My school held its Christmas party last night on a dinner boat cruise along the river. People seemed to be looking forward to it until they realized it fell during a 48-hour ban on alcohol due to local elections. I think the fear is that people will get drunk and vote for the wrong person. So that was the big talk in the teacher's lounge this week as names began dropping from the attendance list. There was still a sizable crowd—plus several flasks floating around for those willing to risk a $10,000-baht fine. People sure needed a drink after the director gave a demoralizing speech that was straight from The Office series and met with a room full of expressionless faces and an awkward silence (except for the sarcastic “Merry Christmas” muttered at our table.) What's funnier is that he wouldn't even begin the speech until every single seat at the front was filled, so there was an excruciating five, going on 30, minutes when no one wanted to leave their groups to fill in the seats. People slowly, begrudgingly, moved up until there were only two empty ones left and no one was budging. Finally, a couple of guys from our table gave in just to put an end to the pain and then moved back immediately after the speech, but in grumpy moods for the rest of the night. The whole evening was amusingly Office-esque. Other jokes from the stage fell completely flat. An older male teacher showed up stoned out of his gourd. The entertainment was karaoke with hired karaoke "fillers". There really is endless fodder for a comedy series about English teachers in Bangkok. I love it! The day before was the last day of the term so one of my classes took me out to dinner, which is not unusual. Thais tend to be very generous gift-givers and will often give presents to their teachers on the last day. We went to an outdoor sidewalk-type restaurant that's common here. Because the alcohol ban was already in effect, our Heineken was served in a bucket. We ordered food the typical Thai way—many different dishes for everyone to share. Four of those dishes were innards. I was brave enough to try two but couldn't stomach any more (bad joke).
