solo in suphan

i've been here by myself since tuesday evening. it actually hasn't been as horrible as it sounds. i've gotten to watch a bunch of movies/tv shows (friday night lights is rocking my world), go running/swimming/biking a bunch, and i've done a lot of suphan exploration. and a lot of sleeping.

speaking of sleeping, something gross happened while i was asleep last night. i woke up in the middle of the night cuz i was hot and sweaty (regular occurrence) so i turned on the a/c. i heard a rattle then a PLOP on the ground. i got up to investigate and what do i find on the ground but a DEAD GECKO. indeed, a gecko died in my a/c (or maybe from the fall...i dunno, he was fully in tact but definitely dead) and then fell out at 1:30 in the morning. i got two cups to try to pick him up and be rid of him, but when i touched him he did one of those i-still-have-a-little-bit-of-life-in-me flinches. i screamed and decided he could stay there until the morning. but by the morning he was covered in ants. maybe leaving him there was a mistake.

oh, something cool happened on my run this morning. i ran into this mini parade--maybe 50-ish people dancing in the, one truck with a fancy thai umbrella and a guy in the bed, and that tell-tale band type music that accompanies parades, but with its thai twist. i think maybe they were bringing some offerings to some monks because people were carrying dishes of stuff and yellow cloth at the end of the parade. they looked at me looking at them and they were like, "DUDE, white girl! you should get involved in this!" so, red-faced and incredibly sweaty, i joined'em. i did the white man, point-your-fingers-and-shake-your-butt dance for a couple minutes, they made me take a couple pictures, and off i went.

just another day, eh?

oh, btw, i've been here by myself for so long not cuz i'm a loser (i'm pretty sure the front desk and cleaning ladies think i am..."nicki...living alone?" yes yes, just for now khum. don't worry.). it's cuz i'm waiting for mom and pops, who will be arriving in bangkok in 31 HOURS, BABY! here's to hoping the red shirts don't shut down the airport.

(p.s. they've spent the day caravan-ing around bangkok in an attempt to pretty much halt the city. they've used this time as an opportunity to also apologize to the bangkokians for disrupting their schedule by passing out pamphlets and flyers that say "red-shirt people love bangkokians." i think if i lived in bangkok and someone handed me that while they were simultaneously making it impossible for me to get around the city, i'd punch them*. but that's just me.)

(*damn english language lacking the non-gendered singular pronoun.)