Welcome back to Bangkok

[Since I was so busy in Bangkok for Fulbright orientation, I am doing two very long blog posts about the entire month. Woopsies! And there won't be many pictures because my camera is currently undergoing surgery, so I will be relying on Sarah Lee who takes amazing photos, to send me some of hers]

After spending two months on a crazy backpacking adventure, I was pretty excited to settle down in Bangkok and begin a new routine for a month. It had been a while since I had used the same shower twice, and I was pretty excited to have one bed and one shower for a month. I was ready to just live in Bangkok. And it started off very promising.

On the flight over, I sat behind a guy in an All Blacks fan jersey. I asked if he was a Kiwi, and we started talking about the rugby world cup. He was just in Bangkok for a week, but was staying with a friend that he used to play with, and who plays for a team in Bangkok, the Southerners. Great first connection! So he got me in touch with his friend, and I now had the name of a bar to go see the rest of the world cup games I would be missing out on, and a friend-to-be who I could watch play rugby! Long story short, after a couple trips to the recommended bar for several world cup games, and after going to one of their games in Bangkok, I had myself signed up for a co-ed rugby touch team in Bangkok! Easy as that. Talk about wanting routine, I fell into a sweet routine of rugby world cup on the weekends with the guys from the Southerners team and from my touch team, playing touch on Tuesdays, and watching the Southerners on Thursdays. And I thought I would be going through rugby withdrawal when I got to Bangkok! But this little piece of heaven could only last one month until I head up to Sukothai, where it is unheard of for women to play rugby.

The guys I play touch with are great. They’re almost all married ex-pats in their 30s that just love to play. They are a little intense sometimes, especially the French guy, he won’t pass to me. But there is an English dude that really helped me with the rules (touch is way different than tackle, and they play league rules instead of union), and acts like an uncle to me. He always tells me where to be on the field and passes to me as much as he can, then let’s me know where they’re watching the next world cup game so I can join them. Then there is Patricio from the Southerners team. He’s probably my favorite because he’s so goofy. He’s a big dude from Ecuador, and running is not his thing. He came to play touch with us one weekend, and it was the hottest weather I’ve ever played in (I've never sweat so much in my life), with no mercy from the blazing sun. He just glared at me, and said “I’m a forward. I don’t run this much” and would just roll his eyes if someone got by him. Hehe. I was sitting with him when South Africa lost (ugh) to Australia (ugh!). I was among other guys from the Southerners team (including an adorable South African that was so into the game, and constantly yelling “come on boys!” to the TV) and Patricio pointed out that the six of us were all from different continents: Keeta from Japan, Billy from Australia, Patricio from Ecuador, me from the states, Duncan from England, and Mikey from South Africa. Pretty cool. And the Japanese rugby players are really great people too. Keeta just started playing when he was 36, and is now in his 40’s. He comes to play touch sometimes too, and he’s really good! And I like him because he lets me talk to him in half English, half Japanese. The best part is he responds in half English, half Japanese. My other favorite is this little Filipino girl that has been playing touch for 9 years. She’s tiny, and not the best rugby player, but I love her because she recites the rules as she plays, constantly whispering to herself “offsides, I’m covering yellow shirt, back 5 meters” etc. So cute! So yeah, that’s my rugby world in Bangkok.

Since I’m so paranoid of getting fat from eating all this great food all of the time, I’ve been trying to keep active outside of rugby. We are so lucky to be living at the Chulalongkorn University dorm, because it’s right next to the National Stadium, a huge 1.25 km running track with soccer fields, smaller tracks and workout stations. The best time to run is at sunset, when it’s not too hot and just starting to get dark. You get the coolest mix of people! When it’s still light, there are kids playing with toys on the track, and students in dance clubs practicing. As it gets darker, these groups get replaced by skate boarders, kids playing football, and a strange sport that is a mix between hackey sack and volleyball. Meanwhile, I am the only girl on the track and constantly being passed by old athletes. I could never outrun them. At 6:00 PM everyday, (Dad, I wonder if they did this when you were growing up) they play the national anthem, and everyone stops what their doing and faces the flag as its lowered. I mess it up every time. The first time I saw it happened, I was walking out of 711, and the world stopped while the national anthem played from some discrete speakers. Everyone stood still until it was over, then continued walking, or sat down to finish their cigarette. At the national stadium, I would be caught in the middle of a run, or a stretch, and only notice when people started moving again that I had already missed the national anthem. Stupid Fralang!

Also at the National Stadium is Thai kick boxing! Which I totally tried. Me and a few other friends went to one of their free introductory classes, where we learned basic kicking and punching techniques, then got an hour of guided practice. One of the boxers that was in the ring practicing when we got in helped me perfect my kicks, and said I had real potential as a boxer because I can kick higher than his Japanese students. It’s a good back up plan if this teaching thing doesn’t work out for me.

Another back up plan is Thai Khon dancing. Our second week here, we all went to see a Thai dance performance based on the Thai epic, Khon. The whole thing was very slow moving, much like the party scene from the Nutcracker, but even worse because it took up the first three quarters of the show! Then, finally, the monkeys came into the scene! They are so cool. In boring scenes, they sit in the back and goof around, pick each others noses, do handstands, and fun things like that. And then their scenes are always upbeat and full of somersaults and lifting each other. I can totally imagine myself being a monkey dancer, even though I’m pretty sure you have to be a boy, and fully Thai. But maybe in my next life, it’s definitely something to aspire towards. Overall, even though the performance was painfully slow, the entire piece was so amazing with all of the ornate costumes and overdone makeup. Plus, as the curtain was coming down, the lead monster totally grabbed the prince's butt. Oh ladyboys.

The dorm at Chula University has been awesome because it’s for international students and almost everyone is from a different country (minus the twenty American Fulbrighers). So since I have been the self-designated outcast of the group, being gone on the weekends and most nights for rugby, and the rest of the time with one of my uncles, real (Dtaw) or fake (Fung), I moved away even more from the Fulbright mass by befriending all the international students I met. One of the first weeks, I was invited to the movies with students from Bangladesh, Vietnam, Indonesia, Japan and Laos. We went to see some American movie with Justin Timberlake, and all the girls were going crazy over him. My favorite part of the movie was after the opening credits, you have to stand to pay respect to the King while they play the national anthem. I love it. My favorite of the international students is the Japanese girl. She’s so burnt out from having classes in Thai, then speaking English to the international students. I’ve spent so many Fulbright meetings so sleepy, because I would stay up until 2 or 3 in the morning talking to her in a combination of English, Japanese and Thai. We've picked up the habit of talking to each other in English or Japanese, using Japanese filler words like “ano”, “eto”, and “soo”, then ending our sentences using the Thai endings, “na” or “na ka”. It’s like our fun made up language. If I don’t lose sleep talking to her, I lose sleep by helping Liem, the Vietnamese masters student, work on his thesis. He asked me to edit his paper, and I said sure, thinking it would be a one-day task. So he sent me a 39-page single script thesis that took me two weeks to edit! We spent three hours on it one night, and only got through eight pages. But he vows to write in as his co-author, along with his advisor…and send me all his papers from now on.

The best thing about this return trip to Bangkok, besides being so close to public transportation (sky train is just a block from the dorm, and I haven’t had to set foot in a cab once, thank goodness! Motorcycle taxi on the other hand…) is the food! We are very close to an amazing night food market, and also have the university canteen with huge bowls of noodles for 20 bhat. Heavennnn. I have figured out which Fulbrighters I will become closest because of the food habits. My best friends have become Paul and Sarah based on dining out. We started going to the same restaurant for dinner that had the best Tom Yum Koong. We made it our Tuesday/Thursday/Sunday night restaurant. By the second time there, they knew our order (squid basil, tom yum koong, shrimp garlic, and mixed vegetables), and I only had to ask for prick nahm plaa the first time. Everytime after that, they automatically brought prick nahm plaa over, even when I wasn’t there with them. We were always the only fralang in there, and the place was always packed, so we knew we had picked a great restaurant. The best thing about going out to eat with these guys is that Paul is Korean, and everyone thinks he is Thai. Even if I start to order in Thai, they ask Paul what I said, so he would just repeat it, and then they would understand. Even though his Thai is just as bad as mine! So he’s been our go-to mai-fralang, that can get us anywhere without speaking a word of Thai.

When I don’t have my two foodies to eat with, I’ve been using the same tactic I used in Japan. Follow the old Asian men; they always know the best noodle places. It doesn’t work as easily in the area around Chula, but when I go to rugby, I can usually find some great noodle soup on the way back. And I’ve found my favorite gai-yang and sticky rice guy right outside our dorm. Best afternoon snack ever! With a Thai iced coffee from the lady next to him. I was meant to be in Thailand.