Flip Flops on Christmas

As I sit here on this afternoon of Christmas Day, I'm wearing flip flops. Just thought I'd brag a bit to those of you back in the Northlands. Ha ha!
Things are okay here. Yesterday (Christmas Eve,) the University threw a big Christmas party. Free food, a large concert featuring some very popular Thai bands, and a carnival with games and the like. I won all sorts of stuff - a carton of soy milk, a copy of "Seventeen" magazine, a santa hat, several pens, a stuffed "Animal" the muppet drummer, and a couple of tubes of toothpaste. Then we went to a club known as Escudo, and that was about it. Plans are to go for a nice dinner today. All in all, it's pretty good. I was in Bangkok three years ago for Christmas, visiting my old Semester at Sea buddy, George, who was doing the same job back then that I'm doing now. We went to this club called "Narcissus," probably the most elite club in this city, full of local celebs living up their 15 minutes of fame. The plan is to go there on New Year's eve. Should be fun...
Interesting developments with Ms. Bee. Seems that her parents want to arrange a marriage for her. She wants no part of that, of course, and is rather angry that she is being pressed into such a thing. Stay tuned on that...
Last week, the kids in the converstation class took me and the other teacher out for dinner and drinks. It was a lot of fun - had some Heineken, some Karaoke, and they gave us a big thank you card. Gonna miss those kids, as that class is already finished. But I'm sure we'll see them around and about...
In the world of Sumo, one of my favorite sports, there has been an interesting development. One wrestler who goes by the name Kotooshu out of Bulgaria has become the first ever European promoted to the rank of Ozeki, the second highest rank in Sumo, behind Yokozuna, or Grand champion. Pretty interesting to see Sumo become an increasingly international sport, with the most dominant wrestler at this time (and for the past two years, really) being the Yokozuna named Asashoryu, out of Mongolia. He's so dominant that there hasn't been a second Yokozuna (there typically are two) since Musashimaru, a 500 lbs. + Samoan, retired about two years ago. Asashoryu one all six tournaments this year, a pretty rare feat of domination for a Sumo wrestler...
Happy Christmas. And hail progress!