It's Christmas in Asia! Which means nothing at all, except there are some trees in some places. In fact, I'm even working on Christmas day. That's just how much they care about it.

But, this being Thailand, it's an excuse to cancel classes. I had thought, for the first time ever in Asia, I would get out of being Santa. Nobody asked me at work, which is kind of my strategy at the current school. Keep your head down, but be cordial, look busy, and you'll be among the last to be asked for stuff. But then, I received a text the night before saying that Santa has food poisoning, a flimsy excuse at best, and that I was asked to fill in. Dammit. Like, I've said it before - I am the least qualified Santa ever. I am not fat, I don't have a beard, and up until recently did not own glasses. There are legit people at my school that look like Santa. Were they asked to dress up? No. There is no logic in Asia.

Anyway, Ella and I have continued the international food tour. We've checked off Korean (Bibimbap), Bangladeshi (Saak and Dal), Creole (Gumbo and Jambalaya), and German (Schnitzel and fried potatoes). While eating the Creole food, it struck me that how similar it is to Chinese food in some respects. Gumbo would be right at home in a 粥 (rice porridge) restaurant, and Jambalaya is pretty much like fried rice with tomatoes, which they already dig. Plan B - open up a Creole restaurant in Shanghai if this whole teaching thing doesn't work out. But in any case, let's run down the nonsense I've been into these past 2 weeks:

1) Went to the Bangkok Winter Market. Really expensive, sold kitchy hippy stuff. Not recommended.
2) Checked out a street show at Lumphini Park with a bunch of magicians and acrobats. We also got to play on swingsets, which is always a winner.
3) Finally got around to the Ban Kamthieng Museum. A small, historic house smack in the middle of downtown. Worth a trip if you're in the area.
4) Went to an animal rescue get together. There were cats. My coworker was volunteering there.
5) Our friend Sandra went back to Malaysia for a while, so we had a going-away get together. I met her Burmese friend, who I probably hounded too much with questions about Burma - on account that I want to visit there in the next few months. Later we ended up at Nana Plaza, cause... well I'm not really sure why. That night is a bit of a blur.
6) Our friend Boom is in a new art book, so we stopped on by to support him. At the show I told Ella "Hey I'm going to get drunk tonight", which is apparently a challenge for Ella to get drunk before me. Well, mission accomplished Ella.
7) Went to a jazz festival down in Sukhimvit. A little pricey, but the music was great. The best thing though, was this dude who was SUPER into jazz. Like, he was tearing up. He was standing right in front of the stage and moving his arms like a concert director. It would be incredibly awkward if he wasn't so damn funny.
8) Visited the Korean district. Pretty small place, but I got some soju and 2% peach drink. You all know whats up.
9) The Cameroonian restaurant I spoke about last week no longer exists. We found its former location, which is on a super spooky alley off another alley. I wonder why it shut down?
10) Ate liquid nitrogen cream cream. It tastes exactly like regular ice cream, but 4x as expensive.

Holy crap I've done a lot. I've got some time off coming up for New Year, but unfortunately I don't think I'm going to be going anywhere. Pretty much anything close has been done, and I frankly don't have the energy to go too far. Perhaps Pattaya, I've not done anything there except hit the bars. On the other hand, I'm hesitant to jump headfirst into party central on New Years.

I'm not a big blogger, or social media guru, so I could really care less about "networking", "SEO", and "Nyancat". But on a lark, I dove into the nitty gritty of blogger.com, and you can see some cool stats like what OS/Browser your readers are using (and for the 3% of you that use Internet Explorer - seriously?), but also I apparently have a reader from France and two from the Ukraine. So, from now on, to bolster my international audience, I will be catering to them.

Last Friday, after waking up and having my usual breakfast of borscht and crepes, I went back to Koh Si Chang Island with Heather, Ella, and friends-I-don't-think-I've-mentioned-before, Dylan and Jess. We left early in the morning, however since it was a holiday it was considerably more crowded this time around. The boat Paige and I took last time has been upsized to be quite large, and although there were a few farangs here and there pretty much everyone was Thai. I don't really know why, it's a nice island pretty close to Bangkok. You'd think people wanting to escape the hustle of the city, but don't have time/money to fly south could just dash on over. Anyway, the nice hotel we stayed at last time was all booked, along with almost everything else. After looking around for a while, we found a very rustic, traditional looking hotel run by incredibly nice folk. That evening, we settled on the beach, and took up pretty much the same activities as last time - drunken karaoke and drinking puns. Whatever that darn drink is. But for 60 baht (less than $2) for a giant mug of whiskey and fruit, it's the best deal in Thailand.

Next morning, we went around to the 2 tourist sites of note on the island, the Chinese Temple and the big buddha/cave. For photos/a recap of that, the old entry is here. Except Paige, if you're reading, the little cable car thing was running! OHHHH MYYY GOOOOOD!

Dylan and Jess decided to stay another night, but Ella, Heather and I went back to Bangkok to have dinner at an amaaaaazing Spanish restaurant downtown. Which, Ella and I have embarked on a newish project around Bangkok - to eat at as many ethnic restaurants as possible. If I can say one good thing about America, we really kick ass at international food. Granted it's because we don't really have enough of a history to call any food "ours", except maybe southern style BBQ. So we kinda had to borrow others or starve. Regardless, we're lucky to have a lot of international cuisine exposure, which is something Asia lacks. There's lots of new experiences for Ella, and I really enjoy hearing her opinion on new things like, chorizo or pretzels. And there's some pretty interesting restaurants on the "big list of ethnic restaurants I made", like Cameroonian food. I don't know the first thing about Cameroonian food. I even had to look up where that country is (East Africa), so I'm excited for that.

The next day, we went out to a meetup downtown that was at a board game cafe. Their coffee was a little expensive, but on the way in I saw a taco place (tacos - another first for Ella), which was delicious and had maybe the crunchiest tacos I've ever had. The meetup itself was lots of fun and what you'd expect. We played two games, the first one was The Resistance, an odd game where there are secret spies amongst the players, who know each other but the good guys don't know them. Then it's a game of lying and deduction to oust them before the end of it. It's not a long game to play, but was made long because people talked TOO GODAMN MUCH. "No he's a spy because blah", "No she can't be because blah, it's actually blah", "No, it's not me because blah" OH MY GOD SHUT UP AND PLAY. When another game opened up, we switched to Citadels, which was tons of fun and I recommend picking up to the board game nerds back home (Jesse, Dan, Ryan, Tony, Bob, etc) There are 8 characters with different abilities that are shuffled each round, and you race to build a city before anyone else. Ella basically suicided on the others at the end to let me win, which is how you know she's a keeper.

The next day I had to work, but I stopped off at Central Lad Prao to check out an exhibit that just opened, and I was excited to see. NASA, the Human Experience! Dun dun duuuunnnnn! It was really well put together, and had authentic pieces on loan from various museums around the US. A little expensive, I enjoyed it immensely. But I think unless you are really interested in space travel, you wouldn't get much out of it. On the other hand, if seeing a ration kit that flew on Gemini 8 gets you excited, it's your jam. They advertised an "astronaut training simulator" for an extra fee, which I really hoped would be those 3 ring things that spin you all around, but it was just an arm holding a chair that rotates. Boo.

I also checked a big box off my Thailand checklist, that I went to a Muay Thai match. My coworker said he had some tickets, and if I was interested in going. I said sure. What actually went down is that another, Thai coworker knows one of the referees, a retired 2-star General. A really cool guy, he got us in for free in some great seats just above where the fighters enter. I learned a lot about the sport from another coworker, Sean, who has really done his homework on the sport. First, man, is it high stakes. They announced the prizes before the matches, and it was up to 1 million baht ($32,000) before we left after the third of ten matches. I heard match 7 and up are the really big ones, but that wouldn't be for another 3ish hours, so we didn't stay. The other thing I learned is that is nowhere near as bloodsporty as I thought. It actually has a lot of finesse, ritual, and respect. You're awarded points for hits, not for knocking out your opponent. It reminded me of sports like fencing than boxing. It also seems the mob is involved in it. We seated near older, expressionless men in suits amongst the roar of the crowd, dressed far less nice. Occasionally, other men with very sincere bows would appear, hand them stuffed envelopes, and after a word or hand gesture, quickly disappear. I wanted to make a bet to continue my as-yet-unblemished overseas gambling record, but our coworker said it was not a good idea. Not knowing how to explain, she asked a man next to her about it, and he said it's not safe for foreigners. The betting is all hand gestures and verbal agreements (pretty much exactly like the cock fighting in The Philippines). I don't know how the bosses keep track of everyone, but I was told that no matter what I bet, they would say I bet otherwise and for a much higher amount. And, going against the mob isn't a good idea. Wanting to leave that evening with my kneecaps intact, I did a side bet with Sean for less than a buck. I won, so the record remains.

Ukraine - best country on Earth, amirite?

After getting back, I met Dylan, Heather, Jess, and new friend Bok and Ning at the bowling alley. The night is a bit of a haze, as the bottle of water Bok brought was actually vodka to spike the otherwise super weak cocktail towers they serve there. And now I write this to my future self, partially hungover. But today is a day off because it's Constitution Day, which is presently, much appreciated.