As Americans line up to make history, I write...

The weekend has now come and gone. I didn't even realize it was Halloween until my taxi driver said, "Halloween Day!" Assuming he may know a little English, I tried to say a few more easy words to him in hopes to learn some Thai, but I honestly think "Halloween Day" are the only two words in English he knows.

No judgment here... at this point all I had down in Thai was "good morning" and "thank you." The only special things about my "Halloween Day!" was the $4 pedicure (fully including sparkle flowers on big toes) and the amazing fresh spring rolls Khun Iad made for lunch and dinner! She is an amazing authentic chef.

Saturday and Sunday I went to a cool yoga conference. Took four classes each day, all with totally different focuses. The first day Teresa and I went together. Started with the Primary Series (which is what I will go and study in India), next Kundalini Yoga, then Kryoga (personal favorite of the whole day), and finished with a meditation class that was so boring and watered down that we walked out!

Karma has it that I left my pass for the conference in the class I walked out of and had a bugger of a time trying to get into the conference the next day! Took a taxi there and back- all by myself! The taxis are so fun here, all beautiful colors- florescent pinks, greens, oranges and yellows. The morning driver had his own laws of the road, he was creative. All the lanes were going too slow, so he just drove on the shoulder. Makes sense I guess, and by "too slow" I mean too slow for his preference. He liked to go fast too, I am not sure what 120 km/h equates to in mph but I think it was pretty speedy.

So I made it to the conference and had to pull the "I lost my pass and I don't speak thai" card. They wanted to charge me $9 (300 baht) but I kind of just said "no" and after awhile they kind of just said "okay." So that was cool...

Saturday's classes were Pranayama (breathing), Iynegar (sp?), Chakras- this class rocked. I was actually bummed when the teacher mentioned his wife because I was sure we would end up together forever! Finished the day with some Lion pose sequence which was pretty cool too. All in all the conference was split nicely between review and new info! Didn't make any friends though :(

Oh here's a story. So this conference had tea time between each class (so cute) and a huge spread for lunch. The first day I was like "Teresa you have got to try this delicious pasta salad thing." Yeah right, like there is fricking pasta salad here! And she responds while I am mid chew "Oh, I didn't get that because I thought it was intestines." I swallowed quickly.

I was like, "don't talk to me."

So I have been playing around with the world of vegetarianism...

Monday, Teresa took Gabriella to the doctor downtown and I tagged along. We had lunch at this super trendy loft where I had the best Pad Thai I have ever had and a fantastic coconut shake. After finding a map of the city for me, I waved them goodbye and I wandered the streets for a few hours.

I was in the "shopping center" of town. For those of you who know me at all, I tried very hard to like shopping that day. Shopping is boring in every country for this girl. Big name stores: Valentino, Gucci, Louis Vutton, Versace littered these malls.

I left all the malls, and hit the streets to take some photos (which I hope to put on here with ease some day soon.) When it started to rain (rain season is just slowing down but it has rained a bit almost every day) I hopped on the BTS sky train, took it North to the end of the line at Mo Chit and grabbed a taxi for the rest of the way home...

I am starting to be able to say where I live to the taxi drivers now. The first time I just called the front desk of the compound my aunt lives in and handed over the phone to the driver! Yesterday when I was saying to take a left on Bangkok Blvd ("leo saii bangkok boulevard") I was corrected by the driver "boul-e-WARD." He made me say it a few times with him "boul-e-ward, boul-e-ward." Right! Add Asian accent...gotta love it!

More stories coming soon...

Now I just wait to see how these elections will go... (like we all don't know!)

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