Sunday, October 31

This last week at school was pretty laid back—I went in every day, and spent every morning doing nothing but chatting with my coworkers and reading a book on my phone. I’d eat lunch with the other English teachers, and then we’d spend the afternoon teaching our remote classes. I went back to the Shambhala meditation group after work on Wednesday, and I got some new glasses. 

On Friday, Roman and I took the BTS to nearby Ratchathewi, and explored Soi Petchaburi 5 and 7, some hidden streets east of the BTS. It was one of those little secret neighborhoods in Bangkok—it’s not an area that’s well-known to tourists (I don’t think), but was bustling with people stopping to buy fruit or vegetables or cheap t-shirts, and vendors selling hot food and cut guavas and flowers.

Note the surprise baby at left

There was also a mosque nearby, so there were several Halal carts (and a couple burger carts runs by women in hijabs). We stopped in at Pe Aor, a small, simple restaurant serving Tom Yum. We got bowls of the soup with prawns and wide egg noodles (plus wontons, for Roman).

The streets were even livelier when we left, and we walked down Soi Petchaburi 10 as it was getting dark.

Roman picked out some jackfruit from a jackfruit/sugar cane juice vendor…

 And we walked down an alley where vendors sold clothes, vegetables, and eggs…

Back at home, I surprised Roman with some sausage-shaped gummies I picked up at 7-Eleven. Boy was he happy about them!

So happy

On Saturday morning, I served us bread pudding topped with dulce de leche and toasted pecans…

I also made pumpkin muffins earlier in the week, because, even though it’s 90 degrees here, Instagram tells me it’s Fall…

Probably a first time/last time, since the can of Libby's cost $5

Then we headed out to Bang Chak to check out the Jim Thompson Factory Store. I thought of my mom the whole time, making this same journey years ago to pick out some silk items, including purple elephant-print napkins for me & Roman. I had been hoping to find napkins in Bangkok that weren’t sold at, ahem, Jim Thompson prices, but cloth napkins don’t seem to be a big thing here, even at the big-box homeware stores. I am tired of using paper napkins, so I decided to just head to the outlet store, and I’m glad we did—I picked up two sets of pretty cotton napkins and Roman got a cool t-shirt:

On Sunday morning, I went to volunteer for Bangkok Community Help Foundation, an organization Roman volunteered for when we first arrived. We just got added to their Line group, and I’d seen they were looking for volunteers to come help paint at a school located inside a Buddhist Temple grounds. I pulled together some paint clothes—some cutoffs I bought in Pattaya, and Roman’s Tiger t-shirt:

I felt so naked once I stepped out onto the street

I arrived at the posted start time of 10:00am—even though things in Thailand often don’t start on time, I figured this probably would, since the group is run by foreigners and is pretty well-organized. Also, I had to leave early because I was going to Darren’s afternoon tea party at 4:30.

When I arrived, there was a big pile of painting supplies, but the only other people there were an older Thai woman, who was scraping old paint off some metal slats, and two younger Thai woman—none of whom spoke any English. But I communicated that I was here to paint, and they nodded and offered me cold drinks and invited me to wait in the office, where it was cooler than outside. And then I sat around for over an hour and a half. One of the ladies would periodically come into the office, but our ability to communicate was limited. Finally, a Thai woman who spoke a bit more English came in, and I told her I was here to paint, and she seemed to indicate that she'd find someone for me to talk to. I waited a little longer, but at that point I was getting upset—I knew that whatever was happening wasn't deliberate and certainly wasn't personal, but it all felt like a huge waste of time. I decided to leave.

On the way out, I ran into the woman who spoke more English, and she got on the phone with one of organization leaders. We talked to for a minute via FaceTime, and he said he’d figure out what was going on, and get back to me. He called back a little bit later, and apologized and said the painting had been cancelled. He said there was still tasks to do there if I wanted to work alone, but I said I’d just join them for another group task, since I had to leave early anyway. And then, two hours later, I headed back home. 

It was frustrating. I know it was just an unfortunate set of circumstances, but it wasn’t how I wanted to spend my Sunday morning. I was mostly annoyed with myself that I had stuck around for so long—I had thought the women working there knew what I was there for, and were having me wait on someone's arrival, but that clearly wasn't the case. Back at home, I chatted with Roman while we drank kombucha, and then I took a long swim in the pool. Roman snuck some shots from our window (and dang, are the new iPhones high-powered…this was from six stories up)…

Looking super cool in my swim cap

In the afternoon, I headed over to Darren's for a Halloween Afternoon Tea Party. I made cookies for the occasion—for whatever reason, I felt compelled to make oatmeal coconut cornflake cashew cookies. 

They turned out pretty good, though I could only bake four at a time.

It was a nice gathering—a mix of Thais and foreigners, most of them involved in the arts in some way. And we had a couple little performances—two women (one Japanese, one Thai) sang arias, and an American woman sang Billie Holiday. I didn't have a Hallowwen costume, but I wore my super cool Thai Fashion dress for the occasion. 

Meanwhile, Roman captured this spooooky sight in Bangkok...

And tomorrow…we head back to school!