Bangkok Life Update: Last Baht Comics

Hello, friends!

I've just got a brief announcement today! I would like to tell you a bit about my newest project www.lastbaht.com.

Eventually, we plan to make it a blog about traveling and saving money in Thailand (and how to save your Last Baht... get it?), but for now it's a platform on which we will be sharing not only our favorite travelogue videos (Square Umbrella and Golden Land for now), but also our newest endeavor:

Patuxai (see: A Weekend in Vientiane)

It's an idea we've been discussing for a while. Pinky and I have started a small webcomic about our life in Thailand and about our adventures traveling around Asia. We plan to someday create something of a comic book travel guide. For now, it's just a fun project that we can work on together.

(See: A Tale of Two Castles)

Please check it out, and if you enjoy what you see, give us a "like"! You can also follow all of our updates on Facebook at http://facebook.com/squareumbrella, where we also post our favorite pictures from our Instagram account, @beer_and_icecream.

Thanks!

And now... it's almost time for the TERM HOLIDAY and three weeks off from work!!!!!

Bangkok Life Update: A Long Semester

This has been a long semester. And while it's not exactly over yet, the hardest parts are almost behind me. Today is the last day of teaching for the first semester of the Thai Year 2559.

When the semester began four months ago, I was full of energy and ready for the new year! But now I'm tired, and I'm ready for a break.

It's been a good year, but a lot more work than before. This year I got promoted to a permanent faculty member at my school (instead of a temporary visiting teacher), which comes with more privileges, but also more responsibilities.

I'm also tutoring more; a few hours every night and on Saturday. I've started my first semester of my Master's studies online at Johns Hopkins, and I need the extra money to pay for it. Of course, this also takes up a lot of my time as well, on top of working full-time. I have one day off on Sunday, which is my laundry and studying day, and I haven't had the time to travel much at all this year.

Don't get me wrong, overall it's been a good year, and I've had some great moments, but needless to say, I am very ready for final exams to be finished and for the October term holiday to begin! One more week of finals, one week of grading, the I'm off for the rest of the month!

Language Day

Nearly two years and 101 blog posts ago, my school held our last Academic Fair. That was a three-day event held to honor the 60th birthday of the Thai princess, and was open to students from other schools in the city. This year's was a smaller affair, just one day, only for our students, and only for the language departments.

Last time, our theme was English Tea Garden. This year it's America's turn! Our chosen theme was "American Fun Fair", and would involve a lot of food at our concession stand!

At the grocery store with my department last week, I tried to hide when the Thais got very excited about a chef's outfit they had found. For some reason, they love to dress the foreigners in silly outfits. In the end, I had no choice!

food team preparing for the day

Luckily, I wasn't the only one to wear a silly outfit.

my boss...

Geoffrey Kneivel

I still have no idea where that cape came from...

As part of our carnival theme, our department set up several games, the most popular being the balloon darts!

Balloon Darts game

The other language departments each had a booth too. English department had the largest area (since we are the biggest foreign language department), but Chinese department (also a core subject), which receives annual grants from the Chinese government, spent the most on their booth. I have to admit it was really impressive.

Thai department had traditional outfits and a selection of Thai snacks.

Thai snacks

The Japanese department set up shop with a very popular takoyaki and okonomiyaki stand!

Japanese department preparing takoyaki

German department (staffed by our resident German, Johanna) sold sausages.

German department selling cookies and sausage

And our French department led by Monsieur Michel, sold crepes and other popular French foods.

our French teacher setting up his booth before the fair begins

Chinese department sold a variety of imported snacks, and put on several cultural dance performances by our students in very expensive Chinese costumes. They even had two lion statues guarding their "pavilion"!

Chinese department had an impressive setup with lots of snacks

As for English department, besides our games and USA Trivia contest, we sold hot dogs, popcorn, cotton candy, and root beer, in keeping with our State Fair theme. I was in charge of organizing our student volunteers to cook the food, and even had to man the hot dog station for a while. By the end of the day my feet were aching from standing all day, and I was exhausted. It was a really fun day, but wore me out for the rest of the week!

We are getting towards final exams now! Just a few more weeks until the October holiday. I haven't been out of town for a while now, and I could really use the break. I'm looking forward to the term holiday.