...Proudly Stand Up Next To You

I believe I have found something to stand for, now it's just a matter of stabalizing my footing.

A call to action

I find myself in a foreign land sitting next to a Pakistani, Burmese, Irish, and two other Americans drinking Singha (tastes like Busch Heavy). These people have made the deliberate choice to travel to Thailand and dedicate their lives to bettering the lives of others...Human Rights. They will be writing their thesises on anything from Honor Killings to Starvation, Military Intervention to Women Rights. However it seems that is where the perverbial buck stops. They talk about awarness, books, and the good they can do about spreading knowledge about their respective causes. Now, these people are incredibly smart and had to go through a lot in order to even be accepted into this school. We all know that I am just some ex-salesman from Nebraska who has never claimed to be bright let alone have the warewithall to hold a conversation with these guys. Awareness is key to any cause which is a given (remember marketing major). But being aware of something does not change it, knowledge may be power but it is not change, this world is full of knowledgable authors what its missing is passionate actors. A thesis, a book, a marketing campaign is all great but in the end somebody has to act on your words...why can't you act on them?
The word hipocrite has a bad connotation to it but I believe that we are all hipocrites we are just to selfish to see it. I think of how many times I held the torch for the Omaha Children's Hospital: meetings, pamphlets, presentations, etc. all in the name of awareness of our cause at Dance Marathon. I remember being incredibly upset at family and friends for not giving or not giving enough to a cause that I was so passionate about. But how many visits did I make to the hospital itself (1), how many children did I bring a simple little present for, what good is words and money without a call to action. Letters in a book that accumulate into sentences and a supposed cause are about as good as me trying to order food from a Thai restaurant: I will eventually get my order in but who knows what they will bring me or what the outcome will be.

I will keep you updated on my travels, we are headed into Bangkok tomorrow to visit the embassy and to see what I can do about a Visa.

Here's to you,
Ryan, Junior, Husband, Brother, Michaud, Billy the Kid

Mahatma Gandhi

"The future depends on what we do in the present"

First Thai Post

All right, all right, I know I haven't gotten to post anything yet and all of you have probably given up on me...however I now have internet access in my room and will be able to blog all the time. And with the fact that there is so much to say because I haven't been on you can bet that I will blog much more frequent. I'll try and give you a quick recap...

We were delayed on our trip to Cali so we missed our connecting flight to Bangkok we had a good friend Jessica Schmidt come pick us up and we stayed with her for the night and hung out until our flight came the next night. She has turned me on to PinkBerry if you are ever in Cali go get one it is delicious. As far as the 17 hour flight is concerned Matt and I didn't sleep a whole lot (Brooke didn't have that problem) but we had a mean game of Pong going and watched quite a few movies. I was surprised how easy the flight was, Thai airways is the way to go!! After landing we took about an hour taxi ride to Mahidol university and decided instead of lugging all of our bags around we would just stay at the hotel on campus for the night until we found something else. Cost for one night in hotel: let's just say it was as much as it would be for 1 month's rent. We really got screwed there. After miles upon miles of walking the next day we found a place with 2 beds that was pretty clean for 4,000 Baht. As much as neither one of us wanted to do it it was looking like Matt Brooke and I were about to become really really close. However, we ended up finding an absolutely beautiful place with good security, internet, bathroom, hot water (which you don't need), t.v., etc. Those two are on the 5th floor with a great view and I am on the 3rd floor which doesn't have as good as a view but I can see the tip of the Pagoda which is kind of cool. And we can walk to campus which is a HUGE PLUS!
As far as the culture is concerned it is absoluely incredible: they are really big on cleanliness so everything is really clean and it truely is the land of smiles everyone is incredibly nice. It has been great learning just the little intracacies of this great place. The little things are what you have to be careful about as far as the traffic coming at you from the other side of the road, escalators going the other way, and they say you need to be careful with taxis but we haven't had a need for them yet. One thing I have really enjoyed so far is getting to know Matt's classmates he has someone from Pakistan, Ireland, and Burma which we have all gotten to be good friends (the rest haven't arrived yet). Just learning about their cultures and their incredible experiences has been such a joy. Even all of them have been eager to help me find a job or volunteer organization so I can get a visa.
It is insanely hot and humid here and the breeze is anything but cool. I have found that it is either the fact that I was a pirate in my last life or because I am a Parrot Head in this life that the heat and humidity hasn't bothered me at all, you just have to accept the fact that you are going to sweat all day and have a bottle of water in your hand all the time.
I know this is pretty broad but I will get into some stories and more detail now that I will be able to get on frequently. And of course I will be posting deep insights, quotes, and the like that will most likely be fodder for making fun of me when I get back...but to hell with you guys :)

It is by no means a vacation here but the experience is greater then anything I can imagine and I am looking forward to sharing it with you. I promise to have more frequent posts please keep responding. Thank you all once again

Here's to you,
Ryan

When the end is near

When they ask me:
Why would you go?
Who do you know?
How do you feel?
Why give it all up and start anew?
I answer, I'm not doing this for them or for you
I don't feel fear
I don't feel numb
I do this to see what I will become!

No Mo Money...Last Day of Work

I received an e-mail from a friend at work today and he simply said "you only go around once...you might as well enjoy it" That's basically what it all comes down to. As I get ready to leave behind my source of income, my co-workers, my friends, my clients, and my vast knowledge of the trucking industry I am more certain then ever that this is a step I need to take in my life. It's hard not to reflect on the past year and a half without questioning the future, but as they say "you only go around once"
Nebraska has been fun, but it's time for a new adventure...

thank you to all of my co-workers you guys have been great and I hope we can stay in touch!

Edwin H. Friedman:

The colossal misunderstanding of our time is the assumption that insight will work with people who are unmotivated to change. Communication does not depend on syntax, or eloquence, or rhetoric, or articulation but on the emotional context in which the message is being heard. People can only hear you when they are moving toward you, and they are not likely to when your words are pursuing them. Even the choices words lose their power when they are used to overpower. Attitudes are the real figures of speech.