Little Green Garden

A collection of thoughts, memories, and photos. Currently a teacher in Chengdu, China. Previously in Vietnam, Japan, Indonesia and Argentina. Travel, food, adventures, flowers.

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This way to the beach

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Wooden bumper boats in a souvenir shop, otherwise known as the floating market. I knew to expect a ridiculous number of tourists, so with expectations lowered, we had a wonderful time. We ate "boat noodles championship" winning noodles (served, of course, from a boat) and coconut ice cream from a coconut shell. Then, we went on a market tour, which consisted of floating silently by souvenir shops ("C'mon, buy something. C'mon, c'mon.") and crashing into boats filled with other tourists. It was surprisingly fun.

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Bridge on the River Kwai in the quiet, dusty town of Kanchanaburi.

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Chinatown in Bangkok: an interesting experience albeit an uncomfortably crowded, hot one. The highlight was a delicious seafood meal at a street restaurant. There were restaurants all over that seemed to exist solely in the street, with full kitchens and even dishwashers set up on the sidewalk.

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Bangkok from a boat

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Wat Arun

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Pad Thai and coconut breakfast

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Day 1 of a one month holiday in Thailand.

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I excitedly bought forsythia from a street vendor on the way home from work the other day, then realized I would have to walk 45 minutes in the cold as carrying my awkward branches on the crowded rush hour subway was not really an option. Excellent planning.

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Dinner at our favorite local, cheap place. We went here twice a week until one night it was unexpectedly closed and the next day they were selling the tables, chairs, and cooking equipment. Huge bummer.

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Chengdu at night

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After work snack: 2 pancakes with various fillings (.70 USD) and a carrot/pineapple/apple juice ($2 USD).

The pancakes are made to order, and there’s about twenty filling options. I pointed to something that looked appealingly like ground beef that turned out to be an overwhelming amount of ground chilies. 

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Christmas 2016. 

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For sale at the fruit market. I am intrigued/alarmed.

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2016 Books

After finishing grad school and starting a lengthy commute to work, I happily found myself with a lot of time to read in the latter half of 2016. Here are some of my favorites:

Not pictured: even more YA dystopian-future novels, a lot of SNL memoirs (Rachel Dratch, Tina Fey, Amy Poehler), and some mildly embarrassing nonsense (The Hating Game, Me Before You).

I loved A Man Called Ove, When Breath Becomes Air, All the Ugly and Wonderful Things, and We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves. 

I am currently on the library’s waiting list for every dystopian-future novel ever written, so I think 2017 is shaping up pretty well.

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Egg waffle. So, so good.