the world of thai camping. dearest follower, you must wait with bated breath.

until next time.

*addendum: after much "alone time" at the school, i've set up a skype account for my thai mobile. i bought an american number that you, follower, can call and reach me. anytime! anywhere! contact me for further details.

**postscript: one of my students just took a picture of me writing this post for photography class.

***off the grid correspondence: it looks like i can't receive mail. so total reliance on the post is a no-go. but i will still try and compose letters. i guess this newfangled system of "e-mail" will have to be utilized.

the big reveal....dum dum dum

due to the traumatic and premature outing of this blog (ACHEM rebecca riddell, you rat) it is now time for the big reveal. i know that all of you out there in the interwebs are dying to know WHY exactly i am writing this blog, and if the title, "off the grid," has anything really to do with reality.

indeed it does. i am off the wilds of thailand. specifically, to a small village called nai soi, around 5 kilometers from the burmese border in northwest thailand. i will be volunteering for the Ban Nai Soi Community Learning Centre, a small nonprofit dedicated to educating high school-aged Burmese children from the neighboring refugee camp. i have been assigned to teach english and community art (yes, this worries me as well) classes.

i will be staying at the BNSCLC for roughly two months, until March 18th, and then hopefully trekking to india until i to return to the usa on April 1st. while I am not bringing the laptop that has survived four years of college and beyond, i do hope to periodically update this blog. so i won't be too far off the grid. but still. i've packed many novels that i have been meaning to read since the beginning of time. starting with 100 years of solitude.

wish me luck.

happy national bird day!!

thanks to my father, an avid bird photographer, i have learned that today, January 5, is national bird day. let's take a moment to think about the birds.

mere coincidence?

http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2010/01/03/education/20100103TREND-ss_index.html

a stranger's resolution for the new year

zig zag wanderer

by Captain Beefheart, 1967. musical inspiration and/or soundtrack for this blog. one might even go so far as to say the heartbeat of this blog.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PD4-O8LfwZY

oh, and HAPPY 2010 dearest followers! new year, new ideas, new moon. a very rare new moon. a blue moon. won't happen again until 2028. craziness.