It's Saturday night and I'm seeing an early bedtime in my near future. Perhaps a fun episode of Project Runway or some kind of American TV before, but I'm not even going to try to resist the siren call of a remarkably uncomfortable and squeaky twin bed. Life is settled into a nice little pattern for the last few days. I feel like a Thai construction site with the sign boasting the days since the last drama. Normal and I are working on it and right now it seems pretty good.
Friday was my first Thai language course. For those of you who have my crap pop up on your Facebook wall, you may have noticed the Thai language faux ad by SNL. If not, watch it. It's pretty much that but the guys are far more creepy, ugly, and older. Well, a few of them at least. The rest of the class seems semi-normal and the Brit I sat next too was taking notes in Thai and full of helpful information without creeper energy. I think the best tip he gave me on the language was just that, learn the Thai writing because the transliteration is different depending on who is teaching you. Apparently there's a lot of disagreement on how to write out sounds that don't exist in the English language. And there's plenty of those sounds. I'm watching the teacher's lips, her teeth, how she holds her head to figure this out.
For example, take the word "singing", now isolate the ng in the middle and start a word with it. That's just the easiest one of these sounds for me to explain. Then we get into tones - high (huh?), rising (real-ly?), low (nah) or falling (calling mom) - these are my tips - moo-ommmm!!! - falling. Anyway...
Friday night was a great work night followed by an episode of Elementary and blessed sleep. My alarm woke me early this morning and I shot out of bed and went chasing a flower festival on the Honda Click, my friend Melissa riding behind me. We found the festival in the set up stage and walked the many booths crammed with orchids (only 4 for 100 baht!), cute little succulents in the same price range, and a bunch of plants I don't know names for. I wished I had a house here, or even a friend with a house that I could shower with flora fabulous.
After finding a good breakfast, we parted ways for a while as I watched the parade go by. I had been so excited for this part, but the reality was far more crowded than I wanted to deal with. I found that most of my pictures included at least two other cameras or two farang in the shot. I shook off my need to stick it out in the cluster-cuss of people and settled instead for a long conversation with Melissa followed by a non-alarm-clock-monitored nap. Delicious.
Tomorrow will have a lot more adventure. I spent my dinner (mexican food that killed it!) pouring over maps and two guide books. If all goes as planned, it will consist of a Wat covered by Alex Gray-esque murals, an agricultural center tour, hot springs, a cave, more hot springs, and finally a village that is the heart of Thai umbrella creation.
With the many rains that keep happening, it might be me huddled under a bus stop, listening to my MP3 player until I can get back. We'll see.