Better Late Than Never!

I realise my birthday was a couple of weeks ago however midterms have kept me from updating my blog for a while, so here goes...

My birthday in Thailand was awesome! Despite the fact I was less than impressed with being another year older, and trying in vain to convince everyone that since I'm in a different country, my birthday was non-existant or somehow didn't count, I had such a fun weekend. Since Amber's 21st was 2 days after my birthday (we won't mention how old I turned), we had decided to celebrate together with a dinner on the Monday night but what Amber didn't know was that Lisa, Annie and I had planned to suprise her with a weekend in a hotel in Bangkok. FYI, don't ever try to surprise someone like this. It's hard, it's stressful and since they don't actually know that you're going to be surprising them, they get kinda mad when they think nobody cares about their birthday! Yes, Amber, I'm talking to you!

So we headed into Bangkok on the Friday to have lunch at the Outback Steakhouse (not terribly Outback-ish really. Although I did have a crownie!), telling Amber that Lisa was headed to the beach for the weekend and I was meeting a friend and spending the night with her. Only the stories we came up with were much more detailed and elaborate than that. So as Lisa distracted Amber by taking her to a grocery store that sells American & Aussie food, Annie and I checked into the hotel (the same one I stayed at with Leah & Shaun the weekend before, scoring a free upgrade in the process) and when it was FINALLY ready, Lisa and Amber headed up. We took Amber to her room, telling her it was my room and I reckon it took her a good 3 minutes before she realised what was going on. It was so funny! It's a good thing she's pretty because clearly she's not too clever! (Just kidding Amber... Maybe....) And it turns out that those sneaky little minxes had in fact pulled off a double suprise, buying me wine, cheese, crackers, saladas, twisties and a bunch of other stuff while they were at the store! Cheeky much?!?

Saturday was spent shopping (of course) in a crowded mall, with my tolerance levels slowly but surely decreasing. Until we headed back to the hotel, stopping at a mexican restaurant for frozen margarita's. Amazing what a cocktail can do for my mood! After a dip in the pool, we headed back to the mexican restaurant for dinner which was sooo good. Seriously, just thinking about it makes me want to head into Bangkok for more of it. Like, I'm actually considering it right now. It's not that far. Only an hour or so by taxi... I got surprise number 2 at the restaurant when we were given cocktails and I was sung happy birthday to by all the staff! Nawwww!!! I will have fond memories of Coyote's Mexican restaurant in Sukhumvit. I will not have fond memories of the rats just outside. From there it was off to a London Pub for a few more drinks, a couple of games of pool, a cover band that just about had Annie and I wetting ourselves with excitement when they first song they played was Dancing Queen (we automatically turned into those girls that start screaming and saying things like "it's my song!") and yet another surprise when the band sang happy birthday to me! Loves it!!

We had to head back to our dorm on the Sunday, which was my actual birthday, but not before I bought more wine, cheese and snacks to enjoy with the rest of the people from Green Park! It was the perfect way to spend a birthday, until I got felt up later in the night by the lady from the Thai whiskey stand... Interesting.

The past week has been a little crazy with midterm exams and essay's due, Halloween fun and the Loy Krathong festival, which was amazing. (If you haven't heard of Loy Krathong, google it. It's pretty cool). Highlights of the week were: getting yelled at by a salesgirl in MBK **see below post**, getting proposed to by a tuk tuk driver "miss, miss, you so white, very beautiful, you give me your number, we get married!" and making it to the shortlist of nominees for ActionAid Australia's Project TOTO Outreach Blogger. This is something I'm pretty passionate about (I'd want to be passionate I suppose, considering I'm studying to get a bachelors degree in Development Studies) and is a great cause. I'm stoked to have made it on to the shortlist of 12 out of the amazing 52 original nominees. If you haven't heard about ActionAid and the fantastic work they do, I suggest you pop on over to their website at: www.actionaid.org.au, or you can find out more about Project TOTO here: http://blogs.actionaid.org.au/toto/2009/10/26/project-toto-shortlist/

I'm so so so excited, although a little nervous, about the challenges I now have to undertake to hopefully get the position! Not to mention the excitement of my impending holiday! Tomorrow I'm off to Singapore and then on to the Philippines on Thursday with Jen, who I have mentioned in other blogs. I think. If I haven't, she's ace!! That's really all you need to know! Keep your fingers crossed that they don't get hit by another typhoon, not only for us, but for the poor people who live there and have been battered by crazy weather for the past few weeks!

Missing you all loads!

xoxo