so much happened since my last blog!!!

so, as you can see from the title, i've been a busy girl here in thailand! after coming home from the full moon party, we recovered for about a day and then we proceeded to exercise our brains and try to study for our midterms....at thammasat, midterm week is just like finals week - we got the whole week of school off (supposedly to study) and only had to go to school to take the tests. i was really lucky and only ended up having two midterms, both on friday. i got one back so far, and good news, i'm passing!!!!

marney's birthday was on the wednesday of midterms week...blah. it was pretty bad for her because she had a midterm the day after her birthday...but she handled it like a champ and only had one margarita the night of her b-day ;) we went to coyote on sukumvit for dinner and it was very delicious mexican food with real cheese, avocado, and salsa!



after the super stressful day of midterms, it was time to celebrate marney's birthday FOR REAL, so abby and i decorated our apartment in the "hello kitty" theme (the party was hello kitty themed because marney is the crazy cat lady, and because she is becoming more asian by the day, so hello kitty was only fitting) with pink streamers (that were really made out of some sort of cellophane tying rope material...) and a giant hello kitty stuffed animal and we even had a cake! and of course, 4 bottles of gilby's to top off the celebration. most all of the exchange students and some of our thai friends came to our apartment for the party and once it got too loud, we migrated to gazebo on sukumvit. marney made it there successfully, and was not "jon-drunk" (THAI FIVE!) so, again, HAPPY BIRTHDAY MARNEY!!!!

after midterms and marney's b-day celebration, we sort of went back to "normal life" of school and hanging out. last week i only had 2 days of class, so on monday, andy, charity, marney and i went to lumpini park because we wanted to fly kites since it is national kite flying month in thailand....we didn't fly any kites, and no one in the entire park was flying kites either....perhaps national kite flying month is on Thai Time, and will start in April....... oh, and i actually had some homework and a paper due last week! it was nice to do homework for once in my life! one of the most exciting things about last week was that we discovered a "gourmet import market" which has everything from kraft mac and cheese to napa wine!!!! needless to say, i bought 5 boxes of organic cereal...and i think i have 3 left after one week. i'm rationing. we went to the market 2 times last week...spent a lot of baht....trying not to go back soon.

we shopped on thursday, and on friday i went to ayutthaya with abby, lily, sophie, katie and warren. ayutthaya used to be the capital of laos, cambodia, and siam (thailand), so there is a TON of history and some really awesome temples in the city. warren is from ayutthaya, so he invited us to stay at his house and meet his family. on friday afternoon, we left bangkok on a public bus/van and got to ayutthaya about 1.5 hours later. warren's dad picked us up and drove us around the city so that we could see the temples at night. they were all lit up, and gorgeous...we even got to go inside some of them after warren's father asked permission from the guards for us. his family was extremely kind, as all thai people seem to be, and his mom cooked us a HUGE delicious meal! she made fried fish, veggies, salad, fish curry, tom yam soup, and for dessert she made homemade mango and sticky rice (they even grew the mangoes!!) their house looked like jim thompson's house...complete with a gallery displaying china dishes! it was truly amazing, especially after warren told us that the house was built in traditional thai style without any nails....the wood pieces all fit perfectly together to make the house. on saturday morning, we woke up at 6am so that we could go to the market to feed the monks. we bought them a variety of foods and rice and they wander down the streets with big baskets, and we just "wai" to them (make a prayer motion in front of our face) and then place the food in their baskets. then they say some sort of blessing or thank you, but i couldn't hear or understand what they were saying...it was definitely worth waking up at 6am for-a real "thai" experience! we went back to warren's house and slept a bit, then got back on the van to come back to bangkok.

on sunday, abby, charity, andy and i had a "day of modern marvels" (coined by the one and only andy bishop) where we went to brunch at a famous vegetarian restaurant/art gallery called tamarind cafe. it was the cutest little place, and the menu had so many things that we haven't seen in thailand thus far like breakfast burrito and tabouli salad....we sat in a cozy little plush booth with big pillows...it felt very "sex and the city"!!! after brunch, we went to the bayoke tower, which is the tallest tower in thailand, and around the 20th tallest in the world. we were such tourists here; we took pictures in a fake hot air balloon and fake tuk-tuks! it was pretty high, and we were so lucky because it was a very clear day, so we could see much further than on any normal day. we even saw our condos from the top of the tower! bangkok is HUGE....a lot bigger than i thought it was at least! our final stop for the day was the queen's gallery, which is her private collection of paintings. there were some really cool pieces of art, my favorite being a piece called "from the top of LA hill"...a COMPLETE coincidence....i didn't even see the name until after i'd decided it was my favorite! then, it was home at last!

thailand (sort-of) fun fact of the day:
i keep discovering new favorite fruits! last week it was green mango. this week it is rose apples! next week it'll be something different. i'll keep you updated.