ping pong?

Whew!  Spent a very busy week away from my site.

I went to another volunteer’s site where I helped run a teacher training for 3 days.  We taught about 40 primary school teachers a little bit about everything: lesson planning, classroom management, and about a million different songs and games they can use in their classes.  It was nice to get the practice because I am sure I will eventually have to run my own training one of these days. 

at the hot springs

After the training, I spent a long weekend in Bangkok.  It is hard to believe that a city THAT big is just a few hours away from my small farming town.  My favorite part of the trip was visiting Chatuchak weekend market.  It was massive – 35 acres with more than 8,000 vendors.  Needless to say, I spent a ton of money and cannot wait to go back for more.

I also got to experience Bangkok nightlife.  A group of volunteers celebrated Cinco de Mayo with delicious Mexican food and a few too many margaritas.  I saw and heard some really crazy things while we were out at night (this is a family friendly blog so I will not elaborate) and had way too much fun.  I also got my fix of farang (foreigner) food and ate enough to hold me over for a while.

Overall, I would say my first real trip to Bangkok was a success.  Too bad I spent almost an entire month’s salary in 3 days. Oops…