Food, food, shopping, food, & more shopping

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I woke up at the crack of dawn with minimal sleep and headed downstairs for some breakfast. As it seemed the food wasn’t quite ready, my apartment headed into the gym. I of course, the only one out of all of us wore flip-flops while they all had on their running sneakers. Turns out- that didn’t matter too much as only 2 of the 8 machines worked. I decided to pedal on a broken stationary bike. We then headed to breakfast and took off our shoes. This was the first time we had to take off our shoes outside our apartment, and I felt a little uncomfortable for sure. I constantly was aware of what I was stepping on. Breakfast was beef on skewers and purple sticky rice, both wrapped in banana leafs. This meal was very tasty! Three hours later, we headed back down to the kitchen and ate lunch. As I was already full from breakfast, it was hard to think about eating another big meal. However, this meal was an exception in my book as it was incredible tasting! We had Pad Thai, sticky rice with mango and coconut sauce, a spicy side dish, and our drink was coconut milk with real coconut slices in them. After everyone was beyond satisfied with this food, we piled in a truck and headed to get our money exchanged from US $ to Thai Baht. After arriving at one bank and sitting down, they decided that our group was too large and split us up and sent half of us around the corner to a different bank. This bank, seemed to be very challenging as it felt like we spent nearly an hour in there. They required us to do a group conversion instead of individual conversions. After figuring out the rate per each bill and who gave what, they rejected $200 as it wasn’t up to par. These bills may have had rips or ink stains. Luckily, I had $200 in hundred-dollar bills that were in mint condition. After our conversion was done, we divvied up the money which took another bit of time. Finally, we headed out the bank’s door and took a trip to our first shopping stop! These stores were along the road in a city. It was a nice exposure to the shopping life in Thailand. Our buddies were able to bargain for us and help us choose store where we can look for items that suit our taste. As they told us we would go shopping tonight, we didn’t spend too much as it was also thought to be more expensive where we were. After arriving back to BCNC, my roommates and I crashed on the couch in our apartment as the couch is more comfortable than our beds. We were all almost sound asleep until Katie woke us up in laughter in response to her dream. Shortly after we woke up and pointed fingers, Greg knocked on the door and told us it was time for dinner. Dinner was mushroom and pork soup with sticky rice and chicken, the side was Thailand’s traditional fried egg. After dinner, we rode in a car with an elongated back where we all sat on benches facing towards the center. This was a pretty neat ride as we rode to the Walking Street. Walking street was very overwhelming as there were huge amounts of people that you had to push through to see anything. Thank goodness, our buddies were there to take the lead and barter for us! This shopping experience ended the night successfully as we were all wiped from the day’s events and being jet-lagged.

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