Football and Flowers

On Monday night I went to a soccer match in the National Stadium, which is located at the end of my street (literally, a 30-second walk). The Thailand National Football team handily defeated Macau 6-1 in a very exciting but not-so-suspenseful game. Every time Thailand scored, a huge Thai flag was passed up an entire section of the crowd and occasionally fireworks exploded overhead. Thankfully, I happened to be wearing yellow (the team's color) because it was a Monday (when everyone wears yellow to show their love for the King). Unfortunately, one of our crew was caught in green (Macau's color), and she suffered more stares (near glares) than the usual you're-out-of-place looks.

After the game, a few of us went to a 24-hour flower market in Chinatown. B-E-A-U-T-I-F-U-L! Naturally, my camera ran out of batteries shortly after our arrival, so you will just have to trust me that the colorful display was breathtaking. I don't know where all of those flowers could possibly come from, nor where all of the people were to buy the hundreds of thousands of roses, orchids, etc.

A large vegetarian festival is currently underway in the streets of Chinatown and random neighborhoods. I've enjoyed some very delicious dishes featuring faux duck, tofu, mushrooms, Chinese vegetables, and more! I'm a particularly big fan of fried taro pancakes, coconut milk concoctions, and anything with ripe mangoes.

As for the business side of things- we are three days into our five-day teaching stint at a Bangkok middle school. The two-hour lessons give us a great chance to prepare for what is to come when the semester officially starts in a couple weeks. I'm convinced that I will come out of the bathroom with my skirt tucked into my underwear or something like that, but thankfully, my only experience with "losing face" involved smearing blue whiteboard marker across my face. I only wonder how long it was there before I figured it out...