7/10 Sweating like a whore in church

Today was one of the hottest days so far. It was probably over 95 degrees, and 100% humidity. All day long I am dripping with sweat. When I sit down, it collects in pools. All around me my Thai students are cool as cucumbers. Like it's 65 and breezy. I am the agitated, hot, sweaty white person and my students giggle when I have to wipe the layers of sweat off my forehead while I'm teaching. It doesn't help that the chalk sticks to my sweat and after a day of teaching I look like I shimmied up to the blackboard and rubbed myself all over it. Another day in the life...at least I've really taken to swimming in my lap pool (hehe) for exercise, because its one of the few times a day I am not sweating.

We have yet to teach a full week of classes, but it always seems like there is some random holiday or event going on at school. There was the impromptu Buddhist ceremony, the random trip to an English seminar, and this afternoon all of Grade 11 and 12 had an "alumni day", where students who went to Taphan hin school come back to talk about their careers and give their students guidance. After lunch, we went up to the "hall", a big auditorium with NO A/C (thus the sweating like a whore in church), where there was a concert. Some of the alums must have formed a band, so bad speakers were turned up to full volume as these chubby old guys belted out the latest Thai hits. You would've thought that it was the Jonas Brothers (they're popular...right? I'm old). The girls were going absolutely insane. They were dancing and jumping around in their socks (of course they took their shoes off in the hall) and screeching and screaming in notes so high that only dogs could hear. It was a complete mess. Crystal and I just kept looking at each other, like "is this really happening?". Every song the girls would shriek and get up and dance wildly like they were 5 long-island iced teas in at a club in NYC. In reality, they are listening to random, middle-aged Thai men sing (complete with voice cracks and "ooooo yeaaaaa!"s). Ridiculous, and endlesslessly entertaining, despite the migraine I developed after 30 minutes of that.

Seeing as the concert was their "presentation", the "rockstars" finished up and the rest of the alums (with...how do I say this politely....somewhat more legitimate careers) spoke about their lives. Of course the circus monkeys had to get up and say something too, despite the fact that neither of us have a career so to speak (come September 22 I will!). They asked us the normal questions, "do you like Thai food?" and "why did you come to Thailand?" (that afternoon with the sweltering heat I was having a really hard time remembering why). All of a sudden, perhaps a gift from god, a breeze rushed through the auditorium, lifting up my flowy skirt that I hurriedly try to hold down-of course everyone caught it and laughed wildly. That will be awkward on Monday! C'est la vie-I think I actually AM more relaxed now-when things like this happen my response is, "Well it will make for a great blog post!". Anything for my craft.

In more exciting news, Crystal and I started talking with an alum who was a PhD physicist (my question is what does a physicist actually do? Seeing as addition stumps me I have no idea...) working in Germany. He did his masters in Germany and his PhD in Ireland, so his English was almost perfect and it was so refreshing to talk to him. Admittedly, he was very cute and 28, so I didn't mind it too much ;). Interestingly though, he was becoming ordained as a monk this week. All Buddhists (well the men-not the women, of course-why would they also be allowed to participate in an important religious ritual?) can become ordained as a monk once in their life. Men will shave their head, live in the temple for one week, and go through a ceremony. After this, the men can get married (he has a girlfriend...sad), and I think it's comprable to baptism or maybe even the Hajj. He invited us to come to his ceremony, but we'll be in Chiang Mai eventually. He did say that if I'm ever in Germany We will have to meet up! Oktoberfest anyone?

Side note: My stories on Buddhism are painfully uninformed and probably not completely accurate. I cringe at their possible inaccuracy. Next week, we are going to the temple to speak with a monk about Buddhism and help him with his English while he teaches us to meditate. This monk's English is quite good so I will make sure I clear up all of these details. Actually, the monk came to our extra class that we had this week. We are required to have 2 classes a week outside of school that are open to the community. We expected lots of people, and all of a sudden two monks walk in! It was so startling. They are such icons of respect and honor in Thai society and I was at a loss of how to treat them. They are not just students and I felt so awkward having them sit there. So, we developed a plan after class that instead of them sitting with a bunch of teenagers learning how to talk about what you like to eat, we would go to the temple once a week and just talk with them. Much better! Maybe I will end up learning how to meditate...question mark?

Off to Chiang Mai tomorrow morning! Lots of stories I'm sure when I return on Sunday.

xoxox