Bangkok Day Four; Death by noodle soup.

After a quiet night in last night with a movie and bed, today was the day of getting to know everybody in the course. After an interesting breakfast of soup, pasta and toast (I will never stop missing my white pudding and sausages), we all went into the hour-long welcome orientation. Here we were told the necessary things to keep in mind, and some of them were pretty interesting. For example, if I bring someone younger than me to dinner, I have to pay ..... must be expensive to socially dine here if you are 60. Note to self, bribing your students with a dinner out will lead to bankruptcy.

Another thing that was mentioned was with regards to eating noodle soup with chopsticks. In Thailand they don't eat with chopsticks all the time. They only eat them with noodle soup. But when I finish my noodle soup (which I must do as it is considered rude to waste food) I have to place my chopsticks on top of my bowl. If I put the chopsticks into my bowl, then that means that I want to die ..... Yes, you heard right. DIE. Apparently putting chopsticks into noodle soup is an age old tradition involved with funerals or death, and to do so will indicate to the waiter that you intend to throw yourself off the nearest bridge.

This place gets stranger by the day.