I start teaching tomorrow. I will be at school at 7:30 in the morning. Will I be teaching then? Who knows! Will I be desperately wishing I was still passed out? The answer is definitely yes.
In the meantime I suppose I should fill you in on the past couple of days which have been rather interesting. Thursday Jacob, Neil and I went to our school, accompanied by Pook and her assistant Bump. We met one of the other English teachers, and Neil's co-teacher, who explained some about how things needed to be graded, and how our lesson plans should look. All in all it was so-so on the knowledge front of what will happen tomorrow, but it was still a nice time.
We went out for lunch as a large group, and it was a huge meal. When you go out to eat with Pook the meals always end up being a huge. There were shrimp cakes, chicken with cashew, a soup, a roasted fish that stared at you, shrimp with vegetables, laub- some sort of spicy pork meat I believe, and...well that may have been it for the actual dishes. Anyways, there were 6 of us and it was still quite a lot of food. Of course it isn't a meal without desert, and we each had our own little cup of ice cream. I had coffee flavored, while the others either had Dorian or Passionfruit. It was pretty good, but of course after we finished, Pook caught sight of another desert...this one was small fruits covered in syrup and ice. We shared those, which were good as well...but everyone was stuffed.
After that, Pook was going to Bang Pa In, so we decided to tag along and go visit the Bang Pa In palace. We didn't have quite as much time there as I might have liked, because we got there later in the afternoon. Still it was quite nice to walk around in, the buildings were gorgeous, and we got to see a huge lizard chilling down by the canal. I'd seen one before in the road but I hadn't gotten a chance to take a picture before. Thailand is crawling with lizards, by the way. Walk around the apartment at night and you will see plenty of tiny ones on the walls.
On our way back to Ayutthaya from Bang Pa In, Pook decided to stop by the Japanese village because she felt like showing us some of the things around Ayutthaya. Pook is a very sweet lady, she is quite an awesome person to have as a coordinator. The village itself didn't appear to be there, but there were museums to it. The Japanese village is fairly famous because Japanese were allowed to move in there and govern themselves. This was probably in the 1940s, and as Pook said, it was a very progressive idea for its time. There is also a Portuguese village somewhere in the area of Ayutthaya, but I have no clue where it is.
Despite being stuffed on the way back we stopped at Pook's favorite stand to get rodis sai mai from. It is a desert that is made by taking sugar and stretching it until it breaks into hair like strands. It's then wrapped in a sort of pancake dough and eaten. It is quite good, light, fluffy, sugary...definitely not filling, but very awesome. Our last stop was to see the large outdoor reclining Buddha in Ayutthaya. It was quite impressive, but at that time we were all quite tired and not hungry at all...ready to just rest some.
Friday I decided to take a day trip to Bangkok. I took the bus near Ayutthaya that goes to Bangkok, having no clear idea where it ended...it worked out okay. I had to take a motorbike taxi from the bus station to the metro station. It was my first time on a motorbike, and I must say it was pretty awesome. Especially when it is warm and beautiful out...I would love to ride one all the time!
My first stop was the Jim Thompson house in Bangkok. It is famous for being a nicely preserved Thai home with beautiful gardens. It's actually 6 Thai houses in one. Jim Thompson himself is famous for bringing Thai silk to the west, making it famous, and reviving the art that might have otherwise died out. It really was a nice house to see. From there I walked to a Hindu shrine. It was just a small area, but it was heavily trafficked. Lots of people were stopping by to look and to offer incense and flowers. The area was quite smokey. There were also some dancers who would do a brief dance every so often. I'm not sure what it was for.
The last place I went was Sua Pakkard Palace...it was another Thai house turned into a museum. They had some old Thai pottery, masks. It was nice, although not as nice as Jim Thompson's house. At this point I was warm, exhausted, and not feeling well. I took the train home, which was nice and cheap, although not air conditioned.
My weekend since then has pretty much been just trying to rest and relax, to get over this annoying cold....because school starts tomorrow!
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