Well the start of 2014 was pretty normal for me, if you can call anything over here normal. Though really, normal is just a bad word to use. Nothing big and unusual has happened. The weather has been back in the 90s again. So yeah, I got 3 weeks of winter and I was lucky to get that. I still only own one pair of pants and I think for only 3 weeks of the year being cold (and what I mean by cold is that the low of the day is 52). I am not getting bit as much thanks to the season change (just even calling it that makes me laugh since it was only 3 weeks). Let's see, what else.....well a local dog has taken to walking me halfway to school sometimes. She just walks beside me and noses my hand the whole way.
This Thursday is Teacher's Day. This is not to be confused with Wai Kru and it took half an hour for me to understand the difference between the two. Wai Kru is that day back at the beginning of the year where the students give respect to the teachers. (Oh! I forgot to show you the awesome propaganda video for that, if I can find it. It is strongly biased but still touching.) Teacher's Day is a day for the teachers to celebrate being teachers and there is no school. Instead, the teachers are coming to school, giving presents to the monks, playing sports, dressing up and having a party. And they are dressing up fancy. So I asked what "fancy" means. I know to do that now. Each of the different offices has a theme. The English teachers are going as farang. I don't even think that helps me. What does that even mean?! I guess their clothes are a little different. They love ruffles, bows, fake sequins and jewelry, and cartoon characters at all ages. I have gotten accustomed to it, but I think many Americans would call most of the fashion over here tacky. But how are they going to dress as farang? And what do I wear? That is my task today, to find out what in the world I wear on Thursday.
There is also a seed festival in town. Nope, not what you were just thinking, I promise. I have learned that festivals nd fairs closely resemble night markets. Lots of shops, selling everything under the sun. The only difference this time is that it is bigger, there are tons of flowers and more plant shops, oh and they even had booths where you throw darts at balloons and win giant stuffed pillows and animal. They also have a concert stage set up, which has been playing music all night, every night for many days now. Starts around 6pm and ends.....well I am usually asleep before it stops but it keeps going after midnight. And who needs to buy tickets for the concert when I can hear it clearly from the comfort of my bed? And by comfort, I mean not comfy at all since two of the springs have decided poking through the mattress at me is a fun idea.
In other news, Thai politics are a little crazy now and an election is coming up on Feb. 2nd. I hope that ends all the rallies, strikes, protests and the like, though we will just have to see. I already ended up at a rally in Lampang totally by accident and high tailed it out of there. And if you put anything on facebook about the rallies or government, the Thai government will take it down, as one of my friends pointed out. So there's that.
In other news, my Prat. 5s have decided to start a prank war. They took the rubber grips off pencils, covered them in chalk and put them by my chalkboard. Kids, you don't want to even start. Because I am going to win. At least they waited until after the 3 day school inspection by the government.
Hmm well I think that's about all I got. Yes, my Christmas tree is still up and I have no immediate plans to take it down. Yes, I read 8 books last week only to find out the next book in the series doesn't come out until August of this year and the one after that even later. Yes, my children still kiss my elbows. Oh and my favorite mobster/hipster kid did the whole handshake where you pull back and swipe your hair instead. It was the most adorable thing ever. I just have to wait until the end of the school year and I am going to hug every last one of them. Adorable naughty students. Okay, well got some grading to get done and lesson planning to do (which means I will spend an hour playing with Facebook, Pinterest and Kindle while avoiding doing my work before I get started on it.) Oh well ;) Mai pen rai.
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