Another (hardly) manic Monday. I am sitting here in the computer lab, feeling slightly high from all the paint fumes I am inhaling. Poor kids, I wonder how they are learning anything today. We had another very good, very short weekend (isn't that always the case?)
I went to my first aerobics class last week, it was really fun. The instructor was really nice and she played the cheesiest, best, most Thai-ish dance versions of American pop songs for the duration of the entire class. All the songs had the same bouncy beat that kept me moving and the mosquito cloud around me confused for the entire class. I went with Sel, our fellow English teacher here (who is sadly leaving in two weeks. I think Graham and I are going to kidnap her and her boyfriend Matt, who also teaches English here, and force them to stay here with us we are going to miss them so much!) and she helped keep me motivated the entire class. We were, naturally, the only farangs there, it was cool to (try to) chat with the local ladies before and after the class, it made me feel more like a part of the crew, the community. After the class a local lady who speaks a bit of English, Champoo, invited us over for some food and rice wine at her house. The boys, who were at the bar, quickly came over because they missed us girls so much! And we all hung out for a while and talked about English classes at our school, how we can make them better etc. It was good to get a parent's perspective and we are going to try to incorporate her suggestions, they were very helpful!
On Saturday we were up bright and early to bike to school and then bus to another school to judge some English competitions. It was definitely not our first choice of a Saturday in Thailand, but we made the most of it and enjoyed our day of doing absolutely nothing. I "judged" the crossword competition, but I actually did nothing but read for over 5 hours. The words 70% of the kids and the teacher helpers were using weren't actually words, so I gave up refereeing the 20 or so teams after about 5 minutes. They seemed to have it under control. And the powers that be decided that Graham could not judge the storytelling competition because our school had a student competing. But our students were competing in all the areas that our school had judges, so it made no sense to us. Oh, Thailand, we love you. But we had fun checking out the costumes and being mini celebrities for the day. Most of the kids had obviously not seen many farangs, so they stared at us even more than we were used to. Graham had a girl dressed in pink from head to toe following him around for the day, it was adorable. That night we were the grandparents that we truly become as of late and just relaxed and slept. Not exciting I know, but oh so needed.
On Sunday we hung around Dan Chang, and, as always, we had an amazing day. For several days before the monastery near us
had been blasting music starting at 4 in the morning and going all day. They were obviously gearing up for some big event that rumor had it was on Sunday, so we walked over to check it out. There were only Thai people there and we stuck out like sore thumbs, a couple of really dorky (okay, well at least I, Natalie, was dorky. As always), tall white, clueless people wandering around. Luckily a really nice half German half Thai man spotted us and came over to chat. His name was Tom, and he has lived in Germany his whole life, but is here for a few months living with his Thai mother. Tom helped us gather an entire table full of delicious food. Once people got the idea that we were hungry, they kept bringing more food over. It was really nice, but we couldn't eat everything they brought! It was hard for me because styrofoam plates and bowls were being used and not reused, as were plastic cups and spoons and wooden chopsticks wrapped in plastic. There were once used dishes and trash everywhere, it was very hard to see. I tried to get them to reuse my plate, but apparently that was considered impolite, and they always insisted on giving me new disposable dish ware. Tom enlightened us on a number of different subjects over lunch; from the large division between poor and middle class people, to the idea that having trash everywhere is okay, to how Dan Chang has evolved over the years (he has been coming here his whole life). It was so interesting to talk to him, I feel like I can understand a number of things I was confused about better now. Now to try to move things in a more sustainable direction....that is the challenge I guess.Later in the day we met up with Matt and Sel and our new Thai friend Mink, and we went into the Temple and participated in the prayers and giving to the Temple. Mink explained to us what was going on. Here it is believed that the more one gives to the Buddhist Temples, the better their situation will be in their next life. Interesting. I guess people are really hoping that their next lives will be better because the Temple earned 1,300,000 baht, about $40,000, a LOT for here. A lot of the cash was sewn onto paper flowers and decorations. It was so cool to see the traditions and beliefs of a religion that I am not too familiar with, Buddhism, in practice.
From the temple Graham and I went to a local pool and swam for a couple hours. It was so nice to cool down and play, they even had a slide! A few of our students were there so we practiced some English with them, they loved having some our attention it was so cute. Otherwise the place was empty and it felt like a super fancy resort just for us :)
Later that night we had a simple dinner at a fancy place, where each table had its own little building, then headed to Matt and Sel's for a second dinner and movie night. We watched the movie "The Hangover" and fondly recalled some of our own crazy nights in Vegas. Last night, though, we were asleep by 9:30 pm. :)
It was great to have a weekend here in our town. It was great to see our kids throughout the weekend, and nice to have some time to relax. We are gearing up for another festival this coming weekend, and my and Graham's 5 year anniversary.
We miss and love everyone, as always. And pictures from this week are here: http://picasaweb.google.com/grahamhollandpatterson/11142010#
Natalie and Graham
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