Weekends o' Fun

The start of the school year isn't so bad. You are excited to have a fresh start. You have a closet full of new bought-in-the-US-but-made-in-Cambodia clothes that you can't wait to wear. You get to catch up with students, colleagues, and friends.You get to meet a batch of fresh, wide-eyed new teachers and students. And then all of that excitement wears off by about....oh....day 3 of 190. And then every Monday morning you think, "What am I going to do this weekend? When can I get out of Bangkok?"

Our first 2 years abroad Ryan and I saw our weekends as opportunities for new adventures. Friday afternoons at 2:35 on the dot, tunes blaring in our sweet, rented Toyota Yaris, we looked forward to a  a short but intense time to see a new town, visit the beach, or walk through the rainforest.  But we've learned to take things a bit more slowly. More slowly? In Thailand? Really? Yes, really. Because during our first 2 years in Thailand, we thought we were still studying abroad in college. We thought we could use all our energy partying and have enough leftover to get some work done. We thought we could recover from a hangover in 24 hours. We were wrong.

Now many of our weekends are spent in the city. We eat breakfast, we read the newspaper, we call our families, he watches football and plays poker, I quilt and go to yoga. In short, we are old.

But we still manage to have a good time. Last month we went to the US-Thailand pro women's volleyball match. Now that was a real treat because most events in Bangkok a) revolve around shopping or soccer, b) involve outlandishly bad Thai cover bands, or c) are not advertised in English.  And although the US easily beat Thailand in 3 sets, we had a great time. Some of the highlights included:

• listening to the US national anthem get cut off midway (what the *!-% ?)
• watching our friend Isaac's heart go pitter patter when fellow Texas A&M alum came out on the court (Gig 'em, Stacy!)
• it was free AND there was no traffic getting there
• not being allowed to purchase alcohol in the stadium, but being allowed to bring it in from outside (6 beers + 2 waters for less than $8 at a sporting event is a first!)

Nit Noi also likes volleybon!

Winning is good!

And a couple of weekends ago we managed to get away to visit one of our favorite area outside of Bangkok, Khao Yai. Ambitious bike rides, runs, and hikes in the rainforest have been replaced with sipping wine, playing cards, playing frisbee golf, and enjoying the view of the valley. Perhaps we are becoming more Thai than we've realized. 

Ryan designed the sit-in-the-swing-around-the-tree hole. Curse you, Ryan!

All that relaxation makes us happy!