Rest and Relaxation

I have been extremely relaxed these past few days. Mostly thanks to the fact that we are housing a couple of girls who are getting certified in Thai massage. It's amazing. I am completely willing to be their guinea pig and let them practice on me. haha In the past few days I have gotten 4 massages. Combination of Thai and foot... It's truly wonderful.

In other news, I have obtained a new level of klutziness. I tumbled down a whole flight of stairs yesterday on my way to work. haha It was not the best wake up call at 6:30 in the morning. I hadn't even had my coffee or diet coke yet. haha I had ice on me all day yesterday and I am surprisingly okay today. Just a few bumps and bruises. I can't seem to walk without tripping anymore. haha

I got a wonderful surprise Monday afternoon. School was cancelled on Friday because the apartment building that we are connected to is turning off the electricity. YaY! So Tricia and and I are going to head to Hua Hin this weekend! Hua Hin is a common Thai weekend getaway / beach resort. I plan on sleeping a lot and getting a tan on the beach!

Jim Thompson and Khaosan

This weekend was midterm break at school. Yaaaaaaay. haha I had Thursday and Friday off, so it was a wonderfully long 4 day weekend. I was impressed with myself for actually getting up and doing things instead of just sitting around in my nice cool air conditioned apartment. Once you get into a routine here, you forget that you live in a really cool city and it's nice to go out and do "touristy" things to remind you of that.

Thursday I got up and went exploring around Siam. Siam is where a lot of shopping is. haha Expensive shopping though, so I'm usually not over there. I hadn't really gotten to explore it much before, so it was a lot of fun. I actually went down to a huge food court they have to look at all the Thai food. haha I like food and cooking, so it's really interesting for me to go and look at all the snacks like dried fish, durian chips, Thai rice crackers, and sugar coated cashew nuts. Then that night I actually got to go to Blue's Bar. Apparently, it's "our place" and we "go there way too often", but I always seem to miss these times when we "go there way too often" because I work early in the mornings. I've actually only been there twice now. haha Anyways, it was fun.

Friday, Kate, Tricia and I met up at Coyote, a mexican restaurant, where we had a great mexican buffet before heading out to the Jim Thompson House and Museum. Jim Thompson was an American architecht who found himself in Thailand after seving in World War II. He started a Thai silk company, which is quite a big deal here. He also built this amazingly beautiful traditional Thai house. The house is pretty interesting because in architectural aspects it is Thai, but he furnished it with things from all over the world like Belgium crystal chandeliers and Chinese porcelain. I was pretty excited about going here because my mom became a little bit obsessed with the Jim Thompson outlet in Pattaya. haha I wanted to look at the real store here in Bangkok, but apparently it isn't at the house- it's actually pretty close to where I live, so I will definitely have to check it out sometime.

The outside of the house...

Jim Thompson Thai silk...

The antique room inside...

After the three of us finished up there, we headed to Khaosan to walk around and hang out. Khaosan is the backpackers district in Bangkok. The first time I ever came to Bangkok I hung out there during the day, but honestly I had no idea where I was because I wasn't familiar with anthing yet. haha The only other times I have been there are at night when we are too busy dancing to really look around, so it was good to go during the day and check out the shopping and things. The street is just packed with shopping stands and food stands. There were so many things I wanted to buy, but couldn't, which is prolly a good thing. haha It's cute though. Lots and lots of crazy backpackers, haha.

That night we went bowling! I love bowling and I hadn't been since I was in Cambodia, so it was great fun. Bowling must def be an American thing because all the balls were weighed in pounds and the shoes were in American sizes. The shoes were prolly one of the best parts of this bowling experience, because mine were actually too big! haha I've had such a difficult time with shoes and my rabbit feet... hahaha Anyways, it was wonderful.

I'm gonna go try to learn some Thai! All my friends are better at it then me, hahaha. I really need to catch up, especially since I've been here the longest! haha

Ew

I just stepped outside to go find myself lunch. As I was coming up the elevator I was marveling at how extremely hot it was outside and how atrocious my hair looked (frizz ball central), so I decided to look up the weather.

It is 93 degrees outside, feels like 101, and the humidity is at 50%. Well, that explains it.

I am now very concerned for March and April when it is the "hot" season. My hair is just, not gonna be cute. hahaha Praise the Lord for Tricia's new hair straightener.

In other news- I have a 4 day weekend! YaY! I'm planning on playing Bangkok tourist and hit up the main sights like the floating market, Grand Palace, Jim Thompson museum, shopping on Khao San... The list goes on and on. I'm very excited. I need to make a plan. :)

Wonder Girls

I'm sick. I literally did nothing over the weekend. Meaning I laid in my bed and watched the first season of Gossip Girl and this video... it's the hottest thing in Asia right now. It's quite catchy. I think I need to learn the dance. haha

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yx6xGNQ1_Zs&feature=PlayList&p=85717FC40AC3EDF8&index=0&playnext=1

Enjoy!

Updates

I feel like a lot of small things have happened in the past couple weeks that at first, I don't really feel the need to post about it but then I look back and I realize that nobody has any idea of what is going on. hahaha Plus, my internet sucks and it gets very frustrating when you write out a long post to have it not be posted or lost because your internet just ups and decides that it doesn't want to work at a random point in time.

So, here are some random things:

1.) I went to Cambodia a couple weekends ago. I had no idea that I was supposed to go on a visa run (because HELLO THAILAND, I HAVE A YEAR LONG VISA), but apparently that doesn't matter. You have to leave the country every 90 days. I booked a spot on a bus to Cambodia on a Saturday, but then missed my bus because of lack of sleep. haha Then I booked another spot for Sunday. I woke up at 4 in the morning, took a taxi to the departure point, in front of a 7-Eleven of course, and the bus left at 5 that morning. We drove to the Cambodia border. I had to pay a ridiculous fine because I stayed in Thailand 19 days too days. Then I sat around in a casino for a few hours people watching and then we headed back. I was back in Bangkok by 3 that afternoon and back in my room by 4.

2.) One of my good friends here, Lannie, went home to America last weekend. I will miss her very much, but we had a great time hanging out last weekend to celebrate her return home. We took a river boat cruise down the Bangkok river (Chao Phraya... I think haha) for dinner that night. There was a Thai band there playing Thai pop music and I had the BEST time dancing to them. I really need to buy a cd of the latest hits here. It's amazing.

3.) We also celebrated Friday night by going to a rooftop bar. It was about 56 floors up. I hated the elevator ride, haha. It was pretty fancy, even a dress code. If you didn't meet the dress code they would give you things to wear for it. hahaha Luckily, I didn't have any problems. haha It was a pretty good view even through the smogginess. haha

4.) Tricia and I shop a lot. haha I love shopping and we have a lot of fun together, but this is not good with my present economic situation (Cambodia took all my money...) My two fave spots to go are the Suam Phlu (Lumpini Night Bazaar) and Platinum Fashion Mall. Suam Phlu is a "high scale" outdoor market and Platinum is kinda like an indoor market with tons and tons and clothes and accessories. It's an amazing and dangerous place. haha

Alrighty, I need to get back to work! It's time for me to teach creative art. haha Today we are doing an art project and making elephants out of paper hearts! haha Valentine's Day... Thailand... Elephants... makes perfect sense!

Year of the Ox

I am totally slacking on the blog, so I'm gonna try to fix that.

Last week was the start of Chinese New Year and this year is Year of the Ox. Chinese New Year is a pretty big deal here because most Thai's are actually Thai-Chinese. Most school's have the first three days of it off and all the employees were pretty upset that we didn't, but I'm glad we didn't because that meant we got to celebrate with kids and holidays with kids are really fun and I got to learn a lot about it.

Chinese New Year is 15 days long, but (from what I've experienced anyways) the most celebrated days are the first 3 days. Most people prepare for the new year, the day before it begins by making food that symbolizes different things like prosperity and happiness and cleaning. The cleaning symbolizes clearing away the bad luck and making room for good luck. I guess you aren't supposed to clean during the first week of the new year because you will wipe away your luck for the year.

So last week at school, we talked about all these things with the kids and a couple of Chinese parents came in to read some Chinese stories. We also made dragon masks with them and paper lanterns together on Monday and Tuesday, because on Wednesday the preschool department had a parade. It was so cute! Everybody came to school in their Chinese costumes and before snack they paraded outside to Chinese music. The head of the department made a giant dragon head for people to wear and have kids walk underneath. They were precious. Then we came inside and served dim sum and mandarin oranges to all the kids. All day long, the kids were bouncing off the walls and playing with their lanterns and putting together puzzles of an ox. haha We got nothing accomplished! haha

For our parade, some of the teachers wore Chinese outfits too. Note took me down to Chinatown on Monday after school and helped me find a dress. Chinatown was hopping. They had a huge parade going on and fireworks and the streets were all closed down and their were people everywhere. It was nuts. Chinatown is usually crazy and busy, but it was at least 3 times that last week. It was great fun!