No School Due to Flood :)

Well, we had quite the day yesterday here in BKK...never a dull moment! I went to bed on Tuesday night around 10:30pm and immediately heard the ting-tinging of rain on the window sill made of tin, I swear! What a design flaw that was! I went straight to the living room to sleep on the couch, escaping the awful noise, knowing I'd get no sleep in my room. Wednesday morning, Leah and I headed out the door to the Sky Train, which takes us to the bus stop. We didn't make it far because there was a MONSOON of sorts! Armed with umbrellas, we spotted a cab across the street from our building, so we splashed through higher than ankle-deep water only to find that he was waiting for another tenant! Ugh! We started our walk down the street, which was completely under water, both of us thinking about the disgusting trash and sewage that could possibly be floating in the water and was now on our skin. After only a minute or two, another cab pulled up and rescued us. He took us to On Nut where several co-workers were waiting, all fairly wet, for the bus to take us to TCIS. The bus arrived and we made the 40 minute drive to school.

The streets around school were FULL of water! I took pictures when I got off the bus and I took more on the ride home. Unreal! Many of the poor people who live in the community had homes completely flooded. It's very sad. But, there were others laughing and having a good time in it. People were on bikes and scooters slowly creeping through the deep waters.

Our students were psyched because an announcement was made around 2:30pm that school is cancelled tomorrow!!! In Saipan we had a tsunami day, in Minnesota there are snow days, and here it's rain days. I'll take it! It had been raining for at least 16 hours and there was no end in sight. Cheers from students were heard all around school! I'm still not sure who was more happy, though, teachers or students.

In the teacher's lounge, there was already talk of where the evening outing would be. I went home, worked out and showered, and headed to the Witch's Tavern around 9:00pm (just in time to miss the free drink special for ladies) to meet a bunch of TCIS teachers. John, a co-worker, said in the three years he's been here, it's never rained like this. Although, I can't understand the news, it did show a picture of a measuring stick and it was up to 30...it looked like inches, but they use the metric system, so I'm confused as to what unit of measurement they were using.

There was a pretty good band at the Witch's Tavern, the singer reminded me of Lovely from Sam's Bar in Saipan. I had a couple of Heinekens and we were off to the Q-Bar, which turned out to be pretty fun, except for the fact that somebody somehow helped themself to 3000 baht ($75) in my wallet. I'm totally clueless as to how this happened, especially because around 800 baht was left in my wallet and my purse was lodged underneath my arm pit all night, but nonetheless I was 3000 baht poorer this morning. I had taken my wallet out of my purse only once to buy a beer and I gave the guy 1000 baht (the beer was probably around 120 baht). I didn't count the change, but I saw him pulling the bills out and it looked like it was around the proper amount, so I stuffed it into my wallet (out of order, which bugged me at the time, but I figured I could organize it later - :). I went to Bali Bar, a pretty cool, partially outdoor bar with Sandra and Kellie, but we sat at a table by ourselves and my purse was in my lap the whole time. A little perplexing, but not a big deal. These things happen occasionally, but it's usually when you're intoxicated and not paying close attention.

Today during our day off, a few of us are heading to yoga and then we'll probably relax and get ready for school tomorrow. After school tomorrow, the majority of the staff will hop on a bus and head west to Kanchanaburi http://www.pungwaan-riverkwai.com/ for another staff bonding trip. This one is the official bonding trip, whereas the last one in Koh Samet was the unofficial/party one. We were instructed that there is no drinking during this trip. Apparently, two years ago, Curt, the counselor, had a few too many and headed down the slide naked! The board of directors and the administration attend these trips, so that didn't make for a very good impression.

I hope you all have a great weekend! I miss you! xoxo