Holler, City of Squalor

                                              
Spent the past weekend in Bangkok. Fucking Awesome! Literally some of the most fun I've had in a while. Went with this girl Gabby, a LC alum visiting her friend, another LC alum, Russel. Got there Friday night and took it to the streets. The city is like NYC where there's a million different neighbor hoods that make up the city. We stayed in West Bangkok on Cal San. The two and a half hour taxi drive to Bangkok and back, plus a room for two for 2 days cost less than $50 USD total. Four of us from the group went. Ok so I'm just going to break this down into high lights or the most fucked up things. Starting with the most fucked up things. A lot of the bars there are open outdoor seating so basically plastic tables and chairs and you can take your drinks and wonder the street. So we're at this makeshift bar around midnight and all of the sudden two massive rats, like the size of large rabbits start fighting. Most disgusting thing I have ever seen. They literally would run and lunge at each other and then bounce off one another's stomachs. The sound and the vision of it has not left my mind since it happened. Then the owner started kicking them and faked kicking it towards us and everyone jumped up and ran away. I need you to understand these rats, they probably weigh at least five pounds and they are comparable to small cantaloupes .. plus they carry the plague. After that we went to a rooftop bar where the band was singing Adele and it was uhh not good. We went back to this more legit indoor outdoor bar and everyone was dancing in the streets and having an awesome time. We sat down and all the sudden Bad Romance came on and three lady boys stood up and broke out into the Lady Gaga dance. They were awesome and afterwards I went over to talk to them and one guy took his picture with every single person standing there. They were super fun. Soon afterwards Gangnam style came on and everyone got up and did the dance to it. Around 4am still out in the streets we decided  to get some of the street food that everyone rages about in Bangkok. I got some awesome Pad Thai that this guy made on the spot, had a nice chat with another street vendor, tried some spring rolls, and then met some British dudes named Peter and Paul and apparently didn't make one joke about Mary. Disappointing. Earlier that day me and Karissa got our nails done at this place near our hotel. Most meticulous manicure ever, we were there for hours and we practiced a lot of Thai with her. It must have been pretty weird cause we went over almost all of our vocab with her. Imagine being with someone whose practicing learning English and they just recite the words they know to you...AKA we just sat there being like 'mango, watermelon, fish, fried chicken, 1, 2, 3" Pretty weird of us, but she didn't complain.

                                                     >> That;s her...^^
      On Thursday night I applied for this job in Bangkok teaching Business English. They called me on Saturday to set up an interview. They wanted to do it as soon as possible, but I have to teach every day this week and training for the new employees starts this Friday. I have an interview with them on Tuesday, but they only do one training session a month which means since I can't interview this week, if I get the job my training won't be until November 1st and you only get paid at the end of the month so that means I still won't be getting paid until December 1st. This really sucks. I need to pick a place to look for housing this weekend so I can put down the deposit (3 months rent) before I spend it all. In the meantime, I can't go that long without income so as soon as I get there I will try and build some clientele for tutoring, because that starts at $20 an hour.

       I still have to fill my one-on-one teaching requirement so tomorrow Karisa and I are going to go to Boystown and find some ladyboys we can give free English lessons too. Should be fun. While walking through the market today we saw a food stand selling cooked crickets and cockroaches and beetles. I haven't tried any, but seeing how big the cockroaches are here it is no surprise someone could make a full meal out of one. After going through the market, we went with three other friends to the movies. This was after spending twenty minutes going the wrong direction on a Baht bus. We saw Taken 2, because what else would you want to see while being abroad. It was hilarious. Spoiler Alert: Liam Neeson has a gun pointed at him while pointing another gun at the same guy, and pulls out his cellphone to call him daughter to tell her "Your mother and I are going to be taken". The movie theater was the biggest one I've ever been in and you get assigned seats. Before the movie starts there is a salute to the King, where everyone must stand and they play the anthem while playing a movie montage of the kings life. It was really interesting. Anyways, tomorrow I'm teaching families and the home. Haven't finished lesson planning and it's past 1am so we'll see about that.