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…
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