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The final installment! 

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Olga and I got to Savannah the day before Thanksgiving.  It was good to be home, though it felt a little odd in some ways, and like I had never left in others.  It didn’t look like much had changed at all, save for a few new signs and Mamaw and Mom living together in a new house. 

I was supposed to cook, and Olga and her mom were coming over the next day, but since Christina wasn’t getting in ‘til late and Mamaw was working, the day went slowly.  I woke up and then went to Kroger to get stuff for green bean casserole, and then Jessica picked me up to take me to Grandma Chris’s house for food.  We stayed there for a bit and then went to Amanda’s for a few minutes.  It was good to see everyone, but still that same feeling of never having left.  I had to get back and cook, so Matthew and Jessica came with me, and she and I cooked, while Matthew rested and attempted to recover from his first 2 dinners.  We had a lot of food, but enough people that there weren’t tons of leftovers; the three of us, Mamaw, Mom, Christina, and Josh.  Ken and company came by later, but they didn’t eat.  Olga and her mother never showed; she said later that her mom hadn’t felt like going out because of being upset about her grandmother dying, and they’d both fallen asleep. 

The next day, Black Friday, I hadn’t really planned to do any shopping, but I met up with Olga at the mall and we went out to lunch with her mom, and then to a few Wal-Marts.  I got a few things – the Firefly DVDs and some odds and ends I’d been wanting.

Things since then have been pretty quiet.  I introduced my sister and my mom to Firefly, and they both enjoyed what they saw of it.  I’ve spent a few nights at the house with Jessica and Amanda, on the next Thursday I started working at Burger King.  I’ve been knitting on a few different projects, but mostly the baby blankets for Ken’s twin girls, and I’ve had a few ideas for designs.  I’ve even been reading, and I went to the new library and checked out some books for my Fairy Tale and Folklore group’s Winter KAL/RAL – the story for this time is Andersen’s The Snow Queen.  I haven’t read it yet, but I’m pretty sure my projects for it are going to be Wrenna and Aeolian.  They both look rather wintry. 

After I left the party, I got a cab to the greyhound station.  The first bus didn’t leave until around 730, but I decided that then would be a good time to reorganize some of my luggage – I didn’t need all the stuff I had with me before I got back to Savannah, so I packed it up in a box and sent it home to await my arrival.  Once that was done it was time for my bus to go, so I got on and promptly passed out, only waking up when we pulled in the station on 43^rd in New York.  2 hours of sleep was not exactly what I needed, but it helped a little bit.  And then I had a problem – it was 930 am on a Sunday, and I didn’t know if Lauren was awake or at church or what, especially since I hadn’t told her I was going to be coming that early.  I brushed my hair and teeth in the station bathroom, and just then got a call from Lauren.  I hopped on the subway up to Harlem and then walked to her street, and she was slightly peeved with me cause she had told me to wait at the station and I hadn’t comprehended that, but still happy to see me.  She has a cute little apartment, right off Malcolm X Boulevard.  It was cold and windy and grey but it was nice to be back in NYC.  I really love that city, and I am never sure why. 

Lauren had to go out to Long Island, so I took a shower and then I thought about sleeping, but for some amazing reason wasn’t really that tired.  I think I was just really excited to be back in the city and since I didn’t think I was going to be there for that long, I wanted to go out and play.  I ended up going to the Met, because honestly, on a Sunday afternoon in New York City, what else should you do?  By the time the museum closed, I was ready to go home.  The plan was to get pizza for dinner, but since Lauren wasn’t back yet, I decided to take a nap until she came home and ordered it.  I heard her call me when it got there, but I was too tired to fully wake up, so I stayed asleep till the next morning. 

When I woke up, Lauren was heading off to work, so I decided to go find this place she had told me about.  It’s called “Japs” and was supposed to have pancakes like crack.  Finding the place was an experience, definitely.  I was wearing my long purple skirt and bundled up because of the wind, and when I was coming out of the subway station, an older man stopped me to ask me something.

“Are you a mystic? You look like a mystic.”

“Um… no sir. I’m a Baha’i.”  He went on some more about how my red hair and long skirt made me look like a mystic, and I told him it was dyed with henna. 

“Henna?”

“Yes, sir.  Have you ever seen Indians paint their hands with those red designs? That’s henna. You can use it to dye your hair, too.”

“Oh, yes, I know that.  There’s henna in Senegal too.  Is your henna Senegalese or Indian?”

“I think it’s Indian.  I got it from an Indian store.”

“An Indian store? Where?”

“In Georgia.”

“Oh, you’re from Georgia? They  have Indians in Georgia?”

“Um… yes, sir, they do.”  He exclaimed his surprise over this wonder, Indians in Georgia, and then switched topics.

 “Do you know Rumi?”  I cautiously answered that I did, whereupon he started telling me how his church (I guess?) had ‘Rumi nights’ on Thursdays over on West Broadway and I should come because I might like it.  I was getting hungry, so I politely disengaged myself. 

“Well sir, I have to go now. I’m going to go get some pancakes for breakfast.  It was nice talking to you.”

“Oh, yes.  Have a blessed day!”

“Thanks, you too.”

“Oh no, sweetie, I don’t eat pancakes.”

 

It took me a minute to find the place, but I finally did.  It was a tiny place, a counter with some stools and a pretty decent-sized menu.  It was one of my stand-out moments of reverse-culture shock, a tiny restaurant in Harlem, where the proprietors were clearly speaking Chinese, being referred to as “Japs.”  It was offensive to me on so many levels… and when the other customers began complaining that their order wasn’t being taken properly or the price of cheese had gone up, I really wanted to put my face down into my pancakes and pretend I was not an American.  Or apologize to those people.  Granted, I was a little over-sensitive, having just spent a year teaching and a month doing an intensive course on teaching to non-native speakers, but… -sigh-   It ridiculous for someone to get upset at their order not being heard properly, or at all, when they are speaking to the back of someone’s head.  When the person is a non-native speaker, and you’re speaking quickly in a heavily accented dialect, in addition to them NOT EVEN FACING YOU – there’s about a snowball’s chance in hell. 

 

At one point I couldn’t restrain myself when the guy next to me bitched about the prices going up.  “I’m pretty sure the prices of EVERYTHING have gone up.”  I finished my food and left after thanking the guy running the counter.  On my way out the door a guy stopped me to tell me I was beautiful and ask if he could take me to a movie or dinner or something.  He was actually really polite about it, but I declined anyway. 

 

When I got back to the apartment, I did some laundry and felt the urge for a nap again.  I got up later and went to see Olga’s grandmother; she’d asked me to run by and see her while I was in the city.  She was asleep, and there was only a caretaker who didn’t speak English and Olga’s aunt’s boyfriend home, so I only stayed for a few minutes.  I hope she liked the flowers I brought her.  On the walk back to Lauren’s side of Harlem I got Taco Bell and did some KIPing while I contemplated my adventures.  And it was windy – I wasn’t in a hurry to rush back out to the cold, even though the full moon rising over Harlem was beautiful. 

 

We watched “Heroes” later that night, Lauren and her roommate and I.   I’d never actually seen it before, but Lauren is obsessed, and I tried very hard to withhold my thoughts on the improbability of some of the Japanese that was spoken in the episode.  I was leaving the next morning – I got a Megabus ticket to DC for $18, and I had to leave from Penn Station, so I went with Lauren when she left for work.  It was disappointing to not get to spend more time with her, but I’ll see her at Christmas at home.

I left Thailand on October 30, and since then I have been meaning to post a record of my travels and adventures, but never really gotten around to it.  Now that I’m home and not going anywhere for a while, seems I should stop putting it off.  I'll be posting it in pieces.

 

Dulles:  I didn’t really sleep on the plane trip from Narita, so when I got to Dulles airport, I was not the most alert I’ve ever been.  I didn’t get a customs form on the plane, so when I went thru the customs line the first time, the guy at the counter sent me back to fill out a form declaring all my items.  I wasn’t sure exactly what I was supposed to fill out, since I honestly didn’t remember all the stuff  I bought and how much it was worth and all that.  The guy working the line told me not to worry about it, and I went back up to the counter.  Well, the guy there still wasn’t happy.  He told me I’d filled out the form wrong, that I didn’t have to declare anything, and was annoyed that I couldn’t give specific information about where I was going – I didn’t know Ashley’s address, and I wasn’t even going to be there for more than a few hours.   He wanted to know where I’d been, and why, and for how long, and was short and gruff when I answered that I lived in Korea, because I taught there.   Finally he let me go, and I walked to the next baggage check, thinking to myself what a wonderful welcome home I’d received. 

Dulles has these little vans that go from one terminal to the next; I’d had to make a trip in one of them, and then after I came through customs, I had to go back again to get to my gate.  The airport seemed a bit gloomy and there were so many people – it was a bit overwhelming and I understood Cait’s comment about keeping her headphones on when she first got to the SF airport.  I had to dig through my backpack to find the American money and I felt kinda nervous a drink at the newsstand.  I must have stared at the guy at the checkout for a solid 3 seconds trying to figure out what to say when he handed my change before my brain produced “Thank you” in the proper language.   He might have thought I was daft, but I figured that I was probably hyper-sensitive at that point. 

Julie, you might wanna skip this one.

I have a lot of things to post about, but there will be several posts to play catch up.  First up, the easiest things.  I had no real time for knitting in Bangkok, with the exception of Ben's scarf (which sadly, I don't have pictures of at the moment) which was done in garter while I was in lecture.  But, in the few weeks since I have been back, I have done quite a bit, of which I am very proud. 

First, my Blackrose Wristlets.  Glad to finally be done with these, as they took a lot of modding to get the way I wanted them.  Unfortunately the lace pattern doesn't show up very well, but they are comfy and suffice for their intended purpose of warming my hands.  I have lots more of this black yarn - I was going to make the matching socks with it, but it might just end up being vanilla socks. I think the yarn's texture is the problem.  Click to embiggen.

While I was visiting Julie in DC I was in a Marshall's looking for some shoes. I didn't find any shoes, but I did find some pretty awesome scarves made from variegated sparkly, wonderfully cushy acrylic.  I bought  and frogged them, thinking the yarn deserved to be something much more interesting that a ribbed scarf.  (I mean, ribbed scarves are nice, but there are so many in the world.)  Sadly, there aren't many fingerless glove patterns for bulky yarn that I liked, but I made these from a pattern called Highly Regarded Mitts, and they turned out awesomely.   They were fast and simple too - took me maybe 6 hours total to finish them.

Lastly - and best - I finally, FINALLY finished my Dragonwings Shawl.  Technically, I finished knitting it in June or something.  But I hadn't done the crochet edging.  I had picked an edging I liked out of a book, gotten my beads, made sure I understood how to do all the stitches the edging required - and then realized I wasn't sure how to do the stitches in order, and to be honest, trying to do so many stitches with such tiny yarn and hook - well.  I decided to go for something simpler.  It didn't take me that long to get it all done once I got started - crocheting is fast!  (I should do more of it.) I even have some beads left over.

While I was in Bangkok for a month, I decided to see what kind of yarn I could find.  There didn’t seem to be many people on Ravelry who could help, but I found some helpful blog posts and went out exploring.  I only found 3 stores, but I’ve heard there are others, I just didn’t have time to get them. 

As you might imagine, knitting isn’t terribly popular in a place like Thailand; it seems to be mostly a hobby for the more well-off, and the yarn prices definitely reflect that – they were nowhere near the cheapness of the yarn in Korea.  There was a wide variety of Western and Japanese brands of yarn, and things generally started around $10 a ball and went upwards. 

Zawa Knitting:  a very small shop, I went one Saturday evening and there was only the girl who worked the shop.  They had Clover needles, but no KnitPros in sight – I wrote down the word, and she seemed to know what I was talking about but didn’t show me any, so the rumor I read about Zawa having them remains that.  Their entire stock consisted of a large selection of Filatura di Crosa yarn, and not much else.   The girl there looked friendly, but was clearly discomfited when I attempted to ask for things, and could only tell me that she didn’t speak English.    This was the branch on Sukhumvit 49; there is another branch in Paragon

Hobby ____ in Siam Paragon:  This was a multicrafting area in Siam Paragon Mall, in the Paragon Passageway on the 5^th floor.  They had a large selection of many kinds of yarn, some familiar to me and some I’d never heard of – it seemed to be mostly Japanese and Italian brands.   Lots of Clover and Takumi needles in various sizes.  There were also sections for scrapbooking, jewelry making, and sewing/quilting, with smaller tables in each area and a larger central one.  The girls who worked there were very friendly, although still a bit uncomfortable with dealing with a foreigner, but there was one who seemed to be in charge of speaking to anyone in English. 

Big Knit Café:  Literally down the street from the Zawa Knitting store on Sukhumvit 49.  It’s a very cozy place, lots of little tables and chairs for sitting and eating and crafting, as well as a big table for groups.  The food was good, the desserts looked yummy, and I love the way the yarn is organized – on shelves with balls of everything out for fondling.  I ordered and went to look around, and one of the girls who worked there came over to help me.  She was a bit nervous, but when I described some mohair I had seen at the Paragon shop, she showed me all the stuff they had that could be similar to what I wanted.  She was very helpful, and they had quite a large selection.  Lots of Filatura di Crosa, as well as some Anny Blatt and a brand called Mondial. Quite a bit of novelty yarn, and interestingly enough, there was a house brand as well, with a pretty rayon/cotton blend.  There were also lots of books, in both English and Japanese.  There was knitting going on, of course, but needle-felted animals seemed to be very popular as well.    I bought a needle-felting kit and got one of the older women who worked there to teach me how it worked. She didn’t speak any English, but it was a fun experience nonetheless. 

Directions to Big Knit and Zawa Knitting on Sukhumvit 49: the closest BTS station is Thong Lo. From there, Sukhumvit 49 is pretty easy to find - it's a few blocks away from the main intersection that Thong Lo occupies. The streets have signs on them, so no worries there. Both stores are a ways down from the main Sukhumvit Road - probably about a 15 minute walk, with Zawa Knitting being closer to Sukhumvit Road than Big Knit Cafe. Both stores have maps on their websites.

Directions to the store at Siam Paragon: Siam Square BTS station. Go out exit 5 or 6 for Siam Paragon. Follow the signs in the mall for Paragon Passageway; it's on the 5th floor, near the Paragon department store.

I’ve had an idea before that Bangkok is not as big as most people claim – or at least, the downtown part isn’t.  One of my first clues was when Ben said that the CentralWorld near my hotel looked exactly like the one at Siam Square.  I got even more suspicious the couple of times I rode a motor taxi to school, and it didn’t seem as far as I thought it should be.  Tonight, however, was the clincher.  I took the skytrain with Czar to Chit Lom, where his tailor was, and realized I could see Central World from where we were.  I wandered for a bit trying to find Central Chidlom Department store, cause I’ve heard they have yarn there, but to no avail.  And then, as I was turning into CentralWorld to go get something to eat, I saw it – the sign for Siam Paragon.  I know if you haven’t been to Bangkok none of this makes sense to you, but as I sit here in the food court drinking my iced lychee tea after having ordered myself 2 pairs of tailored jeans (and discovered I’ve lost 3 inches off my waist!), I’m pretty damn pleased with myself. 

Lychee tea, yummy as it is, is no dinner, so I have some noodles with duck in them too.  I’d never really tried duck till recently – my birthday to be exact – but I have been eating it pretty often here in Thailand and I really like it.  It’s quite yummy.  It’s very exciting when you’re an expat to be able to find things you didn’t expect from home, and I’m fairly lazy in my eating habits anyway – rice or noodles with some sort of brothy thing is always a sure bet with me, when I remember to eat at all.  But I’ve been thinking to myself that I should try more stuff.  (But I will still order the three-sauce fajita burrito at On the Border.  If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.)  In the interest of that tonight, I tried some of the konyaku-mitai stuff floating in my soup.  It looked interesting, sort of a dark purple brown as opposed to the usual oh-so-appetizing clearish-gray, and I nibbled it a few times before deciding it wasn’t yummy enough to warrant further attention.  Instead I went back to eating sprouts and drinking spicy, greasy broth.  Odd how when I was in Korea, I dreaded seeing sprouts at lunch, but when left to my own devices, I quite like them.

It occurs to me as I type this, wondering where it’s going that maybe, sometimes, I should write with an actual point in mind.  Just, you know, occasionally. Don’t wanna cause too much of a stir or anything.  Though I rarely really consider my audience (someone call me on that, please), I generally ramble on and on in a way that is probably rather boring to people who aren’t as … invested in my observations as I am.  Which I think includes just about everyone except myself, and even then it’s debatable if I reread the stuff I write.  I certainly don’t bother to go back and edit it for conciseness.

Enough babbling for the time being. I’m going to go find the yarn shop here again, perhaps nip into a store and do some souvenir shopping, and then head home and do my last paper for my course.

I’m sitting here in McDonald’s at CentralWorld, and though I’m ostensibly here to work on my assignments, I figured I could write something about yesterday while I eat, before I get into actually working. 

Let me say though, that Thai McDonald’s are some of the lamest I’ve been to.  There’s not really much special about them, and they don’t seem to be as popular as in Korea and Japan; though that said, they certainly aren’t rare by any means.  The menu seems limited, and there aren’t any of the usual localized foods, except for a broccoli pie and the double big mac that I’ve only ever seen in Japan.  Perhaps it’s the abundance of cheap street food here, or that the Thais seem to be more chill about foreigners and foreign things in general.  Though they do have a “Samurai Pork Burger” that I’ve never seen before.  On some level, it seems odd to me that one of my hobbies when traveling is noticing things like McDonald’s menus.  (Maybe Tim’s right, and I really am an anthropologist.)

Anyway, before I embarrass further with dorkiness – yesterday.  (Though when you read this it might just make me look moreso.)  I woke up about 10 with a leg cramp and decided that, in light of not going to bed till 4ish and how in general exhausted I was by my CELTA, I was going back to sleep, and I did until around 3 when I woke up and talked to Nick for a few minutes.  He was concerned that I might be selling my body, cause I had posted about doing two and a half hours of naked video chat on my Twitter; thankfully, he realized how absolutely ridiculous that was without me being too blunt about it.  After he had gone to bed, I debated getting up and doing work on my assignments, but then I remembered that I really did want to check out the yarn shops here in Bangkok, and since it’s my last weekend here, I felt I should do some exploring.  I grabbed my camera and headed out, only to discover that the battery was dead about 5 mins outside my hotel when I attempted to take a picture.  My motor taxi driver waved at me and had the bike revved up before I even got to the intersection where he chills with his buddies – He drove me the 15mins to Thong Lo, where the yarn shops are, and I really wished I had my camera working.  Bangkok can be beautiful when it wants to be, and yesterday was nice.  It hadn’t rained, the sky was clear, and I’ve gotten so used to riding the motor bikes that I just lean back and chill with my ipod going.

When he dropped me off at the station I wasn’t sure exactly which way to go, so I picked a direction and started walking, since I had the map in my head.  I was in the Sukhumvit area, and it was really nice.  Quiet, wide streets and big houses with fenced lots and some posh apartments.  As it turned out, I had started walking in the opposite direction of where I needed to go, but I ended up just making a circle and it let me see some of the more residential parts.  I found some cute little restaurants, Japanese, and surprisingly, some Korean places too.  I finally got to Soi 49 where I was going, and it was a long walk down to the yarn shops, but along the way, I had my epiphany, that I really hadn’t been fair to Bangkok.  Ben made fun of me for comparing it to Seoul, and I kinda see why now… I must have sounded really childish.  Everything is so different here that I really hadn’t given myself a chance to like it.  I could probably come up with some excuse about it, but I’m really almost kind of ashamed of myself for not having more of an open mind.  Even though I have complained about the stuff that’s different from Korea, I really have enjoyed myself here, and I probably wouldn’t even mind living here for a year or so if I could find a job that pays enough for me to live and pay the bills I’ve got back home.  Though I’d definitely miss cheap Korean yarn and cooler weather.  And not coughing all the time.

I’ll write another post reviewing the yarn shops I found, ‘cause I want to cross-post it to the Seoul SnB blog, but I really had fun.  I ended up having some yummy chicken and noodles at Big Knits and then getting some of the women there to teach me to needlefelt.  So now I have this cute little kitten that I’m making – I’ll see if I can finish it this week sometime, but I don’t know that I will have time, and I’m pretty sure that me taking needlefelting on the plane home won’t work, what with the pointy sharp needles involved.  The lady who helped me with the cat taught me pretty much in Thai, but it was okay, ‘cause it was fairly straightforward.  She asked me if I would come back, and I told her I didn’t think I could, and she seemed disappointed.  I think I will make an effort to go back sometime this week when I have finished my work, maybe Wednesday or Thursday night, and this time take my camera with working batteries.

When I came out of the shop to walk back to the station, it was like stepping into warm water.  For the first time I can remember since getting here, I could see stars, and the half moon setting beside some apartment buildings.  No night without stars, I thought to myself, (and if you get that reference then you are just as sci-fi geeky as I am), and it really is true.  I think I had just forgotten, but the stars are always there, even if you can’t see them. This is important to remember.

And on that poetic and slightly cliché note, I’m going to do my work.

Today was a turning point of sorts.  I have epiphanies every now and then, and I realized that I haven’t really given Bangkok a chance, and I should have tried harder to like this city.  That’s getting a bit ahead of myself though, so let me come back to it.

Yesterday was the end of week 3 of my CELTA course.  I had a lesson, and I thought it was going to go well, and … it didn’t.  It was my first hour-long lesson, and my first below-standard.  I was more upset than I should have been, but I think most of that was just being tired.  I’ve been working my ass off the last 3 weeks, and though it’s not like I couldn’t have worked harder, it’s taken a toll.  I’ve been at school from 830 to 6ish everyday, and planning lessons after that until late, not to mention the stress of being in an entirely new, unfamiliar place and meeting new people and learning so much new material.  I will admit that, this course has made me re-evaluate a lot of things I never thought about in my teaching before, and that’s a good thing.  I’m much more self-aware when I’m teaching, my planning has gotten better, I’ve learned to anticipate problems, and learned better teaching techniques.  At the same time, though, the constant stress of planning and being evaluated has exhausted me, and more unfortunately, sucked my confidence.  I know I’m not a bad teacher, but when I teach a lesson and can find very few things that I consider strengths… it’s discouraging.  I know I have improved, but being more aware of my teaching has also made me realize that I’ve still got a long way to go.  Granted, my trainers always compliment me on the rapport I have with my students, but that rolls off my shoulders; it’s a good thing (great, when you’re working with kids) but it’s not everything, and I know it.  I made a comment in one of the input sessions the other day, that we need to remember that this course is only a month long, that we will continue to grow and develop as teachers and that we shouldn’t feel discouraged if we don’t come out of this as super-teachers.  Perhaps I should take my own advice.  For the most part, I do, but yesterday was just… overwhelming. 

But yesterday wasn’t just the lesson from hell.  Afterwards was pretty decent.  I called my mom and talked to her and Mamaw, which I hadn’t done for 2 weeks, so I had some stuff to fill them in on.  They were intrigued to hear about Ben, since last time I talked to them was before I went out to Khao San for the night.  (reminds me, I need to write that up…)  I wandered out into the hall, stumbled into one of my colleagues, and we went down to the local Irish pub where some of the others were having drinks.   I didn’t really want to hang with the subset of CELTA people that were there, so I wandered off to the gay bar that is the other hangout spot for our group and found the people I was looking for.  Oddly enough, the people from the pub all showed up at the gay bar shortly thereafter, since happy hour was over, and we all spent a couple hours chilling and talking.  There’s some really cool people there; I’m the youngest, of course, but then, when am I not?  I tend to stay on the fringes and drink my coke and watch, but I still had fun.  After a while, Bonnie, Eric, Czar and Gabe and I left to go get ramen from a restaurant near the pub, wandered into a parking deck to use the bathroom, and then debated going to get a massage before just deciding to go home.   

I took the cab with Bonnie and Gabe to Phaya Thai and walked from there.  When I got home I was surprised to see it was only 1145.  I was going to take a shower and then was so lazy I decided to just go to bed, and then Habib called me and we talked for 2 and a half hours.  It was good to see him again, even over a webcam.  I’ve missed talking to him, though he has certainly become more cynical than he was.  I’m not really surprised, but…  sometimes I kinda miss the old Brenton, for whom we had  a Facebook  group devoted to his deflowering and traumatization.  I’ll never forget the day Julie told me he had come to her and told her he had realized that God didn’t fit in a box.  She was unimpressed, thought he should have realized that sooner, but I realized it meant he’d come a long way from the first night we had dinner when he asked me, “So, what religion are you?”  Wow… that was a long time ago.   -sigh- Nostalgia.

And now that I’ve gotten to the point where I would actually talk about today – I’m tired.  And I’m going to bed, so my epiphany will have to wait. 

Oh my god the airport is so huge.  Or not huge, really, but long.  I had to walk at least 8 moving sidewalks to get out of the place. It’s concrete and what looks like thai silk and glass – not as pretty as the Kuala Lumpur airport, but all lit up from the outside.  The taxis here, lined up outside the airport, are all different colors, fuchsia and green and yellow and blue, and when one of the drivers takes my bag to put it in the trunk I notice the tank in the back that I’m pretty sure is NO2.  

Seeing so many hijabis in Malaysia was surprising, but then it occurred to me that it is a Muslim country.  What was more surprising to me was that, in order to go thru immigration at BKK, you have to pass a thermo-scan camera; the sign requests that glasses, hats, and hijabs be removed, and I wonder how that works exactly.   I guess they don’t have the same religious freedom rules here as in the states.

I went out exploring near my hotel – I’m really not that far away from the busy Pratunam market area, and farther from the skytrain than I would like, but it’s not bad.  It’s so very different from Korea – no ubiquitous apartments, coffee shops, bakeries, pharmacies.  It’s hot and there are so many cars and it’s smoky and there are no mountains and so many overpasses and broken, dirty sidewalks.  I’m reminded of Marie’s comment about China – that she couldn’t wait to get back to the quiet and cleanliness of Seoul.  I feel the same way about Bangkok.   And I miss cool weather, even after a couple days – I was so looking forward to fall. 

A surprise: the Thais seem to be obsessed with Japan.  Or there’s a large Japanese population and influence here.  I saw Japanese manga in the 7-11 here, and there are so many signs written in Japanese, and Japanese restaurants.  Of course, many of them seem to be as much ‘Japanese’ as Chinese restaurants in America, but it still says something.  I’m eating at a ramen shop now, in a mall with at least 4 Japanese restaurants, not counting the Mister Donut.  They sell sushi at the street food stalls here, 1 piece of tamago or crab for 10 baht or so.  I look at them and cringe a bit, because  I certainly wouldn’t want to eat sushi that’s been sitting out in the heat of the day…  I certainly didn’t expect to be hearing Dong Bang Shin Ki in this ramen restaurant.  I started laughing uncontrollably when I realized that they were, in fact, playing ‘Gee.’

There seem to be many bookstores.  They serve bottled water at restaurants.  I’m not sure I believe the tourist line that Thais smile more than other people, but they seem nice enough.  Mostly what I have noticed is that they all look different.   I mean, compared to Koreans, at least.  Not that all Koreans look the same, but Thais seems to be a bit more heterogeneous.  Perhaps this is because of all the inter-marriage here, between Thais and Chinese and other foreigners.  More people seem to speak English, maybe this is because there are so many tourists.  I haven’t been on the Metro here yet, but the Skytrain is nothing compared to Seoul.  The skytrain map makes the city looks so small – there’s maybe 20 stations, max, on 2 lines.

I haven’t seen as many homeless people on the streets, but some of the homes here are pretty far from the American idea of ‘house.’  Perhaps it’s just because I seem to be in a poorer area, but there are so many houses that are just two rooms, which were obviously intended to be stores or garages, with the large roll-up gates in front, or tarps to block the rain.  I was tempted to take pictures but I thought that would be rude.  It reminds me of some of the poorer, older areas of north or central or Florida – a bit sleazy and rundown and sad.  There are dogs everywhere here.  Most of them have collars or seem to belong to someone, but they wander the streets looking at you hopefully for food.

well, here we are again.  i'm fairly certain 2 months is not the longest time i've gone without posting a blog entry, but it sure feels like it.  then again, i dont suppose that much has really happened, in the grand scheme of things.  my life still goes on, chill as ever.  the only really big deal that's going on is me getting ready for thailand, and leaving korea, and even that just requires a bunch of sorting and packing and other planning. 

the year has really gone quickly though, as all years seem to do, i've recently noticed.  you go to a place and say you're going to be there for a year, and a year feels like a long time, but it goes so quickly, too fast for you to be ready to leave and to have all your photos edited - though that last bit might just because i'm a horrible procrastinator. i'm not really sure that i'm ready to leave korea, as in leave and not come back - i feel like there are still things for me to do here, and the city hasn't become so full of memories that i feel the need to run away yet.  still, i'm looking forward to going home, to spending time with my family and the people who aren't quite family but may as well be.  of course, going home means that i will be leaving again, which brings up other thoughts on how quickly time passes and how much of it i spend away from people i love... but i've been through those enough times in my head, and the answer is always the same. 

i'm on a bit of a melodramatic streak tonight, aren't i? more later, when im not eating.