aint misbehaving.....

i was bad this week. i went out on a wednesday night for "ladies night" at coyote, which meant all you can drink, free margaritas, from 6-8. it was also to meet up with amit, who i went to college with and with whom i share many mutual friends. hes backpacking through southeast asia and arrived in bangkok the night before, so meeting there just seemed like the perfect combination of the two.

i went straight from tutoring, and anticipating such, i left my bag with my computer at school. i figured id be out and not at home so i wouldnt be needing it that night anyway, and it wouldnt be such a hassle that i would have to carry around.

because i went straight from tutoring, i got their a little early, but found tasha and we got a table. it was before 6, so all the waitresses were trying to get us to buy drinks while we were waiting, even though we all knew that wasnt happening and that we were there for the free drinks. the food isnt bad either, but hey, its a ploy to get people to come in, and it was working because it brought us in.

after just over two hours and two of our friends being asked to leave by the manager, it was time to head out. but i wasnt ready to go home. amit and i had just begun talking and catching up, and some other people were staying out, so we ventured down the streets of silom and ended up at patpong. if you care enough, you can google it. this is what i will say: by the time i was heading home, it was nearly 2.

needless to say, i was not planning on going to school the next day. it turned out that when i woke up, the cold that i have had off and on for the last three months was in full force once again anyway, and so i 'decided' then to take the day off.

this was a great day to do it. meghan had also taken off for personal reasons, and amit was in town. so the three of us met up back in silom and from there decided to head over to see the jim thompson house. meghan had already been twice, but was ecstatic to go again (actually it was her suggestion), and it was something i had been wanting to see but never gotten around to. jim thompson was an american who basically revitalized the thai silk industry and then mysteriously vanished at the age of 61, after a monk had predicted years before that great danger would come to him at that age. his house is an architectural dream to look at, and he was an antique collector, so it is now a tourist site.

from there, we were planning on going to lumpini park, something else i had yet to do, but it was getting really hot out and so we opted to introduce amit to thai massages. we were back in the silom/sukhumvit area and went into one of the cheaper places we saw. when we got there, we were told there were no female masseues available. ok. we didnt really think anything of it. but afterward, we were all just a little weary of the massage we had just gotten. meghan and i had to apologize for giving amit such an awful intro to one of our favorite things in thailand.

we finished off our night with a trip back to coyotes again so meghan and i could split some nachos. this time though, we did not consume any margaritas :P

biking through history

there is so much to see in thailand outside of the city. this past sunday stephanie and i went to see the ruins in ayutthaya. it is a city just a little over an hour north of bangkok and was the capital of the country before bangkok was, and before it got the name thailand, from the mid 1300s to the mid 1700s when it was burnt down the burmese. the religion of that time was still buddhism though, and so there are many temples and wats, or at least piece of them, still left to be seen.

we took a mini bus from pinklao and left around 10. it was pretty easy and we got there around 1130. we decided we were hungry and tried to find a place and beth and neil recommended from when they visited the week before, but apparently, soi 1 is extremely hard to come by. we settled for a nice little restaurant on the side of the street and got some thai food while we planned out our day.

the city itself isnt too big, but there is a lot to see. so we decided to take the popular option of renting bicycles for the day. this is what i was most excited about. i dont remember the last time i rode a bike, and considering how hot of a day it was (nevermind that this is suppose to be the 'cool' season, its all relative), riding was the only time we had to cool down because we actually got a breeze.

after we found some bikes, and a map which we could decipher, we went right down the street to our first stop, wat mahathat. its one of the most popular because it is home to one of the most famous images in thailand:

its a buddhas head amongst the roots of the tree. before getting there, we had seen this image on postcards and in pictures, and so seeing it was awesome. the best part of that way, and probably the day, was the puppies. when we went to walk up on part of the ruins, we were hesitant because no one else was and we thought it wasnt allowed. once we got up though, we noticed why no one was venturing up there. by the other set of stairs was a mother dog, quite literally guarding her litter of pups (there were 8!) and growling at anyone who came in her view and too close to her babies. steph and i were watching from above, and so eventually she stopped growling at us, and we named some of the puppies based on their personality and looks, like chubby (see picture), beached-whale, and fighter. we wanted to take them home.

reluctantly, we left the cuties and went to our next stop, just across the street, wat ratchaburana. this one was cool because we were actually able to climb in and around the remains, up through steps and stuff. it is the one that has been most restored, but the site is amazing.

from there, we had heard about the temple with three pillars, or wat phra si san phet. its built on the grounds of what was the grand palace back when ayutthaya was the capital, and the three pillars, or chedi as they are referred to in the buddhist culture, contain the ashes of three different kinds from that kingdom. it was at this point that i noticed that there was really something wrong with my camera, as every picture was overexposed, even on automatic setting, and whenever i tried to change a setting an error message would occur. in fact, i got really annoyed with it and most of these picture are awful, but im including them so that everyone can see what im talking about here.

past some elephants while biking

the last place we knew we wanted to see was the big lounging buddha, known as wat lokaya sutharam. however, our map was misleading, or rather, we were pretty bad at reading it, and wound up cycling through almost the entirety of the old city before we came upon it. needless to say, by the time we got there we were hot, sweaty, and feeling pretty gross.

we snapped some pictures because we were there, but neither of us were feeling up to it. besides, even though its impressive and there are not pillars blocking it, i had just seen wat pho, which was bigger and gold. so since we were tired and had seen the main things we had come to see, we decided to head back and return the bikes. we had plans to do a sunday roast back in bangkok, so we wanted to leave before too late. even though that didnt end up happening, leaving when we did was good....if only we had puppysnatched before doing so.....

once in a blue moon. (the long overdue new years post)

honestly had no idea what that expression meant before i looked into it. when i heard that not only was there a full moon on new years eve, but it was a blue moon, i knew there was no way i wasnt going to be at the famous full moon party in koh phangan. (a blue moon is the second full moon that happens in the same month. most years, there are

only 12 full moons, so there is only one full moon each month, but because the lunar calendar and the regular calendar are not exactly the same, there is sometimes an extra moon in there somewhere, about every 3 years. it can happen anytime during the year, so the fact that this was THE one on new years was a HUGE deal.)

so the majority of our group, not just in bangkok but those down south as well, started planning our full moon experience shortly before december began. it was tricky because people had all different vacation days. since i had to do a visa run the beginning of the week, i joined up with the group that was taking the overnight bus from khaosan road on wednesday night. we were meant to leave around 6, finally left between 8 and 9 (thai time, ugh) and got down to suratthani around 5 on thursday morning, new years eve. now i agree that it wasnt the smartest idea to spend the night before an all night rager traveling on a bus, but really, we didnt have any other choice.

so we finally hit the island of koh samui around 11am and got to our hotel on the other side of the island about an hour later. koh samui is not the island where the party was, however. that takes place on koh phangan, which only has accommodations enough for 3000-5000 people. normal full moon parties bring in about 20-30 thousand people. this one was expected to draw 50-60 thousand. this meant thatwe obviously had to stay on a different island and boat over.

our "before" picture

we were told to be at the dock at 5, but when we got there we found out the ferry wasnt suppose to leave until 530. of course, on thai time, this meant that we didnt actually head out until after 7. so we got to koh phangan around 830, tired and hungry and so not ready to start all night partying. we thought the best idea would be stop in and get a proper meal. now what would have been smart was to eat first, which was the plan. but of course, during the time it took to find a place that could accommodate us, we somehow ended up with buckets in hand, and that was our downfall.

we ended up having a fantastic meal and then hitting the beach. it was pretty nuts and still very early, considering it didnt stop until 11am the next day. there was music blasting out of every bar and lining the beach, different "makeshift bars" selling the famous buckets. all of them had outrageous schemes to try to get people to buy from them as opposed to the person right next to them selling the exact same thing for the exact same price. all across the beach were different attractions: water slides, fire jumping rope and limbo ropes, body painting, fire dancers, stages, etc. it was pretty wild.

so thats how we spent our night. dancing and drinking on the beach under a full moon. it was great because we got to see the kiwis who are living down south in hat yai, and some other people from our group who we rarely see. however, we didnt stay together as a group for long, and with so many people, that was expected. there was a countdown at midnight and by that time, many buckets had been had and things got crazy.

around 3 steph and i decided we couldnt handle it anymore and went and slept in a room some friends of ours had on that same island. we set an alarm for 530 to get up and meet everyone to ferry back to koh samui.

that didnt happen. at some point, someone threw the phone when the alarm was going off and when we finally woke up, it was after 7. as we walked out onto the beach, the scene we encountered was quite humorous. so steph and i trekked over to the other side of the island to catch a ferry we were told would be leaving at 9. again, we got there and find out the next ferry didnt leave until 11. so we sat down to kill some time at the barge when these two aussies came up and started chatting with us. they were really nice and we were talking to them when all of a sudden, eric popped up off of one of the benches at the waiting area. he had gotten separated from the group too and was waitiing for the ferry at 11 as well. so the 5 of us decided to grab some breakfast/play pool at an irish pub just down the block from the pier.

the scene across the beach in the morning

our "after" picture.

after breakfast we went to catch the ferry and discovered that eric was actually on a different boat. he left first, and then the four of us (me steph and the aussies) ended up waiting for another 30-45 minutes for our ferry. luckily, they were good company and we talked to them the whole trip back to koh samui. they actually had just left australia for the first time and were doing a month-long world tour. and, they even offered us a place to stay if we ever traveled down to melbourne!

so we got back to our hotel around 2 and since everyone else had gotten back much earlier, we had no beds :( we tried to sleep on the beach but that wasnt happening. so we had a bar-b-que that the owner of our resort cooked for us since our hotel was waaaay out of the way for everyting. we planned on having a bonfire on the beach that night and started gathering firewood, but after eating, most of us were too tired to do that, and so we went to bed early to recuperate from the night before.

motorbike taxis still scare the shit out of me.

why?

because apparently, any traffic laws that do exist here do not apply to them. therefor: they dont stay in lanes, they do not always stop at lights, they do not have a speed limit, they weave in between cars....and not just cars, but buses, trucks, and anything else that is on the road.

additionally, the drivers enjoy taking turns at a sharp angle, want to get you to your destination as fast as possible so they can take their next run, do not slow down for speed bumps or pot holes, and particularly enjoy giving us farangs a "thrilling" experience.

but, they are the fastest way to navigate this city, where on a bus it can take 2 hours to go 12km in the middle of the day. and, they are the cheapest option, which is important when living on a salary such as mine.

and so, the only thing i can do is hang on tight and close my eyes.

seeing some more of bangkok.

after relaxing on saturday, i decided i wanted to do something on sunday. most people went out of town this past weekend though, so it was just me and meghan. she suggested going to wat pho, which is one of the most famous things here in bangkok and home to the largest reclining buddha. it was something neither of us had seen yet so it was a good deal.

after waiting for her for an hour, because of traffic and thai time, we finally met inside the wat and got to see just how gigantic this buddha is, and its massive.

there wasnt much else in the wat that we wanted to see though, so we were going to head over to see the un. we finally found a taxi that would take us where we wanted to go and got in. but after driving a few feet and heading into the main traffic, he told us that the un was closed because it was sunday, so we made him pull over and let us out.

after much discussion, we decided to head over to siam to go to a museum and see what was playing at the cinema and then jump on the bts two stops to have some mexican for dinner. however, the museum only had a few exhibits worth seeing and when we got to the theater and debated the times and shows that were available, nothing worked out, so we headed over to eat earlier than expected. this turned out to be good because we got there in time to catch the end of buy one get one free happy hour.

the wall paintings exhibit.

the exhibit called meghan buckman.

we ordered nachos to split and meghan ended up making friends with some guys in another booth who are teachers in korea and on vacation here. we chatted with them, first over the divider and then at our table for a bit and compared the conditions here to theirs there. they clearly have it up on us in almost all aspects....except that they are not by glorious beaches and have as much snow right now as those back home.

so when we tried to leave and head back home, we discovered that the main street was closed off for some kind of festival that we didnt know about, so we walked around that for a bit and saw some performances and food stands and vendors selling crafts before trying to get home.

a punk band playing in the street

meghan was taking the bts, so that was easy for her. i dont have that option though since the closest stop is a 140 baht cab ride away from my apartment. what i usually do is take a metered taxi, but they were hard to come by, and i was able to convince a motor bike to take me (which is what made me write this post). they usually dont do distances that far, but i suppose that the festival created an influx of people who needed transportation and they were taking advantage of it.

my new favorite day of the year.

i now understand why the other teachers have been preparing since the beginning of december for sports day: its awesome.

the entire school was broken down into four teams: red, yellow, blue, and green.i came to the conclusion that the kids were able to sign up for the team they wanted to be on based on the fact that for the most part, friends were all on the same teams. for us foreign teachers, we were assigned to a color, and since there are four of us, we each got put onto a different team. beth was on yellow, yu long on blue, steinar red and i was on green.

a week before the even, bleachers went up in the courtyard corresponding to the colors of the teams. then a few days before, decorations started going up and i discovered that each team also had a theme. this became important when it came time for the parade and opening ceremony, with a torch and all.

usually the morning assembly starts off with a few songs and then the national anthem, after which we are able to leave to eat breakfast and prepare for the day. this day, we ate before the songs started. during breakfast, i was pulled away into the office where i was dressed by four teachers in a traditional thai costume so that i could march in the parade. i was unaware of this beforehand.

so as they finished dressing me, the parade was beginning, and i was thrown out and marched around the neighborhood, where i of course drew many stares and even some points because i was a farang in thai clothing with the school. i was actually surprised at how big of a deal the parade was, considering the school is so small in comparison to assumption right next door, but the kids got a lot of support, and that was really cool to see. when we got back to school, we stood in formation while some speeches were given and songs were sung, and then the torch was carried across the courtyard and the games could "begin."

however, a majority of the activities had been completed before the actual day, and started even before the holiday festivities began. on friday, the only activities that were actually carried out were the track and field events and dance competitions. still, there was always something going on and parents were there and the kids loved cheering and yelling at each other. it reminded me a lot of color wars. i spent most of the day taking pictures, but occasionally sat and cheered with my students on the green team.

green dresses dominated.

the runners had adults from their teams waiting for them at the finish line.

ice pops were essential in the cooling down process.

i know im not suppose to have favorites, but that one on the left, fifa, is just plain awesome.

as the races were ending, we started hearing our names being said in conversation, though we werent sure in context to what. we soon found out when it was announced over the speakers that the four of us would be racing, further establishing us as objects used for entertainment as opposed to actual teachers. but it was fun and fine and after we went, other teachers and parents did the same so it wasnt too bad.

the day concluded with trophy ceremonies and the blue team won in almost all categories. after that finished, all of the teams coming together to sing some songs and then, of course, the kings song was played to officially end the activities.

....but it was not the end of the day....

there is a holiday for teachers on the 16th of january, which was saturday. in celebration of it, the administrators (i.e. the kasintorn family) threw a party for the entire staff of the school.

there were skits and karaoke (of course) and speeches and poetic readings, all of which i couldnt really understand. we were sitting at a table with a group of teachers who are really nice, but dont really make an effort to bridge the communication gap. so, throughout our EIGHT course dinner, the four of us were pretty much left to ourselves, and honestly, i talk to them every single day, so there wasnt much to say.

after some people started leaving, steinar and i moved over to the table with the teachers we had gone to the waterfall with and talked to more frequently. earlier in the dinner, one of the teachers came in carrying a case of bottles of thai whiskey, which im still unsure as to if this was provided by the kasintorns or not, but people ha been drinking casually throughout dinner. once we moved over to the other table though, the courtyard at our primary school became a scene akin to that of any pub, anywhere (but more likely in asia because of the karaoke still happening in the background.) and i was even getting toasted by the mother of the twins i tutor, as her husband is the son of the kasintorns and principal at another one of their schools.

we stayed at the school until we were told to leave, and a bunch of us came back to our place and hung out in steinars room until people started falling asleep. it had been awhile since i hung out with the teachers at our school, and now that ive decided to stay at my school through the next term, i was happily reminded of how much fun they can be.

logistics

i dont know how much ive said about how my teaching works, so ill go into that a little bit now.

everyone asked me how i was planning on coming here and teaching english to kids who cant speak it when i cant speak thai. fair question. this is how it works: exactly as it sounds. there are so many communication issues that its almost not even humorous. but, in each class, there is a "thai assistant" teacher. they, for the most part, speak english and thai and communicate to the kids what i am asking or want them to do and then the kids do it...kinda.

anyway, for my p1s and p2s and two of my p3 classes, my thai assistants are great and the kids listen. the other two classes...theyre another story completely. but ive kind of given up on them anyway so its not even an issue now. today though, i had no thai assistant teacher in my p1/2 class, as she was setting up for tomorrows greatly anticipated sports day. and i wanted to murder them.

they were jumping on chairs and desks, running around, throwing water on each other, etc. i know from stories that this is what most of my friends deal with on a daily basis, but when ive gotten used to having children do as i ask, its hard to regain the control. the reason why the thai teachers have so much control over the classes is that they are allowed to hit the kids, and usually do so with rulers. so i tried hitting the desk with a ruler, and it broke. then i started having flashbacks to my first day of teaching practice and was ready to throw the cards at them and walk out, when the bell for lunch finally rang.

i could not have been happier.

and to make things better, because of sports day tomorrow, i have no classes :)

friends <3

i talk about these people in many of my posts and many people have asked me about them. i thought it would be smart/fun to write a little blurb about each person to give everyone back home some info about these people in my life. so without further adieu, i introduce to you the cast of characters that make up my life here in bangkok:

beth (aka bee-tan), wales

first person i met from the group. she was stepping out of the shower as i walked into our villa in nai harn. now she lives in pinklao (dont pronounce the l!) and works at a different kasintorn school. hers isnt as good as mine though. shes fun, enjoys her buckets, sarcasm, and singing made up queen songs to everyone when hungover. o and she speaks welsh, which is apparently its own language and its people are british but NOT english.

i have taken many awesomely bad pictures of beth. it was hard to settle on one.

emily suPATCHa, wisconsin

my other roommate from the wonderful, glorious days down in nai harn. shes from wisconsin and is now living in the north of the bkk. shes got quite a nice setup at her school, having one class of 12 four-year-olds who she teaches everyday until 12:30. but, shes also in charge of the science club. give and take people. emily has nine brothers and sisters, but her father is NOT a pastor, as is the common misconception. one thing to know about emily: she poses with her arms when shes dancing.

stephanAY, canada

she shocked us all when we discovered that shes hiding her natural blonde under those dark locks. i hate her because her apartment is amazing. seriously, she has a pool and restaurants and shops and a gym in her building, but what im most jealous of is the hot water and lack of ants. shes kind enough to let me stay there and use her for her shower on the weekends though :)

i dont know why i dont have any pictures of just her.

meghan "my body doesnt bend that way" buckman, new york

shes known to many of you as the bright spot and entertainment in my posts. its probably no surprise that when we had to list an adjective before our names on the first day of training, hers was 'sarcastic.' im shocked by most of what comes out of her mouth. but as we discovered in nai harn, we are soul mates, even though her favorite things in this world are likely the beach, hairy lumberjacks, and nachos.

tasha, known by her students as jane, england

natasha was first placed down south, but after her first day, knew she wouldnt enjoy it down there. SO she headed up north to us in bkk. now shes at a new school. but the first day, she was told the students wouldnt be able to pronounce her name, so she has to go by jane instead. its not so random, it is her middle name. her accent is heavy (think: wallace and grommet), and at first, some of us had trouble figuring out what she was saying. also, tash is the one who usually convinces us that the best option for what to do is a massage, and usually, shes correct.

jake, riha, bierle, "the guys," minnesota

though they actually only comprise 2/3 of the males in our group, the three of them knew each other from college and came her together, so they get lumped together for everything. theyre probably alright with that, because as anyone who has seen my facebook albums knows, all of the guys in our group have developed a tighter-than-necessary bond. riha and bierle are both named chris, and jake can usually be found in the same pair of shorts with a white tshirt.

(in the picture: bierle, riha, jake)

andrew, england

i really cant describe andrew in any other way than saying "mustang sally."

eric, pennsylvania

a self-proclaimed "skater" and "loner," hes usually off exploring on a motorbike whenever we cannot find him. but then, he will randomly pop up out of no where and without explanation. up until this week, he didnt have a job, but was still getting paid >:( now, he lives and works at the school that is just next door to me. the very wealthy school that is right next door to me. but hopefully now ill have someone in town to play with on weeknights...and im going to try to get him to tell me the password to their schools wireless connection, hehe.

here he is juggling coconuts.

wild will, somewhere abouts the midwest....

just an easily likable guy. hes quiet but also always up for a good time. hes taught before and so this is just his thing, but he is placed about an hour west of bangkok and so we dont get to see him as often. he just turned 30 a few days after new years, but he can still party like hes in his 20s. the picture is of him eating his first bug in thailand, where else, but on khaosan road.

steve and lauren, england

theyre dating. theyre fun. theyre cute. theyre from manchester. theyve done a lot of traveling and just have...more life experience (hehe) so we go to them when we have questions or need advice. but lauren has her work cut out for her, as bierle and steve have a bromance going that she may not be able to compete with. we shall see.

a-town and margaritas...am i back at home?

im having trouble writing my posts from laos and new years. only part of the reason there is because most of it was a blur and im not sure how much should be left in or taken out for family back home....but also because it was such a once in a lifetime experience and i dont know where to begin. but rather than not posting until the writers block lets up from those adventures, ill continue with other posts and return to the island of koh phangan when the writers block has ceased.

i had a treat last week because i got to see someone from home. mr anthony kapanowske made an appearance in bangkok. his 'uncle,' who has lived here for nearly 30 years, got married on saturday and so a-town is here for a few weeks with his dad in honor of the ceremony. on wednesday night we decided to meet up on good ol khaosan for dinner and a drink, which unexpectedly turned into many many margaritas courtesy of anthonys dollars and not my bahts.

even though d we dont see each other much now that we dont work together, seeing someone from home was indescribable. its different seeing everyone from the group on the weekends because even though they are great friends, they are still from my life here in thailand. having someone from my life back in the states was just amazing.

so we met wednesday and went out, which was fine, because as it turned out, thursday and friday were the thai testing days, which meant that even though we had to be at school, we didnt have any classes. really, us being here was pointless, but its fine because i got to sit on the computer all day. (you would think i would have been more productive with writing and such, but alas, no.)

friday night i headed over to stephs place to camp out for the weekend. we went to dinner on good ole khaosan again and got to meet bierles girlfriend who was visiting for three weeks during her winter break from school. it was an early night though and after splitting a bucket, we headed back to stephs.

the plan for saturday was to head over to the ancient city, which is why we stopped early friday night. however, we underestimated how long the bus across the city would take, and by the time we were finished the first leg of our journey, with still an hour or so more to go, we realized we would only have a 1/2 hour t

o see the thing, so we decided to meet tasha and opted for another relaxing day at the massage place instead :)

that night we planned on heading back to the mexican place, called coyote, because from 10-12 its ladies night and we get free margaritas! we met for dinner first, and after my first drink anthony came down from the wedding reception, which was only a km away. he told me that i had been invited back, so i left the group and went down the street to meet people. everyone was super nice and offered to show me around or help me find places to visit while i was here.

sunday steph and i had planned on hitting some of the 10+ malls in the siam area so that we could hopefully find some new work shoes, as ours have been destroyed by the conditions here in thailand. some of the malls were just like back home, and some...were not. that means different things depending on each mall, but for example, one was only high end stores which, even over here, are still way too expensive for me, and others were like outdoor markets moved indoors. those were the most interesting because they were just so overwhelming, and we didnt even know where to begin to look for anything.

in the end, i did find work shoes for cheap and also found a nice little treat for myself. :)

steven madden wedges for only $30.....even though i have absolutely NO use for them here.

a vehly mehly clissmus. (just sound it out)

as a group, we had decided earlier to do a secret santa. steph and i suggested that we have a christmas party to swap gifts. after much heeing and hawing, it was vetoed. we thought it would just be the two of us, but it ended up being a small group of us that were around the bkk on christmas day. stephs place is pretty central and very nice, and definitely big enough for many people to stay in comfortably, so she offered her apartment for the gathering. it was a bonus that she has a pool, so we all planned on spending the day poolside with a few drinks and then going out for dinner. but, t.i.t. (This Is Thailand) and so, nothing goes according to plan.

i woke up christmas morning and opened the two presents i had, one from grace and guys mom and one from beth at school, neither of which were expected. after packing up a few things and as i was into the city, steph called to tell me that her pool was closed for a christmas party that was happening the next day, so the few people already there had decided to search for a hotel nearby her place with a pool, since that had been our christmas day plans. luckily, it wasnt too hard to find one, and after they looked online for an hour, they discovered there was one down the street about 10 minutes from her place.

while they were searching, i was shopping, and i was able to find something that resembled christmas cookies. i was very pleased and surprised by this and the fact that they were not exorbitantly overpriced, as i had previously gone on a search for candy canes for my classes and discovered that anything related to peppermint in this country is nonexistent and anything related to christmas is ridiculously overpriced. so i bought the cookies and made my way to the pool.

when i showed up, meghan tasha and steph were all lounging in their bathing suits and santa hats and riha had just jumped out of the pool shivering. (i realize i havent written about most of the people in my group, so ill dedicate a few posts to them eventually). the thing about this pool is that it was in between two high rises, which were blocking the sun. and even though thailand is still scorching, in the shade and with a breeze, it can be quite chilly. still, we had made a decision to stay poolside on christmas and we were determined to see that rhough, so we stayed for a few hours before deciding the next logical step was to go get massages.

now one thing thailand is known for is its massages. there are special schools all over the place which teach traditional thai massage techniques, which is different from what many people generally think of when they think of a massage because rather than it being a relaxing hour of muscle rubbing, it is much more vigorous and entails molding and flexing the body to get all of the kinks out. even though they are insanely cheap here (100-300 baht per hour on average, more in very touristy areas), i had not yet been to get a massage yet. many from our group had taken advantage of this though, and i was warned that it could be relaxing, or painful, and that there was a possibility that i would end up with bruises. still, we hopped on some motorbike taxis and made our way over to the shopping center to get our christmas day massages and then shop for some goodies.

all four of us were put into a room that was already occupied by one other person. steph and i were wearing skirts and so we were given linen pants to put under because of the "bending." still, the lighting was dim and soft music was playing so it was rather relaxing. so my masseuse starts on my feet and i start to drift off, until meghan, who is lying less than a foot to my right, starts giggling. for the rest of the hour, we were periodically interrupted with meghans bursts of laughter, pain, or disgust at what her masseuse was molding her body into. it was an interesting experience to say the least, but very enjoyable nontheless.

after our massages we met up with amy and decided to go shopping at the big c for some holiday treats. what we really wanted was baileys and creme de menthe to make a drink that beth introduced us to which just tastes like christmas. but as i said before, mint is hard to come by here in thailand, and so we had to settle for a very expensive bottle of baileys. while we were shopping, we came across a woman giving announcements over a microphone to the whole store. meghan decided it was the perfect time to start caroling and took her mic to sing jingle bells. though we all walked away and pretended to not know her, it was pretty obvious we were together, as we were 1. the only white people in the store and 2. all wearing our santa hats. its really difficult to take her anywhere sometimes.

we went back to stephs and all showered and changed and waited for andrew to show up so we could go to dinner. while we were getting ready, we drank our baileys with chocolate milk and listened to christmas music, perhaps the only time of this day that made it feel like a normal christmas. that is, until andrew arrived, decked out in a full santa outfit, beard and all. we then understood why it took him hours to get there, as he was busy delivering holiday cheer around the greater bangkok area all evening.

for dinner, we decided to try a restaurant near stephs where you go "fishing" for shrimp in a big pool and then eat what you catch. four of us took that option, but after two hours, none of us had caught anything. finally, i got one, but we decided it was pointless and moved down to another location for fried rice and some cocktails before calling it a night, as by that point, it was 2 and all of the places around us were shutting down.

we spent the night at stephs and had a full day planned for saturday, the first stop being an imax movie theater to see avatar. some people from our group go to the movies every week to get a taste of home. while i enjoy watching movies, im not really a fan of going to the theater even when im back in the states, so i had not yet been while over here. to get there, i had another first experience of riding the bts, the skytrain here in bangkok. i could not believe how clean it was. while the city as a whole is pretty dirty, they really monitor what people do on on the train and keep it exceptionally clean.

anyway, by the time we got to the movie theater, the imax showing we wanted to see was sold out, so we settled for just watching it in 3-d. the earliest showing of that was sold out too, and the next show we could get into only had the front row available (they sell specific seats for the movies like it was a play) but we took it anyway. if you havent seen it yet you should, as the graphics are exceptional and the plot line, even with its underlying political commentary, is pretty good as well.

we rushed out of the movies to go to coyote, a mexican restaurant some ofthe girls found earlier in the week. we were told that ladies get free margaritas from 6-8 on wednesdays and saturdays and we wanted to get in as much of that as we could. but when we got there, it was almost 7, and we found out that on saturdays, ladies night is from 10-12. still, we ordered some drinks and food since we were there. back at home, it would have only been decent, but it was definitely the best mexican food here in bangkok, and we are planning on going back as many times on weds and saturdays as possible.

from coyote we jumped into some taxis and went up north to where riha and jake live. they have made some friends with a group of thai college students and we were invited to one of the house parties they were having. the problem here was that by the time we made it that far up north, the party was already breaking up. so instead, the boys made their way over to the future park mall area to meet us. while we waited, we decided to hop on the caterpillar roller coaster. after paying for our first ride, we befriended the guy working at it and we got another one for free!

so the boys finally got there and we went back and hung out at jakes and all of us stayed up there that night. it was night to see someone elses area, but sunday there wasnt much to do up there. so steph tasha and i came back down to bangkok and went to the indian market. im not sure what i was expecting, but i was not impressed by what i saw. the only good thing that came out of that was that we were able to find a decently cheap place to get good indian food.

even though it was nothing like a typical western christmas, i had an awesome weekend and got to do a lot of firsts in thailand.