What's That Quote?? "All Who Wander Are Not Lost"????

..... yeah, something like that !!!!

Well, here I am in Khowang, Thailand..... where I spent 6 weeks of my life teaching English. I have NO IDEA how I survived 6 weeks!! I can barely survive 1 day!! So here's the story....

You know when you have those days where it seems like everything goes wrong??? That was me yesterday!!! I woke up in Bangkok and got to the airport.... While standing in line, I looked at my watch and it said 7:00am. "Hmmm.... my flight leaves in 25 minutes and I'm still not checked in yet!" So I FINALLY get checked in.... and I put my crap through the metal detectors and then RUN DOWN the escalator to catch my flight..... and then I realized that I didn't pick my crap up from the metal detectors....... so I climb up the stairs at lightning speed and find my stuff. I barely make the flight and then WHAM! the tire on the airplane is busted... so we sit on the runway for an hour while they switch out the tire. But the cool thing is that I was in the first row, so I got tons of leg room!! When I finally made it to Ubon (the big city) I got a taxi to take me to the bus station. No one speaks English (the days of me staying in touristy areas where English is predominant are over) and I had to decipher that when they told me to wait for the Khowang Bus at platform 5 at 11am, that really meant platform 7 at 1130am. After waiting for 2 hours (and eating my favorite meal of sticky rice and dried beef! yum!), I get on the bus for Khowang! 2 hours later, the bus pulls up to Khowang..... and to make a horribly embarassing story short.... I didn't get off the bus right away, because I thought it would go straight through town and take me closer to where I wanted to end up. But it didn't go straight through town, it stopped on the edge of town (where i should have gotten off..... mind you, no one was there to pick me up... they are all at work) and the bus turned right, off into the small village, which is about 10 km away..... I was like "no, my school.... my school!" but no one understood me.... and FINALLY, i explained that i should have gotten off the bus..... so some lady on the bus was pissed at me, but she kindly took me on her motor bike (with my purse, huge backpack and stupid pink luggage) all the way back to my school. I paid her nicely, but she was still irritated at the "stupid farang". I ran up the stairs and said hello to all my friends!! They were teaching, but they stopped when I came! At night, they had a party for me.... which consisted of Korean BBQ and lots of alcohol! Some things never change..... However, I am sad to report, that I am slightly disenchanted by Mr. Moon. I think my love for him has faded. I LOVE LOVE LOVE seeing P'Tuang!!! She is wonderful to me!

So, this whole trip to Khowang has been the best of times, and the worst of times..... One minute, the people at this school are praising me, saying i'm the best volunteer teacher they ever had, I have the best personality, etc. And the next minute, they are saying that I am very "How do you say.... P-L-U-M-P?" and that although I was the best teacher, I was not the prettiest teacher. I forgot that I had to have thick skin here! The director offered me a job and really wants me to stay here. I told him I would think about it. He also started a rumor that I'm getting married next year. OH AND i was here for a the great P'Noy scandal.... an english teacher here at school didn't tell anyone that she was getting married and yesterday i said "How is your boyfriend?" and she said "oh, I have so many... which one?" and an hour later, she announced that she was getting married....... people went crazy! "She just told Mo'gan that she had lots of boyfriends!" It was funny....

Well, I am off to teach with P'Tuang for the day. I'm going to see how bad this heat rash can get!! ;)

These are a Few of My Favorite Things.....

...... okay, I don't have much time.... I am in Bangkok about to go to the airport to Ubon, then a bus ride to Khowang.... and hopefully my friends will be there to pick me up.... if not, I will be tramping around N.Eastern Thailand on my own!

Ok, so Krabi was AMAZING!!!! I am so jealous that John is still there.... in his freaking BUNGALOW!!! They upgraded the room to the cutest, awesomest bungalow ever!!! It's so romantical.... I hope John enjoys himself there ;)

Since I only have a few minutes, I want to write down the 2 things that happened in Krabi that will ALWAYS make me laugh aloud when I recall them....

#1)..... Dracula. And walking down the street and the people, especially Dracula, wanting to give us massages..... And I decided to have a little fun..... Dracula is a lady boy and I think s/he was really into John, of course!! So Dracula was talking to us (aka, harassing us!) and he was like "Oh, your husband a big man. He a very very big man...." ..... and that is where this story will end, for now! hahahahahhahahahahahaha.... oh man, I'm laughing out loud right now just thinking of the ending of this story!!!

#2) ..... when John found a box of condoms in my purse!!!! (it takes a LOT to embarass me, and this did it!) So stupid John decided, probably for the first time in his life, to go through a woman's purse.... he claims he was looking for his shirt... and gum! Well, to his surprise, he pulled out the box of condoms I secretly bought!!! I can't imagine what was going through his brain....... like 'wow, did morgan really think she was gonna get lucky??' BUT..... the flip side of this story is that i secretly bought them as a JOKE ON HIM (turns out, joke was on me).... I was going to leave them for him as a "parting gift" just in case he decided to invite Dracula up to his room for a private 'massage'......

Ok, I have to go.... I'm sure I have more stories, but the internet has already died on me once and I'm starving for the scanty breakfast the hotel is offering me!

Peacock Club

Malaysia = Awesome!! Who knew???? While flying over, the whole country looks like a gigantic palm tree farm!!! Once we landed, we took a long taxi ride to Kula Lumpur (I'll never know how to spell it... or say it!), which is the capital of Malaysia. Malaysia is a very well developed country, at least in the big city. If I was a shopping goddess, and had lots of money, I would be in HEAVEN!!! All kinds of "swankified" stores. But the coolest building they had were the Patronus Towers, not to be confused with the Patronus Charm from Harry Potter (which, I think mine would be a panda bear....). Anyway, the Patronus Towers are twin towers that are like 430 meters tall.... there is a bridge half way between that we walked on.... and I about had a heart attack. Thanks, dad, for the frightful genes you gave me!! And mom, too, for that matter. Anyway, we wondered around down town. Malaysia is a "melting pot" of asian cultures and religion. It's like the United States of Asia (culture wise, i'd say....) Their main religion is hindu, but they also have christianity, etc. No one looks the same..... and, oddly enough, it's the first time in a week I saw fat people! Thank, McDonalds, for helping devloped countries get fat! Anyway, we took a taxi to go see the nocturnal animals at the zoo (according to the book I had, all the cool animals came out at night) but the zoo closed at 5pm, not 10pm like my trusty book told us! So, we drove back into town and just wondered around. The city at night was very pretty. We went to an Indian Market, I guess it's the Indian equivalant of Christmas next week, at least that was what I was told. So I got some early christmas shopping done..... NOT!! John and I did get ROCKIN' tattoos of peacocks.... mine is very feminine of both my hands and John's peacock is VERY masculine on his arm. Luckily, for my family's sake, they are henna and shall come off..... not soon enough!

We are now in Krabi, Thailand. I LOVE IT HERE!!! It is, hands down, my favoritest, most beautifulst place I've ever been!!! We played with monkeys, hiked to a private beach and swam, fed an elephant (which, by my teasing, "kissed" my chin with it's trunk and I almost died), and ate delicious Thai food. Oh, I also did some laundry :( Sadly, I'm only here for 1 day before I go see my friends in Khowang. I do not want to leave.... It's gorgeous here! I've decided that I will move here. And become a bum.

Amen.

"You Don't Buy From Me, You Make Me Cryyy, Okayyyyyy?"

Oh man, it's been a busy few days.... here is the low down..... We left Ha Noi, Vietnam and went by airplane to Phom Phem, Cambodia!! We had a short layover in Bangkok, my favoritest airport ever! It's like a little museum. Once we got to Phom Phen, we took a tuk tuk to our hotel, The Billabong.... really pretty little place with a gorgeous pool.... I fell asleep right away (still with a cold) while John went out and did who knows what..... I woke up to go have dinner at a Cambodian restaraunt.... I got delicious beef that tasted like fruity pebbles! Something with lemon grass I think.... The next morning we had about 1.5 to kill before our bus ride.... so we took a tuk tuk all around to have a quick look see of all the sites.... Cambodia reminds me a lot of Thailand.... Because we are mainly in 100% touristy spots, there is tons of begging and selling of pitiful junk... which I'm a sucker to buy! After our little tuk tuk ride, we got on the bus and took the bus ride from hell..... 6 hours from Phom Phen to Siem Reap.... which basically could take like 1.5 by car.... but of course, takes forever on a bus. The bus had little to no air and I basically just sat in a pool of my own sweat for 6 hours..... We had a pit stop where there were kids selling pineapples, other fruits AND tarantulas, grasshoppers, and other non-mentionables... all to EAT! several of the kids have living tarantulas on their bodies and it made me want to scream!! I love making friends with (talking to for a few minutes) the children here! Their english is extremely good and it makes my heart sad that the most they have to look forward to each day is selling pineapples to tour busses. After the hellish bus ride, we got to our hotel in Siem Reap and I slept for 13 hours straight. Knocked the cold right out of me!! I feel 100%...... We woke up and had our personal chauffer (litterally) take us to Angor Wat, which is a very famous, incredible, and very old temple here in Cambodia. We spent the whole day traveling around and looking at the temples..... It was GORGEOUS!!! So green and amazing..... It rained quite a bit and we got drenched.... but nothing could drench our spirits... or at least mine!!! ;))) My favorite temple was the one that had all these old trees growing out of the bricks... After the temples, we stopped at the hotel for a minute, and then our chauffer went back out..... to a fishing village...... which John almost killed me for wasting all his money on this stupid adventures.... however, we took a tiny little boat and 'cruised' around a fishing village..... then we stopped and saw a fish farm, alligator farm, and WORST OF ALL, this guy put a big huge snake around my neck.... i thought i was going to die.... it was not fun..... not good memories..... After the fisihing village, we took the 45 minute tuk tuk ride back to the hotel and i feel asleep to a blissful night of dreams.......

We are now in the Siem Reap airport awaing our flight to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia..... heaven only knows what adventures await us there.....

How Many Vietnamese Does it Take to Change a Lightbulb??

The answer??..... FOUR! Two to hold the ladder, and one to hold the guy on top of the ladder replacing the bulb!!! <-------------- I just watched this from where I am sitting right now!

Man oh man..... I just got back from the PRETTIEST GORGEOUSEST AWESOMEST place ever!! At 8am on Oct 5th, the tour bus picked John and I up at our hotel, we picked up a few other people, and made a 2.5 hour drive to Ha Long Bay. We boarded a "junk", which is a cool looking vietnamese ship, and started our 2 day cruise...... It was so so gorgoues!! And very "rest and relaxation" according to our tour guide, whom I nicknamed "Happy" (because the name fits!). They fed us TONS of food......... huge portion sizes, gorgeous presentation, and most importantly, delicious! The 20 pounds i lost the day prior from sweating to death on the streets of Ha Noi, I gained it all back, plus some, eating on the junk! (Google Ha Long Bay to see awesome pictures!... I'm going to try to upload a picture below, if it will work!) We went to these caves inside one of the cool statuesque things that poke out of the water.... it was, once again, hotter than hell, but so pretty inside!! Then we went canoeing to a little cove that had cute little monkeys!! We rode the canoe straight under where the monkeys were hanging and I was scared to death the monkeys were going to fall and/or poop on my head! After canoeing (which was a work out and half, i might add...), we jumped off the junk into the beautiful, perfect temperature ocean water! No waves, just calm seas! The water was perfect and I could have stayed in all night! After supper, we just sat up on the top of the junk and talked. I made a lot of new friends from Austrailia, Boston, France, Germany.... There were about 12 of us total on the junk. Everyone likes to talk politics and government, so I bored easily!! Night Night!! The next morning, we woke up, ate breakfast, and took a little boat to a fishing village. One of my favorite parts of the trip, thus far, was seeing the primary school in the fishing village. The village is made up of about 50 or so houses.... that are all floating on water! And so was the school! It was a 4 room school.... Happy said that after primary school, their family makes a decision if they will send their child to school in Ha Long. I can't IMAGINE living in this fishing village, because there is NO WHERE you can run! Just swim, i guess! We also saw a pearl farm..... it was cool, i guess.... nothing fancy.... no pearls floating on the top of the water or anything... :)

After the cruise, we came back to Ha Noi for our last night here.... we walked to this dress shop where I really wanted this adorable dress they have.... but SHOCKER..... they don't have "Morgan Size".... only petite Asian size! It made me sad. But not really.... but it was a really cute dress shop.

Tomorrow = off to Cambodia!!!

PS - I am coming down with a cold. I can't find a pharamcy anywhere. Mother, if you read this... send your prayers to heaven that I don't get any more sick.

PPS - In Ha Long Bay, I saw eagles!! They were water eagles.... they feed off of fish. The eagles in the U.S. feed off of small rodents. It was interesting because as long as I watched the water eagles, I never saw one land..... too bad! (I also realized that Seagulls and Eagles are the exact same word, except seagulls has an s before it..... but the spelling is totally different!! who knew??)

PPPS - This guy from Austraila let me listen to his ipod... he had a lot of cool pearl jam songs I've never heard of.... like a cover of "sitting on the dock of the bay".... which was SO COOL since I was in Ha Long Bay!!! <----------- another one of my favoritest parts of the trip yet!

Ahoy from Ha Noi!

Hello again from travels in Asia!! As I am typing this, I am probably sweating out about 8 pounds of water..... and I wish i was kidding!!! Here's the story....

John and I left Phx, flew to LA, then got nice and comfortable (NOT!) for our 15 hour flight to Taiwan.... but someone on the flight got sick and needed a doctor, so we had to stop in Osaka.... and that took a few more hours where we sat peacefully on the plane.... and eventually, after many more hours, we made it to Ha Noi, Vietnam......

The hotel = swanky..... very nice choice. The streets of Vietnam = smelly, dirty, and noisy. And I love every minute of it! We did a walking tour around the city and just took lots of pictures of the different things around. I am plum knackered right now - I hardly slept on the plane... But in an hour, we are going to see a nighttime Water Puppets Show - which is famous in Vietnam. Hopefully I don't fall asleep - especially since I made John upgrade to the "nicer" (1 dollar more) tickets!

So - it is really really really humid. If I knew my mother wasn't going to read this, I would insert an explative between really and humid! I am pouring, literally POURING sweat!!! As I walk down the street, everyone is looking at me... and I think, "Oh yeah, I know I'm so good looking!"... and then i catch a glimpse of myself in the window reflection.... and holy crap - you woulda thought someone just dumped 8 gallons of water on me! And the annoying part is that John is barely even breaking a sweat!

So - funny story for the day.... This fruit seller lady came up to me and dressed me up in her garb so we could take a picture.... and then she gave us fruit.... so i was like "well, i better pay her, she is being really nice, even though i know this is her job to swindle me by taking pictures....." well, to make a really embarassing story SHORT.... i ended up giving her the equivalent of $20 bucks for 3 bananas and a slice of pineapple. Duh!!!!! I need to get a handle on this money thing.... I've only bought food from now on - I'm afraid I'm going to spend my entire savings by handing someone the wrong amount! Little kids and adults are trying to sell us everything and anything.... wallets, hats, postcards, lighters, etc etc etc..... John is so nice to everyone, so they try to convince him to buy stuff.... but i'm like "no - go away".

John is a great traveling companion... reminds me a lot of JR. Quiet, but firm. And heck, if he can put up with my Crazy Train, kudos goes to him.

OFF TO WATER PUPPETS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and hopefully a freaking long night of sleep! I'm exhausted!!!!!

East Coast Travels

"Chelsa and Morrigan's Spring Break 2009 'Green is the New Black' Amazing Race"

My friend Chelsa and I decided to spend a week of our lives traveling to the East Coast and freeze our bottoms off! Unfortunately I wasn't near a computer to do day-to-day updates, but here are some highlights of our amzingily wonderful trip.

On Wednesday, we flew to DC. We stayed with Chelsa's friend in Virginia with his roommate. The weather was VERY nice when we flew in. We went to lunch/dinner where the waiter refused to let me try the crab cakes. We visited the DC temple at night, but it was so late that the gates were closed and we barely got a decent picture :( On Thursday we did all the touristy sight seeing stuff: White House, Lincoln Memorial, War Memorials, and my personal favorite, The Jefferson Memorial. My favorite thing I bought on this whole trip was a feather pen, ink, and oldish looking parchment paper. I am going to write everyone I know a letter! I want to be a master of the pen just like Jefferson. I love him! We visited the Smithsonian and saw a really cool butterfly exhibit. We had to pay 6 dollars, but it was worth it. You walk into a massive man-made cocoon and inside were hundreds of moths and butterflies. Every minute they misted water out and it was SO incredibly hot and humid!!! It felt like Thailand all over again! We also saw a beautiful orchid exhibit. We only had time to visit the Natural History Museum portion. We walked down to the Capital Building and took a few pictures, but it was past 5pm so it was all closed down. We ate dinner at a famous Chili place that Prez Obama ate at after being in DC his first day..... (or something like that, I wasn't really listening....).

On Friday we lounged around for a bit and then went to visit the FRONT SIDE of the white house, the side that is facing away from The Mall. Then we got on our bus to New York.... the bus took freaking FOREVER.... but it was only 20 dollars, so I supposed I can't complain too much..... There was only one stop in Baltimore, MD - but that was to pick up more riders.... no stops for food.... it took us 8 hours.... it was only supposed to be 6! We almost starved to death..... BUT THEN we arrived in New York, Penn Station. This is where the fun begins. I had booked a hostel for Chelsa and I - having no idea where it was actually located. Well, we somehow mastered the subway and ended up in Harlem. Although I wasn't phased by this at all (my only knowledge of Harlem is the Globetrotters), I had the pleasure of watching Chelsa FREAK OUT whilst walking around the streets looking for our hostel. I guess she's watched too many Law and Orders where bad stuff goes down in Harlem ;) We finally found our cute, quaint little hostel. We dropped our bags and met 2 of the 6 other girls we were going to be sleeping with. After pulling Chelsa's teeth to go back into the streets of Harlem again, we got onto the subway and went to dinner at Hard Rock in Times Square. It was DELICIOUS, but anything would have tasted good at this point!

On Saturday we met up with my friend-in-law, Ryan, who acted as our own personal tour guide. We visited the Met, Rockefeller, "Where 7th Avenue meets Broadway", anddddd just had an all around decent time. By far, my favorite part of NYC was the nuts!! Mmm... delicious.

Sunday was my favoritest part of New York.... Chelsa and I went to the Statue of Liberty. It was a helluva freezing ferry ride, but very much worth it! Although we didn't climb Lady Liberty or visit the museum, we took loads of pictures and I really enjoyed the history behind the symbol. We then went back up to Harlem, got our bags, and missed our bus to Boston! So we ate some dinner in ChinaTown and I found some delicious fruit that I ate in Thailand! (That was another one of my favorite parts of new york.... the fruit!) I found us some vegetarian deliciousness for dinner and we boarded our bus to Boston at 7pm. The ride was only 5 hours. We decided to stay in a REAL hotel, since we were tired of living off of friends and hostels. So we stayed at a Ramada Inn in Dorchester, which our cab driver told us was a horrible part of town. Whatever... as long as we had a bad and private bathroom, I was happy! :)

On Monday we had our fill of early American History of the Revolutionary war. I fell in LOVE with Boston. The houses are adorable, the people were over the top kind to us, and we found the most precious, quaint little stores that we bought jewelry and trinkets at! We rode the BeanTown Trolley around town to see some sights. We also walked more than half of the Freedom Trail, a red brick road you follow around Boston to see historical sites. Among a few, we saw Bunker Hill Memorial (located on Breed's Hill, where the battle actually took place), The USS Constitution (which we could not tour because everything is closed on Monday), The Old North Church (where Paul Revere saw the 2 lanterns), Paul Revere's House (closed on Monday), cool cemeteries, and many other things! We ate lunch in Little Italy and I had the best Baked Ziti I've ever had EVER in my life.... I felt so "Soprano's".... and it only cost 7.50!!! What a smashing deal! We took the trolley to the famous park where the book "Make Way for Ducklings" was written and saw the statue.... then we walked across the street and saw the "Cheers" bar from the TV show. Of COURSE, we did more shopping and ate dinner at Quincy Market. I accidentally spilled clam chowder all over Chelsa when I was pointing out a very good looking man I was talking to in line..... Ahh.... good times.... We met a girl named Maria and spent the evening with her. We went to Fenway Park and took a few pictures.

On Tuesday, it was time to say goodbye to Boston..... I went to Rhode Island by Amtrak. I also fell in LOVE with Providence. I have decided I want to move to New England!! I took a flight back to Phoenix. In Boston, the temperature was 33*, not including the wind chill. When we got back to Phoenix, it was 85*. I quickly stripped off my 3 sweaters and long underwear! Man, what a difference!

Things I will remember from this trip:

** I love love love DC and Boston. I could move there in a heartbeat!
** People were constantly asking me for directions, which was ironic, because we were usually lost ourselves.... I guess I just have that look of "always knowing what's going on...." HA! ;)
** I got about 12 rocks in my shoe whilst walking around Boston. It was insanity!
** Chelsa withstood my for a week straight! She's going straight to heaven!
** I bought more jewelry than I ever have in my whole life! Chelsa was a bad influence ;)
** I am sad I did not get to see Kara :(
** If Chelsa and I ever move to NYC, I will live in Harlem, she will live on 5th Ave and have a little puppy, and we'll see which one of us is safer ;) (....inside JOKESSSSSS)
** What the HECK was up with all the people RUNNING in DC?? Runners EVERYWHERE!!!
** I am so thankful that it did NOT snow while we were there.
** It was awesome to be in Boston for St. Patrick's Day. What pride, what pride....
** I loved seeing Chelsa quiver in Harlem and in the hostel.... we come from two different traveling worlds, but with our powers combined, we made it through this trip!