The Trojan Network Spans Continents!

So....where did i last leave off...bat poop and corrupt thai police :)

On thursday i got hair extensions...at a mall...it was very random. marney got eyelash extensions at the same place and when they were finished, she sat up and said "god, i'm so glad i can still see!" i guess we didn't really think about it before we did it...what's new with me ;) that same night, we kept it low-key and stayed in and watched a movie.

I woke up on friday morning at 11:00 remembering i had a homework assignment due at 12...so i did my first homework assignment, and went to school to turn it in. it was such a nice day! not too hot, and not too much pollution. then i ate at school with charity (my favorite school food is some sort of thai kabocha pumpkin with egg on rice!). then, we ran some errands, bought more "baht points" for our phones, went to the supermarket and got street pad thai for dinner. most of our friends went to pattaya for the weekend. it is another beach city about 2.5 hours south of bangkok. i decided to stay and explore the city for the weekend, catch up on my sleep and i was too lazy to pack...plus, i have to mentally prepare myself to stay in another hostel and it was a very last-minute decision, so i didn't have time to do so :)

instead, charity, andy, filipo, max, ben, bruno, jj, noon (our thai friends) and i went to a club called "escudo." it was jj's birthday, so she got bottle service all night...but bottle service is different here than it is at home. basically everyone gets bottle service, and it is cheaper than buying drinks at the bar...and it is nothing special/vip-ish like at LA clubs. this club was kind of a diamond in the rough because there were both locals and tourists at the same place. they played good music, and jj knew the dj & crew, so we decided she is a good friend to have here in thailand! and now, for the reason for the title of my blog...we were outside the club eating "ghetto dogs" (YES, ghetto dogs!!! with chili, and no, i did not succumb to meat yet, my friends were eating them), and we met a USC alum. he was born in bangkok, then moved to the states when he was 4 years old, went to USC, and is now working in bangkok. andy was so stoked because he had met another USC alum the night before, we have met a few at the londoner, and even stranger, he also met one the next night! so, they weren't lying when they talk about the "trojan family"

oh, i forgot to mention that i blew out the electricity (or elec-trix-ity, as they say here) trying to straighten my hair...so i called our landlord, and he sent an electrician to our apartment immediately...but since i wasn't there, he wasn't able to get in. our landlord, justin, is amazing though....i think we might stress him out. he does everything for us, memorized all of our names within the first 24 hours of meeting us, and always calls us to make sure we are ok. he lets himself into our apartment to clean, he does our laundry and always gives us helpful tid-bits on what to do and what not to do in bangkok. oh, and he is gay. and got dimple surgery. sooooo cute! we love him! soooo, since i didn't have electricity, i slept at charity's place for the night...benefits of living in the same building as all of my friends.

on saturday morning, we woke up early-ish to go to the grand palace. we got ready quickly and dressed up in long pants, sleeved shirts, and close toed shoes...i was dreading leaving the apartment, but decided it would be worth it....and it SO was! the grand palace is amazing...AMAZING. it was beautiful. everything was sparkling (because there were hand-cut mirrored glass mosaic covering everything), the colors were all vibrant, the buildings were enormous, the emerald buddah was fantastic, and there was a hand-painted mural on all the walls surrounding the grand palace! i will put up an album of my pictures from the grand palace because i took so many! there were just as many locals here as there were tourists because they all want to visit the princess's body, which is at the grand palace for 100 days until her burial. we were not able to see her body, however, because we were not dressed properly. we were told that we needed to wear long pants, sleeved shirt, and shoes, but in order to see the princess's body, we needed to be wearing a long black skirt and white top...sort of like my thammasat uniform, but with close-toed shoes. so, i think i'll be going back to the grand palace because i want to see the princess's body.

after the grand palace, we went to the JJ weekend market. this place was overwhelming. there were over 8000 stalls filled to the brim of clothes, flying squirrels, army apparel, shoes, purses, baskets, flowers, food, jewelry, etc. i was going to buy a dress at a store, but then i looked around and there were HUGE trash bags full of the same thing, so i decided against it. i was so overwhelmed that i barely bought anything....just two tanktops for $3...probably the last thing i need, but they were cheap and nice colors, so i did it anyway. we were supposed to go to a party on the helicopter pad on the top of a hotel last night, but we accidentally shopped for too long, so we didn't make it. the boys left our place at 5:00, and we didn't get back until 7, so we decided to get dinner on the street (yes, i am getting very brave....hopefully i don't push my luck!)--sushi, corn and donuts. we took our food home, i took a cold shower (which felt so good after a day of sweating in my jeans and shirt), then charity and i ate dinner, had some cheap thai beer, and got ready to go out with some other friends who are exchange students at thammasat, but not in the business program.

we went to a place called RCA, which was an entire area of bars. they close down the streets and cover them in carpet, put tables and chairs outside and people just hang out on the street. all the bars are connected so once you go in through security, you can just walk from bar to bar. my favorite place was Route 66...there was awesome music and all of the other clubs were too crowded to move. literally. people are SO packed into these places, probably because there are no capacity limit laws, and if there are, they are not followed. speaking of laws, we had another funny taxi ride to the bars last night. this time, one of the girls brought an OPEN beer bottle with her into the cab, and we came upon a police check point and we all sort of freaked out. however, it turned out to be ok after all because, well, she was wearing her seatbelt. we looked at the taxi driver and held up the beer, and pointed to the seatbelt. he understood what we were asking, and replied "beer, ok. no seatbelt, no ok.!" hahahahhahah...it was so funny! the laws here are so weird. there are not even seat belts available in the back seat!!!

now, more thailand fun facts and observations:
-everything is served in a plastic bag: salad, drinks, soup, water bottles, everything
-they sell canvas bags everywhere that say "i am not a plastic bag" (trying to be eco-friendly, huh. go figure)
-people drink everything through a straw
-there are NO trash cans here...which probably explains why the city smells the way it does ;) kidding.
-inefficiency is prevalent here: for example, in the bathrooms at clubs, people wait in individual lines to use the bathroom (per stall), instead of just one line at the door. (and for those of you that took BUAD-311, you know this is not the most efficient type of waiting line, hehe. nerdy comment of the day)
-washing your hands after using the bathroom is unheard of...putting on makeup is MUCH more important
-bottle service is cheap
-whiskey is a favorite here...gross.
-yesterday i ate RAW lettuce, sushi from the street, and ICE...and i am still alive! YAY!
-i love thailand.
-even though it is supposedly bad to touch people on the head, my thai friend was doing it all night when we went clubbing....maybe she was drunk....
-it's REALLY REALLY funny when our thai friends sing to the music at clubs (which is all in english). i can't stop laughing when i think about it because they make up their own words and sing the entire time! (kinda like me ;) )
-i learned how to say foreigner: "farang"
-the sunsets here are so pretty because of the pollution...i guess it serves one good purpose

more to come. this week should be fun. it's jon's birthday tomorrow, and billy is coming on friday!!!!! i'm excited and happy, as usual!

love, mer