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.