Life in Thailand--tales from the city of angels

Happy Ash Wednesday, everyone! Are we all getting ready for easter? Picked something to give up for lent? I'm a little behind, but i figure i got some time cause back home it's still early on Wednesday ;) I'm sitting here at school, killing some time before I go to mass, so I thought I'd try for a quick update. Yet another weekend in the big city--activities included lots of eatin', lots of exercise (in the form of basketball, weights and swimming), and lots of chilling. I went and checked out the Bangkok International Film Fest this weekend, which was awesome but a little strange. I picked out a Korean film called "The Duelist", which was based on a Korean manga and set in the Josean dynasty. It was a detecive/romance/action/tango film, imagine how difficult it would be to include all of these aspects in one flick--impressive! Anyways, i arrived about an hour before the film started to get my ticket--"So this film has english subtitles, right?"--these my exact words to the ticket girl, who spoke fluent english. "Yes, absolutely."--her reply to me. Confident in my choice, I went to grab some food. Half an hour later, while I'm sitting in the theatre, a man from the festival comes out to introduce the film and give some background. Just before he leaves, he says: "oh and just to make sure you know, this film will have NO english subtitles. And it's in Thai. Allright, enjoy."--leaving me, and the ten or so other foreigners sitting in slack-jawed surprise. Not only no english subtitles, the film had been dubbed into Thai. That ticket girl was lying through her teeth. I decided to stick it out anyways, and ended up loving the film--luckily the dialogue was minimal, so I could get the story from the pictures, but yet another example of "life in Thailand". The story gets stranger. As I am waiting for the elevator after the show, a 6 or 7 year old Thai boy decides to keep me company. As he munches on a bag of popcorn, he sees that I am woefully lacking in the snack department, and kindly offers me some. Now, I don't even like popcorn, but of course out of politeness I have some, and thank him. I chat a little bit with him as the elevator descends, and at the ground floor, he starts to follow me. Having quickly exhausted my knowledge of the Thai language, I look for a translator to ask where his parents are, or if he's ok, or where he's going. After some walking around, a couple of phone calls, and a trip to a roadside food vendor, I finally manage to locate a translator. I find out the boy's parents may be at home, which is a bus ride away. No idea how he got to the theatre or got the popcorn. So i bought him some food, gave him bus money, and left him with a matronly looking Thai woman. My translator shared a tuk-tuk with me to Khao San rd (where i was meeting friends), during which time I found out the boy may have just been bait, to lead me to his gang of older friends who would politely but firmly relieve me of my wallet, valuables and health. Like I said, "life in Thailand".

Anyways, other highlights include going to the awesome guitar bar (Parking Toys) in Kaset Nawamin for some Cat Stevens, Tracy Chapman and Jack Johnson covers, followed by an enthusiastic 7 piece Thai ska band. Also, I ended up going to hear a british soul singer named Simon Webbe, formally of a boy band called Blue? Remember the band competing for the Christmas record sales title against the old dude in "Love Actually"? Yeah, the black dude from that group! Weird. He also sucked, but meh, another experience.

All else is well except my internet at home is broken again, ah well. Send me emails please, or at least a comment or two. Love to my friends and family, and infinite slippery banana peels to my enemies. Hahaha, just kidding. Maybe not infinite.