Krispy Kreme

Krispy Kreme Mania has hit Thailand and hit it hard. About a month ago Thailand's first Krispy Kreme branch opened and the response was ridiculous. The line not only went around the corner, but it left the building and went down the street! There were signs along the line saying things like 'six hour wait from this point'. Six hours! It was all a part of their grand opening promotion where they were giving away tons of free donuts if you bought a dozen. The strange thing is that on day two, the line was out the door again. No free donuts but customers still waiting in long lines just to get..a krispy kreme(?). The demand has remained high which is a little baffling to me. I don't know if everyone just wants to try the donut that caused such a fuss or if they genuinely find them so delicious. Maybe it's a little bit of both.

Much Love
J

Here's a link to the article

Loy Loy Kratong

Hey Everyone! I’m really sorry for not posting anything in a long, long time. My one month internet connection in my apartment expired last week and now that I’m working full time I’ve decided to just use the internet when at work and use my time at home for other things. The only problem with that is, just like before, I don’t have any access to the internet on my days off (Mon, Tue) and I’m hesitant to transport my laptop back and forth from work on Sundays when I work in Bangna. So there goes half the week. My apologies for not being connected the past couple days, I promise I’ll be around and keep updating as often as I can. For now, there’s a couple big stories to get into to.

The first story would have to be my new girlfriend. Her name is Songtai and she works for the AIS phone service provider here in Thailand. As always, my work schedule makes it tough to find time together but we’ve managed. We had a date last Sunday which brings me to story two.

I think I’ve mentioned Loy Kratong on here before but just in case you forgot it’s one of the major holidays here. It’s always on the full moon in November and is for celebrating the end of the rainy season/ thanking the water spirits for the rice harvest. Part of the celebration is the floating of the ‘kratong’, a small little boat made of banana leaves and flowers. You’re supposed to make a wish and let it go in the water where it will float away along with all your worries. Pretty cool. You can buy pre-made kratongs all over the place on the day, or you can buy the materials and make it yourself. I had so much fun making mine last year that I had to do it again. So Andrew, Vanessa, Fern, Songtai, and I made ours up in my room and made our way down to the Chao Praya (big river running through Bangkok). It was crazy. The spot where we went is always one of the most popular to go floating so there were people everywhere. There was a concert with traditional thai dancing which is always cool. There were a dozen places to float your kratong in some stagnant water but we wanted to put em in some flowing water. We got tickets for the river taxi to take us out to the middle of the river to let them go which was definitely the way to go. The whole time you could hear the loud music of the concert and see the fireworks going off in the distance. Thailand loves fireworks on their holidays and Loy Kratong is no exception. There have actually been fireworks going off every night for weeks in preparation for the big day. Off my balcony you can see 3 or 4 separate displays at a time. Another thing the Thais love to do is release ‘kom fai’. They’re floating lanterns that take off into the sky when you light the candle inside (You’re supposed to make a wish with these too). There’s some pictures of the festival that’re making their way online and I’ll have them up here when I find them.

That’s the biggest news from the past week. I’m getting really excited for Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow, but I’ll obviously be really homesick at the same time. I think we’ll go to the same steakhouse we went to last year that had the thanksgiving buffet which promises to be delicious. I have so much to be thankful for.

much love
j

Back at It

I just finished my first week as a full-time employee of I Can Read and it's good to be back. The girl I'm taking over for works at the Sathorn center just like I did before except on weekends she travels to other centers around town, so Sundays I go down to the Bangna center (the place I was doing all that part-time work). It's been great so far with both of us jointly teaching the classes. Some of the kids still remember me from long ago which is pretty cool. Aside from that, I haven't been doing much of anything. Andrew and his girlfriend moved to an apartment down the road that has a free pool on the roof so I've been going over there on my days off. I've been having issues with visas and work permits and all sorts of paperwork which is really a drag but I think the end is in sight. We've been talking about a little trip down to Koh Samet but no real plans yet. The King's birthday (natl holiday) falls on a Sunday this year so I'm thinking that might be the best time to try..

I'll keep you guys updated on anything and everything going on over here.

Much love,
j