Stamp that passport

I never do finish a whole post because I get so annoyed with how slow our internet is where we live. It is slowly hitting us that we only have a week left in Bangkok teaching, then almost two weeks to travel around, I want to cry just thinking about it! This weekend has been great though to say the least! Friday night we went and watched some old Thai dancing/play (yawn) and then went out to a local restaurant/bar and listened to a band play. While we were there we met two guys from South Africa that work at our competing rivalry school here and talked to them for most of the evening. As usual we went from casual conversation about Bangkok and teaching, to american politics (not by choice) and then to religion. Both the guys were in their late twenties, grew up as christians, and "quit believing once they got educated." Now Christin and I are not ones to argue and prove right or wrong when it comes to religion, so we let them do most of the talking at first. I think because we weren't aggressive about it one of them was really interested to hear what we believed and why. Of course they kept making snide little comments about us being Christians, but overall it was a good night and conversation. It's crazy that we work at a "christian college" here and you can probably count on one hand how many faculty/students are christian. Most people we've met here are like "ooh christians ay? We better watch out or they'll judge us!" It's REALLY disheartening that christianity has that reputation not just overseas (but its worse where christianity is so small) but also among non christians in America. Anyways, so yesterday I went out and explored some of the big malls and marts on my own for the first time and bought two full outfits, but you'll never believe how much I spent all together ($15!!) That is two dresses, two pairs of shoes, two headbands, an ice cream and a smoothie!! Its so big and gorgeous here, the 2nd and 3rd pictures is the area I was shopping at by where we live :) They just put out a bunch of huge tigers heads getting ready for CHINESE NEW YEARS!!! It's february 14th and we definitely plan to celebrate it since we were traveling during our new years :( Christin and I got ready around 5 and went a few train stops up to a place called Sala Daeng where we had a mexican dinner with virgin margaritas, it was really authentic food too (not like las mas lol). After that we shopped around Patpong which is an area of little marts, food, music, and all those sort of beauties of Thailand. We walked by this one area (the picture of neon lights saying "dream boy, fresh beach boy, future boys" etc, yeah, the door was open to one of them and as they were haggling us to come in we saw these teenage asian boys all standing in line, in their white tighties with a number pinned to them. We asked the owner what it was (obviously having a good idea) and he said "women or gay men come and by them for 400-1000 baht (thats $12-$30) for sex or whatever they want. We could see some old white men sitting in there just starring at the boys and we literally freaked out. We left that street and walked a good five minutes in silence. Talk about ruining your night, we were in tears looking at those young boys, we have kids at our school no younger then them!! Ugh it was so disgusting. But needless to say we left that street and shopped some more. We met two guys from New York and hung out and talked with them for a bit, super cool guys! Greg and I wore our tattoo sleeves around all night lol. Since we had a really early dinner we sat at a table out on the street and had some delicious Pad Thai with the boys, but little did we know the whole area we were in was a homosexual area! Christin and I slowly realized we were the only REAL girls (as oppose to the many lady boys around us) on the street hahah.We went upstairs to this Karaoke area and sang for like an hour with 5-10 gay guys, where we met our first southern american!! He was from Nashville with a cute little Thai boyfriend, and his dad is a southern baptist preacher. We had an absolute blast!! One said, "Hmm girl, you dress very pretty" lol. The best part was that we sang Thai songs and we just sang what was on the screen and they were like "you girls Thai very very good!!" Obviously we didn't have a clue what we were saying, but they loved singing some old American music. Christin and I sang "have you ever seen the rain" and they danced around with us and chimed in. Great times. I love the big city, the different people we meet along the way, and the food. I don't want to leave. We slept in today and I woke up sore from all the dancing (excuse me, "creative movement") so I went and got a Thai massage to start the day for 200 baht ($6). You can't beat that, my body is going to go into shock when I get back and don't have my thai and foot massages every week!!