Bang Bon family hits the town

I've come to a conclusion. Why wait until the weekend to go out? The weekend isn't the tough part. Going out during the week is a lifesaver. By going out I don't mean going to the disco or whatever it is the kids do these days. I mean going out to eat at a place you maybe couldn't afford, but are willing to make a sacrifice for a better state of mind.

The buildings being swallowed up by the trees... dun dun dun

So Jonathan, Parker and I went to Firehouse. The great burger place... again. Yes, us three do hang out sometimes. We went out a little earlier this time because we didn't want to stay out as late. It takes a bit to get there at that time of night (about an hour and a half) and then eating plus getting home. However, the main reason we went out earlier is because that part of town is a really wealthy part of town, but also pretty sleazy. I have never seen someone pick up a prostitute until I went there. It's super weird, you feel safe and all the restaurants and bars are really nice, and then theres tons of older men walking around alone or with young thai women and I think to myself, "Sir it may be legal here, but you still look like a scum bag." Sorry that went a bit far. Moving on.

Just riding the BTS with a million other people

Sometimes I like to stare at my photos and try to figure out what my camera chose to focus on

Our burgers were delicious as usual. I got the same burger as last time because I wanted to and its not like we're not going back. I also made sure to take pictures of myself eating the burger because I'm weird. It also happened to be happy hour 'buy one drink, get the second free' so that was pretty exciting. After dinner and laughing and eating and drinking we decide to try the german beer restaurant. We wanted some quality beer not made from rice for once. It was really good and we finally got our first photo of the three of us together.

Look at that balsamic glaze just dripping down

And the buffalo mozzarella melting beautifully atop that high quality grass fed beef

I don't know why the mojito was brown in color, but it sure tasted good

I ate all of that

Jonathan with his BaconBleu burger and 3 mayos to dip his french fries in

Parker impressively managing to eat his double patty burger

I tried it and it was great

After leaving for dinner at 5:30, we finally got home around 10:30. It was a great night. I went to bed that night in a sweatshirt!!! Yes its cold enough to wear a sweatshirt to bed here. Its great.

On an unrelated note, there isn't much to do here in Bang Bon. I often find myself starting new television series and finishing them relatively quickly. I tend to like the shows that only last 2 seasons. The apocalyptic variety. So anyway I've gotten very interested in this one show called Arrow (not apocalyptic by any means) with this very buff guy in it. They always show him working out which I suspect is supposed to generate some sort of sex appeal, but then theres these girls who are also super strong and well trained in fighting. So now I've started working out in my room again because maybe 20 push ups and 40 crunches will make me a great fighter like the people in the show.

Found some cool street art!

When in doubt... make a bar out of your van.

A taxi for baby sized people

Just some funny things

A couple funny things happened today. They are mostly of little to no importance, just a couple things that might give you a hoot. I can't believe I just said hoot.

This is what "Midterm, No Talking, No Cheating" looks like

Then again I'm the worlds worst enforcer

I like to think of it from their point of view... 

If a girl who is 3 years older than me tried to yell at me in class I would probably laugh in their face.

The school got some new gazebos

Naturally that guy decides to sit on the top while a semi drives them in.

I am curious as to what depressed.html is and why it is saved on the desktop of the language department's computer

New friends and cheeseburgers

Guys I made new friends! Jonathan, one of the other teachers here, had some friends visit him who were all originally from Kentucky, but are currently working in Germany. Jonathan invited me to go to the market with them and of course I join them because a girl can only watch so many movies alone in her room (one of my favorite things to do actually). They got to see the big market in all it's glory. I brought my film camera and I am very excited for those pictures to be developed... Some day.

After the market they were all going to go play basketball under an overpass. I join them again and chat with the only girl among them named Terri. It was so much fun to just sit and watch some friends play basketball and have a full conversation with a girl. We cheered the boys on and they won every game they played, in part because they are great players, but also because Thais are not only small, but very willing to play in flip flops.
I'd forgotten how great it is to spend time with a group of people who speak the same language as you. Don't get me wrong, the Thai people I spend time with each day have become some of my favorite people in the world. However, I'm realizing how often we take for granted something as crucial as communication. I've always (okay not always) loved the written word, but I feel so foolish having forgotten how important the spoken word is as well.

Terri

My phone doesn't take very good action photos clearly... or not so clearly... get it

One serious foot bridge

After the games were won, we all convinced Jonathan to forget about lesson plans and come get dinner with us at a place called Firehouse. Jonathan, Terri, Bret, and Charlie all went there the night before, but it was so good they were going again for a second night. Since I can't deny a good food place, I was convinced almost immediately.

Seriously one of the best burgers I've ever had

Including burger places in America

It was a delicious burger place. It was amazing. Like real cheese and quality meat and they were all towering burgers. Notice in the background of the photo, Bret got a double patty one that is giant. I got the caprese burger because I'm addicted to all things caprese and it was divine. You know in movies and commercials when people can't fit their mouth around the burger? Well it happens in real life too. I must go back. The deathly paralyzing fullness that resulted upon finishing the burger and fries was well worth the bites of heaven that preceded it.

After we finished eating, there were these VW van bars all up and down the street. They were so cool with chairs on the sidewalk to sit and drink.

We spent sometime hanging by those because we didn't want the night to end. Too much fun with new friends and great food. But eventually the reality of school in the morning hit us and at 11:30 we got on bts biding our friends a great flight home the following day. 

Working hard for my money

When I first came here and everyone told me that Thais were all about fun, I only partially understood what they meant. I tried to imagine it from my American view of 'all about fun'. This obviously didn't suffice because if theres one thing these people know how to do, its laugh and have a good time.

In the past month we have only had 5 real full days of school, the other days were either shortened or there was no class. So after all of this tough time teaching long hours and endless days of students we have our first real day in about a month. This first real day was yesterday. I was dreading it because on tuesday I have my worst class of all (like so bad that boys burn girls hair in class). It passed by though, as things always do.

Now get this… since we have tomorrow off for Teacher's Day, the celebration at school had to happen today of course. So surprise the first and second periods are cancelled. So my day just got super rough. Not only did I have class second period (which as I just said got cancelled), I also have two classes with seniors who are taking their midterms this week so those were cancelled. So basically I have been getting paid to blog and go on Facebook lately. Hey guess how many classes I have friday… you wouldn't actually know the answer to this question, but if you were to make an educated guess based off of this blog you might guess that all my classes were cancelled and you would be right!

Hey you kids! Go over there and stand in some lines! Good!

Some of the prizes were these coolio bikes

The winners rode their bikes around the school in Rocky style

This is me dying of heat in the sun and taking a photo of myself doing it

And this is a photo of kids walking across the marble stage on their knees to present the administrators with flowers

It was a little weird

Some more fun in the sun

Not another trip to the beach! Its midterm week and while all the Thai teachers are administering tests, us foreign teachers are "preparing" our grades. To give you a better idea, preparing grades took all of 2 hours on Monday and after that theres been a lot of killing time online and chatting. The week also had a little 'maybe I should make some lesson plans' followed by finishing the lesson plan in 5 minutes and back to internet time. So come friday people have started to just sign in and leave and I join them because I've got a vacation I'm late for.

*Disclaimer: some photos were taken on my phone and therefore not as great quality. Prepare yourselves.

Sometimes I like how borderline sketchy things are here. 

The welcoming woman of the sea

They're just two guys and they're having a good time

I felt really bad taking this photo, like they're just people

I liked that he had an iPod though, why shouldn't monks get iPods?

Koh Samet is actually a pretty cool place. It gets a bad rap because its not the paradise that Koh Phi Phi is, but the sand was beautifully white and super soft. There were great places to eat and some cool night life. We didn't even leave our area of the island, so I can only imagine everything else that is available.

Our 'hotel' (it was more of a hostel that provided a personal room) was kind of hard to find, but we eventually found it. It was a pretty nice place. I used to assume all hotels had matching linens, but it seems I was mistaken. Its the nice hotels that have matching linens. Luckily the hot water worked! In addition on the top level was a random hang out area that I'm not sure was for us, but I spent a good amount of time using the wifi in the hammock.

We stayed right by the pier and the street that led to the beach was actually pretty cute. It was narrow with shops and homes and restaurants all the way down until you enter the national park.

The epitome of Thailand

There was an additional 7/11 directly to the left, but it didn't fit in the photo

Scooter City

I love the tree planters everywhere here

Used the zoom and caught this cutie in action

The number one means of cooking here in Thailand

Things were a little pricier, by pricer I mean I payed $1.50 for a bowl of pad thai instead of $1.20. Super rough right? The entirety of Saturday was spent laying on the beach reading and occasionally swimming and of course eating. It was beautiful.

The initial setting of the sun on the first night

What up dog?

Coconuts are my life

All of the 'vendors' had these basket carriers that they walked down the beach with

Some even had grills in one basket and meat and veggies in the other

This guys job must be such a drag

The nights were super fun. We started by going to dinner at a restaurant called Red Ginger (its on tripadvisor its that good). The owner is a Canadian guy who was so cool. He was walking around with no shirt on talking to each table individually, asking about their day and what they were thinking of ordering. Such a great guy. He is married to a Thai woman who was really nice and they have a little daughter who was the cutest thing ever. She just watched Disney Jr. the whole time we were eating and made friends with the other little kids eating.

!!!!!!!

This doesn't look anywhere near as good as it was

Ribs with mashed potatoes and coleslaw

A bad photo of the best salad of all!

Greens with mango, asian pear, bell pepper, and get this… grilled goat cheese rounds!

Divine.

After this we went to find a bar, there were tons on the beach. We chose one that was complete with mats all down the beach. On top of the mats were little pads for everyone to sit on and short tables. Then all of a sudden some guy on the stage starts twirling a bottle that is on fire. Like wait what?! A fire show?! Cool! It progressively got cooler and cooler until there were ten guys with fire batons and then progressed to fire limbo and jumping through a ring of fire. The best part was how casual it all was. Like yeah sure small person, try running through this ring of fire without signing any sort of release form, we don't mind if you burn yourself or sue us.

The scariest moment of my life

The 'Firemen' were really strong

Sorry Johnny Cash it seems you're the only one who fell into the burning ring of fire

Harry Potter gone clubbing

Yeah I ate that bug

And the night ends with our main man… Banana pancake man

I was surprised at how easy it was to get to the island and back. Special shout out to Parker for always helping me get places. Overall a super fun trip. How could it not be fun though when theres excellent food, fresh fruit and the beach?