Monday, September 4

I’m going to go ahead and blame the spandex skirt for the sprained ankle I got today  while playing in our first netball game. I used to think a sprained ankle wasn’t a real injury..kind of even wussy. I take it back! When it first happened and I felt/heard the pop, I immediately was taken back to less than a year ago when I was playing flag football and ended up with a sideways finger that required surgery and a cast, but ended up being crooked anyway!

Didn’t the doctor say something about low calcium levels? Shit! I crawled off the court muttering curses about being old and knowing for sure my netball career was over. I limped out, got in a cab, got out of the cab because it was sketchy, got in another cab, stopped at 7-11 for ice, had a good cry, called my mom and dad in self-pity, iced my foot, and went to sleep. The next morning, I got out of bed and fell to the floor for lack of ability to put weight on my foot. Not to mention my ankle was popping out in a weird direction. Looking back, I’m pretty sure my finger episode led me to exaggerate the injury maybe just a little, but I called in sick and went straight to the doctor. She looked at it, said in spotty English, “not broken, hurt?” or something of the sorts. Since she didn’t think it needed an x-ray, I hobbled over to the store and bought an ACE bandage. While I was there, I figured I might as well get my heart checked. Explanation: a week before flying to Bangkok, I had some serious chest pais which I associated with a medication I had been taking for sinus problems. Turns out, by Bangkok ECK machines, I am not dying. I did have to laugh when they took my blood and the nurse asked me if I had hard veins to find. I shook my head as she continued searching. Finally, she poked me and with a sigh of relief said, “whew, lucky for me!” Lucky for me? What would she have said if she missed? Unlucky for you? Nevertheless, I went home exhausted after a day full of hospital. Lucky for me I survived =)

First weekend in September

So the first weekend in September was my first real night out on the town. It all started at the swing dance bar. One of the girls at work is a member of the swing dance club here, and I thought (just like netball) I’d be good at it with my two step experience. I couldn’t even count the step! The dancers were almost as amazing as the Asian rocker chick in her monster high heeled tennis shoes shouting out the tunes to old 60’s hits. I’ve made the decision that I will go to swing dance lessons until I am that good! Then, after buying a dress from a ladyboy on the street (it was pretty!), we moseyed on down the “Ping Pong” area, where I naively learned they weren’t referring to table tennis. Those of you that don’t know what I'm talkig about, including my parents, don’t google it,! Just be naïve! I fended off local men enticing me with menus full of “show” items that I can’t bring myself to mention. I avoided their calles for “sex show?” by keeping my eyes down and feet forward! Whew, once through, we stopped at this fun Aussie bar where the live band was playing all the pop songs from home. Afterwards, we hit up the gay Soi (street) for a friend of a friends birthday. This place put Austin to shame! Imagine 4^th street times 100! I have never seen so many shirtless men of all cultures grinding shamelessly all night to dance music techno beats! I’ll have to make sure to go there anytime I need a pick me up, as the gay Indian men thought the blonde chick was the prettiest thing they’d ever seen =)

Saturday, we did a little sightseeing from the Tuk Tuk including Chinatown and the flower market.

 

I misunderstood when I read “floating” in Lonely Planet and spent most the evening searching for the water to see theboats of flowers floating by. I realized later, it was only referring to the floating of colors down the street.

 

As my friend and I wandered in search of the river, we ended up behind the storehouses…probably leading many people to wonder why two white girls were randomly wandering around. We happened upon some of Bangkok's finest insects, but politely declined...

 

Lucky for me, we popped out at a banana/chocolate crepe stand and had a delicious dessert. Unlucky for me, we also saw our first Bangkok sized rat poke his head out of a drain!! They are the size of cats!

Sunday, a friend and I ventured over to check out the monitor lizards at Lumpini park. All I have to say is that I am glad a friend warned me about them because if I had gone in blindly, I would have run through the park like a lunatic screaming, “crocodile!” Instead I just went around like a lunatic trying to get close enough to take a good picture.

 

I used the excuse that I needed to get my heart checked before working out to not run the mere half mile around the park. Those of you that know the story can go ahead and laugh. I finally did get an ECK and no worries, according to the test, I'm healthy! I waited for my friend with the lizards and then we headed to the pool. Finally, I got to use my apartment pool. After a few hours (and finally getting iternet installed) we decided to go get some food. We went to a place down Soi 71 for some authentic street food. Authentic meaning they don’t speak English or have English menus or pictures. However, my aide at school had given me some catch phrases including pakraow moo (which is chili with basil and pork). It started pouring the Bangkok rain on us and we ducked into a “restaurant” to eat. I was very impressed that we were able to order two dishes on our own! I’ve really come a long way.

Thursday August 30

Today was one of those days I just had to laugh at myself. The stress of work got to me today and I took a 10 minute break to have a complete meltdown around lunch time instead of eating. Feeling somewhat better, I was able to finish the day. W put out a newsletter every other Friday, and I had not even started mine yet, but after work we had a meeting. So by the time 5:00 rolled around and the meeting was over, I was tired and starving. I asked my administrator if the school would be open if I went and got food and then came back to do my newsletter. She said there was a night guard who was always there. So I stepped outside in the pouring rain and sloshed my way down to a little restaurant on the corner. Needing to decompress, I ordered myself a large beer and some delicious food. I even had dessert! Feeling much better, I decided to head on back to school. When I got there, the gates were shut. Confused, I walked to both gates looking for the guard, but couldn’t find him anywhere. I climbed up and peeked over into the parking lot, but he wasn’t there either. So here I was faced with quite the dilemma. My bag was inside with my keys to my house and I still needed to do my newsletter. So, I really had no other choice than to hop the fence.  So in my skirt, in the pouring rain, umbrella up, I scaled the fence! I can only imagine what the passing cars thought. Inside, I went to the door and could see the guard inside. You can only imagine the startled look on his face when he heard my knock (wondering how in the hell I got in). He opened the door and seeing it was a teacher, let me in. After an hour’s worth of work, I was finally ready to go home. On the way out, the guard escorted me out the door and over to the gate to let me out. Before leaving, he kindly pointed to the intercom button conveniently placed next to the gate in case I should need to get in next time. Ohhhhh, I laughed as I asked him, “So I don’t have to climb the fence next time?” Haha, I walked away through the puddles of rain, shaking my head at myself! Time to call it a night!

Monday, August 27

I felt pretty bad when I showed up to work this morning and the secretary forwarded an email from my parents. Apparently, the last thing I posted on facebook was my address, and then I went MIA for the weekend. Really, the free internet I was stealing stopped being available, but I can see where my parents would have been concerned. After assuring my mom I was not kidnapped or dead, I carried on with my work day. After work, I headed to the gym because today was my first experience with Netball. Some of the girls I work with told me about this sport and invited me to play on the team. I thought I’d be pretty good since I know how to play basketball. Turns out I was wrong. And not only did I suck at it, when I showed up, all the girls were wearing skin tight spandex outfits including a SKIRT! What is that all about? Who wears skirts for sports? I feel like I’m in the movie A League of their Own! Get with the times Australia.

Nevertheless, I tried on my outfit, and after the other girls assured me it was the right size (it’s supposed to be that tight.. it’s spandex), I paid my dues and went home for the evening shaking my head at the thought of wearing the outfit in public! Hey, maybe looking good while playing will make up for my lack of ability ;)

Saturday, August 18 – Saturday, August 25

Just a quick overview of the week, since there is nothing too exciting to share. Well, unless you consider riding in a cab when the driver’s cellphone rang to the Phil Collins hit, In the Air Tonight exciting! I myself laughed out loud and mentally noted several Austin friends to Facebook later (Relf, Elium, Addison, and you too Mike) ;) Let’s see… Saturday I hit up the biggest weekend market in Bangkok, Chatachuck Market!

 

 It is pretty overwhelmingly incredible with miles of vendors selling anything and everything you could ever imagine. I settled for a watermelon shake and some street food, but will be coming back with a map soon! Of course it rained on us, but this time I was prepared with my rubber shoes. Unfortunately, I had blisters within 2 minutes so I am now searchig for a pair of crocs.

I have been practicing my Thai this week and can successfully say several different meats (never want any surprises), numbers to 99, and directions. Food and my way home are obviously priorities. And “no worries”, that’s my favorite! I thought I was pretty cool when I hopped right on a motorbike and said, “Thonglo sip sam ka” and the guy nodded and drove me straight to school. He even knew to drop me at school without me saying stop. Guess my blonde hair and blue eyes gave me away. Hmm, I wonder if that meant he didn't really understand my directions at all, just already knew where I was going. On the way home, it’s a little tricky. I don’t live down a numbered street where you could easily give the number for reference. I live on the main street called Sukhumvit and I’m not really sure it has block numbers. Sometimes I try saying Condo Life (condoliiiief) in a funny tone where my voice goes high at the end, but they have yet to understand. One day, I was quite proud to have learned how to say “65” which is the street number closest to where I live. I got into a cab (it was raining), smiled sweetly and said, “sukhumvit hok sip ha ka” and off we went. At first, I was excited that he understood, but then he took a strange turn. My initial reactio nwas to get a firm grip on the bear spray I carry in my backpack, but as I reached into my bag, I realized he was going the back way to 65. He must think I live on the actual street...since that is what I told him. As he slowed down, I told him to go straight and turn left (back to the main road). Well, actually I said turn right but pointed left so he laughed and not only corrected my direction, but then we shared a funny moment over him taking a complete roundabout way at the miscommunication of my directions. I apologized and explained I was practicing my Thai. I asked him what the best directions would be to tell a cab to get to my place. He responded with some 5 or 6 jumbled sounds so I just smiled and said “thanks”, all the while knowing I’d never be able to repeat it! Turns out I need even more practice because when I was with Phil Collins later in the week, I ended up dropped farther from where I was going then where I started! Well at least I have a goal for next week.

I’ve been taking some big steps in food bravery this week. I went to Soi 38 again and wanted so badly to try something new, but fell back on my same little yellow cart man.

 

 

To compensate, I impulsively stopped and bought several sticks of mystery meat on the way home! I mean it’s fried, it can’t be that bad, right?

As I bit into one, I was confused as to whether it was chicken, pork, tofu, or something completely random. All kinds of thoughts entered my head so I called Jaime…again! She assured me it was not dog meat and most likely pork, chicken, or fish! Later in the week, I ate fish balls and recognized the taste! Whew...close one! One day, I even got the guts to stop at a morning vendor and get "to-go" food for lunch. I pointed and asked, “moo ka (pork)”. She said yes, and whe she asked for “sam sip ha”, I calculated it to be 35! Success =) It didn’t occur to me that it was not a "tourist" food stand, so even though it was delicious, I could only handle about a third before my mouth exploded from the spice! The maid and my assistant had a pretty good laugh at my expense!

I did Yoga this week! It was pretty fun, although I am not very good at it. I am going to be trying a new sport called netball next week. I’m hoping since it’s somewhat similar to basketball, maybe I’ll be good at it (Matt Ross)! By similar, I really mean that there is a ball and a basket and a court! Similarities stop there. It’s kind of more like ultimate Frisbee with a volleyball and basketball net. I'll update on whether I can actually play next week! Lastly, at the end of the week, I went to a party with one of the girls that teaches in my grade level. Her husband is from the UK and hosts DJ nights in Bangkok. Several girls went to the bar and we ended up dancing all night to part disco part techno beats. All in all a pretty good week and I'm sure pretty soon I’ll be blending in with the locals…

Thursday, August 16

Happy birthday Dad!

You know one thing that is not cheap in Thailand? Western food and wine! One bottle of yellow tail (8$) costs over 15 here! I found this out tonight, when by accident I stumbled across the market in the Emporium! I knew they had western grocery stores, but this was heaven! They had my champagne salad dressing and my organic cereal. Everything from home, including shampoos to pesto and tortellini was laid out in front of me. Now, there’s a price to pay for living that fancy, but I don’t care! I restrained myself from buying everything as I still had groceries at home, but I will be returning here for my next big grocery trip! It’s nice to know that I don’t have to live off of street food forever. Not that I would mind, but I doubt it does much for your health. I will continue to buy my fruit off the street though as local fruit is more fun and also way less expensive. Nine dollars for a handful of blueberries won’t get me too far, but I thoroughly enjoy a watermelon shake or a freshly cut mango(with a little sticky rice and coconut milk) or dragonfruit. On the walk home tonight, I realized why there are so many foot massage places. Walking everywhere makes your feet ACHE! I have probably walked more in my two weeks here than I have in my life. I also realized I need a pair of rubber shoes after ruining my second pair of shoes walking home in the rain. Rainy season kinda makes me want to shower 5x a day to avoid being sticky, smelly, and covered in street gunk. On a bright note, I found a use for the bum gun. Every day, I come home and wash my feet in the bathroom so I don’t feel disgusting getting into my bed. And it’s not even hot yet!

After my bum gun rinse, I decided it was time to make my first Thai meal. I pulled out my pre-made package deal and threw the pork in a frying pan, added some veggies, threw in the sauce. It was beautiful. I even took a picture; I was so proud.

It looked just like what you would buy at a restaurant. I poured myself a glass of wine and sat down with pride to enjoy my first meal. I took a few bites…delicious. Then I looked a little closer. All throughout my beautiful dish were these short silky little pieces of what I could only assume to be pig hair! I convinced myself that it couldn’t possibly be hair because it tasted so good that I wanted to keep on eating it. Ignorance is bliss! Could I maybe just drink enough wine to not notice? A few bites later, I couldn’t take it…time to call Jaime.  She assured me that most likely it was pig hair and didn’t recommend eating it. After a moment’s thought (I really considered it), I reluctantly tossed the entire thing out. Scouring my fridge, I found some eggs, broccoli, and cheese. I figured I couldn’t go wrong with an omelet. I chased it down with the rest of my wine, and settled in for the latest episode of Rookie Blue on Side Reel. I guess I’ll trade a little pig hair for my free internet. On second thought, I think I’ll become a vegetarian!

Monday August 13

A day off work and the kids come tomorrow. What to do to ease the anxiety? Great idea, go grocery shopping. To be honest, I have been putting this off since I got here. Not only do I love an excuse to eat street food, but I hate grocery shopping, even in America. I can never find anything, I always have to ask, and there are too many choices for one product. Yes mom, I’m just like my dad! And now, not only am I grocery shopping, but I can’t read the labels, the price is in baht, I don’t know what half the vegetables are, much less how to cook them, and there is no one to ask for help! This is a ‘recipe’ for disaster. Luckily, one of the other girls went with me and she moved here from teaching in Vietnam so she was helpful. I kept it under 2000 baht (70$) and stuck with the basic veggies, salad fixings, cereal, milk, eggs, sandwich stuff, and a bottle of wine. I couldn’t find any normal looking mushrooms, but I did buy a package of funny looking Japanese mushrooms, while in the back of my head wondering if they would make me hallucinate! Turns out they are ok. I did splurge on this “package deal” of premade but uncooked Thai food. I thought it was neat they put it all together for you with the spices and all but left the meat and veggies uncooked. Why not try it? Later that evening, we went back to Soi 38 for some more street food. It was here I fell in love with a cute little man and his yellow food cart of noodle soup with fried pork. I need to learn how to say that in Thai. If any of my friends visit, I will take each and every one of you there! It might have been the most delicious thing I have ever had! I ate it like the Thai people, with a little sugar, a little prik (hot pepper), and well, that’s about all. Maybe not so much like the Thai people, because a little prik is all I can handle. Thank you to Jaime for showing me this place. I find that when I go back to Soi 38 alone, it is the only thing I will order. I am not sure if that’s because I’m too scared to order anything else, or because I love it so much. Baby steps!

Sunday August 12

Let me start by saying that yes, today (Sunday) was actually my birthday! For those of you that don’t know, my birthday is a national holiday in Thailand. Not so much because of me, but because I share a birthday with the queen. This means I will never have to work on my birthday…perfect! Now, because we have Monday off, I assumed Monday was my birthday. So when my mom called me via facetime this morning to wish me a happy birthday, I simply laughed and made fun of her for getting her times/hours mixed up… we are 12 hours apart you know! But she was pretty persistent, and after a few minutes (I actually had to pull my calendar out) I realized she was right! It was my birthday! Well now I needed to celebrate. So I decided to go shopping! I wish I could say I went for pleasure, but really it was because I needed a calendar. With school starting, it was driving me crazy not having one. Anyone who knows me, knows that organization is not my strong point. Getting a smart phone was the best thing I ever did for myself because I could enter meetings and due dates in the calendar and they would ring at me so I wouldn’t forget. I could post it note things to remember and make a to do list that I could check off, all on one device! I am so dependent on my smart phone, that I’m having trouble surviving without it. In fact, it is causing me quite a bit of anxiety, so I went to a department store and bought myself a calendar today. On the way out, a painting caught my eye! It was two elephants in a field with a sunset in the background. It was so pretty and with my newfound love of elephants, I thought it was the perfect birthday present so I bought it. It goes quite nicely with the bright orange tables in my apartment. Then I stopped off for a cheap massage. It was turning into a nice birthday.

Obviously, celebrating your birthday after only living somewhere for a few weeks can be a bit depressing, not to mention when it’s your 31^st! So, I set myself up for disappointment, but was pleasantly surprised. Some of the new teachers decided to go out with me to celebrate, and we made plans to go to Moon Bar, which is listed as one of the top roof bars it he world! But they weren’t kidding about this rainy season stuff, so we relocated to Mexican food instead. I figured since I wasn’t in Texas, it was the next best thing. Good thing my friends are from Australia, Georgia, and Ireland so they didn’t know the difference. =) As we were chomping our chips and salsa and sipping our margs, a big group of boys sat down across the patio. After a few pitchers of margaritas they decided to befriend us, telling us they were here from Spain for a bachelor party. A few pictures and shared drinks later, they were all wearing sombreros singing me “Feliz Cumpleanos” not once, not twice, but three times!

Not a bad way to celebrate the night! A few fancy bars (we ended up at one roof top after the rain stopped) and not so fancy bars later, we called it a night! Thank you to my new friends for making my night a success =)

Saturday, August 11

Today was a pretty fun experience. I went to IKEA with another new teacher. I had no idea that Bangkok would have so many western stores, including KFC and Dunkin Doughnuts…no I have not eaten at either. Thank goodness there is no Chic-Fila =) Being that everything is fairly catered to the westerner or “farang” as they call us around here, it has been easier that you would think to settle in and adapt. Well, until I went shopping for sheets. I should have listened to my mom (I know) when she told me to measure my bed before trying to buy sheets. But that would have included finding a tape measure, so I just assumed I’d figure it out. Sure I would, I mean I’m only in a country where I don’t speak the language, don’t know the metric system (thanks America), and can’t phone a friend. I quickly realized this was not one of my smarter decisions, as I wandered aisle after aisle holding up bags marked “160x200x30” comparing them to the ones marked “120x140x20”, all while trying to figure out which ones actually fit the bed versus a top sheet. After perusing the isles for around 2 hours, I finally decided that I didn’t care. I plopped the overpriced 160’s (I went big just in case) in my cart and figured I’d sleep on them regardless. Glad that stress was over, we decided it was time to explore the city a bit. We took the BTS to the Metro (two different trains), and then hopped on a ferry. It sounded easy enough in the Lonely Planet book, and I think it would have been if the ferry had not closed for the evening. But, after a few nods, smiles, and pointing in the general direction, we lined up with a bunch of other people. Turns out, we were on the right boat and we headed up the river. I was so excited with my camera ready to video tape the sights as we passed the Grand Palace and several Wats (temples), but I was quickly reminded by the oncoming clouds that it is rainy season in Bangkok. I’m thinking I should move getting an umbrella to the top of my list of priorities, but at least we were covered in the boat. We paid our 15 baht and up the river with rain flaps we went.

We got out a few stops later, and headed to a vintage market one of the teachers had been to before. It was pretty entertaining to see some of the old school toys they were selling, including one very awesome transformers helmet and a fish tank made out of an old TV (including fish).
 

No purchases, but I did try some chewy gummy looking Japanese things. I’m pretty sure it was seaweed and jelly, fried of course, and not so bad. Lucky for me, the sheets fit the bed so I’m off to my first good sleep in a bed with sheets!!