Day 35: Bangkok...TAT IT UP!

Well, I just Skyped my dad and broke the news, so clearly that is going to be the first thing I publicly announce......I GOT TATTED UP IN BANGKOK!!!!!! I got the Thai word for "patience" on my foot. (Ironically, the Thai culture hates feet because they are the lowest part of the body...but I'm kind of a fan of foot tattoos, so I rolled with it anyway.) And it's especially perfect because the word (kwaam òt ton) is literally 2 words meaning "patience" and "endurance" combined into one. I just love it. So I have "patience" in Thai, "faith" in Hebrew...and who knows what else for the rest of the Fruits of the Spirit. :)

So we went to a circus thing today after school. Once again, Thai people don't play when it comes to things...it's go big or go home. They started setting up on the football pitch (aka: soccer field) around 10am and by 4pm, there were thousands of chairs set up and an entire stage area ready to go. It was insane. I think it was a traveling acrobatic group from Japan or something, but these kids were insanely flexible. It blew my mind, and we seriously just sat there with our mouths hanging open the whole time. Like, these girls could literally sit on their own heads. (see picture!) We ended up sitting in the front section of seats with the rest of the teachers while the students sat in the back section. Call me crazy, but I figured the kids should sit in the front for a circus right? Haha. There was an Asian clown, and I was freaked out. I'm not a fan of clowns, and it's like they can sense my fear. That thing started walking around with that awful circus music blaring, and jerk walked right up to me and if I hadn't been cowering in fear, he for sure would have drug me up on stage...because that's what he did to our friend Emily, who has a broken foot and had to hobble up on stage to do some stupid clown thing. Haha. Too funny...better her and her broke foot than me.

After we left the circus at BCC, Allison and I went to our recently found plaza about 1 kilo away from Paragon. It was the same place we went last Thursday with the live band and fountains and stuff. (Right next to the mall where I got tatted up.) Tonight, there were stages set up and tons of tents and fun stuff! It was a Worldwide BBQ Festival!!! AKA: HEAVEN! We saw BBQ from Kenya, New Orleans (Yay USA!), Israel, Turkey, Germany, Colombia, and tons of other countries. We tried some samples from several tents because we're fat Americans and we take advantage of stuff like that, but we ended up eating 20 baht noodles with chopsticks while sitting Asian style (shoes off on a platform sitting on a pillow) and listening to music from a Brazilian band. It was way too cute for words. I love or lives here! There was a family sitting next to us, and we semi-talked to them and played with their kid, who for sure was drinking a Leo beer. Kids and beer...what is this world coming to? Haha. So after dinner, we treated ourselves to DQ (because clearly that doesn't count in our Thai-food-only pinky promise haha). We looked around the markets for a little while, and now we're just chillin' back home.

There is nothing like this place. It's unreal. I've always wanted to live the big city life, and I thought this would get all that out of my system so I could go back to Cleveland and appreciate the small-town life. But, I think it's kind of doing the opposite...I could get used to living like this. Bangkok is a more practical city-life option than anywhere in the States because it's so cheap. Where else in the world can you eat 3 meals and ride the skytrain for less than $5 a day? I love this city...everything about it. I don't even care that my bed is rock hard and the ground is softer...it doesn't even matter anymore than my shower is awkwardly right in the middle of my bathroom...I'm even used to the constant mosquito bits all over my ankles and the disgusting dirt that lines my feet at my sandal straps from walking around everywhere. Every bit of that is normal now. I'm so sad that my time here is coming to a close. Allison has decided that she's returning in May to teach at BCC...I don't even want to think about it because it's so tempting to do the same.

I've been trying to catch up on my "Read the Bible in a Year" schedule. I slacked for a few weeks in January, so I really wanna get back on track so I can continue when I get home. Allison and I just lay in bed for an hour before we go to sleep and read our Bibles, and it's so refreshing! Last year, I was a huge slacker in my spiritual walk, and reading the Bible was not a priority for me at all...so that's definitely something I've been working on. It feels good to escape from the world if even just for a few minutes to spend time with God.

I'm out.
Cwalk.