Khang Bn: Mopey Sunakh Kea
My weekends have begun to take a trend towards doing school work, (prepare for my week ahead) shop for essentials and watch football (Soccer). The latter is somehow difficult to justify. The earliest games being played in the Euro Cup are televised at 11 PM Thai time or Indochina Time Zone. There were three games last night and the game that I wanted to watch came on at 2 AM, (Austria vs. Portugal). Shost is an Austrian name and my grandfather was born there. My family visited Austria three years ago, and believe it is one of the prettiest and cleanest countries in the world. My hotel, here in Bangkok, did not have cable to carry the game, so I walked a mile to a bar that was staying open all night.
I met Johannes, Katharina and Lisa Ziaser. (Yoo hans and Kah tah reena) were from Austria. I was asked to join them at their table. Johannes and Katharina came to Bangkok for an international swim meet to be with their friend Lisa. Turns out that she is swimming in the Rio Olympics this summer. In 2012 in London, Lisa finished overall 18th in the 200M. If the race was determined by beauty, she would have won.....Just saying. They spoke English as well as I do and were super friendly, especially when I said my grandfather came to America from Vienna when he was a teenager. I had Lisa sign one of my business cards and promised to root for her over Katie Ledecky (U.S.A. and reigning world champion).
Above: Cut and pasted Google pics of Lisa Ziaser, Austrian Olympic Swimmer.
I showed them family pictures and she asked to meet Dalton. My camera was at the hotel!
S#@t.
Oh ya, I went to a bar to watch Austria vs. Portugal. Everyone let out a large boo when Rinaldo for Portugal was introduced. Johannes said that he is a Big spoiled brat! The joke was on Ronaldo, who on a night of incredible chances, missed a penalty, missed sitters, missed free-kicks and had a goal ruled out for offside. But it was also on Portugal, whose failure to win a game they totally controlled may cost them dearly. We all felt that there was no doubt Portugal was going to score, but soon fate took over and the game ended in a draw. That was a win for Austria! We made a cardboard sign during the game for our table, (I had my Austria shirt on to avoid being USA).
"Go Austria". It was worth staying up until 4:10 AM. Wow! As we left, many people patted us on the back and shook hands with us and said,
"Go Austria". My Austrian counterparts were flying to Milan, Italy at 9:00 AM...no sleep for them, but they had a 9 hour flight to doze on.
Obviously that was the weekend highlight but I have included some pictures also and a video or two. Did I title this "condensed"?
Below: Pad Thai, Garlic Shrimp and Thai fried noodle. They give me a complimentary Thai fried noodle as soon as I sit down at my table. You raise your hand and five waiters arrive in seconds.
My trip is 2/3 over and it has been very educational for me and I hope my students will say the same on Thursday. The online course never worked out, so it has been face to face meetings, which I have really loved since some days, I have "To Much Time On Hands." (Styx)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMpW2dBeeUg.
Here are a couple of videos of "life in BKK".
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