The Bug Falang: Day 155: Friday 8th of April 2016

Day 155
Friday 8th of April 2016

Did a small amount of work in the morning today, the stage was already set for an office party when I arrived. I did briefly see my staff. Well one of them.
Lunch started at about 11am and was held in the carpark, with full canopy plastic chairs and foldout tables. Food included rice paper rolls, fried chicken and rice dishes. The chicken looked good, but we had no idea how long it had been outside in the 40c sun, we stuck to non meat dishes.
We took part in a baci ceremony with associated nonunderstanding and had rice thrown at us, sometimes the rice had lollies in it.
We took part in many selfies (the younger staff love selfies) while I avoided dancing by checking on "work" in the office.
Eventually a hose was brought out and people were sprayed with water, a tradition I was led to believe didn't start until Wednesday next week. As I was carrying my passport, phone, notepad, wifi router and wallet, I decided to take my leave to go to language class (2.5 hours early).
Brought some new board shorts for next week that will dry quickly at the market, before heading to my last language class by samlot (tuktuk).
After class I headed up to the new shopping center I found out just opened. It looked up to western standards, although no international chains and only a small range of shops offering what is for sale elsewhere at this point in time. The AC was like a blizzard in the doorway.

Walked home stopping for pad thai on the way, spoke to a volunteer I hadn't met before and we lamented about the lack of critical thinking training provided to students.