deck the halls with cows and chickens

I never dreamed Christmas would be such a big deal here in Bangkok. There are decorations in every mall (and there's a mall on just about every block), so things are looking pretty festive. The grocery store in Siam Paragon is even playing Christmas music.

Our school Christmas program is on the 25th. In the past, the American teachers coordinated it. This year, for whatever reason, the parents volunteered to take over. We were totally cool with that.

They've invited a performing group to come in and act out a Christmas play for the students. In a department meeting, Sutima showed us some brown sack puppets featuring horses, cats, pigs, and other animals.

She said we would need to make one for each student to use during the show. There are 720 students in Prathom.

We looked at each other and looked back at her, confused about why the students needed barnyard puppets during the Christmas program.

The performing group would be leading the children in singing "Old MacDonald." Festive, right?

Fortunately, Nummon acted as our advocate and convinced the other teachers it would be too much work for the kids to use them in just one song. Reason triumphs, for once!

have you ever been on a shrimp boat?

Shrimp is the fruit of the sea. You can barbecue it, boil it, broil it, bake it, sautee it. There's, um, shrimp kebabs, shrimp creole, shrimp gumbo, pan fried, deep fried, stir fried. There's pineapple shrimp and lemon shrimp, coconut shrimp, pepper shrimp, shrimp soup, shrimp stew, shrimp salad, shrimp and potatoes, shrimp burger, shrimp sandwich... That's, that's about it.
- Bubba, from Forrest Gump



Though Bubba's list is impressive, it's not quite complete.

Today, while walking past a Pringles display in Big C, I came across these:

That's right, grilled shrimp flavored Pringles. Correction: pink grilled shrimp flavored Pringles.


I almost snapped a photo in the store and left it at that, but I couldn't deny you all, dear readers, the opportunity to know whether the chips are revolting, delicious, or somewhere in between. So I bought them.

While not quite as bubblegum pink as the package suggests, the chips do have a lovely, rosy hue. And they're not half bad, either.

easiest week ever

I only had to teach one day this week! We had Monday off for the King's birthday. On Tuesday, third through sixth grade spent the morning at the movie theater, watching a documentary about the royal family. Wednesday was normal, but we had today off for Constitution Day.

A few of the girls and I spent our day off riding bikes and checking out some 500-year-old ruins in Ayutthaya, the ancient capital of Siam.

Our magic school ID badges didn't get us into the ruins for free, unfortunately, meaning we had to pay 50 baht at each one. My fellow bikers weren't interested in doing this too many times, since we'd already been to see Angkor in Cambodia back in July.

We ended up only really exploring two different ruins. I would've liked to see more, but democracy wins, I guess. Maybe I'll go back some Saturday.

Pattaya/Jomtien Beach/Koh Larn

We had Monday off for HM's birthday, so I went with a group to Pattaya. The place has a bad reputation, and not without reason. It's known as the sex capital of Thailand, and it's run by the Russian mafia. OK. That last part may not be true. One of my comrades was saying it. I'm not sure where she got her information.

We stayed pretty far away from the sketchy parts, in an area called Jomtien Beach. I never actually set foot on the beach there, because there wasn't much sand and the water wasn't nice.

On Saturday, four girls and I went to a vineyard about 20 minutes from town. We spent a long time there, but, stupidly, failed to secure a songthaew ride back to Jomtien. It got dark and became all too apparent that songthaews and taxis didn't really drive out to that area much (or ever).

We talked with the security staff who said we could get a ride with one of them if we paid 500B for gas. We had only paid 200 to get out there.

Christy and I ventured into the poorly-lit parking lot. We avoided some loitering guys and headed toward a group of women. We explained our problem and they offered to give us a ride closer to town. We jumped in the back of their pickup and enjoyed the cool night air.

Sunday and Monday, we took a ferry to Koh Larn. The motorbike ride to Tawaen beach was hilly. I looked past the driver's shoulder and gasped. Past the tree tops I could see a beautiful, white stretch of sand bordered by deep turquoise water down below.

We rented beach chairs beneath umbrellas and I read and drank smoothies and played cards and relished the beauty of Thailand for two days.

I'm spoiled, I know, but you guys can come over and visit at any time. We'll soak in some rays, OK? OK.

tickled pink?

For those who aren't in the know about the state of the King of Thailand, his health is deteriorating and he's been in the hospital for about two months.

Yesterday at work, our boss made an announcement.

"You need to wear pink every day in December, starting tomorrow."
Right. Okay. Thanks for the giving us plenty of time to find a new work wardrobe.

The King's astrologer, or someone, prescribed pink as an auspicious color to promote his health. The last time he left the hospital, he wore a pale pink shirt. If if we wear pink, he'll get better sooner.

I don't have any pink shirts, and I didn't have time to go shopping yesterday. I put on what I thought was the next best thing: a skirt with pink roses printed all over it. There are bits of black in the background of the print, but, overall, the skirt is dark and light pink. I wore a black top with it.

Nummon motioned for me to follow her into the hallway this morning. She had a pink pashmina in her hand and a concerned look on her face.

"Lalen, you need to wear this today. Your clothes are more like 80% black and 20% pink. No one in the school has to know this isn't your scarf."

I don't know who taught her percentages. I was under the impression that my ensemble was 50/50. But colors are taken seriously here, and black is a color of mourning. It's easier to nod and smile and wear the scarf.

So, today I'm experimenting with different scarf styles:

faster than a speeding... something

In preparation for Fathers' Day, I wanted my students to draw pictures of their fathers as superheroes. I plan to use their pictures to decorate a poster I'm making for Wednesday's Fathers' Day festivities.

I began class today by asking kids to name some superheros.

Batman! Superman! Spiderman! Supergirl! Ben 10!
"And what makes superheros different from other people?"
Superpowers!
"That's right! Can anyone name a superpower?"

One hand shot up -- an especially precocious student named Janjao. "The United States?!" she cried out.

"Not what I meant, but have a sticker."

monkeys and flowers in lopburi

I can only tolerate so much Bangkok at a time. It had been over a month since I'd left town, so on Sunday I set my sights on Lopburi: home to thousands of monkeys and endless sunflower fields.

Every year, this primate-infested town holds a feast for the monkeys at some temple ruins. My colleagues and I got there by noon, just in time to watch them have a milk break. Did you know monkeys can drink through straws? I didn't.

They're thieving little devils. We were warned not to wear jewelry, or carry anything that looks like food. One monkey snatched a container of hand sanitizer dangling from a rubber band on Simone's backpack. She tried to get it back, afraid he'd be poisoned, but he scampered up the side of a building and out of reach.

Next on the agenda was taking pictures in a sunflower field.

I had anticipated communication problems, and before we left in the morning I did an internet search for "sunflower" in Thai. No luck. I settled for drawing a little picture of a sunflower and hoped it would be sufficient.

Nonverbal communication worked remarkably well. I held out my scrap of paper to people and pointed to the sunflower. A ticket lady ushered us onto her bus, which was filled with colorful pictures of Hindu (?) gods.

She got off with us at a bus stop, motioned for us to wait, and asked a nearby satay vendor to let us know which bus to take to the sunflower fields.

We waited on a bench and chatted amongst ourselves until the bus came. It was packed, and we had to sit on a raised area directly above the engine. Not the most comfortable ride ever, but it was OK.

After 20 minutes or so of riding, we started seeing small sunflower fields. We got off on the side of the road.

It was one of the loveliest sights I've seen here. There were rows and rows of tall, beautiful yellow flowers stretching as far as I could see.

We hitched a ride in the back of a jackfruit truck down to a field bordered by some rocky hills.

It was definitely worth the three hours spent getting there from Bangkok and the threat of rabies.