the longer i'm here, the more and more i love this city
there is always something going on and there are always new people to meet. it's great.
So this weekend was basically like being at USC. Each night we went out this weekend (Thursday, Friday and Saturday) I ran into an alum of USC. I can't say how weird it is to be halfway across the world from my university and to run into someone from USC. Thursday, at bed, i ran into a girl who graduated two years ago and now works for a korean boy band doing some sort of concert management. Friday, we went out to escudo. It was a very very cool club. It was full of young, wealthy, trendy thai kids. It was nice to get away from tourists for once and be at a nice club. and let me say - in LA, we party with paris hilton. whatever. In bangkok, we party with Miss Universe. she was at Escudo on Friday night. I wouldn't have known who she was, but the Thammasat students we were with spotted her instantly and pointed her out to us. Apparently, after she was crowned Miss Universe (as Miss Japan) she moved to Bangkok and is now married to a Thai tennis player. So hopefully we'll be running into her again! Anyways - club was very cool. And pretty inexpensive. We only spent 500 baht for a night of fun - which is about the same price as a drink in LA. But after clubbing, we wander outside. and what do we see??? GHETTO DOGS!!!!! Now, even though they were being cooked by a mexican woman saying "hot do hot do hot do" and the smell of grilled onions wasn't radiating through the streets - it was still a glorious sight and taste compared to pad thai. So as we are standing having our ghetto dogs, a guy walks up to us and asks us how the hot dogs are. We say good, but nothing like the states. and he goes where you guys from? we say LA. He goes oh me too. basically, we get to the point that he was born in bangkok, left to attend USC, and is now back in bangkok to work. he was a really nice guy and it was just weird seeing the trojan network in bangkok.
the next night, we went out to "Culture One." We had been told about this by some Thammasat Students. Basically, it was being hailed as an International Music Festival of DJs. It went from 4:00 pm to around 3:00 am. And it was awesome! I am so glad I went. It was just a lot of music for about twelve hours. Some very great DJs were there too - David Morales, Toni Varga, Brian Cross. And of course, what would a night in Bangkok be without a USC Alum? Of course, I ran into a guy who graduated from USC about 4 years ago and now works in Japan but travels quite frequently throughout SE Asia with his job. And all three of the USC alum I've met have been Asian, just a side note.
And then in class today, I was talking with my professor and his brother went to USC and my professor used to live on Wilshire Boulevard in Beverly Hills, very close to where I work with American Express Publishing.
Oh and we were out over the weekend and stumbled into an International Magazine store. I instantly ran to the shelves to find my magazines. No Food&Wine but I did find two versions of Travel+Leisure. I took a picture with my magazines in Thailand. That was pretty cool.
This weekend was very fun - it was just cool to dive into Bangkok nightlife. After this weekend, I really feel at home in Bangkok, since we were partying with locals and people who knew people. Thai people are just so friendly, generous, and they're always down for a good time.
Now - for some Bangkok observations:
-all parking is stacked - they'll park their cars three deep... And to combat this, when you stack your car, you have to leave it in neutral. So if you wanna leave, and there's a car behind yours, you just get out and push it out of the way, move your car, then push that car back. crazy.
-toilet paper and soap in restrooms is a rarity - pretty gross. instead they have like a shower head next to the toilet to "wash" yourself.
-EVERYONE wears a school uniform - from six year olds to college students. It's nice to wear ours because the Thammasat one is the most prestigious in Bangkok.
-everything is served in a plastic bag - drinks, soup, fruit, food. anything.
-trashcans in bangkok do not exist. you basically have to cart your trash around for a couple blocks before finding somewhere to put it.
- it is hot all the time
- taxi drivers are insane
- thais drink everything through a straw - beer, pop, milk, water
- thammasat students LOVE exchange students
- they do sell bugs on the street. and people do eat them. our group can attest to that. it was like deep fried grasshoppers, maggots, roaches, etc. I just don't understand how people will freak out and kill one in their apartment, but deep fried with soy sauce they somehow look appetizing???
- i've been eating street food for three weeks and i'm still alive
NOTE: i may stop eating fish though - I saw people fishing in the swamp outside our apartment last night. fish consumption in the area around the apartment may cease.
well that's about all for now. I've been reading a lot of my Lonely Planet's Guide to Diving in Thailand. It's making me pretty excited to get in the waters of SE Asia. Apparently live aboards are really popular in thailand. I definitely want to look into that and just eat, sleep and dive for 10 days.
oh and i lost my cell phone. I'm pretty sure it fell out of my pocket getting out of the taxi this morning. So I have a new number: 0845435030. I'm about the 4th person out of my group to have lost their phone. The good thing with Thailand: nothing's a big deal - including losing a cell phone. I just went today and bought another one for about 30 bucks. And I'm connected to the world, once again.
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