Mint

I've gotten used to the Thai weather. Walking to get dinner tonight I was cold and it could not have been below 65 or so (Fahrenheit, that is--people will occasionally ask one of us Americans to tell them the temperature in Fahrenheit, it's amusing).
It's amazing only having classes 4 days a week, I'm getting more used to the obnoxiously long classes, the key is always to not look at the clock. Human Rights is shaping up to be my favorite class thus far, largely discussion based, or as much as it possibly can be, due to the general lack of participation during class by the local students--their shyness during class is really weird. Part of that may be the fact that English is a second language for pretty much all of them and all the classes (obviously) are taught in English. I really thought that I'd be able to understand them better, but some of their accents are so thick that I only get about half of what they say . . . I hope it's not that way with them and the teachers. Ha, which reminds me, one of my friends here wanted to take an English class and accidentally signed up for Advanced Spoken English--he's definitely a native speaker, they definitely didn't let him take it. A lot of the classes here involve taking one or more field trips, which is awesome. We're taking 3 in my Thai class and one to observe monkeys in my Anthropology class. This fact increases the awesomeness and the high school-ness of the whole thing.
This past weekend pretty much everyone from Green Park stayed in town to go on the school sponsored field trip-type thing to the Floating Market. Five in each long boat propelled by an outboard motor, we traveled down the extremely narrow canals past other boats carrying mostly tourists past different markets opening up to the water, sitting on the edge of the canal. It was pretty awkward a few times when the driver would pick a random stand to stop at, which no one had any interest in, and the shopkeeper would frantically show us different things and promise us 'special prices'. There's a main market that has mostly souvenirs where you can get out of the boats and walk around, which we did. I ended up getting this awesome red hammock that may or may not actually support my weight. When we left there we pulled into what I believed to be the main area of the market where many more waterside shoppes sat side by side as well as many, many locals in boats selling various fruits and vegetables. The pineapple here is the best I've had in my life.
After the market we had a several course meal at a Thai restaurant (I'm actually not sure if I should keep calling them 'Thai restaurants'--because if I were in the US and eating at an 'American' restaurant, I'd just call it a restaurant . . . either way) where I tried some of the super hot soups they make with coconut milk bases. I'm also getting more used to the spicy foods here. On an interesting side note my Anthropology professor here posed the question why we thought that in tropical regions such as Thailand and Mexico eat a lot of spicy foods. Being pretty much the only foreigner in the class I was the only one to offer a response, it clears your sinuses? I hadn't thought of the fact that spices are medicinal to an extent and that there are more diseases present in tropical regions, so it is possible that the foods developed out of evolutionary necessity. I found that very interesting. What else was interesting was the fact that monks were in the restaurant as well, which I hadn't expected to see at all because it was my understanding that they have to renounce all luxuries, but hey, times change, right? The icing on the cake was that they all had ice cream sundaes after their meals, which really struck me as bizarre. Thinking about it now it really shouldn't be I suppose, but it was an odd sight at the time.
That afternoon I checked out the pool down the street from the dorm, which sits just behind the closest restaurant to serve American food which has a terrace that overlooks the pool itself, I believe. For about $4 you can swim in one of the nicest pools I've been to, complete with three slides, even if two of them are strictly for small children, not that that stopped me. As soon as I walked in an employee eagerly pointed at the sign of the pool rules--all ladies must wear a swim cap while in the pool, which was fantastic. I later heard that same employee speaking English to another patron, which I found odd because he totally acted like he didn't speak the language to me. The plant debris in the pool, unlike in the states, consisted of beautiful flowers from the hedges, it was quite pleasant. A bruised hip and a lost earring later I headed back, those slides were brutal.
The next day several of us went out to the weekend market in Bangkok called JJ market, well not actually, but the full name is pretty much never used, and I don't remember it. We took a bus into the city which took about 45 minutes and cost 19 baht, and the sky train from Victory Monument to where the market sets up which took about 5 minutes and cost 25 baht. In conclusion the sky train is expensive. I've never been more grateful to have a working cell phone because there's no way I would have found my way out and back on my own. The market is huge, encompassing several indoor and outdoor areas where vendors and shopkeepers wait eagerly urging you to buy whatever it is they're selling. I made it a point not to go to the ATM in order to keep my spending to a minimum. I didn't pay full price for anything, even if I only lowered it by a few cents, I felt much more justified in my spending. I swear, no matter how much you first suggest to these vendors they will laugh at you and shake their heads, as if to say that you're insane for thinking that they'd ever sell you anything at such a price, when the fact of the matter often is that they start their asking prices at twice what they're willing to take for something. This is the case according to some of my friends at least. The day ended with a confusing cab ride to the wrong side of Bangkok to a shopping mall whose name sounds far too similar to Wat Pho. Thank God for cell phones and Thai speaking friends, they enable my ignorance of foreign languages.
My Thai friends have nicknamed me Mint.
Score.