A Day in the Life

Well today we just came back from lunch with our director ("principal"). The school provides lunch for us, but sometimes the director takes us to the local restuarant, instead of the cafeteria. Today we went to the local restuarant and the director brought his other director-friends. We speak English only with our director, since the other ones don't know English. They serve up lunch and then order beer and whiskey. Of course, we were told it would be rude to refuse, so we try everything...and they finish the bottle of whiskey at lunch and then go back to school.

A couple of days ago, we went to the wat ("temple") and taught English to the monks. It was very interesting. Women cannot touch the monks, nor can they even hand anything to them...if a woman wants to hand something to a monk, she must put it on the floor or table first, then the monk can pick it up (Julie kept her hands in her pockets, so as not to accidentally touch one of them). The monks were great. They were fairly young. Every male has to be a monk for some time, it is a "right of passage" for them; therefore you see old and young alike. During class the monks asked many questions about America, wanting to know alot about the Native Americans and where they live now. After learning we were from California they asked if we liked the song, "Hotel California." We laughed and told them we would bring in our iPod and play the song next week. It was enlightening and we look forward to going back.

There are dogs everywhere in Nong Khai . They bark constantly and chase you on your bike at night. They wake us up every morning with their barking at 6am.

Tomorrow is Children's Day, a holiday for children...much like we have Father's Day and Mother's Day. Thailand has more holidays than any other country in the world. We are going to the local supermarket - Tesco - like a large TARGET/WAL-MART and going to buy cookies and candy for the kids. Since it is Children's Day we will not teach English, but will be playing games all day; it should be fun.