Corn, anyone?

As you can see, I’ve been toying with my masthead again. (I pick at my scabs, too, if anyone's wondering.) And I'll probably change it again when the whim strikes. I also added a link to my flickr page. I’ve been playing catch-up with my photos the past few weeks because I haven’t been good about putting them up as I take them. I still have a backlog, though, and hope to add the rest soon. Unfortunately, all this additional work caused my external hard drive—the one holding all of my photos—to go on strike. She’s flat out refusing to do any work. I’m keeping fingers tightly crossed that it’s a temporary tantrum and peace will be restored shortly (that’s all up to the manufacturer now). Luckily, I copied everything onto DVDs at the end of May, but that still leaves two months worth of photos hanging in the balance.

Last week I also became preoccupied with another online site. To quote Daniel (high school friend Daniel who visited Thailand, not Thailand friend Daniel) “the unstoppable machine that is Facebook.” The fears that kept me at bay were warranted: I’m totally addicted. It’s been so much fun reconnecting with friends I haven’t talked to in years. If you’re on there, please look me up, maybe even leave a note on my wall!

Bangkok, there's no other place like you

Oh, my poor neglected blog. I haven’t laid eyes on you in almost a month. Since the last post, I’ve celebrated my year anniversary of moving to Thailand. That's right, hard to believe a year has passed since I was giddy in Sarah’s apartment, filled with all the excitement that comes with moving to a new place. And, of course, much more motivated to record my experiences. I suppose now that my surroundings have become so familiar, it all seems less blog-worthy. I got a laugh the other night at how accustomed I’ve grown to the way of life here when I caught myself washing my spoon—yes I only own one spoon—rather than using my fork—yes, only one fork as well—to eat the veggies and rice I brought home. I was alone in my apartment but still didn’t like the idea of a fork in my mouth. A spoon just seems much kinder now. Last night I was eating dinner with Toby and Isabella when the evening downpour came (a regular event this time of year). The restaurant we call Ms. Jazz (the owner’s nickname because she loves jazz music) sits at a slant off the little street. Water poured in, flooding the cement floor and pushing us down the table to escape its reach. Finally, the three of us were crowded at the end with somewhat submerged feet (hard to see the water in the picture above, but it’s there). Waitresses were sloshing through the water in flip-flops and Ms. Jazz was laughing, “every year, every year”. This all didn’t seem out of the ordinary to me until Isabella asked me to hand her my camera.

All that said, what I love most about Bangkok is that no matter how long you (a farang) live here, you’ll never fully acclimate and understand everything around you. Even friends of mine who’ve lived here for years have daily cause to shake their heads and think “only in Thailand”. A small, inexplicable fire in the middle of the sidewalk that the Thais just walk around without batting an eye. A group of high school students gathered around a bright pink jam box, engaged in a dance-off. A student who wants to change her attendance card because her first and last names are now completely different (probably because the family had some back luck and attributed it to the name), and our admissions personnel who see this often enough to consider it routine. Just a few examples of the random and comical or baffling encounters that endlessly entertain here. It's too bad I can't do them justice with words, but I'll keep trying.