Cheap Food, Good Times, and Souvenirs

Today was a day of cheap food, good times and souvenirs. My day was much more pleasurable than the last two, partly because I was feeling better. Although I suppose there is meant to be a unit of trust in blog posts, the truth of the matter is, I made an executive decision that it was best for me to keep you in the dark since I was ill with just a bit of a sore throat and general achy feeling. I took Nyquil the last two nights and Dayquil yesterday and am now feeling 100%, ready and raring to go.

It was a good day of orientation in that, after a brief presentation from one of the interns, Cris, on the Philippines (which was extremely interesting – we watched a video on human rights in the Philippines and a march across the country by farmers in an attempt to gain land rights) we were quickly divided into our small groups and allowed to work on our own without interruption. That is the type of work environment I enjoy: being in a group with other hard-workers who just sit down and get the job done. In keeping with our 32 baht a day assignment, we had lunch at a little hole-in-the-wall establishment where all the meals are 25 baht (if you have tofu or chicken or pork). The food was delicious and the price can’t be beat. As I was able to go all of yesterday without spending money (once again subtracting the amount spent on laundry) I was able to spread that 32 baht across the next two days (technically now today and tomorrow) and add funds to those totals giving me 49 baht per day. Thus, I stayed within my budget. Lunch was quick as we all wanted to get back to Uniserv to continue our work. In the afternoon we simply had to present the lesson plans we had developed to one other group (with Wendy or Helen, BABSEA leaders, acting as overseers). Once the presentation to the other group was over and compliments/criticisms given we could spend the afternoon as we liked, either improving our project or free time.

My group worked hard during the morning session and managed to come up with a near perfect lesson plan, thus giving us the afternoon off after 3:30 pm. Zenia wanted to go to a couple shops for souvenirs and I tagged along. We ended up stopping at a lot of stores along Nemmanhemin and I made Zenia and Sam wait for 15 minutes outside a Thai bookstore for me when I was buying souvenirs (good ones too!). I suppose it really shouldn’t come as a shock that I would spend a ton of time in a bookstore in a foreign country, but it might be a little surprising to you when I say that nothing there was in English! :) I guess it is just the breed of bookstores as a whole that fascinate me, not only the ones in English.

After shopping, we headed back to the apartments so that Sam and Zenia could rest, but all I could think of was swimming, so I put on my suit, grabbed a friend, and went to the pool. We stayed for about an hour and once again I felt like I never wanted to leave! It is amazing how good the water feels here. I can’t wait to get back to the States (by the way, everyone calls us “America” over here and nothing else; they just won’t know what you’re talking about if you say the US or the States) and get a gym membership so I can start swimming again. I have officially rediscovered my love of being in the water all the time. When I got back from the pool I took a quick shower and got ready to go out with the other apartment kids. They have been going out to clubs and bars almost every night since they got here (except for curfew nights) and I was finally convinced that it would be a “cultural experience,” and I suppose that in some ways it was. Here in Thailand, everyone drinks whiskey with club soda. When you go to a bar or club, you stand around a table, order a bucket of ice, a bottle of whiskey, and several bottles of club soda. You then mix the drinks at the table and start pouring it down (by the way, whiskey and soda is disgusting and I hate it). This is entertainment. For the most part I was bored (although there were live bands and one was pretty good), and it wasn’t long before we left (so others could go in search of more lively entertainment and I could just escape). As we were walking down the street we ran into our Thai language teachers and stopped to have margaritas with them, which was an amazing experience. We were finally told a little about Thai politics, which I would love to relay here, but I’m not allowed as we were all warned not to discuss Thai politics or religion on internet sites or in emails while in Thailand (people disappear forever after making that mistake). Suffice it to say, it was an interesting conversation and very informative. It was just a good experience to have an open and honest discussion about the region’s politics and religion without evasion and dismissal of questions.

Our night ended at around 12 am and we are now ready to go to bed. Tomorrow promises to be a similar day (with individual work time in the morning and presentations in the afternoon), but with much more interesting plans during our free hours; as a little preview I will just say that it includes a “monk chat.” Imagine what you will…until then, good night!