in the land of smiles.: getting lost

So the other day I was supposed to have my first tutoring session; Bradley had gone the week before, and had a little trouble getting to the place via bus/taxi so I was a little nervous. I was supposed to be at the place at 4:30…Bradley had told me that it had taken her about an hour to get there last time and the bus from the kindergarten had gotten back late that day so I wasn’t able to leave till a little after 4. So I decided to bypass the whole bus thing and just take a motorcycle taxi there. Armed with a map that a lady in the office had given us and the directions Bradley had given me, I sent off down the street to flag down a motor guy. I used a lot of hand motions and kept saying the location over and over to the driver and I thought he understood me…boy was I wrong. As we were zooming down the streets the driver turned around and asked to see my map again…so as he continued to drive through the busy after school traffic, he was also staring at my map trying to figure out were to take me; needless to say, I felt very safe. After about 20 minutes of aimlessly driving around town, I got a call from Bradley telling me that my tutoring session had been cancelled because the girl was sick! Just my luck! I figured instead of just telling the driver to take me to school I would just have him take me to the place so I would know for next time where to go and then I’d find someone else to drive me back to the school. So after another 10 minutes the guy finally dropped me off at this huge supermarket called Carrefour—nowhere near where I wanted to be. Buy mai pen rai, I figured I’d just go shopping! The taxi guy totally ripped me off and charged me 140baht, but since I had no idea how much it should be and couldn’t really argue, I begrudgingly paid.

The supermarket was really big and had tons of stuff…it was kinda like the thai equivalent of walmart. I wandered around the store and bought some essentials….crunchy peanut butter and granola bars. They both were ridiculously expensive, but I had been paid earlier that day and decided I deserved them. As I was wandering through the store, a thai guy comes up to me and asks me what time it is in his very broken English. He then proceeded to talk to me for the next 15 minutes asking me where I was from/what I’m doing here/where I’m living/do I want to go out on a date with him. He then proceeded to tell me that he loved me and asked if I was married. This was my cue that it was probably time to check out and head back home.

Heading home was an even bigger adventure. Since I had no idea where I was in relation to my school I figured the easiest way to get back would be to take a taxi. When I told the first driver where I wanted to go he laughed at me and said NO and sped off! Great ,I thought, im never getting home. After trying for another 15 minutes I finally found a taxi that would take me back to the school and so I was off after a very long journey. I still have no idea where the place is that I’m supposed to tutor at, but I guess I’ll find out next week.

Today I got a surprise package in the mail from one of my friends that had some of the things that I’ve been desperately missing from the states! It included: tortilla chips, salsa, bean dip, oatmeal chocolate chip cookies and a 4 LOKO! I’m going to have to save the 4 loko for a special occasion since they’re now banned in the US and this might be the last one I ever have! As you can imagine, this was a pretty great surprise and it made my day!

On another note, its December 1^st which means we’re in the final stretch till Christmas!

Love you all!