Butterfly on a Window at Work

Big as your hand.

Christmas (music) in July

One of the Western-style supermarkets (I use this term loosely) plays American pop music- or at least American pop music covers by Asian artists. 

They play a LOT of Ke$ha. 

Yesterday, they played Mariah Carey's 'All I Want For Christmas'. The employees had no idea why we were laughing... 

Or why Nick was making this face:

He really really likes Christmas music. 

Friday night shenanigans

Night market view from Bor Pehn Yang (spelling?) rooftop bar

Melia's going away dinner at Xang Khoo 

And then we went home- Jesse , Nick and I shared the scooter. Way too many white people on the White Ninja.

Case of the Mondays

I saw 'Office Space' this weekend. That's a great movie. So incredibly grateful that no one at my office never says 'Looks like someone has a case of the Mondays'. 

But yesterday on our way to work, we came upon a car that was stuck on the side of the road - it's rainy season, and the 'road' in front of our apartment is dirt. So we got out to help the driver, along with a couple neighbors who were spectating. Neither the driver or our neighbors spoke English and so most of our offer to help was pantomime. In our efforts of pushing the car forward or trying to get her to reverse on a bunch of wood boards, we managed to get her WAY more stuck. And then we gave up, got back in our car, and drove around the poor girl stuck in a ditch. (Her boyfriend HAD just arrived to help so I didn't feel SUPER super bad, but I still felt awful.) 

Case of the Mondays 

Thursday night salsa dancing

Thursday night a large group of us went to salsa at Martini, a bar downtown that hosts weekly classes. We started the evening with sangria ... Which was 160,000 kip ($23) for one liter. Literally the most expensive drink I've had in Laos. 

The bar starts with a Intro Salsa class at 9pm, which is good because while our group is fun and always willing to try something new, they also have no idea how to salsa. 

The White Ninja

Nick and Jesse both bought their scooters... I'm getting mine this week, hopefully :) until then Nick sometimes lets me ride on the back of his White Ninja (the nickname I have the bike... Really it's just a Kolao Classic) 

And for good measure here's one where he looks drunk (he wasn't) 

But seriously dude what's with the creeper eyes

Visions of the glorious common cold

I had a cold this week. Really not worth posting about, I supposed, except to say (and I feel like most people will agree with this statement):

When you get sick, it doesn't really matter how awesome and kind your boyfriend is, or how supportive your coworkers are, or how understanding your team lead is... All you really want is your mom to tuck you into bed and bring you soup. 

But a 14 hr time difference makes even phone calls difficult, so this is how I adapted:

Lentil soup at the Berliner German bar.

Patuxai at night

This is really close to our apartment -

Apparently it was made from airport runway concrete from old US airports, donated to Laos. Probably not how the US intended it to be used, but pretty nevertheless.

It's like the Lao l'Arc de Triomphe

The first of the Moto-skateers (or, Nick buys a Scooter!)

Nick bought his scooter ! Kolao Classic (automatic) in white.

And then proceeded to wear his helmet in the office...

I am planning on getting one sometime soon, and I think it would be flipping sweet if we (Nick, coworker Jesse and I) get Kolao Classics that match. Nick has white, I get purple, and Jesse gets red. And we'd be the Three Moto-skateers, scooter-ing around at night and fighting crime on our matching scooters (which would have secret identities, of course)

The Lavender Avenger

The Red Demon

And the White Ninja

Or something. It's just an idea.

An idea with enormous crime-fighting potential.

First (and last?) dinner at home

First off, I'm not a great cook. Esp since my mom is an incredible cook, so I never felt the need to cook as a kid, when awesome 4 course meals were a daily thing. That being said, I still kind of like to cook. I have recipes I like, I like to have friends over and cook for them from time to time, and find that I eat way healthier (not to mention cheaper!) when cooking at home.

THIS IS NOT THE CASE IN LAOS. Cooking is, putting it mildly, a pain in the ass. Not to mention SUPER expensive, if you want to cook western food. There's a noodle place across the street from work that you can buy two drinks and two great friend noodle dishes (with veggies and everything!) for like 40,000 kip. That's $5. 

Last night I made pasta carbonara and asparagus. The Parmesan cheese, asparagus and bacon were all super expensive, and I couldn't figure out the oven to make asparagus the way my mom taught me (so I boiled it, sorry mom!)

And after all the kitchen drama, with me yelling at nick to get out of my kitchen, or to come in and help me, or trying to figure out what inane system he has for storing stuff, and me fighting with the oven or burning myself on the weird stove... We had dinner:

IT WASNT EVEN THAT GOOD. It was fine, but you can go to the French restaurant downtown and get this for 60,000 kip a plate, which is like $9, and it's way better and probably cheaper.

So I might not be cooking again... 

Baking and oatmeal don't count.

Concerns : dengue

Last Friday we had an important meeting at work- 

I thought that it would maybe address our very very quickly approaching deadline. Or the fact that our projects' specs and requirements from the client are a bit 'loose'. Or even addressing the work hours we've had - 

Nope. It was about dengue fever. Now considered a 'workplace hazard', since it's Laos, and now the hospitals (which we've been told not to visit anyway, since health and safety standards are low) are overflowing with dengue fever patients.

An article from last month : 

http://www.rfa.org/english/news/laos/dengue-06282013182156.html

Surprises, both good and bad

Things that surprise me about Laos, our group and the time so far: 

1. How much these guys talk about poop. They talk about poop a LOT. Mostly because apparently SE Asia cuisine does that to Westerners. They're a group that's very very open on that topic. 

2. No reliable Internet. Anywhere. Even work has Internet that goes down sporadically, which is really tough for when you have an IT job.

3. Our apartment dynamic- there are 6 of us who live in the same apartment building, and I think we've struck a good balance of hanging out together and giving each other space. It's not like the guys have hidden behind our living room curtains or anything...

4. No movie theaters. Apparently there is one at the Lao- ITECC , but it has weird schedules, plays older movies (but not classics, more stuff like 'Wanted' with Angelina Jolie) and they're all in Thai. I'm sure at some point I'll go, but until then we all just go to the Seng Lao DVD shop. It has great DVDs for like 10,000kip - and I bought Twilight so all ze gentlemen could watch it.

5. How quickly time is going by. Almost 2 months already. 

6. How impossible it is to go home. It's like a 60 travel time to go back to Seattle - and Seattle is one of the closest US destinations. And it's like $2000 just for economy. 

7. How delicious the food is here. Lao food is a combination of Thai and Vietnamese (but with more spices). And the western food is incredible. So much smoked salmon everywhere! 

Friday Night Bowling

We went bowling on Friday night. I LOVE bowling. And I'm surprisingly not terrible at it (must be those three semesters of bowling league at gonzaga).

Nicks a good bowler- in the first 10 minutes though he said 'Wow... I didn't realize what a great bowler you were!' -but you could hear the laughter behind those words.  

The French girls bowling. It was their ingenious idea- lots of Westerners there last night. Like, almost all the expats we know. 

Katie, Nick and Camilla - 

Nbd, I can break 100 consistently.

GU bowling league for life! 

Fattening me up

Pretty sure our Lao coworkers are trying to fatten us up- on multiple occasions the guys in the office have brought cookies or 'candies' that are like milky jello covered in coconut. 

Either way, I've restarted Insanity and am think I need to restart the Insanity diet (5 meals/ day, 300 cal each). 

Or 'kaleo' - it's modified paleo, so I can eat yogurt and oatmeal with chocolate sprinkles and ice cream. Otherwise if I try strict paleo I do really good for like 5 days straight and then lose my mind and eat 2 pints of Ben and Jerry's in one sitting. Not good (though, one can argue, impressive in the speed of ice cream consumption).

Flying home (2.0): Hanoi

On the way TO Seattle, I had a 12 hr layover in Seoul during the day. On the way FROM Seattle, I have a 12 hr layover at night. Since I have to work tomorrow, I decided to get a hotel. Which, in Vietnam, is a huge pain in the ass. 

Myvietnamvisa (to get visa approval letter) = $20

Actual visa from airport = $45

Taxi to a hotel right outside the airport (ripping me off but too tired to haggle much) = $10

Hotel = $13

Not complaining about the hotel. It's sketchy and I think I saw fleas but whatever, it has a bed and a shower.

Also, the taxi driver popped out of the taxi right outside the airport zone and left, saying '5 minute!' At which point I was sure I was getting kidnapped and sold into the slave trade...

But I didn't. When he came back he announces proudly 'I went peeing!' Great, sketchy taxi man (who had no idea where my hotel was, and kept trying to drop me off at random hotels, saying 'no no, this is it!')

Sigh Hanoi. 

The big event: my best friend gets married!

The reason I went home was to be my best friend's maid of honor and be there as she walked down the aisle :) 

Because my phone is way too massive to store in a bandeau, I didn't get a lot of pictures, but they has a professional photographer and a photo booth so my pictures are almost pointless anyway. But here are some I got!

Dark photo of the bride and I during prep time 

The couple. I was really nervous that I would cry during the ceremony but I was too anxious about fixing her train, not tripping and bouquet shuffle-ing around that I didn't... But that meant I started tearing up when LMFAO's Party Rock Anthem came on.

Heading out of the wedding ;) 

Family time

Freaking out a little cuz Mounds and Almond Joy are siblings just like Ollie and I are... Also it's chocolate.

Also, Ollie is now driving. Seattle pedestrians, bikers and drivers beware!

Putting my eye cover thing that the airlines gives you on Lucky.

My super crazy awesome mama, who did my laundry for me and dropped my friend Kristin and me off at the wedding before 7am on a Sunday. This is what a cute picture looks like...

And this is what happens when I try to explain what 'duck face' is.

Seattle in summer

... Is frakking gorgeous.

FOOD

Qdoba, yogurtland, Dilettante's...Nom nom nom 

Flying home: Seoul

My college friend Shane lives outside Seoul so - awesome guy that he is- he picked me up from the airport and showed me around the area he lives in. Wayyyy better than spending my 12 hr layover in the Incheon airport (tho it is a nice airport, and has great wifi). 

K-pop band: I took a pic of the fans. No idea who the Band is.

Skyscrapers! After Vientiane it's kind of mind blowing. So tall!

Shane's from California so he needs an umbrella.

I FREAKED out. 'Omg is that a store of just chocolate?!' 'What? No, Katie, it's like a minimart.'

Lunch was had at this amazing Korean BBQ place that I was super impressed by- we were the only white people and the food was incredible. You grill it in front of you- awesomeness.

Since we're classy, Shane ordered two beers and a bottle of Soju (which is kind of like vodka) with our lunch. Shane's a big dude so he had no problem but 1 beer and 3 shots in I was feeling it. Like, high-five-ing screener guys at the airport security gate 'feeling it'. Dang my lowered tolerance!

Either a penis or middle finger monument near the airport, we were debating. Either way it's pointing toward N Korea, so it has to be one of the two. 

Flying home: Hanoi

Was in Hanoi airport for three hours. It sucks.

Homecoming

Quick post while I'm home: Ollie bought me a rose from QFC as a welcome-home  gift. So freaking cute!