More from Wat Arun

You may be able to tell that I absolutely loved our evening overlooking Wat Arun. In addition to the beautiful view and calm of dining on the river, it was nice to have a guest visit that we actually know. Erica worked with Sam in Hong Kong and it was fun to catch up and show her around our new city.

Me, Sam and Erica.

Me + Sam :)

Wat Arun

Had a lovely dinner on the Chao Praya river tonight with our friend, Erica, who is visiting from Hong Kong. I haven't ventured much to the historic district since we moved so it was fun to enjoy a different vibe and an absolutely gorgeous view.

Wat Arun, aka Temple of Dawn

ABC Dinner

We went out with our team last night and had a delicious Japanese dinner - and lots of Asahi beer and sake.

From left to right: Divya (future principal), Sam, Bally (founder), me, Sean (Director of Studies for HK centres), and Johnny (BKK owner).

We enjoyed 2 of these enormous sake bottles.

It was such a fun night despite starting out with me losing Sean. After work, I put him on a motortaxi to the restaurant and tried to tell the driver to wait for me to get one (I now know the value of the phrase ror sak kru ka - "wait a moment please"), but Sean's driver drove off. Luckily I had told him the street to go to so I was able to find him eventually. All's well that ends well, as they say :)

Busy in Bangkok

ABC Pathways International Kindergarten has been a hive of activity lately. We leave every day having accomplished so much, yet there is always so much more to do! The work has been really great so far and the school is coming together beautifully - I'll post some pics soon.

We've so busy I haven't made a post in a while, so here are some highlights from the last few days. I don't have any pictures to show from it - but we've been socializing like crazy lately with Air BnB guests pretty much every day and our growing group of friends in BKK. Every moment of the day is filled which is obviously both wonderful and exhausting once I stop to think about it :)

Bring your child to work day? His mom was the fare collector. Such a cutie!

Broke out my new racket for some Valentine's Day tennis after work! Definitely worked up a sweat in this heat.

Treated ourselves to Japanese Shabu for Valentine's dinner. (Thai/Chinese hot pot are still top in my book)

This year Valentine's Day was also Makha Bucha Day - an important Thai Buddhist holiday. Our neighborhood temple, Wat Pasee, was buzzing all evening. 

It is SO amazing to come home after work and have a swim while watching the sun set over downtown. 

A Walk on the Khlong

I walked home from work yesterday and really enjoyed it - only 30 minutes at a slow pace! While "beautiful" is definitely not the first word I'd use to describe the khlong, it is certainly alive and filled with activity. Here are some pics from the journey.

Animals everywhere. Cats, dogs, ducks.

Everyone was in a happy mood. Perhaps because it was the beginning of a long holiday weekend - Makha Bucha Day is today (Friday).

Hammering away at styrofoam and giggling. They encouraged me to post this photo to Facebook, FYI.

She was very confused by me and curiously eager to wave "bye bye."

Ferry between the north/south sides of the khlong. Costs 1baht and lasts approximately 3 seconds.

Rubbish and puddles. Watch your step!

9 Days Straight

We've officially started working and today is my first day off since last Sunday. It's been a whirlwind with lots to do and learn. Our team at work is wonderful and it's been a lot of fun getting everything ready for our launch. Admittedly, I am tired and grateful to have this day off to rest and clean up the apartment which has been neglected these past few days.

Here are some photos from the time since my last post.

Chang and banana muffins to celebrate our first week of work.

Beautiful Bangkok sunset.

Sam on a mototaxi.

This weekend's info booth at Funarium.

RCA - a popular street for going out to clubs. Sam met a friend playing in a band at a cafe on this street so we checked it out - very fun!

Playground at our school. I have tested most of the slides :)

Thai texts

Thai phone service providers send lots of messages. Of course, I can't read most of what they say, but sometimes it's entertaining. Here are some examples.

When we first arrived, we used the provider called "Happy." It's so Thai.

I have since switched to the provider called "True." I bought a data package for 299baht (less than $10) per month. You top up (or add on) credit as needed. These messages tell me I added 50baht (twice) and my balance. Now I have 100.22baht for calls and texts. This credit expires April 7th. Very important to know - it is the year 2557 in Thailand.

This one made me laugh yesterday. I'll never know how 'hot' the message was because I can't read Thai (yet).

Pad pak ruam

A new go to dish is pad pak ruam, stir fried vegetables. Everyone makes it a bit differently so it's fun to see what comes out at each different food stall. Sam and I have grown tired of the place we have frequented most since moving in. The woman who runs the place is quite grumpy and our inability to speak Thai fluently only frustrates her more. The last few times I went to her, I practically had an anxiety attack anticipating how I was going to order my dish.

As I've mentioned, we have tons of food stalls in our neighborhood so this gave us some inspiration to try somewhere new. This woman who made this dish is so friendly and makes some very tasty, albeit greasy, food. Here's today's lunch.

This was our treat after getting our health certificate (required to obtain a teaching work permit in Thailand) at the nearby Camillian Hospital. We spent about an hour being escorted from window to nurse's station to blood lab to the doctor's office to cashier. It looks much like hospitals I'm used to, but everything is done pretty much in the open - nurse's consult, height/weight, blood drawing. It seemed a clean operation and the staff were very attentive. Quite a nice experience and now that they've confirmed we don't have leprosy or elephantitis, we can be teachers!

Perks of working from home

Today was our first official day of working for ABC Pathways. Because the school building is still under construction for the next week, we're working from home. Today, this meant we were able to live stream the Superbowl in the background (go Seahawks!) and take our lunch break by the pool. 

This pool is my absolute favorite thing about our new home. Happy days!

Grand Hi-Tech

If only everyone could live by Grand Hi-Tech's instruction...

We stayed in much of the weekend. Partly because of possible election issues and partly because we've been going full steam since our arrival 3 weeks ago. Between having friends, friends of friends, and Air BnB guests come to town and trying to meet new people in BKK, we've been surprisingly busy and it's been so much fun :-)

Pad pong curry

Whilst wandering about the neighborhood asking everyone "yoo tee nai ka?" ("where is") and pointing to the apartment key, I discovered both the location of the key master and a new dish. Located in the nearby Ekkamai market, the woman at this stall was really helpful and made a great pad pong curry.