Everyone Likes a Working Girl, a fighter, and Rod Stewart

Had my first day of training in Silom. But wait, before this I had to go to the US Embassy for "Citizen services" aka getting robbed by my own country. You have to make an appointment to go and of course they had none until the day my training started, so I traveled an hour to get to my 8:15am appointment. I get there and there's a million people in one line, none in the line I'm supposed to be waiting in, but of course due to ...miscommunication I end up in the other line, only for a woman to chase me down and bring me inside. At which point they take my ID, my phones, and put it in some lock box. I flashed a creepy teethy smile at the security guard. I'm visibly annoyed at this point, but I can't communicate that so I might as well look creepy. He smiles back, which would have never flown is he was American, but because he's Thai he smiles and lets me go through security. Finally, get into the citizen services which is consisting solely of American men who seem to be married to non-American women. I wonder how much a marriage visa is because extra pages are $82 and a letter they stamp without reading or checking any other former documentation costs $50. CRIMINAL.
      Anyways, got to Silom start the training, it's insanely boring I can't even tell you what was said aside from the rules about Personal Leave, pay/banking, and a ten minute break. By the way, McDonald's sells popcorn. Three other people in the training group work at Fashion Island with me. Two teachers, one American guy from Atlanta, one British guy, and a Thai girl who is a private tutor. We went to Fashion Island together and met everyone in the staff. Everyone is so nice. The Sales girls/Education Consultants are all super sweet and I will probably try and get them to take me shopping wherever they go. The private tutors are super helpful and sweet and there is also the director, the maids, and the teachers. Unfortunately, the rest of the training is in Silom, so I won't see them again until I start teaching next Tuesday, but I'm excited 1) cause it means new friends 2) cause my new friends seem awesome.
In other news after the training, I went to meet up with my new friend who I got wine with the other night. Went to her family home, met her parents who are absolutely hilarious and ended up coming with us to this big show Bangkok Music Festival. It was basically a deserted train station converted into a market converted into a venue. I met a few of her friends who were super nice, all interns at this NGO that works to...something about preventing child exploitation? We had a really good time, there were tons of DJs, good music and good food in the market right outside. Overall a high ranking night for sure...

          

 
    This is a sprawling post because it's summarizing a few days, but anyways the next night I went out in Thonglor which is actually a very cool, up and coming area. Went to a restaurant called the Witch's Tavern, which basically looks like Halloween inside and there's a Thai version of Rod Stewart singing karaoke inside. We went to a rooftop hookah bar after, then on to our first actual local club which was basically the first experience with the Bangkok underground. It was insane, every table had a hookah and a bottle of Johnnie Walker black label and everyone was just chugging it straight from the bottle and chasing with water. Hardcore Thais. They had chandeliers in the shape of unicorns.
  The next day we went to a free Muay thai show that was filmed live for Channel 7 News Broadcast. All locals, screaming, betting (which is illegal) in Thai. It was definitely a very cool experience and it was free vs the 2500 baht bullshit at Lumphini. Afterwards we ate at and wondered around Chatuchak Market. Didn't wonder much though before I felt absolutely filthy and just went home.