Beautiful statues near Sanam Luang lit up at night as we travel down the streets of Bangkok.

Kung Hay Fat Choy! On Chinese New Year's Day, wearing one of my blouses I bought at the market for $5. 

My Thai decor and pillows in my room.

P'Pau and her niece Prael. Prael now calls me by name and knows how to say words like "cat" and "table" and "dog" when you tell her the words in Thai. English Program in a few years???

Grace, Better Lay Off the Beer Next Time!

Tuesday, 8 February 2005

No students showed up today (there were about maybe 50 students that showed in Grades 4 - 9), in celebration of Chinese New Year's. Because we live in a predominately Chinese community, most students are ethnically Chinese-Thai and so they took today to visit temples, relatives, and give blessings and offerings. Around the neighborhood, people would put out a table with incense, fresh meat, fruit, and kanom (sweet dessert) on the sidewalk. I "worked" in the office uploading pictures to my blog and had lunch that P'Thoy (one of the workers) brought for me and Matt. She poured me some beer from a thermos she had brought from home. Of course, I was a bit red-faced before I headed out again, so I covered myself in baby powder, then Matt told me she would pack me a bicycle to go to the other side (other campus). I was then going to take the bicycle to go to the post office. As I had a skirt on, I had to sit sideways, and I asked her if she was sure she could ride with me like that. Like many Thais commonly respond, she said "Sure, sure". Well, we made it out the gate of our campus, onto the road, and within a couple minutes, she was wobbling, and BOOM! My heel went flying, my purse went flying, and my right hip hit the ground hard. Good thing there were no cars coming! She wanted to put medicine on my scraped hand, but I said, never mind, I just want to go to the post office. I would be fine. Just a bruised thigh tonight for sure. I told her I would walk the rest of the way. No thank you...no bicycle for me! I sat on an ice pack the rest of the afternoon.

Eat, But No Talk

Monday, 7 February 2005

Went to dinner tonight with five teachers at a barbeque place for 79 baht each. All you can eat. I love it! Prawns, meat, seafood, vegetables, and more prawns, and sticky rice with taro and sweet condensed milk for dessert. "Aroi!" ("Delicious!") At one point, they asked me why I was being so quiet. I said that because I couldn't follow the conversation, I would just eat. Think my Thai language is lagging, because most times I can follow conversations. I was so stuffed when I left! Our final bill came to about 100 baht each ($2.50), although they deliberated about it with the waiter as they thought we were overcharged for water. Still, can't beat that price! Think I'll bring my mom here when she comes to visit in April!

Bring A City Girl to the Country and This Is What You Get

Friday, 4 February 2005

After a two-hour (60 baht) bus ride to Petchaburi, Ray (Aw’s boyfriend) picked us up at the bus station and away the three of us rode on a bumpy ride on his motorcycle (more later on how to ride a motorcycle with three people plus bags) into the “country”, where he lives. While waiting for his grandma to cook us dinner and watching TV, a teenage neighbor boy came up behind me and kicked me in the butt after he thought I was his sister; then we headed to see the cows at 9:30 pm. Wasn’t quite sure why we were going to see cows at this hour, but realized when we got there that it was an exhibition and competition of some sort. Truckloads of men and cows came from as far as provinces two or three hours away, music blaring, drums pounding, and voices cheering, as they let out cow after cow into the arena ring.

Felt a bit awkward at this meat market (no pun intended), as there were definitely about ten times more men than women, all bearing Thai scarves (and I was almost compelled to buy one – the woman in me) and probably wondering why a girl was stepping into the ring. Although I felt intimidated to bring my camera out, thereby drawing more unwanted attention to myself, I had to capture a closer look and move inside the ring to see the action. Suddenly, one, two, three cows were attached to a rope, with the occasional one getting loose or just a bit perturbed at taking part in this event, whereby several men had to hold the cow back before it got loose. As Aw edged me forward towards the center of the ring, and about 20 cows started running around the ring, I realized within seconds, the scarf fashion phenomenon, as dirt got kicked up all over the place giving me a rude awakening.

A few times, there was an angry cow that jumped into the crowd and, as the spectators suddenly all rushed back, the men would hold it down. I stood in someone’s truck bed to take pictures at a different angle. If you weren’t interested in watching this angle, or during a “commercial break” when they were getting new cows tied up for the race, g-string clad, sequin dressed girls would get on stage and do pole dancing, chair dancing, and the kind of dancing you typically only see behind closed doors (in America) …It was pretty much the only time I saw the men’s eyes divert away from the cows in the ring.

A lot of testosterone in the countryside with cows racing around a track... Now that’s an exciting Friday night for a city girl from America.

Sitting on top of the truck, Ray's neighbor enjoys watching the cow races.

A truck brings another load of cows in for the competition. 

Hundreds of cows are trucked in from different provinces for the cow racing competition. 

Six men try to hold a cow back that has gotten out of control.  

The cows ran so fast. Occasionally one got angry or out of control and trampled on the crowd of people. 

One by one, cows are added and then as they run faster and faster, they see how many times they can run around the ring. 

The object is for the last cow to race up and pass the first cow. The crowd moves out in the circle as cows trample by, kicking up dirt and dust. 

The center of the ring...Getting the cows ready for another run. 

The Thai ice cream "sandwich" - literally two scoops of ice cream and toppings between slices of white bread or buns. 

The neighbors across the way have cows and a calf. Looks like they want to pose for a picture too! 

Part of a temple in Ray's village. 

Fresh meat and fish for sale! 

We went to buy vegetables, fish, pork skewers, and kanom (dessert) for breakfast on Saturday morning.