Full Stomach = Happy Girl

First of all, the picture above is of the boats that idle down the Klong Saen Saep, a canal that I cross over whenever I walk to or from the city center from my apartment. I'm going to get on one ASAP.

Second, because I am truly a fat kid at heart, I must take another moment to chronicle my experiences with the food here. Unlike yesterday's lunchtime fiasco, today I met great success on the cuisine scene. Lemme break it down for all of you, as I am SURE you are DYING to hear what I put into my digestive system today.

Lunch: more meat on a stick. As to avoid disaster, this time went to a different street vendor and bought pork (moo), which is the country's number one protein. All I can say is mmmmm...oo. Get it?

Dinner: Ate at the restaurant downstairs from my FABULOUS new room.
-Fresh banana-pineapple smoothie? Check.
-Piping hot shrimp fried rice? Check.
-$2.85 check? CHECK.

To our right, we see a lady street vendor. Look closely and you will notice that she is putting meat on a stick onto that grill of hers. It is a phenomenon that knows no bounds in this crazy city.

Anyway... Onto other, less important moments of the day: went to my CELTA (Certificate in English Language Teaching for Adults) orientation this afternoon. I'm the youngest one in the course, but the fourteen other people in the course seem pretty cool. They were all fairly shocked I had been in Bangkok just two days (many of them have been living in Asia for years). Oh and tomorrow is my first teaching practice session, with real students taking english at my training center. Kind of scary, considering my "teaching practice" group is first dealing with "upper intermediate level" students, meaning complicated grammar. I don't think I even speak at an "upper intermediate level" of English. So we'll see how that one goes.

Lastly, after writing yesterday's blog I had my first experience riding on a tuk-tuk (crazy open air golf-cart/taxi things that squeeze through the Bangkok traffic with utter disregard for anyone's actual safety). I had a proud moment when I bartered the driver down from 100 (neung-roy) to 80 (baht-sip) baht, letting him know that my destination was glai-glai (really close by). I think homeboy was impressed with this blondie's Thai skills, although he did not show it when he almost killed both of us by nearly plowing into a huge bus while traveling in between two traffic lanes. I'm going to try to attach a video of my ride to this blog, but I am supremely technologically challenged, so if you don't see it, it wasn't meant to be.

So the video wasn't uploading (typical), but here's a pic of a "Tuk-Tuk"! Now imagine that colliding with a city bus -- no bueno.

Off to sleep in a bit, as I have my first full day of CELTA tomorrow!

On agenda for next blog: there is some serious political sh*t happening over here. Will expand when I'm in less of a food coma.

Lah gorn for now,

-Char Char

A Productive Day

So it's only 3 pm here, and I've already accomplished quite a bit for my first full day in the city.

Among the most significant accomplishments:

- I found a place to stay for the month of my course! It's called KC Apartments, and it's basically a pretty nice hotel room for 12,000 baht/month (about $365). It's a fifteen minute walk from my course, and the people working there seem great. I checked out ten or so different buildings and it is definitely the best deal-- even staying at the hostel I'm at would be 25,000 baht/month, which is pretty ridic considering the room from my window (sorry, I'm kind of bitter)

- I mingled with the locals! Or, actually, I was approached by four rando's who were REALLY excited to speak english. One old man even took me to two of the buildings I visited looking for apartments, asking the people at the front desk for me. Another guy gave me advice on where I should look for teaching jobs, and one lady was really excited that I was from the states, as she had a T-Shirt that was from New Haven, Connecticut. So I guess none of that really counts as "mingling", but the bottom line is that the people here are incredibly friendly, and super-excited to meet "Westerners". Maybe I really will meet the Thai man of my dreams here ;)

- I sampled the local cuisine! Well... yeah, here's how it actually went down: after trekking for five hours in the 90-degree heat looking for apartments, I realized I was STARVING. I decided to be adventurous and try some of the street-side dishes that had looked so tantalizing during my walk yesterday.
Dish #1: noodles from a vendor that looked like my fave thai dish in the states. Ehhh...Not so much. They had a slimy consistency that was just awkward, and the taste reminded me a little bit of the smell of the dumpster down the block from my hostel. Not wanting to be rude, I walked three stalls down and threw them ever-so-discreetly in the trash.
Dish #2: Three stalls down by the trash can, I found the "meat on stick" dishes that had been looking interesting. Proud of myself for remembering the word for chicken (gai), I ordered up a stick. Also not a good idea. The balls were filled with rubbery pieces of fat, and the sauce I had piled on them excitedly had the tantalizing taste of sour milk. I had reached the end of the row of vendors and the last trash can and felt rude throwing the balls away in front of the lady who had cooked them, I decided to just walk away and find a trash can on the next block. Thus arises another great mystery: THERE ARE NO TRASH CANS IN BANGKOK. I literally made it the whole mile back to my hostel without finding one. Those balls were legitimately the bane of my existence for the last half hour.
Dish #3: Made it back to the hostel with dangerously low blood sugar and had a delicious plate of rice with chicken and green curry. Finally, success.

So that's been my day so far! Tomorrow is orientation for my CELTA course, so maybe I'll actually make some friends and won't write in this thing like five times a day. Love to everyone, and start making plans to visit!

-Charlotte

I'm Alive!

Yup, I somehow survived the 28 hours of travel through a zillion different time zones and have made it to good ol' Bangkok. However, as usual with any international travel, I must bring up a few different mysteries that have come up during my journey thus far:

Mystery #1: Because of the 15-hour time difference, I somehow completely missed out on the experience of Thursday, February 25th, 2010. My flight left Los Angeles on Wednesday the 24th at 10:45 pm, and arrived in Bangkok on Friday the 26th. Here's my question: what does this mean for me?! Imagine if I was to be involved in a police interrogation asking where I was Thursday the 25th, I would have absolutely no aliby! I honestly HAVE NO CLUE where I was Thursday the 25th. Just think about it. Weird.

Mystery #2: During my four-hour layover in the Taipei airport, I noticed one curious thing- there is a red "PUSH IN CASE OF EMERGENCY" button in every toilet stall. Now, I just want to know, what would qualify as a serious toilet-related emergency? And why the heck would they put that button right next to the one that actually flushes the toilet? Thank God it was marked in English, otherwise I was only a few inches away from summoning some poor airport employee to come help me wipe my butt! Sorry for the graphic nature of that last sentence...

Mystery #3: Where the hell is my black duffle bag?!?!?! Apparently there is no record of this extra bag, which holds every book I will need for my course, as well as every type of medication that I could possibly need while oer here, EVER even being put aboard a plane. Honestly, where could it be? And if it's stolen, who the hell would waste their time stealing English grammar books and anti-malaria pills?

So, those are my top three mysteries so far. Other things that may become a problem include:

-The fact that there is never any clear indicator of when you're safe to cross the street. During my walk around the city today, I just put my head down and booked it across all major intersections, praying to Buddha that I wouldn't get hit.
-The availability of tantalizing food at every street corner. I think I gained 20 pounds from just looking at the random sticks of deliciousness simmering on grills everywere.
-The view from my hostel room. (see photo attached)

To those who have taken the time to read this entry: I LOVE YOU ALL!!!! You are so speical to me and I can't wait to share more of my adventures with you.

Chok dee from Bangkok,

Char