Day 30: Thursday 23rd July
I can tell it's the end of the week, and so can everybody else by the small amount of eyeball that they can see through my struggling eye lids. When I am this tired, I don't know whats better for me- to be busy or to sleep! It turns out, my fate was made, and I only had one class today as many of the kids were at the temple for social studies work. Therefore, sleep was on the agenda! A little snooze at the desk is always naughty but nice, and nobody seems to mind!
I mentioned last week that I was given a wedding invite, to somebody's wedding who I have never met before. Today is the day of said wedding, so at lunch instead of going to our usual restaurant, we went and sat in the middle of a little side road in the village. When we arrived, we realised that everybody there (about 30 people) were all teachers from our school! And there was definitely no sight of any wedding activity going on. We soon figured out that this was a celebratory lunch, preceding the wedding that would happen the next day.
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| The spread |
The bride is about 19-20 years old, and is an old student of the school- hence all the teachers! They had laid out loads of food for us, including Penang (red) curry, chicken, veg, salads, fish heads and pork innards. The last two looked exceptionally delightful! I stuck to the Penang and the chicken- even if it was pretty spicy!
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| Rowena and her fish head, mm! |
Towards the end of the meal we finally saw the bride, who popped out of the house to do a whip around the tables and collect the gifted money from guests. She disappeared back into the house then, and that was that! We had been conspiring about where we thought she was: asleep? Shopping? Spooning her future husband, just like two men nearby in their garage were doing? Who knew!? At the end of the lunch, we were all given a small cushion as a gift. Some were also given a little towel- I have no idea what that was meant to be for. Anyway, the cushions are really nice, and are the perfect size to keep on my desk for those sleepy occasions! (I hope it fits in my luggage..)
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| Modelling my cushion |
At lunch I saw a dog carrying a small plastic bag from its mouth with some food (I think) inside it. It then stopped and proceeded to put its whole mouth into the bag, eat the paper napkin inside it and start to also chew at the plastic. It was so sad to see, and I tried to distract the dog from the bag so it didn't suffocate or eat the plastic, because that would would cause the dog some obvious problems. The stray dogs here have to do this in order to survive I know, but it's sad to see them so desperate for food that they have to eat god-knows-what to get to it. (The dog has a collar on, so Im not sure about its ownership, but the problem of stray dogs is widespread in Thailand.)
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| Don't eat the plastic! |
I have been craving pancakes for a while now, so I went in search of some flour as Kanang didn't have any at home. We asked in Tesco Lotus for some, and they didn't have any! I couldn't believe it! One of the most basic amenities which can be found in most staple foods, was not in Tesco! What the heck?! So I had to go for the cheater's option and buy a packet mix, which I hate doing because of all the unwanted crap in them. I managed to overcome this battle and go forth in making, cooking, eating and enjoying the pancakes. Thank the lord. They were actually really nice! The mix had some vanilla and some other tasty stuff in it, so my banana, peanut butter and maple syrup pancakes were a delightful dinner.
After dinner I decided that my long weekend plans would be made that evening, and with as little stress as possible! I finally slapped my indecision in the face and decided that I would take the night bus down to Bangkok, and go onto Hua Hin with Jodie, Hannah and crew, before I meet my other friends there on Wednesday. After some confusing phone calls to the bus company, with Kanang's help and Thai tongue, my bus journey was booked. Woohoo! What a relief!
Now I just need to book some extra nights in the hostel and the flight back. I never knew how much hassle all this would be!
And breathe. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.....
Olivia
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