Accomplishments

Yesterday morning, I locked my keys in the cabinet. Since we have house keepers, we have locks that pass through the handles of our cabinet doors and as I closed mine yesterday, I had a sinking feeling that my keys were inside. And they were. Had this happened any day before Saturday, I would have completely given up, sat down on the ground and started crying, skipping Thai language class where surely I would never learn enough to explain my current predicament. But instead, I went down to the office, (mostly) calm, and with help from a phrase book and some miming, and the fact that I speak Thai only nid noi (little bit), made myself understood and less than twenty minutes later had my keys in my hand.

By Friday, I was about ready to throw my hands up in the air and let Bangkok know that I officially gave up. Enough of your traffic and millions of people and bajillions of shopping centers, I quit. This plan ran into some trouble as we had been invited to go out Friday night with some other Fulbrighters (this network is crazy!), one from Thailand, two who have just arrived on research grants and Rawi, who has been here for a year or so and took it upon himself to show us around a bit. So we found ourselves following this very tall Thai-speaking Fulbrighter into a club that he kept telling us was very "hi-so." For those of you not in the know, that's what all the cool people call high-society. Clubbing is not really my scene, but it was nice to go out with everyone, see each other in something besides formal wear. In the middle of all this crazy dancing, I look over and see a Thai man trying to get this girl to partner dance with him (is there a more appropriate word for this?). She really wasn't getting it—couldn't follow for the life of her. When he gave up, I put my hand out and proceeded to be twirled around and dipped in all directions, thereby proving to my fellow ETAs that I may not be able to dance in the usual ways, but tell me to follow and I can dance. I'd like to thank all my dance partners over the years (the Feis, Brandon, Joseph, Will) for helping me feel accomplished at something in Thailand. With a pleasant exhaustion over us we made it to bed at around 2 in the morning.

On Saturday, Ben Molini showed up. You may remember him from our escapades in France; he's a friend from Hendrix. As I didn't have a phone, he called and woke my roommate up—the next thing I know she's trying to hand me a train ticket. After I realized that she was not, in fact, an attacker of any sort, I took the ticket and inspected it more closely. From Lille to Paris, good ole SNCF. The ticket that I had bought Ben so he could catch his flight back home. The ticket valued at 40 Euros that we managed to keep as an unsettled debt between us. The ticket that announced his presence. (He does have a flair for stories…)

I rush downstairs and there he is, just hanging out, guitar in hand, hair all gone.

If I were to make a list of the things we did, it wouldn't be too terribly impressive to the outsider, but for me it was monumental. I (finally) found a map, used the skytrain, and after quite the frustration with taxis, we stumbled upon the waterbuses that go down the canal for 10 baht. Ben took the lead as needed, forcing me out of my anxiety about this place. And we wandered a bit. Walked toward something pretty, ate a pomegranate. At one point a random fellow informed us what was closed that day and what we should see instead, drawing his own depiction of the 50 m Buddha on my map. Taking his advice, we turned around again and made it to the Golden Mount 20 minutes before closing.

I knew that there must places that are beautiful somewhere in this city—the problem was that I had only ever seen cars, people, and shopping centers. To finally make it somewhere where I could breathe made things indescribably better.

We met the others for dinner at a Japanese restaurant. I've learned that I am not a fan of sushi, really. Then home. The next day was reserved for finding Lumphini park. Our way there was through the Chulalongkorn campus, where I have my classes and lectures.

The park entrance was announced by a statue of the king, and the contrast of green to city was striking.

We found ourselves a bench and just sat making music a bit out of the city's way. Take that, Bangkok! Ben headed out on Monday as we headed to visit the Ministry of Education. Before he left I bought not only a phone (you can call me using skype if you'd like! email me for the number...), but also laundry detergent, the one with the pretty packaging bearing the picture of a sunflower. Overall: success and accomplishment! Ben managed to give me back the confidence and independence that I usually have in these situations—he has more than repaid that ticket I once bought him. His visit is why I didn't burst into tears yesterday upon the realization of the monumentous task of explaining where they were. It’s why this morning, as I attempted to do laundry in the early hours, when I couldn't figure out how to use the laundry machines, I went up to the cleaning ladies, albeit hesitantly, and tried my very best to ask how to turn the darn thing on.

Sometimes thank yous just don't cut it.

So instead I will leave you with some photos around town (well, nearby town. The part that I recently explored, anyway.) and of the World Balloon Art Challenge that I have been wanting to see since we arrived. And, I'll throw in a few from when we learned a bit of traditional Thai dance to break up six hours of language classes!