ฝนตกทุกๆวัน

ที่นี้ฝนตกทุกๆวันเลย แปลกมากๆ เพราะว่าเวลาฝนตกรถติดร้ายมากและคนส่วนใหญ่ไปถึงช้ามาก ให้แอนดี้มันไม่เป็นไรนะ ไม่มีกำหนดการจริงๆ แต่ว่าเลวาแอนดี้เขียนนี้อยู่ ผมไปเจอเพื่อนช้ามากแล้ว ไม่ดี ทุกครั้งรถเมล์ไปตรงนิดหน่อยทำให้ผมรู้สึกตกใจ อิอิ หวังว่าเราจะถไปถึงก่อนวันเกิดตอนอาทิตย์หน้า 555


I am trying to keep the momentum going, so this post might be more random thoughts on the past few days than anything else. Here goes:

Language Update:
- Yesterday a good friend took me to eat at the salad bar at Sizzler. It was great to see her and talk. However, yesterday was the day I started over-thinking all of my language interactions. This happened last year, too. It will take a day or two to get-over it. Just bummed, as it tested both of our patience. Luckily, she has an excess if patience.

-When I go places and talk to other people who are speaking Thai as a non-native speaker, we can understand each other just fine. But some Thai people cannot understand me at all when I say certain words. Pretty interesting.

Gym News:
-The gym has been awesome. I am going to start teaching a few if the trainers English on the off-mornings. It should be fun and will help me use Thai to explain things.

I clinch-sparred with two pros from Belgium at the gym yesterday (who didn't know each other until then) and did ok the first few rounds, then not close to ok for the last ones. I learned a lot and the fighters were gracious, but it was humbling to say the least. Turns out the one guy has a huge fight at a swanky hotel here next month. I watched him training today and was in awe of his regimen and focus. I will try to go see his fight if I am here then.

Shirt mysteries:
-One shirt I have makes me sweat profusely for no apparent reason.

-I massively stained a t-shirt I really like within the first two minutes if wearing it and I have no clue at all how it happened.

Life Realizations:
- This morning it was raining pretty hard, but I wanted to get to the gym to train so I hoped that I might not have to wait infinitely for the bus. Today, Ganesha was definitely on my team as I waited zero seconds to get the bus. But, once on the bus, it took a while to get to Silom.

At one point, the bus was stopped and I was looking out the window at an elderly man, standing in the pouring rain adamantly trying to kick all of the water out of a puddle. I noticed a few other passengers trying to mentally process his impossible actions. This moment of shared disbelief seemed pretty unreal, until I related a mental checklist of various things in my life that might be equally as fruitless but take so much effort. Not a sad thought, but some good perspective.

Wires:
Everywhere in Bangkok is seriously a mess of wires. It is pretty insane, but awe inspiring. Two random men were just 'fixing' the elevator button console on the first floor. I saw them working on it and when the panel was open, there was just about as much electrical tape as wires. They saw me looking and then stared at me like I might help or something. None of the wires were colored, so my expertise of watching MacGyver was of no help. After they left, I took the elevator for some reason and it worked. Now, 30 minutes later it is not working at all. Maybe I should have helped.

Transportation:
- Since arriving, I have travelled by elevated train/subway, taxi*, motorbike, tuk tuk and boat. Pretty cool. (*The difference between typing 'taxi' and 'taco' on this keyboard is slim.)

Laundry:
-There are no driers in Thailand. All things air-dry outside. This is good when it is sunny, but not when it rains. My drying clothes sometimes get redampened. Socks do not dry fully, which is actually ok. I sweat so much sometimes or have to walk in puddles that there is something comforting about putting on damp socks. It cuts out the middleman and at times makes me feel like I time travel 5 minutes into the future.

People:
- I am so lazy about planning things to do other than wander around aimlessly because meeting and talking to random people is really great. I find out so much about everything that way. I went to two Hindu temples and a Burmese/Mon Buddhist temple today. Too many memorable interactions to recount.