Thursday, September 25, 2008

I'm giving you lots and lots

Like I say in almost every post life never ceases to be busy here in Thailand.

The school week is officially over, but tomorrow begins a 2 two day marathon of professional development. That's right I even have to go to work on saturday. Sick. All of us were pretty upset when we found that out. I'm prepared for two days of letting my imagination run wild. Thank you short attention span.

Today we had a field trip to the Science Museum. The Thai teachers arranged it so really us english teacher just had to sit back and supervise. It was so much more bearable that way. I didn't feel like I did a lot today either, but I am soooooo exausted.

The Bangkok International Film Festival is going on right now and there are so many amazing movies. Tonight we went and saw a movie called "Lemon Tree" (this movie poster is from France). It was an Israelie film about a palestinian woman that lives on the border of Israel and The West Bank who has a big lemon grove that she gets her livelihood from. Well, the Israeli Minister of Defense moves onto the other side of the border and the military decides it's a matter of National security that the lemon trees get cut down because Palestinian terrorists could hide in the grove. So the whole movie is basically about this woman fighting to keep her lemon grove and the silent relationship between her and the ministers wife. It was very good, very human, and sad. I liked it a lot and if you get a chance to see it you should. Another cool thing is that one of the writers was there so at the end of the movie people could ask questions so she was able to fill in a lot of the blanks. Apparently the movie is based off of a true story, except it was olive trees not lemon trees and a few things were tweaked



Living in a new country it's pretty easy to find your few favorite meals and eat them over and over again. Well that's how it's been for me, but just in the last week I've found some new favorite. Bah Mi Moo, which is a noodle pork soup that I buy off a guy on the street and Roti which is a fried dough, condensed milk and sugar confection also made on the street. They are both so amazing. I could eat them forever.


Tonight we went to Kunikinoya while we were downtown, which is one of the only bookstores here that has a good selection of English books. I was hoping to find some good inspirtational craft books, but I was slightly dissappointed, until I had already checked out and I found a fun Japanese one, it was a little priciy though, so if I go back and have more time I'll look around a little more. I did however buy 2 other books. A Jodi Piccoult one because she is an awesome author and I also bought "Twilight." Now it's not the type of book I normally go for, but everyone raves about it so I thought I would check it out. We'll see :)


Oh, and I should also mention, after my last post on the lack of cute creative things here in Thailand I did find some pretty awesome stuff. First I found this amazing tape


People in Thailand love thier tape and I found this little finky one mixed among the neon pink and sparkely green.
I also finally got to a Tesco Lotus this last weekend (Tesco is to Big C, our normal haunt, as Target is to Walmart) and I found these great Japanese (or maybe they're korean) stickers. I just thought they were fun. I'm not quite sure what I'll use them for but at least 'll have them.




Now, here's a fun story. About 2 weeks ago my mom sent me a package containing hiking boots and socks for my upcoming adventure on the Everest Trail and other fun stuff. We'll I've been waiting and waiting for it and still it didn't come although online it said it arrived in Thailand on Septemeber 15. So I mentioned something to my friend Heidi and she said it could be stuck in Customs because "sometimes they just do that." So yesterday I asked Sue, our administrator how I could get ahold of customs and she said she would do it for me (because obvsiously my Thai isn't that great after only 4 months) and after about 80 phone calls she found out that Customs was holding my package hostage and I needed to pay a 600 Baht ransom (about $18) to get get it out. Oh boy. So while I was teaching one of the Thai staff member went and got it for me and goodness it was such a welcome sight.
Magazines and candy, teaching supplies, amazing secret deodorant (they pretty much only have liquid deodorant here, nasty) and of course my boots and socks. Yay! And all this trouble just because by Mom had insured it for $150. Good grief. It ended up being one expensive package.

I'll leave you with a picture from my life everyday. Nothing like an elephant walking down the street to peak your interest.

1 comment:

jaredstorer said...

I love culture! I hope that during my vacation this November we are able to be somewhere where elephants walk through the streets (somewhere besides the zoo). We are considering Mexico or Thailand for this upcoming vacation, but it depends on flight loads & the weather. If Thailand works out for us we will definitely let you know!