Teachers day!

Well I am feeling particularly lucky because I happen to be a teacher in Thailand on teachers day! It is a major celebration here as they honor and respect their teachers a lot.
       Last Wednesday night I receive a phone call from Kru Kung, I thought that she was calling to confirm picking me up for the teachers day celebration in the morning, but at the end I the call she says"okay see you in five minutes".   I guess I got that wrong! I put some pants on and five minutes later there she is on her motorbike, its early evening there is pink blue glow in the sky and the full cancer moon is high overhead. I throw my head back to laugh at the splendor of the moment. Just the day before I had been thinking that I really wanted to ride on a motorbike, and here I am!
      She takes me to school where we meet up with the other volunteer Kru Su and Kru Oy #1. Su is already dressed up in a fantstic Thai suit. They start trying to find something for me, but nothing fits, I'll try not to take that personally....I guess the outfits are mostly for the students. They find a beautiful wrap skirt with peacocks on it and this gawky gold lace blouse. I am not such a huge fan of gold, but they deck me with big gold bracelets, dangly earrings, necklace and belt! The Kru's seem quite pleased with themselves and  send us to have tasty spring rolls and fried tofu with a delicious sweet chili peanut sauce! Thanks teachers!
         The next morning we wake up and make up, we don our foreign finery and Kru Kung comes to take us to school. At school Kru Oy #1 reinspects us and makes adjustments. She's like this big sweet room mother, she pins flowers in my hair and paints my lips with bright pink gloss.  She even  draws on my eyebrows, which I don't think I've ever done in my life. She can't think of how to tell me to close my eyes and so she says," make sleep eye" and everyone laughs about that. The Thai language is so subtle there are all these different tones for the same word and they all mean something different. Like gao, for example, can mean turtle, breast, or oven, and five other various intonations that mean five different things. Things you don't want to confuse, " wow thats a cool turtle, how much is it?" " that's a cool breast, how much is it?" We were introduced to another teacher and the way we pronounced her name meant pubic hair... Kind of makes you nervous to say the wrong thing, especially because to me all there variations sound the same!
        All fancied in our shiny Thai glory we head to the high school for the teachers day ceremony. It's  a large open air gymnasium painted in pink blue and white. At the front of the room is a stage that has nine very ornate chairs that would later house nine monks in there various tones of orange robes. On either side of the stage are twenty foot tall pictures of the king and queen of Thailand.  Su and I attract attention right away, we are a bit overdressed. I think they really wanted to show off their volunteers. We have about a fazillion pictures taken with everyone. The ceremony begins with the monks chanting, and then one monk comes around with a bamboo wand and sprinkle us with holy water.  The rest of the ceremony included lots of people standing at a podium and saying things in Thai. Fascinating! Kru Kung explained to us that they are giving thanks to all teachers, not just themselves but all of their teachers and their teachers teachers. Without teachers we all would know nothing. She also explained that they renew an oath to be good teachers and to challenge their students.  At some point a man comes and asks to have his picture taken with me, he is very excited, and I keep catching him staring at me.
       Then they call up the winners for best dressed, Kru Su and I won and they gave us 1000 baht prize, so generous! I can't believe it, then againi did win best dressed In high school.... Lol.
        After the ceremony we return to school and change into our sports uniforms. I have been suckered in to playing volleyball, and su will play baytond, a Thai game akin to bocchi  ball.   We gather up our balls and bags of bright tropical fruit and head back to high school. There are announcers commentating on the baytond games, and uniform shirted players milling about. We are lead to the pagodas where food is being served, ooh green curry! Awwww guess what? It's not vegetarian, go figs! But I suppose I'm used to that. I happily sit down on our straw mat picnic blanket and enjoy lots of pineapple, guava( in Thai it's called farang, which is also what they call foreigners), watermelon, and some tasty jicama like substance.
     I watch baytond it's about as fun as watching golf. I doze and munch and the fellow who was so interested in me at the ceremony comes and has a conversation with me about how I can afford to volunteer, he asks me my age and tells me I'm really cute, gee thanks.... Anyway

      There's a loud crash and I see someone has broken a beer, there's shouting and I assume that the breaker of beer has gone to get some grin to clean it up, nope he returns with another beer leaving the schrapnel of his accident to glitter in the sun and make the whole pagoda smell like a bar! The beer breaker is an older man wearing one of those circular mirror laden African caps to hide his bald head. He's tall an thin with a mustache and polarized goldrimmed raybans. Kru Oy #3 tells me that he is the big boss of another school. He is visibly intoxicated and calls me over for as conversation, he offers me beer, I don't drink, he offers me a sausage, I'm vegetarian, so he tries to get me to eat a Thai chili, I tell him to! He does! I watch my reflection in his mirrored lenses, I laugh at him as Kru Oy the third tries to translate, I jokingly call him an old man and he laughs and acts all hurt and says he is not talking to me anymore, good! But then he tries to get me to trade shirts with him, yeah right buddy!
     Finally it's volleyball time, I luck out and don have to play. I get to be a cheerleader instead! I like the way they do cheering here. Thy set up conga drums and speakers. A microphone is passed around and people sing cheers and dance and play finger cymbals. So much fun and so lively! Thy wanted to see the American play, I told them that I was horrible and thy would lose, but they drug me out for two balls and I survived! But they did lose!
       Happily we went home to rest before the big party. Kru Kung took us back to our school Anuban taphraya, she gave me a cute brown bowler hat with kitty ears molded into it, Kru meow!   The field had been turned into a beautiful banquet to house five hundred teachers. They the tables were deessed with pink and white bows, ribbons and sashes. There was a large stage erected for music and big neon lights erected all around in a variety of colors. The sun sank and the full moon rose again, a big orange globe, blendin in with the street lights.
      The party began and teachers arrived, all wearing different fun hats. One school wore hats that looked a bit like smurf hats, others had neon glowing kitty ears. I'm staring to think that life in Thailand might just be burningman everyday. The dancers tha were hired for th evening wore tututuesday short neon green tutus and sparkly leotards. Booty shorts included! They would dance and call up the different school districts to dance with the girls. I tried to imagine mr. Kellepouris dancing with scantily clad girls at a school function, but..... Different cultures. You know?  There was  lots of dancing and food, which I couldn't eat, but I wasn't that hungry so I was okay. The teachers were so sweet Kru tat went and bought me the best pad thai( unbelievably my first since arriving). Then they brought me fried tofu and watermelon, so thiughtful and I felt so taken care of and loved!
I danced a lot and when drunk guys tried to dance with me the women were all so protective and danced me away from them. What phenomenol day! It was the best! Until the next day.....