At breakfast yesterday, I ordered an iced latte with my food. The lady asked why I wanted an iced latte when it’s so cold out.  It was probably around 78 degrees.  I laughed and told her it wasn’t cold.  I thought it felt wonderful.  I texted Tip and Ging when I got my bus ticket to see if one of them could pick me up.  I didn’t hear from either one for over an hour so then I texted Noi.  She said she’d pick me up and I told her I’d buy her dinner.  She said ok.  What?  Was Noi actually going to let me buy her dinner?  She picked me up, but was kind of prickly.  She’s been this way a lot lately where she’s snide and laughs at everything I say.  Not a “you’re funny” laugh, but more of a “you’re so stupid” laugh.  She was this way again.  Then she took me home, no dinner.  Huh, you agree to dinner and then just pretend it never happened.  I’m not sure what is going on.  Maybe it’s all just lost in translation, but the energy I’m reading tells a different story.  I’m not even sure how to bring it up or if it will do any good.  Typically, if a Thai person is upset with you, they won’t admit it.  They’ll just smile and say it’s all good.

As I mentioned before, Sport Day is three days long.  I missed the first two days because I was in Chiang Mai, but I got to attend the last day.  I was a few minutes late leaving the house.  I got to school and there was no one there except 3 or 4 teachers and maybe 10 students.  Does school start later today?  Finally, I find Pat and she says we need to go watch the parade.  Oh, so that’s where everyone is.  So, when did the parade start?  I must be really late.  I thought we might go somewhere to watch the parade, no, she meant watch it from the school gate.  So, I went out to the street in front of the school and watched them march back into school.  It was kind of like the Sports Day I saw back in February, but smaller.  This was just our school.  The last one had been all the schools in the area.  The girls leading each group were dressed to the hilt with makeup, done up hair, high high heels and tiny dresses. Then there were others in traditional Thai clothing.  And the rest in their sport clothes.  There were banners too.  They were divided into 5 colors and these were the teams for the three days.  Once everyone was on the field, the teachers had to all go down to the field for pictures.  Wow, they take so many pictures and once again, I have no idea what they do with these pictures.  The teachers were all in a dark blue color.  Thanks for the heads up.  How difficult would it have been for someone to tell me?  Some of the students were in the same color.  I think they were the ones not competing, but helping with set up and logistics.  Today was all about cheering and running.  There was a tent in the middle of the field.  Students would run out from the tent to bring water to the runners and they’d fan the runners with straw hats when their race was done.  Sports day has a fluffer tent!  There were quite a few students who almost fainted after their race.  Have they not trained for this?  Then again, if I had to run, I would definitely had fainted.  It was so hot today.  How could it be so pleasant yesterday and miserable today?  I spent most of the day trying not to move and wondering if I would make it.  I looked around me in dismay.  So many people were wearing hoodies and most of the teachers and students were wearing long sleeves made out of sweater material.  Sweat was just pouring off me as I sat still in the shade praying for a breeze.  I just don’t understand.

Not only was I hot, but I was bored.  I went up to the school building and tried to help with making lunch, but everyone seemed to have their duties and there wasn’t much for me to do.  Noi was making a chicken dish.  She made two – one would be not spicy.  Right before she was ready to mix the not spicy one, she dumped a bunch of pepper in it.  I asked if I could have some before she mixed the pepper in.  She looked me in the face, said not spicy, mixed it and then filled up a bowl for me.  Wtf?  She told me to eat it.  I tried a bite and it tried to take the tip of my tongue off.  I put the bowl down and walked away.  Now the only thing left for me to eat is fried chicken and rice.  I almost went home to make lunch there when Pom found me and started trying to feed me.  So I ate fried chicken and rice with her.

After lunch there was a teacher – alumni football game.  Q was playing.  Q doesn’t even walk across to the other side of school – he rides his motor bike if it’s longer than a 50 second walk.  He’s playing football – that involves running.  There was no breeze, I had a huge headache and I wasn’t sure I was going to make it to 4:00.  Noi called me and asked me if I wanted to go get coffee.  I figured the caffeine might help the headache and I could sit in the air-conditioned car for a little bit.  I might live after all.  She acted all normal and told me next weekend all the teachers are going to Chiang Mai for the weekend for one of the teacher’s retirement party.  They booked a resort and I was going too. Ok, well at least I got more than a half day’s warning on this one.

The rest of the afternoon was the awards.  It was fun to watch.  Each group went nuts when they won an award.  So much screaming and dancing.  Then two representatives from the team would come up to get the award and a giant bag of junk food.  Then they would take photos of receiving the trophy and junk food.  I’ve notice that it is very important to get a photo anytime something is given to you.  I think this says a lot about how the act of giving is so important to Thai people.  I don’t think it matters much what is being given so much as the act of giving is important (and the getting it captured in a photo).

That cold shower was awesome today.  After school, it was the first thing I did!

(c) All rights reserved Kimberly Fiore