Barbie or Drag Queen?

This has been a busy weekend and it's only SATURDAY!!

Thursday was Poetry Day at school. Thursday night was the teacher PARTY!! And what a party it was. Right here on the school grounds. I love how this school is set up... it's like a little tiny city. MANY of the teachers live right here on the school grounds. So it is VERY normal to get VERY drunk and have students see you. (Very different from our school where we have to go MILES away to make sure no students or parents see our Happy Hour!) I have decided that I LOVE drunk Thais. It's amazing how much English they know and are willing to speak once they are drunk!! At our party there was LOTS of food and LOTS of karaoke. The music is SO loud that it is hard to even hear what their broken Enlglish, let alone understand what they are trying to say. I sang and danced and received a lot of flowers. I guess you give flowers to people when they are exceptionally good at something. I have NEVER asked people to give an encoure of my karaoke, but there is a first for everything! I sang a duet with Mr. Moon. "Oceans between us, day after day..... Wherever you go, whatever you do, I will be right here waiting for you." It got the audience howling! And of course the classics of Zombie and Titanic song!!

Friday was a day I will always remember! It was the day I was a Thai Princess... or something very fancy. The town was having a parade and the girl students about 16 years of age were doing traditional dancing. I got to hold the sign! So I was the leader of the parade. It took about 4 hours for all of us to get ready. First came the hair. It's a dang good thing I have a tough scalp or that could have been the most painful process of my life! They ratted it out pretty good and then made it all swoopy.... hard to explain. But I wore this big, HEAVY, gold crown thing on my head. And these gold bracelt things for my ears that made me look elf-ish. Then came the makeup. WOW was my face a sight! Imagine the pinkest of pink.... and take it one shade brighter and you have the color of my lipstick!! And my EYEBROWS!!! They took a RAZOR BLADE to them!!! "Mai Pen Rai!!!" So the end-half of my eyebrows are now quite bare. Nothing like a straight razor coming towards your eyes!!! My dress was BEAUTIFUL!!! It was red and gold. Lots of bracelets and arm bands. To say that I stood out was an understatement. I was like a big, tall, WHITE statue of liberty walking down the parade street. Without any intention of sounding arrogant or pompous, I had many people say that I looked very beautiful and sexy. (they love the word sexy, it cracks me up. even the students tell me i look sexy. i try to tell them that is not really appropriate, but hey - at least they're speaking english!) I think that from a good distance I did look pretty nice. I've never received so many compliments. Many people said I looked like a Thai Barbie Doll. Want to know my opinion? I looked like a freakin' drag queen!!!! My make up was CAKED on. Somehow it managed to withstand my gallons of sweat through the parade. My hair was HUGE! And since I was about a foot taller than everyone, I seriously resembled a drag queen. After the parade and I took the dress off, everyone said "Mo'gin, keep your make up on. It is so beautiful." "Oh thank you... but I think my skin is allergic." That is the only way I could get out of going the rest of the day looking like a drag queen! I even had to go to the beauty salon to have them shampoo my hair because there was so much hairspray in it. But i am FAR from complaining. The whole adventure was so much fun and I'll most likely never have an experience like that again. (Unless I marry Mr. Moon, I was reminded a million times.... only then could I dress up like this again!!!)

Today, Sunday and monday is the Rocket Festival. The rockets are HUGE. We went to the place where they launch them. HUNDREDS of people are there. Why? Not just to watch the rockets, but to gamble. It was like Soddom and Gammorah!!! And if I could speak Thai, I'da been gambling on those rockets too! Nothing like a fun Saturday activity!

It can get very frustrating not understanding the language and it is very difficult to even understand the english speakers. No one's english is that good. Often times I just nod my head in agreement and then get myself into some weird perdicament that I unknowingly agreed to. I can only recall two times where I was inwardly very pissed at not being able to understand because of the language barrier. Here in Thailand I am very relaxed and laid back (very opposite of my normal high strung self!) but not understanding broken English can take it's toll. And it's not the people I get angry with - it's just my lack of understanding. The Thai do NOT say the ends of words. So "exercise" will sound like "exerci" or students = student. There is a BIG difference between singular and plural! Like today when P'Tuong told me that everyone at the Rocket Festival was "camping". It took me about 5 minutes to realize that "Camping" was actually "Gambling".

Tomorrow I am going to church for the first time in 4 weeks! I am very excited. It is going to take almost 2 hours by bus to get there. It better be the best darn sacrament meeting ever!!! :) Oh - as a side note..... did you know that Monks can gamble and drink and smoke? News to me! And the Director of the school tried to give me the 1st discussion of becoming a Buddhist. He really wants me to study it and look more into the religion. He was telling me how Buddhists don't drink either. I said "That's funny because every Thai I know is Buddhist and every Thai I know drinks!" He said "Yes - it is something we are all working on." Fair enough. Last night at a party (we have a party every night) a little baby was given a wine cooler. Start 'em young! Another little girl pee'd her pants and the mom just took off the wet ones and put on different pants. No shower or cleaning of any kind. It's small things like that that really highlight how different the US is. I mean, I KNOW the US is very different from here ---- but it's only in little snippets like wet pants that you really realize it! Or at least I do!

I think I could get used to living here. (Except for missing bean burritos.) If i had a better grasp on the language I might actually consider it. I have had zero homesickness (sorry mom). I have made SO many wonderful friends. But ifI lived here, my house would have air conditioning in at least ONE room and HOT water. And I would allow myself to wear my shoes inside the house. And I would have a car, not a motorbike, as fun as those are to ride. Those are my luxuries, and TRUST ME when I say that they are luxuries in the area of Thailand I am living in!!!