Feb 8-14
The Thais don't celebrate Walentine's Day (as they call it) because they associate Feb 14 with the Chinese New Year, but I still took full advantage of the holiday in my classes. Kids got a kick out of the Pokemon and Power Puff Girl valentines I had printed off for them and it was pretty funny seeing/hearing their reactions when we talked about Love :) I would tell them to write a message on the back and then ask if they were gonna write it to their girlfriend or boyfriend and they would all get really giggly and blush and say "teacha! i no have" and then other kids in the class would be like "ohhhh Palm rikes Mew" or "Piang is rove wit Nut" You know the typical reactions to the topic at that age. It was awesome.
Last weekend we decided to hang in Bangplee on Friday which turned out to be a great time. We were out on the porch most of the night playing cards and unwinding from the week. After midnight some of the locals (we call them the Soi 34 guys cuz they hang out at a mini-store on that street) came over to Soi 18 and we hung out with them. Then they took me and Ryan F. on a trek to Soi 48 as there is apparently a house there where people play cards and dice. It sounded like a mix between shady and amazing, but unfortunately when we got there it was closed. Rather than call it quits we headed back to 34 and hung out until about 4 am. These guys are a riot and I'm looking forward to having some more Thai connections while we're here!
Saturday we headed into BKK for the night. We stayed in a hotel off Sukhumvit which is a really interesting part of town. For a few blocks it literally feels like you are in Saudi Arabia and the side street where our hotel was it was actually reminiscent of a small African village. It's totally bizarre being in such an Asian world and then all of sudden being transported to a completely different environment within a few streets. Our hotel was alright--a/c, big bed and cheap enough for 3 of us to share...the only odd part was when we looked at the rate sheet and we could pay for the night or by the hour. Hmmm.
Anyway we met up with some friends and headed to China Town as the Chinese New Year's was
on Sunday. Unfortunately the celebration didn't take place til Sunday, but we still got to see a lot of the are being set up. It was exactly how I pictured it with streets covered in red hanging paper lanterns and golden dragons all over the place. It would have been really cool to see what it's like on the actual day, but alas, we have to teach. We ate a really good Lebanese restaurant for dinner (Chicken Shwarma!) and, after pregaming with some CIEE crew
, made our way to RCA. We went back to Route 66 which is one of our favorite clubs and closed the place down. It's fun to go there because it's kind of out of the way so it's really not touristy--in fact I think we were some of the few non-Thais there. The next morning we woke up and caught some of the highlights from the Opening Ceremony of the Olympics and have to stay we were kind of unimpressed. It was really wierd and seemed really Canadian as opposed to world-inclusive. We were happy we saw any of it though as Thailand isn't really known for their cold weather athletics and therefore doesn't pay much mind to the Winter games :) Man the weekends go fast.
The Thais don't celebrate Walentine's Day (as they call it) because they associate Feb 14 with the Chinese New Year, but I still took full advantage of the holiday in my classes. Kids got a kick out of the Pokemon and Power Puff Girl valentines I had printed off for them and it was pretty funny seeing/hearing their reactions when we talked about Love :) I would tell them to write a message on the back and then ask if they were gonna write it to their girlfriend or boyfriend and they would all get really giggly and blush and say "teacha! i no have" and then other kids in the class would be like "ohhhh Palm rikes Mew" or "Piang is rove wit Nut" You know the typical reactions to the topic at that age. It was awesome.
Last weekend we decided to hang in Bangplee on Friday which turned out to be a great time. We were out on the porch most of the night playing cards and unwinding from the week. After midnight some of the locals (we call them the Soi 34 guys cuz they hang out at a mini-store on that street) came over to Soi 18 and we hung out with them. Then they took me and Ryan F. on a trek to Soi 48 as there is apparently a house there where people play cards and dice. It sounded like a mix between shady and amazing, but unfortunately when we got there it was closed. Rather than call it quits we headed back to 34 and hung out until about 4 am. These guys are a riot and I'm looking forward to having some more Thai connections while we're here!
Saturday we headed into BKK for the night. We stayed in a hotel off Sukhumvit which is a really interesting part of town. For a few blocks it literally feels like you are in Saudi Arabia and the side street where our hotel was it was actually reminiscent of a small African village. It's totally bizarre being in such an Asian world and then all of sudden being transported to a completely different environment within a few streets. Our hotel was alright--a/c, big bed and cheap enough for 3 of us to share...the only odd part was when we looked at the rate sheet and we could pay for the night or by the hour. Hmmm.
Anyway we met up with some friends and headed to China Town as the Chinese New Year's was
on Sunday. Unfortunately the celebration didn't take place til Sunday, but we still got to see a lot of the are being set up. It was exactly how I pictured it with streets covered in red hanging paper lanterns and golden dragons all over the place. It would have been really cool to see what it's like on the actual day, but alas, we have to teach. We ate a really good Lebanese restaurant for dinner (Chicken Shwarma!) and, after pregaming with some CIEE crew
, made our way to RCA. We went back to Route 66 which is one of our favorite clubs and closed the place down. It's fun to go there because it's kind of out of the way so it's really not touristy--in fact I think we were some of the few non-Thais there. The next morning we woke up and caught some of the highlights from the Opening Ceremony of the Olympics and have to stay we were kind of unimpressed. It was really wierd and seemed really Canadian as opposed to world-inclusive. We were happy we saw any of it though as Thailand isn't really known for their cold weather athletics and therefore doesn't pay much mind to the Winter games :) Man the weekends go fast.
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