All is quiet in Bangkok ... in preparation for the Super Bowl! Actually, today was election day and the government bans restaurants and bars from serving alcohol the night before the election. I wonder if voting while drunk was a big problem here?
I stayed in Bangkok this weekend to work on a paper and make sure I could watch the Super Bowl tomorrow morning. That's right, the Super Bowl is on bright and early at 6:30 AM! Instead of nachos and beers, I'll probably be ordering breakfast in bed. It definitely doesn't feel like the right way to watch the Super Bowl, but from what I'm reading about Jacksonville, its a strange place to be having it, so I guess its somehow appropriate.. Regardless, as long as the Pats win, all will be right!
I posted a bunch of new pictures from cooking class (see below) and some other food I've been eating. (Sorry, if the food pictures are annoying, but that's all you get this time around).
On Saturday, Marc and I took a cooking class from the Baipai Cooking School. The class was very professionally run and was actually a decent deal (most of the other Bangkok cooking schools were at least twice the price). The school had an open air kitchen and we each had our own station. Similar to the other class I took, the teacher would demonstrate the dish, we would taste it and they we would make our own. Everything we made was different from what I did last time, so I'm developing quite a collection of Thai recipes. Could a restaurant be far behind? My favoriate this time around was learning how to make chicken satay, one of my favorites. Needless to say, we were both stuffed afterwards.
Last night, I went to dinner with the other Fuqua guys and a couple, Joseph and Elsa, that our classmate, Ken Nimitz, introduced us to. They took us to this amazing Italian restaurant called Antonio's Trattoria. One of the better Italian restaurants I have been to in awhile, in the States or otherwise. Joseph and Elsa were friendly with the owner, Antonio, and he took good care of us. Even though the alcohol ban was still in effect, he served us wine (bottle after bottle of it, in fact). Things got a little hairy toward the end of the meal when the Thai police walked into the restaurant. I had visions of the Bangkok Hilton, but luckily a little sweet talking and they left (perhaps some Baht was involved?).
Two other interesting things from the meal. First, wine is really expensive here. It is basically a luxury item that is taxed heavily and is expensive to buy in restaurants or otherwise. Its the one thing I've seen that is basically the same price (dollar-wise) as in the States.
Second, I had a really great conversation with Joseph about what it is like to be an expat working in Thailand (or really any other foreign country). He told me that people used to do it because it was a great way to make money (as you might imagine an American salary in Thailand could provide some wiggle room for savings), but that's not as true anymore. The experience, however, can't be beat - they've been all over the world and as I've learned just by being here for a couple months, you can be introduced to a place over a vacation, but you really need to strap in and live there to learn the intricacies. And of course, by Bangkok standards, they are living quite well, as I imagine most of the working expats do. With that said, they admitted to missing home at times and said the adjustment was severe (especially since they started living abroad right before 9/11). Definitely an interesting way of life (and work) to hear about.
Other than that, I've actually been doing a lot of school work this weekend (I know some of you had been wondering if I ever do that type of stuff)... I'm off to bed to mentally prepare for the Super Bowl! GO PATS!
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