Pickin' up the Pace....

So this week was intensely busy....I have had many adventures and seen many sights in Thailand this week. School orientation is a mixture of fun and meetings, but I have met some amazing people and really look forward to spending lots of time with them. I can not think of all that has happened in the past week, i really must keep up with my journaling or it will all be lost in my brain somewhere. Friday night there was an all staff welcome party at a restaurant downtown. It was extremely nice and the food was excellent. The displays of desserts was out of control! There was also great music and I danced with a little girl named Zoe, who i found out later is going to be one of my first graders. Then we went to this club called Route 66. I was amazed!!!! It was sooo elegant and fun, I could not help but gawk. The women's restroom had about four different rooms it it, and there was a lounge with marble floors and two men seranading the women as they walk in....something we would NEVER see in the states!!!! And there were a couple of different rooms for different types of dancing. One room was a live Thai cover band and the other was hip hop or top 40 stuff.

Saturday I went on a tour downtown with a bunch of new folks and a thai teacher named Coco. We took a water taxi to downtown and then walked all around. We saw a major buddist shrine where lots of people stop during the day to pay homage to budda. It was a very interesting thing to see. And then we also went to lunch at a very nice mall. The food courts in the mall are very nice and have everything you could possibly want. I feel a little like I've stepped out of thailand and into a mall in new york, or california....it actually feels like I'm cheating somehow....it's hard to explain....but I don't plan on eating there very often.

Then we went to see the Jim Thompson house. He was an American and retired CIA agent that became a famous exporter of Thai silk and then mysteriously disappeared. He was never seen or heard of again. A very famous mystery, although I had never heard of it. But he was also an arcitect and had his Thai house built using different houses from around Thailand, he moved them to his land in Bangkok and then created a wonderful space of gardens and houses to make his home. His gardens were beautiful as was his artwork that he had collected.

On Sunday I went to the huge market downtown, on a hunt for sheets and bedding. It is very expensive to buy sheets and bedding here and have found only the top sheet and pillows in the mall to be about 1700 baht, which is about $40. So I went to this market. Oh boy...it had EVERYTHING a girl could possibly want!!!! I am definitely going back!!!! The guidebooks say that this market is 20 acres. Bartering is common, although I was a little disappointed in it....I thought I could really go lower but they would just wave their hand and smile like sorry, not gonna do it....towards the end I was able to take them down like 10 or 15 baht, but it wasn't anything substantial. We walked around everywhere, and I was not sure if i was going to find sheets and bedding or not. Then finally we turned into a little alleyway.....that's all they really are, are little alleyways filled with booths....and viola!!!!! sheets and bedding!!!! I ended up getting BOTH my sheets and my bedding for 1400 baht, which was $35...a LOT cheaper! So now I have a cute bed and it's comfy too. Yeah!

Well, I am at school now, I can't believe that school starts tomorrow. I am SO excited to meet all of my students. Oh boy!!!! Yesterday I started to panic, the general teacher stress started to set in....worries like ohhh no....i don't have matching baskets for their things....i'm not ready, not planned, what am I going to DO with them?!? But this morning it is amazing how a great night's sleep really changes my outlook. I am getting ready. I can't WAIT to meet this kiddos! AND I have a great team in first grade to help me along the way.

I am excited for this week. School starting, my birthday, and my friend Karen is coming out on Friday. My very first visitor!!!! Fun times for this lady!