April 1
That last post felt really long and not that funny so I'm gonna make an effort to tell you more fun and funny things. For instance today I spent about 20 minutes trying to explain the difference between 'look' at 'see' and when my coworker when asked for the fifth time if it was just that when you see something it's closer I finally just said 'sure', which actually just causes more problems.
Almost all of my coworkers know about as much english as I know thai but one of the best things that they keep confusing is chicken and kitchen. 'Do you like rice and kitchen?' I never realized until now how similar those sounds were.
In my wrong nayok's office she has on her white board: Peach Corps Schedule make. Screw this I'm joining the Peach Corps.
I had a battle with a beetle in the shower. I only realized he was in there after I had taken off all my clothes so first I tried to get him down the drain. I succeeded and gained a false sense of relief and doused my head with water only to open my eyes to see him crawling up out of the drain.This was a minor setback and I poured another bowl of water on him and he went down. again feeling secure I started to wash my face so I closed my eyes and poured a bowl of water on my face only to open them to see this little guy flying around the bathroom now. I started to try to throw bowls of water on him and then realize how absurd that was. obviously he was impervious to water. so I tried to usher him to a corner and keep an eye on him until I was done. Of course every time I closed my eyes I was sure he was flying around the room about to attack. but don't worry guys, I made it out alive today. but check in tomorrow because I just realized I locked him in the bathroom so the adventure will begin again tomorrow.
Today I had my first tessabaan english class which was 10 people in the tessabaan including the wrong nayok (I keep forgetting to correct this auto correct because I'm trying to write rong nayok not wrong nayok, but the computer autocorrects and I'm gonna keep it because I think its funny and more importantly I'm really lazy) and the nayok. So it was an interesting class. Because they are more respected people they sat at the front of the class. They are also probably the more well educated and therefore have better english skills overall so they generally dominate everything within the class. So it's gonna be interesting. Anyway the highlight of the class was the end when my nayok said 'okay, everybody crap for rosie' and he started clapping. I pulled him aside afterwards and told him that I didn't think he meant crap and try to correct his mistake by telling him what crap means. he proceeded up to the board to clarify and wrote
crab = *draws a crab*
clap = ****(writes thai for clap)
crap = mii(thai word for poop) = defecate
It's still on the board. Its things like this that never occurred to me would be a problem. Crab, Clap and Crap
So yeah today my Nayok crapped for me at the end of class.
April 2
So I arrived at work and had about 30 minutes to myself and studied thai and then the children came. That was the end of productivity.
At one point after lunch I looked up from my iPod and thought there were a bunch of little knats everywhere and I nonchalantly returned to my work. This is funny and crazy for two reasons. One it doesn't occur to me to do anything about it accept go directly back to work and two I still don't know what they are but they aren't knats unless there are just chilling all over my desk.
My nayok somehow brought up Lady Gaga today but couldn't remember her name so he described her as the one with the white gloves and the shoulders. Obviously first guess was MJ. I'm kinda amazed that I got it, but I totally did.
The adventure continues in the shower. Tonight I went in looking for the beetle thing and instead found a frog desperately trying to jump up and out of the room that is my shower. I debated helping it out but again I was already naked so I decided he would just hang in the shower jumping around with me. over all it was a pretty good experience for me.
April 3
Today I'm starting to get annoyed. Today I went to the animai(mini hospital in the neighborhood, mostly a doctors office but the doctor only comes once a week). And for some reason my wrong nayok decided that the best day for me to go and hang out there was the day that the doctor was there.
Initially I agreed…then I got there.
It was a total madhouse. She introduced me to group of 10 people waiting outside the building and gave her whole schpeal(?) on who I am and what I do and then told me to introduce myself(despite the fact that she knows she's just said everything that I would say to them). Then while I'm trying to introduce myself in thai she's whispering to me what she thinks I should be saying in thai. Its getting really annoying and I'm not really sure what to do about it. Also I haven't gone anywhere alone. I think today I'm gonna go on a bike ride and maybe tomorrow I will try to go to wherever I'm supposed to go on my own. I think thats gonna be a shit show when it happens but I'm gonna have to do it sooner or later.
Sorry I'm hitting the first wall. I feel like I can't really communicate and I'm always tired and I'm always trying to learn more but everything lacks the structure that I need to learn. I'm gonna try to figure out how to teach myself thai in a way that will allow me to practice what I learn. okay. done complaining.
Also today when I met the doctor at the animai and I introduced myself as a volunteer with the Peace Corps. He said are you with USAID or Unicef. I tried to explain that I wasn't with either that peace corps volunteered with schools and health and youth and general development and was with the government but wasn't USAID or Unicef. I'm pretty sure he didn't understand anything I said but he did nod nicely and smile.
I thought I liked kids. I don't. There is one particular one that I really don't like and she bugs me all day every day and she is super annoying and always wants me to teach her english or tell me how to say things in thai. I think the worst is when she says things really slowly and enunciates each syllable individually in thai both because then I really have no idea what she's saying and because it makes me look like an idiot. I really can't wait for bit term to be over so she goes back to school. Also, I do like kids. All the other ones in the office are awesome.
Also thats a weird thing. In thailand when schools out and you don't have a babysitter(okay thats a lie, no one has a babysitter, if a child is not with its mom they are with a different family member and because of how common this is it is sometimes unclear who is the actual parent). okay anyway yeah if you don't have anyone else to take care of your kid you just bring them to work. Its not a thing. You don't apologize for it. Honestly, at least in my office, you don't even necessarily know where your kid is at any given time. You just bring them in and set them lose. Its crazy.
But all of that was frustration from this morning.
This afternoon i decided I needed some alone time aka a bike ride because thats the only alone time I get. So I decided to kii-len or ride fun. It totally changed my day. I decided I would ride to the market but that was only 2 kilometers so I turned off into a residential area and just started biking around. I passed a school that I will work with when school starts again and went past a bunch of thais who looked at me with interested, disapproving or skeptical eyes. That is until I smiled and said, sa-wa-dii-ka, then they would smile and kinda laugh at me and say sa-wa-di ka back. It was super cute. On my way I saw an older man on a bicycle, he was a bit distracted so he didn't see me until we were passing each other and then he yelled out a very excited HELLO! and swerved his bike. I got a good chuckle from that.
I also met my first teenagers!!! I feel like it was sooo successful. Mostly it was awkward and everyone was giggling but I think thats a start. I met them at the school and they were playing bon or futbon or soccer. They were a group of boys all between 11 and 15 (perfect target age group!!!) and they all spoke at least a little bit of english. This is gonna be awesome!!! awkwardly awesome![thats also gonna be my new tagline]
So then I think my favorite part of the day was when I was biking back from watching the kids play bon and that same old man saw me. We were on opposite side of a 4 lane highway with cars speeding past in between us at about a car every second and he again gets super excited and says HELLO, HOW ***YOU ***I ****. So yeah I have no idea what he said, but I want to meet that man. like actually for real. He just seems like happiness bottled up. I will sit with him and do whatever he wants just to hang out with him.
So then I get home and I feel really positive and ambitious so I decide that despite the fact that I don't really know how to take apart my bike and clean the chain I can probably figure it out and do it by myself(keep in mind its not like I have the internet, which would not make this a challenge). So after I try a couple different ways of nearly breaking my bike to take my bike chain off I decide to say eff it and clean it a little bit and put it back together and then I'll call my friend The Internet tomorrow and figure out how to do it for real. So I go to put everything back together and I've kept every screw and every pin and I put everything back together and I feel so proud of myself because, despite the fact that I didn't actually get things completely off, the chain looked way cleaner and was greased so I called it a win. Then I realized the bike chain wasn't actually catching. So for about an hour and a half I had the entire family standing around watching me try to figure out whats wrong and giving me the useful feedback of NO NO when I would try reattaching something in a different way. I finally gave up and had Geut(yeah, I know, I can't decide on the spelling) call the tessabaan bike mechanic and he came and fixed in it about 2 minutes. So lesson learned. Always take pictures if you are gonna try to take something apart and put it back together without knowing what the hell you are doing. At least thats the lesson I took from it.
April 4
So first of all I just looked at the date and I realized I've been here almost THREE months. Thats a crazy long time and also a crazy short time. So much has happened and yet I feel like I'm only been gone for like a month max. I feel like if I came back to portland right now it would just be same old same old and no offense to anyone there(you know I love you all) but I'm so happy I'm here and waking up every day and going to work at this crazy place called a tessabaan and speaking mostly thai every day and actually understanding most of what's going on around(okay that might be an overstatement but a lot of whats going on around me).
On that note today was another day of mostly nothing until everything happened. Well mostly. So I got to work and there was a crapton of people with their dogs and cats in the tessabaan parking lot and a bunch of tables set up. It turns out that once or twice a year the tessabaan has a bunch of vets come and spay and neuter any dogs or cats that are brought. Srsly I'm really starting to wonder why I'm here. Half the time I think they are doing it better than america. anyway I took a bunch of pictures of what look like dead cats but they are really just given a paralytic and put in the line to get cut open(I think they also got a numbing agent but I'm not sure). Anyway then there were all these tables just out in the parking lot and they had like 10 vets just doing assembly line spaying and neutering. It was awesome and surreal.
So that was like the first half hour of work. Then I sat at my computer and played Facebook and studied the thai alphabet. I'm actually getting kinda good, I can recognize most of the consonants now. I know that sounds like nothing but there are 48 of them and they're all curly with bubbles and so obviously they all look the same. And then I played on my computer a lot and pretended I was studying whenever people came by.
Then at lunch I mistakenly took Gets curry which was with chicken feet instead of the one she got for me which had muu (pork, i don't know if I've mentioned how awesome that is that pork in thai is moo, but it is awesome). It was super spicy but really good(I'm totally getting this spicy thing). And when I came back in I had a great amazing lovely package that was from my real mom. I was downstairs so I opened it in from of everyone and it has very melted misshapen chocolate bunnies and a chocolate bar and a bunch of easter eggs with jellybeans in them and my favorite toffee stuff from that place in massachusetts that I went that one time. Oh and I almost forgot the SLINKY. It was totally awesome. After offering some to everyone and everyone refusing(still unclear if its the politeness factor or that they really didn't want any of it, but I think its the latter). I was trying to explain them easter in the religious sense and one of them finally understood and said, 'oooh wankai!' which means egg day. And I rolled my eyes and was like uhh yeah, I guess. But then she said 'but why does your mom give you this? I thought this was for 5 year olds. Egg day.' I have to laugh and say yes it is in fact mostly for 5 year olds but I also love easter and I am still a child and so I love all these toys and candy. They laugh and laugh and laugh at me.
So then I go back up to my desk and once again kinda pretend to study but dork around on the internet and then get invited to help setup a futbon tournament. I'm totally down because I have nothing better to do and it will be fun. On my way to the school I realize this is the school I went to yesterday with the kids playing soccer and this is a tournament put on by the tessabaan for teenagers(Theres a little part of me at this point that is super frustrated because no one told me about this until an hour before it started despite the fact that 1) I could've helped and 2) this is exactly what falls under my job description). anyway it was super fun and I didn't really meet anyone because I was with the tessabaan aka the vips and the teenagers just politely wei and go off with their friends. I've gotta get in on the ground level with these kids and me sitting next to the mayor isn't really gonna do that.
so then I came home to a house full of dudes I've never met. oh i lied first I broke my bike again and then I walked it home to a house full of strange dudes. It turns out they were my brother and his friends and they were making frog salad so obviously I joined them and asked if I could help. I learned how to deal with the frogs- I would say de-bone but that would be an overstatement. It was basically taking out two or three of the biggest bones and breaking up the rest of it into bite size pieces. also three out of the four frogs were pregnant(honestly I'm gagging writing this right now). So anyway we did that(guts frog eggs, bones, tendons, skin, innards and all). and then they (deep breath for rosie it would be a shame to throw up on my computer just in an effort to tell you what I ate) mixed it all together and added chili's, lime, naam bplaa(fish sauce), sugar, salt, unripe papaya, garlic stems, and I think thats it. I have to admit it wasn't terrible but the fried frog was way better.
All this said, today my stomach is not happy with me. who knows if it was the extra spicy chicken feet curry or the frog eggs but I ate dinner about an hour ago and I've already gone to the bathroom twice and I'm not sure I feel safe quite yet.
on that note I'm out.
April 6
So yeah.
The frog.
It wasn't good.
I didn't feel safe all night and all the next day and to be honest not sure if I do now(2 nights later). I keep telling Get(I'm sticking with this spelling now….I think) that I think its was the frog, but she's pretty sure it was because I ate spicy food. Either way between the throwing up and the pooping water so I'm gonna lay off both for a bit. So besides that I've been sleeping a lot. In part because it was the only way I wasn't doing the two other aforementioned things.
Today I felt a bit better so I went to a monk ordination. Now everyone always says things like weddings and monk ordinations are soooo much fun and there's this huge party and everyone's dancing and drinking and having a high old time. For some reasons I never make it to those monk ordinations or wedding. Or I leave before that part. Now don't get me wrong this was beautiful and there was some very silly dancing done by myself and all the old ladies and there were two newly ordained monks after about an hour of chanting. so that was cool. but one time I wanna go to the other kind. Also after I thought it was done we went to the meeting hall for what I thought was lunch(given it was ten and they fed us breakfast at 7:30). But no we had more chanting, now I think buddhist chants are gorgeous and I would actually love to sit and meditate to these monks saying pretty much anything but this is not what we do. What actually happens is everyone sits around with their hand in the lotus position(similar to a prayer position but the palms aren't touching) and the monks start to chant and everyone else has hushed conversations over the monks chants and about every 2 minutes or so you wei and then every so often theres a pause and you get to put your hands down and theres kinda this collective sigh and (I presume) a silent hope that that was the last one because clearly no one is listening anyway and then it comes up again and everyone raises their hands and continues or comes up with a new topic to whisper to their neighbor.
Anyway, the monk ordination was loverly and then we left. so no party. oh well. maybe next time.
******
Also thailand in stuck in the 90s. I know its supposed to be portland and all but seriously. Every day I see teenagers in weirdly fitting levi jeans and thin flannels with either braces or weird edgy bob haircuts. Every time I just sit there and wonder if they think it looks good. I think the hardest part is then realizing that they probably look better than I do with my hair somewhere in between a mullet and Mrs Brady and my pants that I thought were professional until Get asked me if I was gonna change out of my sleeping pants before we left the house(srsly, they're j.crew?!?) and my white polo that would fit a box better than me. And meanwhile the ones that I do think dress super cute are wearing things that number 1 even if I could fit in them would never ever work on my body(mostly because I'm tall) and number two if anyone every saw me wearing some of these outfits I'm pretty sure I'd never hear the end of it. Just to give you an idea there's a lot of lace printed shorts with blouses(yeah blouses, just saying the word kinda makes me feel weird) and heels. But theses girls are so cute in them. One day I'll try…maybe.
Tonight I watched The Lion King with my nephew and within 5 minutes it was a family affair. They were super into it and it was in english so they could kinda understand some of it but would ask questions about what was happening and how to say different animals. Also apparently I'm forgetting english at a fairly rapid pace. Today I forgot two things. Okay well I forgot what kinda of animal the warthog was and to be fair I don't know how to say warthog so I ended up just telling them he was a pig. but also what they hell is his little friend. what animal is that? I was thinking it was a meerkat but that seems wrong. But the one that really struck me of how bad my english is getting is that I forgot the english word for omelette so I described it to Get in thai and she told me the english word. Thats insanity. Get doesn't even know that many english words. oh also we have spinach. The way that they explained it to me to saying, nii tam popeye glad or this makes popeye strong(its the little things I swear). Its thai spinach so its not the same but I'm pretty sure its the vegetable that I loved in suphan buri. they make it different here. They make everything different here and I have to admit I'm really missing the food in Suphan Buri. I love my site and everything but since the frog I've basically had a total of one meal because nothing is super delicious and I'm wary enough at everything that I'm worried I might throw up. Like today for dinner there was rice and octopus fried with fish sauce, spinach with something else, some fatty pork with pineapple, some sweet hot peppers, some super spicy crab salad. Okay when I say it all out like that I sound really spoiled and bratty because that all sounds awesome, but its different when your here. Mostly because only like 10% of the meat is actually meat. With the larger animals its at least half fat and theres usually some bone in there too. With the smaller animals like fish and crab its a lot of bone or shell or whatever. Needless to say Aurelia's whole eating the tail of the shrimp thing is not even a thought anymore.
April 7
Today I realized that i get called a boy at least once a day. Everyone thinks Im my host sisters new boyfriend
I had a fever the other day and I got the shivers and one of my first thoughts was actually, I should probably enjoy this, ya know, being cold and all.
Today I had nothing to do so I read an entire book, did my laundry and went on a 20 kilometer bike ride in the heat of the day(I think I did it to spite myself).
Also I think every night is now movie night. tonight even meh and paw watched too and they're like 70.
Literally almost just had a heart attack because my hard drive didn't show up on my computer when I plugged it in. My mind started racing about what I was gonna do and what was gonna happen and how I was gonna upload pictures tomorrow like I was half heartedly planning to and what if I couldn't get a new cord and what if they didn't have this cord and I should probably buy two just in case. I haven't been at site more than a month and I'm already pretty desperately attached to my hard drive.
April 8
Ants are everywhere. I keep finding them on me when I haven't been around food or outside for over half an hour. They are just crawling on me. Sometimes I imagine them but its only because so often they are actually there.
The kitchens here are so small that I feel like no matter what I have when I get back to america it will feel like an industrial size kitchen. That said, our floor is often our kitchen counter/cutting board so that comes with the territory.
Also I've never felt so fat and skinny at the same time. I'm fairly fit these days what with it being 10000 degrees and riding my bike at least a couple miles ever day and not eating much because nothing seems super delicious(I'm working on that). But then I do go to get clothes and literally everything is too small. Its such a wierd thing. its not like I actually feel fat but I there are normal size people here (even some of the thai's are large) and I just don't know where they find clothes.
skin heads and negros-
just a note to tell you guys that anyone bald is called a skin head and any black person is called a negro here. They had no idea either was offensive until I tried to explain. I tried to explain things a little bit to my nayok and he then said oh they are hitler about the skinheads. At this I was 1) impressed he knew what I was talking about 2) impressed he knew who hitler was and 3) left it at that because that was probably the best I was gonna do.
April 9
I've been slacking on my TODAY I LEARNED so I'm gonna try to pick that back up again too.
Today I learned:
-the reality of the fishbowl. I went on a 40 minute bike ride and didn't go half a kilometer without knowing someone and happening to be at their house, moms house, market or field(farm).
-A man from my tessabaan got really excited to show me all the cement he made look like wood in the new park they are building(annie this is where you are going to walk wyatt when you come). It looked pretty awesome. I'm super impressed with the brush strokes mimicking the knots. it was awesome.
-The other day when I went on a bike ride I really confused this yaai because I didn't really know where I was going so I went until I was nervous I was gonna get lost(which happened to be right after her store) and then just turned around and went back the same way. It turns out I was about a kilometer from my house if I had just kept going and she knew where I lived despite my having never met her.
-Sometimes you think you're in a big city full of a bunch of people who don't have the time of day for anyone else but then you smile at them and suddenly you're in a village again.
So early in my experience in thailand I had this dessert that seems to be the most popular dessert in thailand, probably because is so easy to make. It is the good old fashioned icee. The first time I had one it was back in suphan buri and I was lunching with a couple of my fellow PCVs and a local paw-aw or principal. He had already served us lunch and a student brought up a tray of different colored icees. I was excited as it was hot and it was ice. Who cared how sweet or fake or whatever it was cold. So I grabbed a green one and dug in. Now first bite was pretty much what I expected. Basically over sugared cold water with some ice and concentrated syrup. Then I realized there were things in it, hiding at the bottom. So adventurer that I am I went in and investigated. I found some unidentifiable fruit or gelatinous thing. I figured hey well at least I'm getting some fruit…maybe. It was only when I continued for a third bite that I was pushed over the edge there on my plastic soup spoon full of green liquid and ice and a black piece of gelatin was also a soggy piece of bread. I slowly put down my spoon and left it to melt. I still don't get it. I don't think I'll ever get it. just like the ice cream sandwich here. it's not like I actually want a sandwich with ice cream in it. anyway. yeah. so fast forward three months later and I still don't get it and I still know its weird and its still not my favorite dessert of kanom but I do eat one almost every day bread and all. So thats some progress I've made.
I went on a bike ride today. I've gotta do it every day. Not for the exercise(bc everyone knows THATS not my thing) but every time I do it I come back with the biggest smile. People are so cute. Recently I've been once again frustrated with the fact that I'm in a bigger city and it feels as though its gonna be harder to meet people and I'm not gonna be the farang. It's been that way a little bit in that people stare at me but don't necessarily say hello like they did in Suphan but today I went out on my own for a bit and realized that number one my amphur is really small and two that I can't go more than half a kilometer without running into someone I know. Also, it's not like I didn't know this already but EVERYONE wants to feed me. its more a thai thing. Its not me. Today in a matter of 20 minutes I was offered dinner 4 times and they all knew that I had eaten some food already and I was headed home for dinner.
Today I wore shorts over leggings down to my knees and a short sleeved tshirt and I was self conscious about bring too riske. Oh my how I've changed. I feel like by the time I'm allowed to go on vacation I'm gonna feel like bikinis are basically nudity.
April 10
There were all sorts of weird things that happened today.
First apparently my wrong nayok has taken it upon herself to change the structure of thai language and declare that there are in fact 5 tones but they are not what ever book that ever taught westerners say that they are(mid, high, low, rising and falling). Instead they are mid, higher, highest, lower, and lowest. The difference between higher and highest is a difficult one to figure out. I kept trying to figure out which of higher or highest was what I called high and which was what I called rising based on the words that she was using with each one. That lead to more confusion because I thought she was saying the higher version of maa when she was in fact saying the highest version of maa. Needless to say after 20 minutes of her trying to explain this to me she told me that I probably shouldn't learn it anyway because I should just learn the way the words are supposed to sound and then just say them like that. Of course! why didn't I think of that.
Also at the end of our lesson the power went out and then within 30 seconds it was the thunder and lightning and we got a huge awesome thunderstorm for about an hour(and no power for an hour). I immediately went downstairs (where the entire office was anyway) to check it out outside. I so badly wanted to run outside and play in the rain with the kids but I couldn't because thats not riap roy and also when I did go outside(under the cement awning) everyone started screaming and calling me in anyway. So I'm pretty sure they wouldn't have let me play in the actual rain.
The rain brought to light a couple things namely everything leaks. Everything. The doors to the front of the tessabaan had a puddle after like 5 minutes of rain. Almost every window had at least a little bit of a leak(including the one directly behind my chair/desk- so guess I'm just not sitting at my desk during the rainy season). So I guess the question would be how does that work? Also this thing with the power. It was off for like an hour and a half today. Not that I need power or anything but its kinda annoying to have it taken away from you when you're expecting to have it. Its just like cutting a kid a huge piece of cake and then only letting him have two bites and stealing it as he's putting the third in his mouth. Its just not very nice. Also, Trat's an amphur muang shouldn't they have this whole wind thing figured out. I don't know maybe thats just me. Also just in general you would think in this day and age with the internet and stuff that if someone builds power lines they should be able to stand up to the wind or rain, I mean besides if like a pole goes over or something like that.
Also I had this mental image of me biking in that rain. The more I think about it the more I have no idea how I'm gonna get around. I already want to buy a moto and just go under the radar(don't worry mom and peace corps, I won't). Not that that would help with the rain i guess but still. I just imagine 3 months of that rain and biking and it actually seems kinda fun right now but I know that its gonna suck at 7 o'clock in the morning when I already don't want to go to work.
Also today was full of those experiences of I thought I knew what was going on and then was blindsided by what I now think is going on which may or may not be what is actually going on.I guess thats most days but today I had a couple. For instance, yesterday I asked where Dhat and Miu were and Get said they went home. I was a little confused because I thought they lived here but I figured they were just visiting for bit term and then they were gonna go back and live with their dad during the school year. I did remember Miu saying she went to a private school and I haven't seen or heard of one around here so I decided(with my little information) that I had solved the mystery and got a little sad that the house wouldn't be a bustling but
I also just realized after my second shower today that I shower more here than I do in america and there is no hot water and no faucet. I'm literally giving myself a bucket bath out of a trash can. The best part is I rather enjoy it. Not in the same way and oh I'm sore and tired and need a bath and lets put bubbles in and drink a glass of red wine in the bathtub kinda way(god damn it, even my own mind is betraying me with imaginary awesomeness that I want). But more of a well this is somehow still entertaining even though I do it at least twice a day. Actually to be honest there have been two days where I didn't shower, but for those of you that know me well thats amazing. I have been here exactly 3 months and there have been exactly two days(I'm not counting the 24 hours that I was on a plane) that I haven't taken a shower. I honestly think thats probably a record for me.
April 11
Today was old people day. I love old people. Especially Thai old people. They are so silly and lovely and touchy and adorable and like two feet tall. So yeah today we had old people appreciation and there was a lot of silly games like relays to eat a bunch of food and then eat this weird beetle nut things that all old thai people eat. or singing song with a call and response and between the deafness and the general slowness it would take about 20 times before people started to understand that they were supposed to respond when called but then they couldn't always remember whether they were supposed to clap their hands or stomp their feet. There was a lot of redo's. It was full of hilarious old ladies that were cracking up. Again we all danced and they loved me. I have decided that I know I'm supposed to work with the teenagers and stuff and I'm all lucky(or some people think so) because I'm in an amphur muang(aka city) so I can have friends that may actually be a bit more liberal and be able to hang out and all, but after today all I want to do is have a gang of like 70 year olds to hang out with. They are crazy and awesome and because they are automatically respected because of their age they can be totally inappropriate and get away with it completely. And they abuse that privilege like no other. They're basically all my idols.
Also another note. I haven't seen many canes here. I'm thinking its probably because there are the old people who walk and there are the old people who don't walk and theres not as much of a slow transition there as in america and I'm assuming its because of the terrain and the fact that most old people ride bikes as their transportation so if they don't walk they don't go anywhere. So anyway the few canes I have seen (about 10) are all PVC pipe. I think this is a perfect example of why these old people are awesome. I can remember my grandpas canes. I remember a couple different ones and I remember them being expensive and really nice wood and all this stuff, which don't get me wrong was totally beautiful, but was also incredibly expensive for a thing that was really just supposed to hold you up when you get wobbly. These guys are just practical with their blue PVC pipe cane. I kinda want to meet a badass granny and ask if I can paint her a cool cane or get a bunch of stickers and decorate it. maybe that's what I'll do when I grow up and get old. make myself a PVC pipe cane and make it badass.
Oh also its song kran which is Thai New Year for the next three days(I think). So what that entails for me I'm still not too sure but I've heard it involves a lot of hawaiian shirts(which I did see today. Also just imagine a group of 100 people over the age of 60 that are all wearing the required bright floral hawaiian shirts--it's kinda impossible not to love it and don't worry there are lots of pictures), squirt guns, baby powder and basically a country wide water fight. So yeah, what I experienced today was a woman dabbing something that kinda smelled like astringent on my cheeks and forehead and then dabbing some other milky looking substance over it and then when that dries you have white powder marks on your cheeks and forehead all day. So yeah. Thats gonna be my weekend I guess. I'll let you know how it works out.
Also today I was thinking about all the people I know and trying to remember their names and it occurred to me that I know 3 Frogs, 1 Dog, 1 Salty(in addition to our cat that's named salty), 1 Sugar, and 1 New. I'm sure I'm forgetting some but thats pretty awesome.
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