12-4-13 and 12-5-13 The King's Birthday: My Fabulous Use of Days Off

List of Random Observations

1. When it’s 75 degrees and I’m sweating through my uniform (still!), the students are cold, coming to school in sweatshirts and complaining to me that they’re getting the shivers. Oh, how I wish they could experience the brutal Midwest winters.
2. I’m cold for the first time, ironically! The morning shower did me no good, even though I put the water to scalding! I warmed up once I left my shower though... 
3. Thai people really love to “like” their own photos. It’s quite odd.
4. They also don’t like to walk anywhere. They’ll live on the second floor, and believe me, they WILL take the elevator. Same goes when they go from the 4th floor to the 2nd one. 

      Today, December 4th, 2013, we had a celebration on the Thai side for the King’s birthday (December 5th). I was chosen by Sister Brenda to represent the foreign teacher from the English Program. Because of this strange change in schedule, I realized that I prefer waking up groggily at 6 rather than very groggily at 7. 

     However, since I found out on the 3rd that I was supposed to do who knows what, like normal, I just wanted to be as awake as possible. In the morning, I headed over to the Thai side with Teacher Bell, and she gave me flowers that I was supposed to offer to St. Francis Xavier. There was a lot of religious singing and praying from all the students, and then, finally, the students walked forward line-by-line to bow to the Saint and placed the flowers in a golden urn. The teachers followed suit and I offered my prayers too. 

     Part of me felt suspicious of the whole ordeal--not the religious aspect of it--because I wondered why I was chosen, out of all the staff from the English Program. I definitely considered many options, such as they were choosing new or young people (not exactly the case because I also came with an elderly Thai lady), I was obedient (they do like people they can control... who also won’t complain), they didn’t want to deal with the other teachers at all (avoiding conflict again), they wanted to convert me (yeah, that’s not an easy feat though), or they chose photogenic people (wait until they see photos of me! Look who’s wrong now!!)

      Anyway, we then lined up again to watch some students dancing and waving flags to honor the King. It was a nice break from normalcy, so I did enjoy it. I also was able to lapse into several daydreams, which helped me recharge myself a little.

      At night, I hung out with Shoua, Gina, Ali, and Monica. It was the day before both Gina’s and the King’s birthday. We tried many different things, like a healthy-tasting bean drink, chicken wings at a hot pot place, and some tiny stale donuts, which if they were fresh, would probably taste super delicious.

     Wow, I’m so lazy when typing these entries. There is no more effort in punctuation, language, story, or anything. This is quite sad lol... sorry for starting stories that have no point to them.

12-5-13 

      On the King’s birthday, since it was a random Thursday holiday, I just stayed in my room and did NOTHING all day. I didn’t sleep, just ate and sat around. Man, laziness at its worst... or would that be at its best? (Also, it was Father's Day here. It just so happens that Father's Day changes to match with the King's birthday, so if there is a new King, Father's Day will change.)

At around 8 PM or so, I heard singing outside of the window,

accompanying the King's song. This is what I saw. :)

I love how much Thai people love the King and show their

loyalty to him. :) Even though I'm not Thai, I always

bow my head after the King's song too. :)