Celebration

It has been fun these past few days, but let me start the storytelling with Friday morning. So Friday morning was relaxing as usual. My ride to school had a flat tire so I walked to school, no big deal. I taught my usual classes and then some extra ones during the day (that seems to be the norm now). By lunchtime I was tired and wondering how I was going to stay awake long during all the fun with friends that night. I had lunch with my Cameroonian friend and once again had to deal with my shadow, though this time there was no pouty face. She simply turned around and walked away. We ate at the Friendly Man's restaurant for the first time. He says "Helllooooooo Teacher!" to me every morning on my way to 7-11 for breakfast. I decided since he was nice to throw some business his way.

In the afternoon, I taught more classes and watched as my 'to grade' pile grew but decided that I was not going to grade any papers that afternoon because it was Friday. I was eagerly waiting for the end of school so that I could start enjoying the enjoying the celebrations planned for the weekend. My companion had me call the motorcycle men to arrange rides for all my friends since they were coming in at different times and some by bus and some by train. I protested because I knew she was having me do it so she could laugh at my Thai. "Well you laugh at my English!" she countered. Not often, but touche, touche. So painfully slow, I ordered rides for my friends in Thai. And I should be proud of myself because he understood me. However as soon as I finished he rattled off in rapid-fire Thai. I know, I know, I should have expected a response because duuuuuuuh it is a conversation. So I just handed the phone off to my companion and she answered his questions.

Then, right after school I met up with Thaireland boy. We went to an air conditioned coffee shop with free wifi (amazing, right?). And hung out for a few hours. He is a teacher at a company similar to Sylvan and then he also does professional photography. So maybe I can get some great pictures while I am here :-) Of course, he speaks with an Irish accent because he grew up in Ireland but I think I will need some more exposure before an Asian with an Irish accent is no longer funny. And he is fluent in both English, Thai and some Gaelic and can read and write in Thai. So yay for actually knowing what is on the menu now lol. As my friends called and said they would be late because everything running out of Bangkok (and everything runs out of Bangkok) was running at least an hour late, we went to dinner at Smile, the only America restaurant within walking distance. He has been back in Uttaradit for two years and I knew a place he didn't tee-hee. Smile does kind of rock. It is the place that my teachers took me my first night in Uttaradit and if I had not been there before, I would never have found it because it is kind of in an alleyway's alleyway. But yes, had some American food, or really less Thai food, and hung out until my first American friend arrived. 

So yes, then my friends all arrived and it was time to get dressed to go dancing! However we hit a hitch as we were trying to do this. Some male I do not know and that I think is the RA of the building told me I could not have any guests, male or female in my apartment after 9 because it is the single's dorm. Weeeeellllllllll. As you can imagine, I was slightly irritated and more than a little surprised that my guard is also my babysitter. After 30 minutes, I managed to convince him to let my friend's stay the night and I would personally call whoever I needed to call for the rest of the weekend. First off, the guy said he did not have the authority to let my friends stay. Doesn't that also mean he does not have the authority to not let us stay? Get a hotel, pshhh. Do not tell me I was placed in a city by myself and was given two extra beds and an extra bedroom and am not allowed to have people over after 9. Needless to say, Saturday morning I made some phone calls. I wanted to give everyone a chance to fix it on their own but I knew where I stood. You make an exception for the farang and I can have whoever, whenever I want over or I am moving. My anger from Friday night was gone, but I refuse to have a babysitter or to be placed under dorm rules again. And another teacher before me ended up moving out of these apartments and into the hotel on campus and I wonder why that is.....But anyway the situation was resolved without me having to say I will move and full permission was granted.

So then the fun started. Dancing!!!!!!! First off, the dance clubs here......well no one knows how to dance. They all stand and sometimes rock side to side but pretty much it is just standing and drinking beer. It was ridiculously crowded at first and there was no cover but you had to buy an expensive drink in order to get in. But then they let us have one of the upstairs overhangs all to ourselves. So we could view the concert on stage and we had, well not plenty, but a decent amount of room to dance. And there were enough boys to girls for once. Some of the girls that came with the Cameroonian men gave us what we thought was water but turned out to be whiskey seltzer. And we just danced and sang until the club closed. Then of course, we hit up a 7-11 on the way home for some snackies. Once we got back to my apartment, we were all dead tired. We sprawled on the floor eating and then started the showering line. The club was air conditioned but it is still Thailand and there is not a single part of your body that escapes sweat. Then we piled into our beds and went to sleep at 5am. Oh, good times.

The next morning we slept in and even when we woke up, we laid in bed talking. Eventually, we pulled ourselves out of bed for a celebratory Independence Day breakfast of waffles, french fries and ice cream. We also nabbed some goodies for dinner while we were out. Then we came back and watched two movies: Mulan and Atlantis. Then we took our sparklers and fireworks out to the track and soccer field across from my apartment and had a lot of fun. Here I was thinking they were just small little roman candle-like things. NOT!!!! They were full fledged fireworks. It was fantastic!!!!!!!!!! They were a little closer to the ground than we were exactly comfortable with but it was so awesome. We did not light anything on fire and all we were doing was laughing, laughing, laughing and running, running, running as the fireworks were shooting up. Then of course, people come running and driving motorbikes over yelling at us in Thai until someone spoke enough English to tell us to stop. But ohhhhh look, we already had shot them all off. Daaaaarrrn lol. I mean when I asked my companion where I could shoot them off at she said the soccer field. Oh well, we are ignorant farang but we had our fireworks show and it was fantastic. Then of course, my companion calls and wants to take us to the elephant bar. We go there for a couple of hours but last night the elephants were not there :-(

So now it is morning. My fridge is bursting with food and leftovers. Watermelon, sausage balls on a stick, leftover beer and pb and j. My apartment is an utter mess with everyone's stuff thrown everywhere. And I love it. Seeing everything all messy just makes me realize that there are people here and we are having too much fun to clean. Though there will be major cleaning today so that we don't get more ants. Sadly, my friends will be leaving in the next couple hours. But I refuse to be sad because this has been an amazing weekend, truly. So much bonding time, great memories and so much laughter. And they may be able to make my tablet have Netflix work. I will be working on that right after I publish this blog post. And one last thing. I was showing my friends my pictures so far from this trip and realize that this is completely and utterly a crazy trip. I have done so many amazing things and had so many unforgettable experiences in such a short amount of time. And as my friends say, I am the princess of the American teachers and my apartment is like fairyland. It is decorated with flowers and waking up with soft pink light around you every morning is a magical way to start the day. Especially if you wake up surrounded by your friends.