Life has been pretty low key since we got back from our big island week down south. To be honest, it's been kind of nice! It always surprises me how tiring travelling for a period of time can be.
Top events since break:
Friday, Jan. 8:
Ryan, Josie, Emiree and I made our way to a restaurant we have been wanting to go to by us. It's a Thai-style buffet and is really awesome. You sit down and they bring you this metal dome thing with a moat around it (that's the only way i can describe it.) Inside the dome there are hot coals which heat the dome, where you grill your own meat and in the moat you grab a bunch of herbs (which look like weeds from your lawn) and prawns and veggies and make your own soup. I realized were I a student at Hogwart's I would have aced Potions class--I make some good soup in a moat. After a couple of towers of San Miguel and a few rounds of grilling (I even grilled my own baby squid) we headed home for some much deserved sleep after our first week back.
Saturday, Jan. 9:
Today we went out in Bangkok to celebrate our friend O'Brien's birthday (sweet name right?). The day started with us heading to Siam Paragon which is an ENORMOUS mall downtown filled with stores like Gucci, Versace, Burberry, Ferrari/Lambo/Porsche/Maserati car showrooms, upscale restaurants, etc. Downstairs is a sprawling food court with many samples to be tried (we made sure to try them all) and there was also a Snack Convention going on, so the amount of temptations were sky high. I even tried some Cigarette flavored ice cream. Caution: Don't EVER try this flavor if it's presented to you. Needless to say we just kinda looked around before heading to the top floor to have our minds blown by Avatar 3-D. I don't usually see movies more than once in the theater, but this movie is incredible and seeing it once in 2-D and then in 3-D it makes you appreciate it all the more. That night we took some cabs to Rambutri road which is sort of an intimate side street with lanterns hangning in the trees and cool restaurants up and down. We indulged in some Thai food and made our way to Khao San for the infamous chaos that goes down there. After some Changs in the street, a rousing Happy Birthday to O'B in the streets and a bucket we went to the club known simply as THE CLUB. I mean it has to be good if that's it's name. That night, after some falafel from a street vendor, we slept 4 deep in Jenny's apartment and woke up the next morning to head to CentralWorld--another gigantic mall. I was ready to go home.
Saturday, Jan 15
Another week under the belt (can you believe it's been 13 weeks already!) Ryan went into BKK tonight, so the girls and I went to another restaurant we've been wanting to eat at. We got in the cab and the driver was like 'where you go' and since we didn't know the name we just go 'uhh tan ahaan' (restaurant). He looked at us like we were crazy, but we made it there somehow. Ahh, the power of a limited vocab and sign language. We got there and awkwardly waited to be sat as a packed restaurant of Thais stared at us (we found out a couple minutes later we were at a wedding reception). Thankfully some lady goes "you like enjoy the weedding? oh you need sahm foot" Yes, yes! Food would be great. It was better than great. We had Tom Kha Khai (a curry/coconut soup with chicken, thai mushrooms and lemon grass) and a Kao Ob Saparrot (a fried rice with chicken, cashews, raisins and pineapple) and sat for a while in the rather tropical ambience of the Bai Mai Station Restaurant.
The rest of the last couple weeks have been filled with midterms and teaching and of course a lot of movie watching. I also finished up my 4th book since I've been here (it's been nice to have time to just sit and read). I just got done with The Alchemist which was really good and related uncannily well to my life/situation right now. I've also read The Bell Jar (good--kinda depressing), The Island of Dr. Moreau (short, but kinda hard to get into) and Sarah's Key ( a mix of Holocaust and modern day--got kinda drawn out at the end, but great start). So there ya have it...the exciting life of a teacher in Thailand :) I think we have plans to travel this coming weekend, so more stories to come.
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I just finished reading Sarah's Key as well - Interesting read, but left a lot to be desired in the end. If you're looking for more reads (not sure how easy it is to find them in your part of the world) I also just read Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen - it's set during the Great Depression and centers around a veterinary student who drops out of school and joins a travelling circus. Very compelling story. I also just read The Underdogs (originally titled Los de Abajo by Mariano Azuela) translated by Gustavo Pellon. It's a depiction of the Mexican Revolution which Azuela fought in firsthand, but then semi-fictionalized for the book, published in 1915. Just some suggestions if you're looking!
ReplyDeletexox, T.