Dinner with Friends

Tuesday, 17 August 2004

Today in class, Game caught me speaking Thai as I commented on his drawing and said "Suay" (Beautiful). He proceeded to yell at the top of his lungs, "Take away a point! She spoke Thai!" Jill joked that I should get a point for speaking Thai!

Tonight we ate at a Korean style place where it is all you can eat, and you pick the meat, seafood, veggies, and then cook them on coals at your table. We sat outside, surrounded by mosquitos and a couple stray dogs who wanted to join us for dinner. It was 69 baht per person, but if you don't eat everything you take, they charge you more, so near the end, we were slipping food to the dogs.

I met new friends, Tik, Bun, Gai (who is trying to change her nickname because it means 'chicken' and she doesn't like it - All Thai people go by their nicknames, which usually are not shortened versions of their real names, but totally different names), and Fon. One of the favorite things to ask, besides how old you are (because if the person is older than you, you put "Pi" in front of her name when referring to her, as a sign of respect), if the food is delicious or how the climate is treating you, is whether or not you have a boyfriend. We laughed at Tik, who claims that the guy who came to join us during dinner was her "uncle", not her boyfriend. Well, her "uncle" drove us to a lake where we hung out and chatted, as two boys on their bicycle thre firecrackers around us, an the girls sang American tuens they knew like "Eternal Flame". We joked about Gai passing gas, and told her that the English word is "fart".

Finally, at 10:30 pm, we all decided that it was time to go home. So we all piled in Tik's "uncle's" care and went home as the girls belted out Thai tunes. It was a fun time hanging out with the girls.

Wednesday, 18 August 2004

Today is Boyscouts day, and every Wednesday, the students and staff wear uniforms that look like American Boyscouts and Girlscouts uniforms. The last period of the day, the students go to Boyscouts class. We only have to teach two periods in the morning for the English program, then the music teacher teaches Music, the chaplain teaches Christian Ethics, and then there is Boyscouts. Jill and Matt (our Thai assistant) are busy preparing materials for an open house/curriculum night and parent conferences we will have after school for the English Program. For dinner tonight, the financial director of the school has invited us to dinner.