Settling in with Angy Birds

A delicious breakfast of Black Tea, Pomegranate Juice,
Mangosteen, and our favorite Thai fruit Dragonfruit 

I started this blog post about 2 weeks ago and clearly never posted it - so here we go back in time..... (Wave your hands in a downward sprinkling motion and say it with me doodoodoodoodoodooo - see you went back in time)

Megan and I are just 24 hours shy of landing in Bangkok 2 weeks ago and I continue to be impressed with our comfort in getting settled and how it feels far longer than 13 days.  In many ways our first week in Bangkok was like our first week in Philadelphia, with Teach For America - we had 3 days of a "welcome training" with our 26 new colleagues at Ruamrudee International School and yet needed to completely settle our lives in a new place at the same time.

Not sure why the toilet seat is also up
in this photo?  I didn't do it!

In this situation everyone needed to find a place to live in a country where we didn't speak the language and probably within 72 hours of landing.  As a result, we were all flooding the same neighborhoods with the same realtors in hopes of finding a house/apartment that would fit our needs.  It was almost comical how effusive folks were about their realtor (ourselves included) as soon as they signed a lease - but never before.  We were all too worried we'd lose the best possible house if someone else was able to see it.  Nevertheless, 48 hours into our visit we settled on a place which is probably 2 times larger than our place in Philly and at nearly 1/4th of the cost (Yep, the cost of living is ridiculous, but I'll get to that later ).  Plus it has 3 bathrooms - that's 2 more than we had in Philly. One even comes with a urinal... What convenience!!!!.


This is one of at least 4 stalls at Chatuchuk Market
that feature plastic fruit - AT LEAST 1 of 4!!!!

Within the first 5 days we successfully found a place to live, rented a scooter (by the month), navigated the cell phone SIM card issues (I have an unlimited data and calling plan for $25 - how bout them apples AT&T?), shopped at the largest outdoor market in the world and at our local market which would put the Italian Market to shame at least 8 times over. While Megan shopped at our local Sammakorn weekend market I began taking the scooter for a spin and seeing if I could handle the traffic.  Yep... I can handle the traffic. 

To be honest I never thought my weaving through Philadelphia traffic on my road bike would be a transferable skill.  Every day we scoot to and from work - a distance a little over 9km or about 5.5miles for those playing at home.  In the morning it's smooth sailing as it's only 6:15 in the morning.  On the way home traffic can be backed up nearly a kilometer waiting for a light to change - but that would be obnoxious to wait for - so I use my Philly cycling skills to find my way to the biker gang waiting at the front of all the traffic.  Running on the middle line between lanes we squeeze in between cars all the way to the front.  When I'm particularly close to the two cars I get an extra squeeze from Meg - half fearful of hitter her leg on a car, half loving reminder that I'm really close to the car.  Thus far I have only clipped one car mirror with the scooter ("Tis but a Scratch")

 

Beyond regularly seeing images - like the one on the left - of small children riding in their parent's laps not to mention 5 grown people on a single scooter what has been astounding is drivers' awareness of scooters.  Unlike in the States - which is clearly a dominant car culture - here in Thailand, where scooters are ever present drivers appear to be universally aware of scooters whether we are in our own lane (and they're merging) or we're riding the middle line during heavy traffic.  The single best part of the scooter is waiting at the front of the very long line of traffic (four lanes wide) with 20-40 other scooters  and taking off as a giant scooter pack as soon as the light turns green.  It's not only nice to be at the front of all that congestion, but it's also fun to zip off into a little open space while the cars are behind.

The final piece (at least for this blog post) of settling in thus far has been my continued astonishment at how affordable things are.  We have had so many meals in the past 2 weeks that have cost no more than $2 per person.  If we really want to splurge we'll get an appetizer of Morning Glory (not the flower; but a thin spindly green that gets fried - pictured here - it's delicious), two main dishes and a 500mL Singha beer to split and we'll spend about $8.  In fact we went out with some returning Ruamrudee International School staff members and I nearly fell over when our final bill totaled $17.  I felt like it was highway robbery.  All I know is eating at a Garces Restaurant in the future will be a difficult experience to swallow (metaphorically speaking - because I do miss the cheese and meats of Garces Trading Company just a little bit).  Nevertheless, I haven't come across a meal I haven't liked (even when it wasn't what I ordered #needtolearnThai) and for the most part have not craved any particular Western Foods.  Furthermore, based on the high quality of food and its inexpensive nature we have taken to Thai culture by eating out far more than we're cooking.  At this point we are planning on cooking maybe one meal a week and simply buying our dinner from local markets/food stands on our way home each day.  Definitely not a bad life :)

At the end of this blog post it's probably only fitting to connect to the Blog's title.  Thus far we have noticed that Angry Birds are exceedingly popular here in Thailand.  I thought the t-shirts and stocking caps in Philly were prevalent enough.  Here you can have them on your pajamas (semi-normal) as a pillow (a little odd, but still kind of normal), as your soccer football (also kind of normal) as your chips (weird), and now the first in the world.... as your juice (yep that's weird and probably greatly unhealthy)  

Any who, they are so popular that others clearly want to show others how much they love their Angry Birds.  The only problem is when you proclaim your love, in a permanent way, for anything let alone something as silly as Angry Birds you probably should be aware of it's full spelling.  Needless to everyday when we pass the ANGY Birds I wonder if I can start a black market with the Birds that are ANGIER than the originals. :)

 

Until later, we hope all are well wherever you may be and look forward to connecting with you soon. I leave you with a photo of Meg and I wearing a traditional Thai dance pant as we make the dance symbol for love (and okay maybe we craved one thing from the States - Thailand also runs on Dunkin).  Sawasdee!