Thanksgiving and the Monkey Party

This year for Thanksgiving a group of us headed to Siam City Hotel for their thanksgiving buffet. It was a plethora of international foods including TURKEY!!! I was a happy little camper...even though there were no mashed potatoes...ho hummm it was okay though, there was plenty of other food. Good food, good friends, decent wine...sounds like a great holiday to me. I was tempted to get another plate of turkey to stuff in my bag for Friday (for a sandwich)...but opted not to...foolish foolish girl! Going to work on Friday was tough as I was still in a food and wine coma but alas I pulled through. I tried to teach my students about the Thanksgiving holiday and we went around the room saying what we were thankful for. I said I was thankful for Thailand as it has opened my eyes to appreciate the little things in life. I hope you had a fabulous Thanksgiving and ate your weight in turkey.

On Sunday, Brenda and I took a train north to Lopburi (about 150 km from Bangkok) for the annual Monkey Party. Lopburi is also known as "Monkey Town". It was quite the comical event to witness. Hundreds of monkeys eating food and running around looking for more. There was a monkey pulling on a woman's skirt as she had some chips and the monkey wanted them...there was also a monkey trying to take an old woman's hat. In the past, I have heard some of these creatures could get violent for food but I think on this day they were so fulfilled with food that they seemed content...kinda like me on thanksgiving.

BKK Film Festival

Last night Shannon and I headed back to Siam Center for the closing ceremonies of the BKK Film Festival. Last year we saw Shine a Light (Martin Scorsese film about The Rolling Stones). This year we saw the film Rocksteady: Roots of Reggae. Same like last year the movie was outdoors for all too see and was free. As if that is not cool enough there was free beer! Yep, free Singha beer! Nice! Needless to say Shannon and I felt good after the movie. Today on the other hand I wasn't. And in one of my classes this morning a student had a bag on her lap and as I went to help her out on her assignment I noticed a box with holes in the bag...I questioned if there was an animal in there and indeed there was. Well that's a first for me, an animal in my class. Oye. What kind of animal you ask? A baby squirrel. A teeny tiny...size of the palm of my hand, baby squirrel. I asked if I could hold it. She obliged. I held it and stared at it intently wondering why in the world someone would want this as a pet. I walked around the room with it and tried to start a conversation with my students about exotic animals and asked the class if they could be an animal what would they be...I first got some wide eyed stares and no one talked but they finally came around and they told me they would be lions, eagles, fish, and even a pig! What a mixture. It was an interesting class to say the least! Its these kinds of classes that bring a smile to my face and make me happy to be right here right now...its these out of the ordinary, not the same run of the mill, day to day shenanigans that I love!

New and Ae

New and Ae are two of my close Thai friends. We have a custom of heading out to to the Ekamaii clubs together and last night was no different. We decided to check out a new club called Demo. It was perfect. I was able to drink my whiskey and dance my butt off. Sounds great for a Saturday night in Thailand! I am going to miss these girls when I leave...I wonder if I can fit them in my luggage?

1 week down, 14 to go.

The first week was a success! I don't want to jinx myself but so far my schedule has not changed once! Perfection. Still have Wednesdays off. Right now I am teaching one academic class (English I) and 7 conversation classes. I dig. However after the 4th conversation class I get tired of repeating the same stuff. And by the 7th class I am delirious with giggles as I have memorized everything we are going to be doing. I am under the assumption that my 6th and 7th classes think I'm nuts....which I am totally okay with...actually I think all my classes think I am crazy. What?!? After my first week of not so hard work I thought it best to head to the beach...I am feeling alittle pale...oh yeah...Ko Samet! Gawd, I love that place.