Butter pie?

I hitched a ride to Rayong yesterday with this month's TEFL students.

I stumbled into a dancing cookoff, and fortunately had my camera to take some video of this spectacle:



And then there was the market, which offered an assortment of beautiful foodstuffs, including tentacles on sticks,



cheerful pancakes on sticks,



deep-fried chromosomes



and these, possibly the most beautiful thing I've seen in Thailand ever. They look like candy-coated sugar. They taste of egg.



My disappointment, she burns.

Head out on the highway

On Thursday some of my coworkers hired a taxi to Rayong to go shopping after work. I didn't need anything, but it was a trip out of Ban Phe and there was talk of tasty pizza! The first thrill of the evening was that the taxi was a pickup truck, which means that I got to sit in the back of a pickup truck all the way to Rayong! Annie and Jeremy were back there too, and I tried to get us all to sing Christmas carols or something, but as with any attempted sing-along, we quickly found that everyone only knows a verse here and there. It was tragic.

The mall wasn't so dissatisfying as before, since I wasn't trying to find clothes or anything, but I did discover that the grocery store there (Tops, an exciting change from our local TESCO,) had Pepperidge Farm cookies! Now they didn't have milanos or chessmen or brussels, but they did have the big crunchy chocolate chip cookies (Sausalito!) and other Western goodies.

And there was pizza! Pizza Company is a lot like any of the pizza chains you find in the states, but real cheese melted on bread is quite a draw on its own. I had a shrimp cocktail pizza which had shrimp, pineapple, mushrooms and tomato. It was tasty and it provided lunch the following day.

Saturday was fairly slow. I attempted to ride a bicycle, an endeavor which the security guard found amusing. I am very grateful to Autumn for her patience, and though I have no pictures of my floundering, the next morning I did have this to show for it:



So we rented a motorbike, and got to use the shiny new gas station at the bottom of the block!



That's not red Fanta; it's gasoline. A mistake I hope to make only once.

We went to a beach and laid around and swam, and came back to town and were windsurf groupies. It was a good day.

She's wondering what clothes to wear

When packing for Thailand, I filled my limited space with modest teacher clothes and didn't bring any tee shirts. I knew that they would be abundant and cheap, especially in tourist areas, and I have purchased a number of amazing tee shirts in my time here. Apart from jeans, though, I don't have anything to wear them with.

Yes, I am really starting a blog entry by writing about clothes.

Well when Ban Phe turned into a market last week (that was the highlight of my life, okay?) there was a stall that popped up with some very cute knee-length skirts. They were all very pretty, and very appropriate to wear with tee shirts. I poked my head in and started thumbing through the pretty polka dots and flowers and pin stripes, and the woman sitting in the stall politely directed me to the "big girl" section (a rack of XL skirts in the back.) Yes, I am plus-sized in Thailand. I'm okay with that. I was originally drawn to a muted plum-and-mustard design, but distracted by a bright shiny purple one. The salesgirl urged me to choose the shiny purple one, possibly because big girls in shiny purple skirts are hilarious. I tried not to let it damage my self-esteem, and I went with her recommendation.

It's just that this is the only picture I took Friday night, and I can't post a blog entry without pictures, even if they are blurry faceless taken-in-the-mirror pictures! Friday was Stephanie's last night in Ban Phe, so we went out to Christie's and yes, I was dressed like a clown.



That's my previously linked horror tee shirt, shiny purple skirt and yellow-and-orange leg warmers. With flip-flops! Ha!

Everyone at Christie's is so ridiculously nice I can't stand it! The proprietress and some of the employees ended up closing shop early and taking us to Rayong (the big city in our province) to celebrate and wish Stephanie farewell. We danced to some great live music and I had a wonderful time. Stephanie is amazing and Ban Phe and I will miss her. I got woke up at 7:30 after about four hours of sleep to say goodbye over breakfast and caught a speedboat to Magical Crystal Island.

On the island, I met up with two tall, slim brunettes named Laura who took the TEFL class with me and now work in Isaan (that's the northeastern part of Thailand, for those of you who are not in Thailand.) It was great to see them and I am glad to hear that they are enjoying their jobs. Unfortunately I was a little too sleep deprived to do much other than lay on the beach and swim and lay on the beach some more, but that's island life for you. Saturday evening, we went back to the bar where there had been amazing live music the last time I spent the night on the island but the energy was tragic this time.

They started with soft poppy rocky songs that no one really *likes* but everyone kind of recognizes. Someone requested "anything by Eric Clapton" and that's where they made their tragic mistake. I would have recommended "After Midnight." It's upbeat and danceable. "Cocaine" could get plenty of audience participation, or even the fast version of "Layla." I think even "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" would have been acceptable.

Of course they played "Wonderful Tonight". And when that didn't get people dancing, they switched to Lady Gaga. And we left.

I spent the night in a rustic bungalow. There was no spider in the bathroom, because the bathroom was in a separate building. There is something absolutely magical about waking up under a functional, rather than decorative, mosquito net.



I love the diffused light, the closeness of nature, the sturdy and simple construction of a bungalow that doesn't pretend to be airtight. And maybe I can also fantasize for a little bit about being on safari somewhere, before I check out and stumble back down to the beach. It was a good, exhausting weekend.

Yesterday

I don't get to actually sit down with the Internet very often, but hopefully within the next couple of weeks when I get my teaching placement it will be in a place where the Internet is a little more convenient. This week I taught my first two classes. It was a learning experience, and I teach more classes next week. In the afternoons and evenings I've spent a lot of quality time with the ocean.



My hotel sits across the street from the beach. On the side of the street with the hotel, there are other (mostly empty this time of year) hotels and some small restaurants. On the beach side, there are lots of beach chairs and umbrellas and tables. Sometimes people order food and then walk across the street to eat on the beach. Sometimes at night people drag sound equipment down there and throw karaoke beach parties.

On Wednesday after school I joined some of my fellow TEFLers at the beach. There was a huge jellyfish in the water, and some of them were trying to play with it while others were keeping their distance. These shots are from my underwater camera.





The top feels like nubbly plastic. It's not at all what I expected. That is not my hand; one of the brave gentlemen was making sure it was safe.

The jellyfish had a live crab inside of it, which later escaped when it was herded to shore for further investigation. Afterward, jellyfish was promptly returned to the water alive. Crab wandered away.

On Thursday I headed down to the beach with a book after class. The sky was clear with some haziness at the horizon and wispy white clouds overhead. Behind me, inland, the sky was overcast but light gray. I was hoping for a spectacular sunset. I sat down with my book (The Masked Rider, by Neil Peart) and started to read. I noticed a flash on the page, which I thought could absolutely not be lightning behind me, until a good few seconds later thunder rumbled above me. This was the longest, loudest thunderclap I have ever heard. I looked around behind me and the sky was still light gray. This happened again until the sky started to downpour on me, and I hurried across the street to take shelter at a restaurant and eat dinner (garlicky squid on rice.) Sudden weather changes are typical this time of year.

Most of my TEFL class was going to go out Friday night for karaoke to celebrate the birthday of one of my fellow students. Our instructor mentioned that a bunch of the TEFL employees and students from the other TEFL class were going to Rayong (the big city with the giant TESCO Lotus) for karaoke that night and that we were welcome to join them. This sounded like a great idea!

So we rented a songthaew (that's a pickup truck with two benches in the bed and a roof on top) and 14 of us rode into Rayong. We joined the TEFL group at a huge restaurant/bar where a cover band was playing songs in Thai and English. After an hour or so of this, the whole horde (about 25 people) walked to the karaoke place where we had a private room. This was amazingly fun. There were a fair number of English selections. I sang "A Whole New World" from Aladdin and "Desperado." I also sang "Yesterday." While I had a great time, I'm glad that I don't work at the karaoke bar. Having to listen to other people's karaoke parties all night long might be one of the worst jobs.



I'll leave you with Chaoying. She seems to live in the Condochain lobby. Her coloring reminds me of my kitty Clarice. She's chewing on my camera strap here.

Giant White Lady goes shopping

I now have a Thai bank account with an ATM card and everything. Last night I visited Rayong (the largest city in the province) with most of my classmates for a shopping trip. The mall was disheartening. I don't enjoy clothes shopping, but I was looking for short-sleeved button-up shirts and I found some pretty ones. I asked the sales lady if she had big ones (with an accompanying gesture--I am very eloquent.) She dug around and presented me with a shirt.

The tag said "XL - US 8."

The next stop was the giant TESCO-LOTUS. Tesco is from the UK, and is a lot like Wal*Mart. They sell clothes and electronics and groceries. Here I was so pleased to find shirts up to 3X, for 200 to 250 baht! I bought four XXL's.

Behind the Tesco in Rayong there was a night market. The night market sold pirated cds and games, clothing and all sorts of tasty food. For dinner I bought squid-on-a-stick and was happily looking forward to walking around the market eating my squid from its stick. Instead, the vendor slid the squid off of the stick for me, cut it up into bite-size pieces, and put it into a small bag with cucumber and some sort of sweet sauce. I did get a new stick with which to eat my squid pieces, so it wasn't a disappointment. It was tasty.

Today's picture is a gecko on a sign at the monastery where I go to school.



(I posted this the morning after I wrote it, and my intestines might regret the squid-on-a-stick.)