New Look

Updated my template! What do you think? Let me know your travel blog link and I will add you. Also does anyone know a better widget to add to show where I have been in the world--I'm just not loving the bright purple I have now.

Overseas Voting

Register to Vote: Overseas Citizens and Uniformed Services members
Secure, Internet-based, automated voter registration wizard: the nonpartisan Overseas Vote Foundation, www.overseasvotefoundation.org, provides overseas citizens and active duty military, their spouses and families with an easy, full-featured voter registration solution -- online! Supporting services include OVF's Voter Help Desk and the OVF Election Official Directory. This site makes absentee voter registration accessible and fast. Presidential Preference and State Primaries start in January 2008. Upcoming Presidential/General Election: November 4, 2008. Register today!

Moving Blogs.....YES-AGAIN!

So after China where my blog travelpod got blocked from I have decided to move my travel blog to Blogger here at google. This way I can add photos better, and video clips...we will lose the cool map with the dots you can click on and read the stories (I will see what I can find to make that up). But this is going to be my new home. So bookmark it, add it to your google reader list or whatever blog reader you use, feel free to link it to your blogs, whatever! This is now my home. I will be moving all my old posts to this location over the next couple weeks, so please bear with me.

Flying back to the states

Troy's work computer is having issues. First he can't connect to his jobs internet program so his email is shot. The secondly he can only get his computer to turn on 1/10 times. And when it does turn on he get the "blue screen of death" as we nicknamed it. Well due to this stupid computer we have to come home and leave our beautiful weather. We will be flying out today and most likely be in Chicago on Saturday late night.

Things to do when I get home. First and for most I need to get my hair highlighted. It's been awhile and I don't trust Thailand hairdressers to do that since they don't ever work with blonde hair-it would probably look green or orange when they were done. How ever I have learned something about myself. I still am a natural blonde! It's a little darker than what I have now but still blonde so that's good. Plus many other things,,, eating Mexican food is high on my list. And stocking up on crystal light individual packets, single ranch packets, jar of peanut butter, and as many Cheetos as I can get into our luggage!

Montezuma's Revenge

Happy Thanksgiving to all my American Readers. I haven't written in awhile because I was ill. We are not really sure why I got sick and my husband did not. Anyway this blog will focus more on the local health care than of any fun travel trips.
So on Saturday I came down with a good case of Montezuma's Revenge. Being the nurse that I am, and how we make bad patients I decided I could just fix it or wait it out. Well I learned my lesson and learned it hard. I thought i was doing everything right, drinking Gatorade and Electrolyte packets so not to get to dehydrated. Taking Tylenol for my fever (which I knew I had but no thermometer). So after knowing my hotel bathroom intimately for about four days i decided it was time to go to the hospital. First let me say I have found one thing that is not good about living in hotels all the time. My husband and I have to share one bathroom, which under normal circumstances would be fine...at this time was one of the not so glorious times of being a newlywed :) But in sickness and in health---i just was testing that!

Troy drove me to Bangkok Pattaya Hospital (its in Pattaya not Bangkok). We got to the ER and within 5 min was being seen by an actual doctor who spoke English. I had lost about 20lbs in four days, had a 103 degree temp and was so dehydrated that i couldn't stand on my own. And then with in 30 min after arriving i was in my own, private, room. Now i love my hospital that i worked at back home in Colorado, but man we don't even touch on the efficiency these people do. Turns out I had a bacterial infection. And I had it bad. It took 6 Liters of IV fluids before I had to go #1. Yep thats dehydrated.
The room was amazing. It had a kitchen, couch, dinner table, flat screen TV and what a view of my balcony! I know what your thinking...i got some suit. Nope! This was just a normal room. Apparently when in the hospital Thai people's families stay with them and help take care of them. They even do the cooking. That would be nice in the states-more help from families. Since my husband can't cook they had a local hotel bring in food for me! Once i was eating again i realized it was really good food to. The nurses there were always on top of what ever i needed. However those poor women are still wearing the all white nurse dresses with the hat and all. Most of them wore white heeled shoes also...i really felt bad for them. I did realize how great it is to know who everyone one was though. In the states everyone (nurses, aides, dietary, housekeeping) all wear scrubs. You usually can't tell who is who. Not here though. Everyone had a uniform, and I hate to say it, but i preferred that. Especially if you don't know the language you at least know who you are dealing with. Which is good since I dealt with so many people. I had a person come in from the hotel to find out what i wanted to eat, I had someone from billing come in and get all the information for my insurance company so that HE could call them and get everything arranged for me-wow was that great. I had turn down service and everything there. It rivaled my hotel The equipment and technology was the same as if i was in the States also. I felt i got better care than i would have back home.
I was able to leave the hospital the next day (they let me out early since i was a nurse and could do the follow up on my own!). That was nice since it is thanksgiving. They had a couple other little things i liked that i think we should maybe adapt in the States. When I was getting checked out I had to go to the billing department. I had to pay my bill or have a letter from my insurance company saying they would pay. Since the billing department already called and took care of it all i was done. But we have all been or known someone who has had their hospital bill messed up so i asked what happens if the bill has errors on it or there is a problem with it, how can i get that fixed. Well the billing person i was talking with said that if she made a mistake in processing my bill then it come out of her paycheck-WOW! This did slow down my leaving by about 10 min, but totally worth it to me. Overall I was very impressed with this hospital.
So what did we do for Thanksgiving...well we found a local pub that had a buffet of turkey and normal Thanksgiving food. We ate and went back to the hotel.

Interview to drive the Baht bus

Thailand Baht Bus license interview.

This is how I envision it, anyway. Translated to English:

Interviewer: Have you ever driven a taxi/bus before?

Potential Driver: No, will that be a problem?

I: Oh not at all. You'd be over-qualified if you had. Ok, let's see, have you ever ridden a bike?

PD: Twice. But my cousin owns one, and I ride on the back of it with him all the time.

I: Ok we're really looking for some raw talent here to develop. You may have too much experience. But I've got a few more questions here. You ever drive in video games?

PD: I played Mario Kart a few times. I like it when I spin all over the place. Oh, and some other more realistic racing games, but I usually destroy my car before the first checkpoint. Is that a problem? I probably should have thought about my answer before blurting it out like that...

I: No no, that's just fine. I'm liking what I hear. Let's see...the taxis/busses are manual transmission. Do you know about how to shift gears?

PD: Well, I've heard it's good to be in 3rd or 4th by the time I'm through an intersection, even though I'm only going 30 mph at the time. And I'll coast in neutral down all hills, and any distances after a hill until I have to turn again.

I: Ooh...excellent. Now would you turn into oncoming traffic and hope everyone in the lane your turning into move to accommodate your vehicle?

PD: Why would I do...

I: [Interrupting, muttering while writing with a frown] ...hmm, not good, not good...

PD: I mean of course I would!

I: Oh! Good, good. All right. Are you comfortable with horns?

PD: Like to make noise with?

I: Yes, exactly. Would you use one if we let you?

PD: Wait - you mean to tell me I can use a horn?

I: We'd prefer it. If anyone is within a block radius of you, you should blast it at least 3 times. You know, just to make sure they're aware of your presence. Even if they're behind you, walking or driving in the opposite direction. And keep in mind, 3 is a minimum.

PD: I'm going to enjoy this job.

I: Great! I've heard all I need to hear, when can you start?

Would you kiss a king cobra?

Today after laying by the pool for a few hours we heard about the Ripley's Believe it or Not doing a show, so we went to check it out. I didn't have my camera on me at the time (I still in a suit and cover up). There was this guy who was kissing King Cobras. Not the key words for this record is "Deadly-King-Cobras" Deadly-they had to be venomous. To prove they were after he kissed them they were forced to bite a jar to milk the venom. King-they had to be over 8 ft long.
They also had to be mad! So they had to have their hood spread and up in a fighting stance when he kissed them. There was no gate/glass or anything between the crowd and him. Just 3 guys with snake hooks standing by in case the snakes decided to attack the audience. Needless to say we watched this from the second level looking down!
The info:
Shahimi Abdul Hamid, a 33-year-old Malaysian man, set a new world record by kissing a cobra 51 times in the head in 3 minutes. Overtaking a previous record set in 1999 when an American kissed eleven venomous snakes.
http://www.shvoong.com/books/mystery/413545-man-kisses-cobra/

Profession _____________

Homemaker?

I had to put my profession down on my travel sheet today. And I picked homemaker? Well I no longer work as a nurse. And I don't have a job of any type now. But what is a homemaker?

Homemaker

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A homemaker is a person whose prime occupation is to care for their family and/or home; the term is originally an American feminist phrase, but it has entered mainstream English. Finding a term to describe the modern man or woman who has left the paid workforce to care for their family is problematic. The term homemaker is used in preference to either housewife or househusband because it is inclusive, defines the role in terms of activities, rather than relation to another, and is independent of marital status. The terms (informal) stay-at-home mom and stay-at-home dad are also used, particularly if the person views their central role as caring for children. The euphemistic term "domestic engineeer" has gone out of favor, being seen by some as patronizing or degrading. Likewise, the term "housekeeper" has come to describe hired cleaning help, and is no longer used -- other than in a derogatory way -- to describe homemaking. None of these terms adequately convey the diversity of activities an individual homemaker might choose to pursue, such as volunteer work, small-scale farming, education, religious ministry, political involvement, home schooling, etc.



Call girl

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A call girl or escort is a prostitute who (unlike a street walker) is not visible to the general public. Nor does she usually belong to an institution like a brothel. One must summon her, usually by calling a telephone number-hence the name call girl. Often, call girls advertise their services in small ads in magazines, although an intermediary such as an escort agency, pimp or a pander may be involved. Call girls can work either incall, where the client comes to them, or outcall, where they come to the client. Call girls are commonly perceived to be elite amongst prostitutes, far more skilled, able to pick and choose amongst their potential clients and therefore demand higher prices for their services, and are more attractive, educated, well groomed and youthful than street prostitutes. An escort service will not take on any woman that is unattractive, has a visible drug problem (such as needle marks from injecting drugs), or has an overly negative persona. Unless they specialize in tattooed women, escort services will usually not take on any women that have anything larger than a small tattoo. Escort services seek to establish a reputation for offering desirable women and know that their customers only give them one chance. If an escort service sends an undesirable woman to a client, the client will very likely not use that service again. Also, many escort agencies do criminal background checks on applicants to weed out those that have been arrested for street prostitution or other types of crimes. This weeding out is done to reduce the chances of being accused of being sellers of prostitution, trying not to draw the attention of law enforcement agencies. For these reasons, there is rarely any crossover between call girls and street prostitutes. Not all clients hire call girls for sex. Some simply do so to chat. This is most common in elderly rich men that simply enjoy the company of an attractive beautiful woman. Escort agencies try to determine if this is what a client wants and if it is, the agency will try to send their most educated and polite women to this type of customer. It is not unusual for these "chat" call girls to receive big tips or even bequests from clients.

Another client who does not ask for sex may want to impress others by having an attractive woman as his date, if not as pretend girlfriend or wife. Such a client may be attending a high school or college class reunion or an office social event. Clients seeking this service will tell the escort service what their intention is. They may specify what kind of woman they seek to play this role. The client may meet with the woman beforehand to evaluate her level of intelligence, education, manners, speech, and ability to execute the pretense, as well as to judge her appearance. They would go over his past, her (pretend) past and their feigned relationship, in order to successfully carry out the pretense.

So lets compare;
Homemaker Call Girl Me
cleans house nope nope
Cooks nope nope
does laundry nope nope
Raises children nope nope
Handles finances yes yes
Sex with partner Yes yes

But does that make me a homemaker or a one expensive call girl!

Next time we travel what do you think I should put down for profession?