Sports Day

I think Sports Day is awesome- we should really do something like this in America. There were four teams(blue, purple, pink, and green). I'm technically on no (or maybe all) team, but all my friends were pink so i cheered for them. My school had sports day for 3 days(others only have one day). I missed the first day, but I think it was mostly soccer. I spent most of Thursday practicing my seesaw for the parade on Friday. I Watched my friends play soccer though. They were playing in a muddy field with no shoes (they didn't want them to get dirty). I have enough trouble kicking a ball on cement with shoes on.

Friday was lots of fun. It started out with a parade, then some sports and cheerleading. The parade was fun, hot and long. I played my seesaw with seven other people(three drums, three seesaws, and two cymbals). We wore these orange shirts with traditional Thai pants. The pants are really just huge pieces of fabric tied up in a special way.Each color team put together a float and costumes. My team(pink) won the parade contest. There were so many strange and beautiful costumes(I'm lazy and you can see them on flickr)
I have a word of advise for anyone who is in a parade. Those pretty high heels will not work when you are standing for hours. I have seen so many shoe problems in the two parades I was in. More advise, bring sunscreen...my face, neck and legs got sun burnt(my first time this summer)

In the afternoon I watched and cheered. The events were running, tugawar, sackracing and cheerleading. I can't tell how they picked who was going to participate, but I think they just let anyone who wanted. The field was still covered in mud, so it was fun to watch everyone running around and getting covered in mud.
The cheerleading was crazy. They had some of the strangest outfits i have seen yet. It was a big deal and everyone had a part(cheering, clapping,pompoms...)

The Green Cheerleaders


The Purples


The Blue


And the Pink

I sat in the cheering stands all afternoon. It was hot, and I sweated a lot, but I'm used to that now. The cheering is really cool, because they have everyone do the same thing at the same time. We wore white gloves and clapped, waved our hands around and did a lot of jazz hands. You can see me in the second column on the left, in the middlish row(I'm the light one with blond hair).

Other news...

I bought a seesaw!! I'm so excited to play it for everyone. Now I have to figure out how to get it on the plane...
Sorrawee went back to Bangkok. I'm in for a challenge now, because she did a lot of translating for me. She is going to a meditation class. These classes sound super intense. They get up at 4 every morning, aren't aloud to talk, don't have dinner and have to wear white.
I spent yesterday with the other AFS students from the Buriram and Surin provinces. We went to the elephant village and silver making village and sang Karaoke in the car. It was a lot of fun, I liked hearing about other experiences, and it was a relief to be able to talk easily with everyone there.
I posted more pictures on Flickr this morning. Lots from our visit to the emerald buddha(no pictures of it, thats not aloud)
I forgot to tell everyone!!! I got a hair cut when I was in Bangkok. Its length is about the same as some of my other cuts, but the bangs and back are very different. I have to actually do things with my hair now...
I'm approaching my last week here. Now is the time to stuff a those "I should do that before i go" in. I have so many things I still need to do, and I can't even think about packing(I still haven't gotten anything about going home from AFS). I'm really starting to regret picking only a summer.

Sorry I haven't posted anything in a while...Here is what I've been doing in the last week.

Monday and Tuesday we had no school because of a Buddhist holiday. We didn't really do anything on Monday and then on Tuesday we gave food to monks. Sorrawee came into my room at like 6:30 and told me we were going. I wasn't really expecting it, so I was tired all morning. We brought rice and juice and other things to the temple, then they had a short service to bless the food. There were so many people there that they had to keep pulling chairs in from outside. After the blessing had ended, we lined up to give our food to the monks. They sat at tables with an orange cloth in front of them. Women are not aloud to hand things to monks, so we place the food on the cloth.
I met this monk who had just returned from the United States. He was very excited about it and listed off all the states he went to. It was an interesting conversation. After we finished at the temple we went to a smaller one a little ways out of town. We had a short blessing, then talked to the other people there. I met a little 8 year old who is a swimmer.
That afternoon we met him at the pool(i have been swimming a little, but I'm sure I'm out of shape). Turns out he probably has the best technique I've ever seen in an eight year old. He swims free and breast, but his mom wants me to teach him fly.

Wed, Thurs, Fri, and Mon my school had exams. I went to school on Wednesday, but it was pointless, because everyone was testing. I think tests here work differently. 1-3 had tests on Wed and Fri, while 4-6 had tests on Thurs and Mon. One class is in one room all day and a teacher gives them the tests.

We spent this weekend in Bangkok. I think one of the biggest things I've gained from that experience was the knowledge that I never want to live in a city that big. We spent hours in the car driving across town. We went to a museum(i learned a lot about the different kings), saw the Emerald Buddha, and went to see a nearby floating market. Most of the weekend was spent with family though. I met my other host sister and her boyfriend, three of my host cousins(and their families), and Sorrawee's Ex. All those hours in cars together...
The floating market was really cool. We wandered around on the edge of a river and bought so much food. Then we took a boat ride around to see the area. I liked the Emerald Buddha too, the art and gold work were amazing.

When we arrived home, we unpacked and went to bed. Unfortunately, I woke up at midnight and threw up. They took me to the hospital(they go to the hospital for anything here) and they think Sorrawee and I had food poisoning. The only thing that only Sorrawee and I ate was...Pizza. I've been warned not to eat from street vendors, but we really haven't been that careful. Of course when we order pizza from a restaurant we get sick. Anyway, I spent Tuesday and Wednesday this week recovering and will hopefully go to school tomorrow.

It is sport day at school this week. I'm really bummed that I missed the first day. I have no idea what happens on sports day...but I will report back to you as soon as I know. I do know that on Friday there is going to be a parade, and I get to play my seesaw in it. I'm really excited, and we are going to buy a seesaw so i can play it for everyone when I get home.