Sawadee ka!
I hope everyone is having a wonderful time back home. I have found myself streaming the Olympics late into the early morning watching anything thats on. I’ve seen plenty ping-pong, a little bit of shooting, lots of swimming and some equestrian here and there. Its been nice to root for America so far away from home. Its been a while since my last posting but not much has really happened since.
This past Friday I went out to Bang-La road. Bang-La is like the Las Vegas strip of Patong. It is fully of seedy looking bars, more prostitutes than you could count and enough lady-boys to make you question every woman you speak to. Although I must say there are some lady-boys who are prettier than many girls I’ve met. There are far to many ping-pong shows for my taste. Anyways, I spent the evening with three random Germans I met at my hotel restaurant. They were incredibly nice gentlemen although their English was mediocre. We went to the New Tiger bar, which has humungous tiger statues out front and dancing girls on light up platforms. We spent the entire evening playing Jenga and Connect-4, and I must say it was quite fun!
I spent the rest of the weekend reading through four books in the Sookie Stackhouse series by Charlaine Harris. I cannot get enough of these books and in the past week have almost made it through the entire series. Saturday and Sunday were also full of homework and little bit of indulgence in McDonalds. Honestly, sometimes it is just nice to take a bite of something and know exactly how it will taste. McDonalds here has Fried Chicken too, which I haven’t tried yet but since there is no Popeyes in sight it might have to do.
Last night I went out with a classmate named Nigel. He is 55 and originally from England. He has been in Patong since January and has finally decided he might as well do something useful and get a TEFL. He’s a wonderful old chap who has informed me how the bar girl system works here (bar girls are working girls who work out of bars). Its not necessarily the life I would choose but I will not judge anyone for their life choices. He took me to where his girlfriend works (she happens to be a masseuse, not the happy-ending kind either). Thanks to him I was able to get a mani-pedi for a great discount. Since he has been here for so long he has a specific route that he goes on for a pub crawl. Every bar we went to he knew the owner, which of course leads to drink specials all around!
Classes have been going well, this week we each get to have a practice lesson every day with the same students. My two students are named Mao and Aok. Both are incredibly bright and work for Patong Language School in some capacity. I will be uploading an example of the lessons we do and the 10-step method that has been drilled into our brains. For now, I invite you to check out the new photos on the Flickr site!
Stay safe back home and lots of love,
Emo
Emily Goes to Thailand 