Wet and Dry

The end of June found me sitting around trying to finish a unit from the online TEFL course I'm taking, write an article about learning differences in gender in Thailand, and writing a manual about Backwards Planning Design and Authentic Assessment for 2 trainings I will lead at the end of this month. Sound exciting? Well... it is...a little...for me at least.
Jumped on a train 2 weeks ago and drank whiskey and cokes until I fell asleep. Wait. No. That needs to be corrected: drank SUPER CHEAP whiskey and cokes until the train steward (is that what they're called?) made my bed and I took an Ambien. At this point in my blog I would like to give a shout-out to Dr. Rit who hooks me up properly with anything I need.
Got into Bangkok and spent several days lounging around with Alec. We went swimming, got massages, ate lots of Italian food (I had the best caprese salad of my life and couldn't stop thinking about it for days), drank wine, and went to an amazing aquarium. Not necessarily what you think of when you think of PC, but you know, sometimes we need a little break. It was actually the best time I've had in Thailand, and I've been to some pretty spectacular beaches and jungles.
From there I traveled to Korat, also known as the gateway into Isaan. What does that mean to you? Not a thing - it's just the first major city that marks northeast Thailand. I did a quick presentation about teaching for community development volunteers and then went back into Korat to explore.
We spent the first day walking around, community-mapping (a new verb) the city and finding acceptable places to eat/drink/go out. We pit-stopped several times and ended up at a bar/club where you could choose the Thai girl that you wanted to take a bath with. We opted for the pub instead.
Korat has one of the biggest malls in Thailand which includes a water park. I spent 2 afternoons there. The best part - the water wasn't over 3 feet deep, so I never felt like I was going to drown. It was perfect. Well, perfect for me. Peter didn't like the bruises he got from shooting out of the water slide into 2 feet of water.

So now I'm home but without school this week. Sports day is this Thursday and Friday, and since all the elementary schools compete, everyone is canceling classes to get ready.

And I think because I got so much water last weekend, karma is smacking me in the face.
I came home to no running water and I'll be on day 3 tomorrow. I've been showering at a friend's house, but by the time I ride my bike home I'm all sweaty again.
I've been assured that it will be fixed tomorrow. Since Thais are really good about telling you what you want to hear, I'm going to take this as a, "You have a 50% chance of getting water tomorrow". I'm surprisingly not upset by this. In fact, it's not phasing me at all.

Random:
-There's a club in Korat called Bar-nana
-The aquarium in BKK has penguins and otters
-A Thai man challenged me to "a jog" down the 3rd class train car
-I saw a 3-year-old girl pole dance at a BKK bar
-At certain stores in BKK they refuse to take your credit card if the back says, "See ID"
-I got a bug in my eye while biking home today - I think it stung my eyeball
-Night buses back to my site are HORRIBLE. They turn the lights on every half hour.